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EMILY HIRSH: “In my opinion, when I see someone saying that their ads aren't working, like, 85, 90 percent of the time, it's the messaging, because it takes a lot of work to really understand who your ideal customer is and how to speak to them and how to stand out in the feed. And especially this year, it's just gotten even more important to go deeper, to take it to the next level with talking to your ideal–customers’ fears and their dreams and where they're struggling right now.“
“And so a lot of people, mostly because ads can be a lot of work, but I encourage you to take the extra week, if you need, as you get ready for ads, to have at least three versions of your ad that you're testing—maybe it's a long form of copy and a short form of copy, and then you have a video and an image—because I'll get this question all the time. People say, ‘Well, what works better: video or image?’ or ‘What works better: long or short?’ And there is no concrete answer, because it's truly different for every audience. A lot of times I do see video work better, but then in some cases I see a static image with no text work better for somebody. So the more testing you can do and the more deep you can go with your messaging to stand out, the better your ad results will be.”
INTRO: I’m Amy Porterfield, ex-corporate girl turned CEO of a multi-million-dollar business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, money, and time to focus on growing my small–but–mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned, and you'll see the business I have today, one that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible, one that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step–by–step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur, or one in the making, who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and helps you create a life you love, you're in the right place. Let's get started.
AMY PORTERFIELD: Well, hey, there, my friend. I feel like there are two types of people when it comes to Facebook ads: those who love them and are excited to learn more and improve how they use them, and those who are intimidated by them and would rather go organize their fridge than learn more about them. But then again, I love organizing my fridge, but that's beside the point. What I'm trying to get at is that whether you're the first type of person or the second type, you're going to want to stay right here because I brought on my friend and Facebook–ad expert Emily Hirsch, and she's going to talk about the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make when it comes to marketing with Facebook ads and how to steer clear of them and avoid losing money.
Now, for my friends who are listening that haven't been using ads a lot, you're going to learn so much from this episode so that when you do really get into using more Facebook ads, you're going to know the mistakes to avoid. For those of you who have been using Facebook ads, maybe dabbling or you're seriously in the trenches, still listen in because I think you're going to walk away with some insights that Emily shares that can improve and tweak how you're using ads in order to get your biggest bang for your buck.
Emily is going to share not only what these top five mistakes are, but she's going to give you step–by–step, tangible strategies for avoiding them, or course correcting if you might be making these mistakes. Be sure you stick around until the end, because Emily is going to get into how to make these approaches realistic for wherever you're at in your entrepreneurial journey, along with exactly where to start. And fun fact, we've actually worked with Emily's company, Hirsh Marketing, during some of our past launches to manage our Facebook ads, and they definitely delivered.
All right. So please help me welcome my guest, Emily.
Well, hey, there, Emily. Welcome to the show.
EMILY: Yay. Thanks for having me.
AMY: Oh, I'm so happy you're here. And before we get started, why don't you give just a brief introduction to what Hirsh Marketing’s all about.
EMILY; Yeah. So, Hirsh Marketing is an ad agency. We specialize in Facebook and Instagram ads, and we specifically help people with courses and coaches, people selling online digitally, their products or their services. And I've got a team of about twenty–two people all over the U.S., and we do both running the ads and then also teaching how to do it in our other product.
AMY: Twenty-two people? Is that what you said?
EMILY: Yeah, I've got twenty–two employees and then a couple contractors.
AMY: That is impressive. I have about twenty as well. And you're a lot younger than me so I've been in business longer, and it took me a long time to build up a team like that. I feel like you have grown so quickly so fast in the best way possible. Would you agree?
EMILY: Yes. And growing the team is like—and as you know, with twenty people, it really pushes you to grow as an individual, for sure.
AMY: Yes, to say it humbly. Oh, my goodness. Like, if you want to know all your faults as a leader and all the areas you need to really strengthen, go ahead and build a big team. That will do it for you.
EMILY: Yep, exactly. I say growing the team is the hardest thing I've ever done, second to being a mom. Those are the two hardest.
AMY: Okay. Amen, sister. Amen. I hear you.
Okay. So we’ve got a lot to cover today, and you have five of the most common mistakes that you see entrepreneurs make when they're growing their business with Facebook ads. Now, Facebook ads is a hot topic with my audience, whether it be my newbie students are going at it with their first launch and they might want to dabble with Facebook ads, or those that are in their second, third, and beyond launch that want to go really, really deep with ads and do a great job, usually on their own to start out with, and then they look to an agency. So I would love to dive into all of these mistakes. So why don't you kick us off with mistake number one.
EMILY: Yeah. So the first mistake is, before you even get to the ads piece, that so many people miss over, whether you're a beginner and you've never run ads, but I've also talked to seven–figure–business owners who skip over this and continue to not do it because it's so easy to miss, and that's not defining what success means for their marketing. So what that really looks like is, what's your budget, and how much are you going to make from that budget? And a lot of times people kind of pull out. Like, “I think I'll spend $1,000 dollars and see what happens.” And what I encourage and really want people to do and encourage you to do to get the most out of what you spend is say, “Over the next, let's say, thirty days, I want to make this many sales, which equals this many dollars,” and then working backwards and deciding from that what your investment is, because if you go into ads and you're kind of just picking a number and then seeing what happens, what will happen is you'll start running ads and you'll say things like, “I have no idea if this is working or not, and I have no idea where to put my time and energy to get it to work.” And then you end up probably just turning your ads off and waiting a few months and trying—I've seen that scenario play out so many times. So before you even start ads, whether, like I said, you're a beginner, you’re intermediate, you’re advanced, you need to go into it knowing this is exactly my budget and this is exactly my sales goals, so that when you start running ads, you're able to kind of pick it apart and see what is and isn't working, and you defined what that success is for yourself. Just like you’d never try to do something without maybe setting a goal of what that is. Like, you know, say I want to get healthy. What does that mean to you? Same with ads. If you want to run ads, what is a successful ad campaign look like for you? And then it should be based on numbers.
AMY: Okay. So this is such a great place to start because I know what my students and my listeners are thinking right now, especially if they've never ran ads. They'll say, “Okay, Amy. I know how much money I want to make with, let's say, my first digital–course launch or even my second digital–course launch.” But they don't understand or know yet how much they should budget for ads. They’re like, “Well, how much is it going to cost me to get leads for my webinar?” Like, let's focus on that. That's the biggest reason why my students would be running ads. I know you can't get into every single number in detail, but what would you say to somebody that's struggling with that?
EMILY: Yeah. So let's walk through how we would break this down. So first, you decide that sales goals. So let's say you want to make, make it easy, $10,000. You've got a $1,000 course. You’d need to sell ten. So you have that number of those sales goals. Okay. Now you have to decide—you have to come up with how many leads do you need into your webinar in order to get those ten sales. So for simplicity's sake, the average conversion is, like, 1 to 5 percent of all of your leads, and it's going to depend on your audience and the price of your offer. Let’s just say 3 percent of people that sign up for your webinar, the total registrants, are going to buy that course. So if you need ten sales and 3 percent are going to buy, then what would be that total number of leads? And I can't do math really fast, but—
AMY: Me neither.
EMILY: —whatever that equals. I think it would be, like, one percent is 300 leads, so we would need 100 leads. I think that’s right.
So there, once you have your leads, then what’s your cost per lead. And an average cost per lead for a webinar is anywhere from, like, four to ten dollars. And, again, it depends on your industry. When you’re targeting consumers, you usually have a cheaper cost per lead, where if you’re targeting business owners, you usually pay a little bit more because it’s just a more saturated ad space. So let's just say five dollars. You multiply that. Let's say we need 100 leads. Okay, your ad spend is $500. And that's how you break it down to get there.
AMY: Okay. I’m glad that you walked through this in the way that you did. I think my listeners really wanted some concrete data and, like, a formula to use. So I think that was really helpful, so I appreciate you taking the time to really drill that one down.
EMILY: Yeah.
AMY: Okay, perfect.
All right. So move us on to mistake number two.
EMILY: Okay. The second mistake that many people make is they don't do enough testing, especially of your ad creatives, so your ad copy, your images, maybe you test a video. And in my opinion, when I see someone saying that their ads aren't working, 85, 90 percent of the time, it's the messaging, because it takes a lot of work to really understand who your ideal customer is and how to speak to them and how to stand out in the feed. And especially this year, it's just gotten even more important to go deeper, to take it to the next level with talking to your ideal–customers’ fears and their dreams and where they're struggling right now.
And so a lot of people, mostly because ads can be a lot of work, but I encourage you to take the extra week, if you need, as you get ready for ads, to have at least three versions of your ad that you're testing—maybe it's a long form of copy and a short form of copy, and then you have a video and an image—because I'll get this question all the time. People say, “Well, what works better: video or image?” or “What works better: long or short?” And there is no concrete answer, because it's truly different for every audience. A lot of times I do see video work better, but then in some cases I see a static image with no text work better for somebody. So the more testing you can do and the more deep you can go with your messaging to stand out, the better your ad results will be. And like I said, truly 85, 90 percent of time, when your ads aren’t hitting that cost-per-lead goal or they’re too expensive or they’re not converting, it's because of your messaging, because, as you know, Amy, like so many years, it takes so much time to really, truly know your customer, but the person who knows them the most and can talk to them the best in the feed will always win.
AMY: Yes. So true. So you're suggesting that you do a few different versions. Let's say if they want to fill up their webinar, you're suggesting maybe do a video ad and a static–image ad and then just another maybe long–form ad, and test all three. And do you test all three at the same time?
EMILY: Yeah. So currently, right now, what's working the best on Facebook is the dynamic creative, which means you load it all into the campaign and you let Facebook choose where to put the budget. That wasn't the case a year ago, so it might not be the case in a year from now. But right now, letting Facebook—so you load it all into one campaign, and then you let Facebook kind of optimize it, which they will optimize it to what the audience is responding to the best, because they want you to get the best results. So you put it all into that campaign and test them against each other.
AMY: Okay, got it. Good to know.
Okay. Give us mistake number three.
EMILY: Okay. Mistake number three is that people get very laser focused on their strategy and just run one campaign, so they don't have a very big–picture marketing strategy. And this can be relevant, especially if you're more advanced on this one, this might be an epiphany for you, but also, if you are just starting and you've never run ads, I'm going to talk about what visibility ads can look like. So when you have a marketing campaign and you have, let's say, a webinar funnel, you've got a customer journey that has probably multiple steps. People might see, maybe you make some content, maybe you have a podcast or you make videos or you have a blog, and then you want people to sign up for your webinar. So that's another step. And then once they sign up, did they actually attend that webinar or not? And then you probably make an offer on that webinar. Did they buy that or not?
And so most people put all of their time and budget and effort into just one single focus of their campaign, which probably is webinar registrants. And that's where 80 percent of your budget should probably go, 80 to 90 percent should go, to that main focus, but there's a lot of benefit to putting some of your budget to the before and after that. So how that could look is if you have a regular video you post or a Facebook Live that you do or you have a podcast, maybe you spend 5 percent of that monthly budget and you actually promote that content to try to build what we call your warm audience. Because what you can do is you can take people who have watched your videos on your page or have visited your website or have engaged with your Instagram or your Facebook page, and you can show them an ad. So you're kind of building this layer in within your ads. So even somebody brand new never run ads, one of the best first things to do is to actually run a tiny bit of budget to your visibility, which is what I call that content, that free, valuable content that you're creating to build that audience, and you're doing it consistently so you can create those warm audiences to then target to that webinar. And then after the webinar, if you have actions that you want people to take, you can create an ad that targets all those registrants to your offer. And the reason it's so effective is the ads are actually really inexpensive because you're targeting such a very hyper–targeted audience, and so they're cheap, but they're effective because you've already done the work of getting somebody to sign up for your webinar. You can finish it off with an ad to get them to pay if they haven't bought your offer yet.
One of my favorites is the abandoned–cart ad. So people who have made it all the way to the checkout page of your offer, whether this is a course or a service, they've made it all the way there and they haven't finished the action, you can have an ad specifically to them. You can even do a video of yourself talking specifically to them and the fact that they haven't signed up yet.
AMY: Okay. That is so good. I love that you gave examples beyond just that one strategy that most people are going to be focused on. And this had me thinking. Can you just talk briefly about the difference between boosting a post and promoting it?
EMILY: Yeah. So when you boost a post on your page, you're just running it through your Facebook page. And I think people think it's totally separate. It actually ends up in your ad account. You can go and see it when you do that. But what happens is the objective of the ad is the difference. So when you boost a post, the objective of your ad is automatically engagement. So you're basically telling Facebook, “I want engagement for the cheapest cost. I want likes and comments and shares on this post.” So if your goal is webinar registrants, that's not the best objective for you, because you actually want conversions. You want people to sign up. And Facebook's going to show that to different people, depending on the objection that you chose, because they're going to show it to people who are likely to actually convert in an ad—and Facebook has crazy algorithms that can figure all this out—versus people who like to engage with content. And so the downside with boosting is you don't have any say over that objective. It's default engagement. And then you also can only create really one audience unless you go into your ad account and duplicate it. So you have a lot more control when you go to promote a post, if you do it through the ad account. And you also can create specific ads that aren't directly on your Facebook page.
So I recommend doing it in the ad account. I think boosting is kind of—I've seen a lot of people do this. Like, “I should do ads. I'm just going to throw twenty–five dollars at this post and see what happens.” And I encourage you to have a much more calculated, planned-out strategy. So if you have this customer journey that people are going on, what I tell people is tie an ad at every place of your customer journey where you want someone to take action. So if you want them to sign up for your webinar, there's an ad. If you want them to watch your webinar, there's an ad. And there's an audience of people you can target with that. If you want them to buy your course, there's an ad. And so you can create this very calculated strategy, and then you would create all those in the ads manager to be very strategic with it.
AMY: Okay. So valuable. And I want to touch real quickly about what you said, the cart-abandoned ad, and I love those ads. My favorite way to do them, and I've had really great success with them, is to use them with full integrity, meaning if somebody were to come to your sales page and then they didn't buy, what they'll typically see from me is an off–the–cuff video. So I'm just making it with my iPhone. I'm just in my kitchen or something. And I'll say something like, “I saw that you were on the sales page, you were looking around, but you didn't join. And I just want to remind you the benefits of this program,” or “I just want to remind you what you can accomplish when you enroll in my program.” And I always talk about more emotional benefits, the ones that really are heartfelt, more than “You'll do your course slide deck, and you'll do a webinar, and you'll launch your course.” I go for more of the bigger aspirations that they really want, and it's always served me well. So I love those types of ads, and I like to do them with video, but I bet they work in different ways, like static–image ads as well.
EMILY: Yeah. I mean, at the minimum, a static image is great. If you are, like you, a face of the brand and people connect with seeing you on video or seeing your face, I would highly recommend trying a video because it's just this way—it's one of the things with Facebook and Instagram ads. Like, you can't create an ad like that on Google or on other platforms, but you can create this video really like you're talking directly to them, and people just love it. Like, they'll comment on the ad, “How did you do that, and how did you know I was on the fence of buying?” and they really love that. So I love just an organic video of, like, your cell phone is fine. It doesn't have to be fancy. You have that audience already. So you have people going to the checkout page if you sell something. And so it's just kind of sitting there, that you can show them an ad and instantly, hopefully, get a return for that investment you put into that ad.
AMY: Yes, totally agree.
Okay. Give me mistake number four.
EMILY: All right. Mistake number four is people don't let the testing—they don't let testing work long enough. [unclear 19:35]. And it ties into the first mistake, because what I see happen is people start running ads and they hadn't defined success. So they feel like, “I don't know if this is working or not,” and they kind of panic, and they just turn off their ads or they change their whole entire strategy without really looking at the details. And you really have to—I talk about a lot and believe—see marketing, especially in the beginning, as an investment. And I think if you can see—you can go into your Facebook–ads plan and your marketing in the first ninety days and really see it as, I‘m building an audience, and I'm paying to get people to come to my page and see if they watch my webinar, see if they buy on my webinar, and I'm paying for that investment. And I might not make all my money back right away, but I have to take the step in order to get that feedback, to then take that feedback and fix it.
And so I typically recommend at least a $500 a month budget for ninety days and to go into it and say—and maybe you can do higher and that's great. You should know your numbers to know what you need to spend to reach your goals—but go into it with that investment mentality, knowing that not only are you paying to get, of course, leads and sales, you're also really what I call buying data. You’re trying to understand the reactions that people had to your webinar. Did they go to your offer and buy it or not? And I know, Amy, you could probably talk to this, too, like everybody goes through a failed webinar or something where it didn't work that first time. But the actual learning experience of that, I know myself in business, is why I've had success is because I was willing to invest time and money into things that I had to improve as I went.
And so testing with ads is not just the ads, but the entire funnel, too. And a lot of times you have to use ads to really do the full amount of testing because organic reach is just so low. And so if you don't have an audience, you might feel like you're spinning your wheels. Like, “I'm posting on Facebook and nobody's seen it. Nobody's doing anything.” Well, if you run ads, you're able to target your ideal audience and then watch what they do and get to the place where, “Okay. They're coming to my webinar, but they're not buying,” or “They're coming to my webinar opt–in page, but they're not signing up,” and make those decisions. But without it, you're kind of just stuck and kind of spinning. And what a lot of people do is they keep starting new strategies, which then they go back to square one because they started something, it didn't work, they started something new, and then they find themselves spinning like that.
AMY: So true.
So, I have a question for you. This made me think about my students who haven't run a lot of ads and they want to run ads to get people on their webinar. But typically that's, like, a ten– to seven–day period of time. So before they do that, would you suggest that they do some experimenting ahead of time, like in a prelaunch, because they're only going to have seven to ten days to know if it's working or not, if they just did webinar reg ads.
EMILY: Yeah. If you're doing a live webinar, it's a great idea to do some prelaunch ads. So the two great options for that is the content. So if you have some form of content running ads to that to build up your warm audience of people, and then maybe it's a lead–magnet opt in, like a more basic download opt in, that you can try to get leads in and test your messaging that way. And then when it comes time for your webinar ads, I would do a mix of retargeting all those people that you've gathered in that prelaunch phase. And also test it to new cold traffic as well, because otherwise you'll have a tough volume issue. But I’m a big fan of the prelaunch, if you can plan that out and get those leads and nurture them. And then the benefit, also, is you only have that seven– to ten-day window, but you're going to have leads who have had multiple touch points with you before then, which they're just more quality lead for that reason, because usually people need to see your brand and you a few times before they become a buyer.
AMY: Yes, makes sense.
Okay. So, last but certainly not least, what's mistake number five?
EMILY: All right. The fifth and final mistake is people don't pay attention to the numbers in their marketing. And I always say marketing is just numbers. And I think that this actually helps people kind of relax with deciding to spend money. And what I have trained my team on so much as they've learned to spend lots of high ad spends and low ad spends is it doesn't really matter the amount that you're spending. It's coming down to the numbers. And how many leads do we need, and how many sales? So we talked about setting those goals.
Now, once you go to run ads, you shouldn't ever be making decisions where you just say, “Well, I think my audience will like this,” or “I think this is the problem with my sales funnel.” The numbers will tell you exactly what to do. And so I always say, like, marketing is a process; and the process is test, refine, and then repeat; and just keep doing that until it's working. And if you can do that and commit to that process, marketing will work for every single one of you listening to it. And I truly believe that because I've seen it happen so many times.
And so what I mean by paying attention to the numbers is let's say you have a webinar funnel. You decide $500 for the month, you have your sales–goals set, you're going to run ads to it, and you start running those ads. Once you start running those ads, you're able to see all different types of numbers. But some important ones are, what's the cost per click on your ad? You want that under two dollars, okay? If it's not, we have a problem. We stop right there. We have a problem potentially with our ad. We need to test new copy, test a different video, try new targeting.
Then, they go from the ad to our landing page. Okay, is that converting at at least 25 percent of the people who go there are signing up for our webinar? If it's not, we've got a disconnect there, or our landing page isn't optimized for mobile, or whatever the potential issue is.
Then, we've got our webinar. Are people showing up to that webinar? At least 15, 20 percent of people should show up to that webinar. If they're not, we've got to look at our email reminders and all those things that would impact that. And then, we've got our webinar–sales conversion.
And so by breaking it apart, each step, each action you want people to take has a metric tied to it. If that metric is not hitting its goal, that's the first place you stop and you fix that, and then you retest it. And you just do that until it's working, and you just follow that process because marketing’s not magic. People who have had success with their marketing, you know, they don't have something that you don't. They just followed a process and found that formula that works for them and their audience and their offer. And so everyone's capable of doing that if they follow those numbers. And so you don't want to just be saying, “I think my webinars aren’t working,” and then have no idea what you should do, or “I think my ads aren't working,” and not have action items to fix it. So pay attention to those numbers. Track those numbers every day if you can, at least every week, and look at the full picture, not just the ad stats but what's happening after the ad as well is obviously just as important.
AMY: Oh, so good. And I love that you keep coming back to the numbers. And one thing that you said that I think I really want all of my listeners to hear one more time is that this is not magic. The numbers really do tell a story, and they could really help you navigate this. And yes, in the beginning, you're making what I call educated guesses. You're not really sure exactly if you're picking the right numbers or not in terms of your budgeting and what it's going to cost you in terms of that percentage, 1 to 5 percent, converting with your ads, but do your very best. And believe me, my friends, once you do one campaign and you get through it, it gets so much easier because now you have benchmarks. Now you know that you could always improve, and you have numbers to go off of. So you got to start somewhere. So educated guesses are perfectly fine, but do not ignore the numbers. So good. So good for you to bring that up.
And I think that leads me to one of my questions, and that is what we covered today, is it realistic for newer entrepreneurs, maybe somebody who's doing their very first digital course launch?
EMILY: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's great if you're listening to this, that you go into it with this foundation and knowing these mistakes, because most people will make these mistakes, and it really costs them ultimately time and money. So it's absolutely realistic if you are a newer entrepreneur. And I think some of the most important things for you, if you are new, is setting that foundation and having those goals. Like you just said, Amy, even if you don't have data, I'll hear this a lot. People are like, “I don't have data, so I can't set goals.” You might be way off on your goal, and that's okay, but at least you had a benchmark. At least you had something that you were shooting for. And then you go and get actual data numbers and you go and adjust that. But it's way better than just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it works and jumping around and doing a bunch of things.
So if you're a newer entrepreneur, it's really important that you do set that foundation, first and foremost, that you set that foundation of your numbers, and then you continually stick with the numbers, because I totally acknowledge that ads can be very overwhelming. And there's a lot of people telling you, you should do this and you should do that. And at the end of the day, if you come down to the numbers and what's working in your business and with your audience and the response you're getting, then you'll feel much more in control of what's happening and able to make decisions off of that. So doing that.
And then, also, if you're a newer entrepreneur, making sure you create that strategy, even if tomorrow or in the next month you can't have the full ad strategy, like I talked about, of having all those different retargeting ads, just know that’s your ultimate goal to get there, and you’re going to kind of build one thing at a time as you create the core strategy and then ultimately create that complete strategy versus jumping in, starting a brand new funnel. So I think that's a really key thing is if you're new, focusing all in on one strategy and making that the best that you possibly can is so powerful versus having, like, five different funnels that you're trying, like, a little bit over here and a little bit over there.
AMY: And that’s, like, the theme of the year for Team Porterfield as well. We're going to do a few things really, really well instead of having our hands in everything. And so that philosophy you just shared is fully aligned with what we're doing company wide. So I 100 percent back that.
And out of these five mistakes, where do you think an entrepreneur should start?
EMILY: So, I think if you're new, like, number one, you can set goals. Absolutely. And anyone can do that, whether it's, “I'm going to spend twenty dollars a week” or whatever it is, or “I'm going to finish this funnel by the end of the month, and then I'm going to launch my ads,” everybody should start with that foundational goals.
And then I think an easy one is if you're creating content, turn that into an ad with a small amount of budget because you're already doing the hard work, creating the content. You don't have to have your whole funnel done or your webinar done to turn an add to your content. And what that does is it builds your audience, and your warm audience is like, you know, your email list is part of that. But your warm audience is your value is whenever you put something out there, the bigger the warm audience you have, the more people and true believers you have, the better that will do for you. So you can always be building your warm audience. And if you're doing the work of creating content, all you have to do is take that with a small budget and target your ideal audience, which, an easy way is just what are some pages people like, who you know is your ideal audience. That's the easiest way to do it. And you can create that ad tomorrow if you have the content. So that's a great place to start, just to start getting some response in your messaging and in your content and building those audiences for your future.
AMY: Ah, so fantastic. I love how simple you made this, and I really do think that these strategies are doable.
And I guess I just have one more question before I end things. And that is, a lot of my students will ask, “Well, Amy, how do I know when I'm ready to work with an agency?” I mean, truth be told, my students, if they have the money, they would want to jump to work with an agency because they don't want to do this themselves. But the truth is they don't really have the funds to do so. So when do you suggest somebody start looking into working with an ad agency versus doing it themselves?
EMILY: Yeah. And I think most people would love to outsource their ads, for sure, and that's the ultimate goal for everybody. For working with an agency, the two main things that you want to have in place is, one, that you know you know your ideal customer, and that sometimes takes a little bit of work in testing, so you know for sure who you're targeting and who you're creating your offer for and your funnel for. An the second thing that you really need to know is what's that problem your offer solves. Really, those are the two things you need to have before you even run ads. And make sure you can clearly communicate that.
And then, as far as, like, when do I make the jump from doing it myself to an agency? I really think it’s the investment number because sometimes people are willing to invest up front more to take it off their plate versus not. Typically, if I was to put a number on it, like, if you're at a $10,000 a month business, you should be able to work that into your business of outsourcing it so that that's a good goal. But sometimes people get to a place where they know their offer, they know the problem they solve, and then they know that they can invest for ninety days to get help and support that will save them enough time. If you're not, you know, in the beginning, a lot of times you're trading a lot more time for money because that's the stage that you're at. And so some important things to pay attention to is, is my funnel, do I have a strategy, and is it converting? Is my webinar convert? Do people sign up for my webinar? Because ads should amplify a strong foundation, and so an agency can't create and save a foundation that's broken, but they should be able to amplify and fast track what you have started to build or have already built.
AMY: Ah, such great advice. Fantastic.
And Emily, thank you so much for spending time with us here today. Where can my listeners connect with you?
EMILY: Yeah. So my website is the best spot, hirshmarketing.com. And Hirsh is H-I-R-S-H. Everybody puts a C.
AMY: I was going to say you better spell that for us. H-I-R-S-H.
EMILY: Yep. Hirshmarketing.com. And I’ve got a podcast for everybody who loves podcasts, and we’ve got a monthly marketing report we send out. So you can find all those resources on our website.
AMY: Cool.
What’s your podcast called?
EMILY: Hirsh Marketing Underground.
AMY: Perfect.
Thank you so much for being here. I truly appreciate it.
EMILY: Thanks for having me.
AMY: Okay. I don't know about you, but any time an expert can lay out the most common mistakes they see and tell me how to avoid or course correct, I am all ears. And I hope you were today as well. To be honest, Facebook ads have significantly increased my sales, visibility, and reach. And I know they can seem intimidating at first, but because they are such a powerful online marketing tool, I cannot recommend enough that you get to know them and make them work for your business.
And I want to be clear. When I was first starting out, for years I did ads on my own. I didn't have enough money to invest in somebody to do them for me. And I really did learn a lot in terms of getting in the trenches, figuring out my audiences, figuring out those few core strategies that worked really well.
Now, if you have the funds to get help, even assistance, or for someone to do them for you, by all means, do whatever works for you. But if you don't have the funds and you do need to get in there, I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it makes you a stronger entrepreneur. In fact, if you want to dive into an episode about getting started with Facebook ads, head to episode number 339, “Facebook Ad Strategies to Grow Your Audience Now (No Matter Where You Are In Your Business).” This one was with Salome Schillack. And I'll link to it in my show notes. I think you're going to find it incredibly valuable.
All right, my friend, thanks for joining me and Emily today. I'll see you next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.
