Facebook Ads for Launching Virtual Events - 2024 Guide to FB Ads Series | 152
Welcome to part three of the three-part series, 2024 Guide to Facebook Ads! Are you planning a live virtual event? This episode covers everything you need to know about using Facebook ads for launching. Learn the three phases of a launch (warm-up phase, registration phase, and sales phase), and how each phase plays a vital role in building anticipation, generating registrations, and driving sales.
Also get insights on using the appropriate Facebook ads in each phase, and tips for using those ads effectively to maximize the success of your launch. By leveraging Facebook ads throughout the three phases, you can expand your reach, engage your audience, and ultimately increase event sales. If launching a live virtual event is on your calendar for 2024, don’t miss this episode!
In this episode, we chat about…
Different types of virtual events {01:00}
Three phases of a live launch: warmup, registration, and sales {03:20}
Facebook ads during the warmup phase {05:00}
Using a hybrid model of evergreen and live launches {05:45}
Facebook ads during the registration phase {13:15}
Nurturing your email list; creating excitement and hype around the event {15:00}
Facebook ads during the sales phase {18:45}
Using trigger actions to retarget sales ads {19:50}
Facebook ad support in 2024 {23:40}
Episode Transcript:
Hello and welcome to this third part of our series, the 2024 guides to Facebook ads. I've had a really great time doing this series. If you missed out two weeks ago, I talked about Facebook ads for lead generation. And then last week we talked about Facebook ads for content repurposing and increasing your visibility.
And then this week we're going to be talking about Facebook ads for launching. And when I say launching, I'm specifically talking about a live launch of a virtual event. Facebook ads for a virtual event that is happening live. And then there's another caveat. So these are virtual events, not in person events.
In person events, is a very, very different promotion that you need to do and how you're going to be selling tickets and how far in advance you need to be selling tickets and all of that is very different. So this is a virtual event. And then when I say a live virtual event, I mean more like a time sensitive virtual event.
And by that it could be a live. Launch, as in a webinar, a video series, a challenge, it could even be for a summit. And these are typically time sensitive events, whether or not it's happening live. It could be pre recorded, but that content, the webinar, the video series, the summit, whatever it might be, is only available for a short period of time, probably somewhere from two to seven days is what I would say is like the average.
Depending, like a webinar might only be available for the day of the webinar and 24 hours later, or a summit could be available for the five days of the summit. Sometimes summits are only available for the 24 hours when it goes live, and then like day ones are only available on day one, and day two is only available on day two, and day three is only available on day three, that kind of thing.
So this really kind of depends on what type of event you're running, but when I say a live event, it is more like a time sensitive virtual event, and not a live in person event. Now sometimes these live events are happening live. When I'm recording this tomorrow, I'm actually presenting in a summit live there.
We're in this really cool platform where we can be live and people are interacting with us and I've never done it before. So I'm really, really excited about that. And I love the idea of the summit actually being live and having real face to face interactions with people, there's a chat platform and everything.
So it's going to be really cool. I'm really excited about it. So that's what we're talking about. We're talking about Facebook ads for these virtual events.
There are three phases that I want you to keep in mind. And we're going to talk through each of those three phases and the different types of ads that you're going to be using as you go through this process. So the three phases are the warmup phase, the registration phase, and then the sales phase. The warm up phase happens 8 to 12 to maybe even 16 weeks before your live event.
So sometimes people call it the launch runway. There's lots of different terms for it, but it really is that time building up to the live event. And then we have the registration phase, which is when you are getting people registered for the event. And then the sales phase actually happens after the event when you're opening your doors or opening the cart and offering whatever your program is your, it could be a course or a one to one service I've seen done group programs, memberships, like whatever is after the live event, after that event happens, then you open the doors and that's the sales phase.
So that's kind of the big picture. So the warm up phase, I said, is going to be like 8 to 12 to maybe even 16 weeks before the registration phase is probably 10 to 20 days before the live event, then the live event is going to be anywhere from an hour, if it's a webinar, to 5 days, or However long your challenge or your series is, and then your open cart is going to be three to seven days long.
That sales phase will be three to seven days long. And so in total, we're talking anywhere from 10 to 20 weeks, 10 to 18 weeks from very, very start to end with the warmup phase. This is something that I honestly think should be ongoing, whether or not you have a live launch or an event coming up.
That warming your audience should just be a part of your routine, your everyday habits. But it does become even more important with that live launch aspect. So you might consider this warm up phase completely separate and it not actually part of the launch, but I do know that a lot of businesses get extra intentional with the warm up phase when they have a live launch coming.
My personal recommendation is actually that you use a hybrid model where you have Sales mechanisms happening on evergreen so whether you're using ads or collaborations or whatever it is to get people on your email list and buying your offer every single day you have something running most common I would say or the most.
Commonly known would be that evergreen webinar, so somebody sees an ad, they opt in to watch the webinar, they watch this pre recorded webinar, and sometimes it's like that fake live where people quote unquote live, but everyone knows it's not live, especially now. because it's happening every 15 minutes or whatever.
Other times it's not gimmicky and the person running the webinar will say, I want to just be completely honest. This is pre recorded. Thank you for joining me. Blah, blah, blah, whatever. I can see the pros and cons to both. Whichever way feels more authentic and genuine to you is what you should be using in your business.
So, that evergreen webinar, you opt in, watch the webinar, at the end of the webinar, there's a pitch that says, Hey, if this information was really valuable for you, join the program, you'll get XYZ results, and then people either purchase the program right then, or they get dropped into an email sequence where the program continues to be sold for the next 30, 60, 90 days, whatever it might be.
I also recommend that your email list, that you are regularly making offers to them, reminding them of the services that you have, the programs you have, the membership, whatever it is that your signature offer is, that you're reminding them on a regular basis so that people who join your email list can Jump in when they're ready, but we also know how humans act and how they are and how they behave and we need that little push that piece of urgency and that's where live launches come in so you can have that evergreen mechanism going.
In the background all the time, and then also I would say once a quarter that you're hosting some sort of live event, some sort of bigger, exciting thing, whether it's a webinar or a challenge or a summit, something big is happening to build that excitement and also create some sort of urgency with in the form of discounts or bonuses or some other piece of the puzzle, right?
So that's kind of like the hybrid method that I would recommend, and in that case, the warm up phase is really going on all the time because you're bringing in new people, having them watch that webinar or participate in that evergreen challenge, whatever it might be, and then you're continuing to warm them up and bring them along the journey.
But for the rest of this podcast episode, we are going to talk about the warm up phase, registration phase, and sales phase in the live launch framework. So with the big event, the hype, the excitement. First thing I want to mention is that we see these gigantic events. And then our first couple are what we feel like are flops, only 10 people register, or maybe 100 people register, only 2 people show up, or 0 people register, right?
Like, it feels like this terrible thing that's happened, and what we forget is that the Amy Porterfields and the Jenna Kutchers and the other gigantic names out there that we all know and recognize had those launches as well. What we're seeing now are the gigantic launches where there's thousands of people who are registered and not even just thousands of people registered, thousands of people buying after, which means that there's potentially even tens of thousands of people who have registered for these events, right?
They're gigantic, but it takes time to build to that level, and it takes a lot of effort with tweaking and changing and updating your messaging and. The offer and really figuring out the launch event that's going to work for you. So just because a launch doesn't work, I highly discourage you to just throw everything in the garbage.
Instead, try and look at what worked, what didn't, the individual pieces, so that you can tweak and make adjustments to what didn't work and get it working for the next time. That's kind of like my blanket advice for these types of events. The first few that you do might be very challenging and very discouraging, and I think that it's not normalized enough, and we have to talk about how nobody showed up.
I've had multiple events that nobody showed up for. With Dreamless Essentials, the first three events that I did to promote it, nobody signed up, nobody showed up. So, it's very normal, and it can feel Disheartening, and it can feel devastating, especially when the people are sharing messages about hundreds of people, thousands of people, all of these gigantic numbers.
Okay, let's stop talking about the sad things and talk about how Facebook ads can support your launch. So in phase one, the warmup. phase. This is where you're focusing on list building and nurturing. And so I'm not going to get into too much detail about what list building ads and nurture ads would entail because that's what part one and part two of this series were all about.
At this phase, you're really going to be focused on growing your email list with some sort of free resource that those buyers. After the live launch, they'll need and that you can get them on your list. They'll be the right people who would be interested in what you're selling. And then you're going to be nurturing them with content.
So that can be social media posts. Emails, and some sort of long form content like this podcast. I also highly recommend in this warm up phase that you have a huge push to collaborate. Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. If you're doing a summit, you can collaborate with the other presenters or just find people with similar niches so that you can spread the word.
And in those collaborations, your call to action at the end, if they give you that like minute. Or two at the end to say like, where can people find you? Make sure that you are directing people to your lead magnets. You can get them on your email list. Another great way to collaborate is by going on a podcast tour and then creating a Spotify playlist with all of those episodes that you've done so that you can share that link out really easily.
I love that tip. Thank you to Brittany for giving me that tip. So that's your focus in the 8 to 16 weeks before your live launch. You are really, really going to be focusing on list building and nurture. And so with the Facebook ads piece of that, again, go back and listen to part 1 and part 2 of the series.
But you're using ads to drive traffic to your lead magnet. And you're using ads to drive traffic to your long form content. So that you can be getting more people on your email list and then warming them up. And moving them through that funnel and making sure that they're building that relationship with you.
And in this phase, do not, do not, do not underestimate the power of email. Being consistent with your emails, sending out an email every single week to really build those relationships with your email list is very, very, very important. Phase number two is my must do phase. This is the absolute most important phase.
This is the registration phase of The live event of the launch. And so in this phase, your goal is to get people registered for that event. So you're going to be doing that organically through your emails, through social media, and if you have a summit or a conference or something where there's multiple participants, you're going to be wanting to encourage them to get people signed up as well.
And then you're also going to be wanting to use ads to get people signed up for this event. You can run ads to warm people and cold people for this and get people who have heard of you before registered and just as yet another reminder to that warm audience. But I also recommend that you send these registration ads out to cold audiences, people who have never heard of you before, and get them registered for the event as well.
In today's day and age, in this digital marketing era that we are currently in, it's very unlikely that those people who have never heard of you before are going to register for your event. And then buy from you. That's not very likely. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but the percentage is going to likely be low.
However, what I want you to keep in mind is these people are now on your email list, so they are worth every single penny, and hopefully they will actually participate in your event, which is an amazing form of nurture. They're going to build that relationship with you. They're going to get to know you really, really quickly, and they're going to be swept up in the hype that is the event.
Some of the best events that I've been to have had bingos that are associated with them or, um, like a passport where you have to do these different actions to get stamps quote unquote. And so some sort of excitement or hype around the event to really grow the excitement. And so these new people, the ads that are going out to cold audiences, people have never heard of you before joining your email list.
And then being part of the hype, consuming the content, whether it's the webinar or the challenge or the summit, they're consuming that and that's nurturing them so that they continue to open your emails, they continue to consume your long form content. And then the next time that you have a launch, they are.
Already a loyal raving fan. They absolutely love you. And that's when they're ready to buy three months down the road at your next live event. That is very, very normal. And I want you to expect that. And that's why it's really important that you are. Hosting a live event once a quarter so that people are continuously moving through the cycle, and they join your list at one event and are ready to buy for the next event.
So the main type of ad that you're going to be running during. The registration phase is a registration ad. These are lead generation ads. They run very, very similar to an ad if you are running for like a lead generation or a lead magnet. So you're going to want to set this up to get people signed up for the event.
Make sure that there's an email sequence, that they're getting emails about the event after they sign up. Very important. And then the other type of ad that I like to run, and this is absolutely not a necessity, this is a bonus, I like to run engagement ads. And so after somebody signs up for the event, they would start to see some sort of engagement Ad. Typically, it's going to be a video of the host saying, I'm really excited that you're going to be part of this event. I'm just wondering, blah, blah, blah. And then they ask a very specific question. And the goal of this ad is to get them to comment and answer that question so that they stay engaged. In the event, this is really great for something like a webinar that's just an hour long and sometimes people are like, Oh, I like I forgot about it or I'm no longer interested or I solved my problem already or whatever it might be by having this engagement ad that pops up.
Not too often. I would definitely set the frequency here If you're running that type of ad that you can set the frequency where you don't want them to see it ten times every day You know, this is an ad that you want them to see once a day Maybe once every other day just reminding them like hey, this event is coming soon That's the other one.
You could just do like a very simple image. That's the Facebook ads course live event happening tomorrow, right? And it just pops up 24 hours before the event happens, pops up to remind them that it's happening. These are really, really simple ads, and they're only going out to people who have already registered.
So you can run them for like 1 a day because it's such a small audience that you really don't need it. a huge like a huge budget for them. So that's really, really great. And again, it's a really great way to keep people engaged with this live event between having registered and when it actually happens and you really don't want people to fall off.
You really want them to remember the events coming. That's why the email sequence is so important. That's why I like these engagement ads as well. Okay, so then you do your live event, whether it's a day or five days or whatever, and you move into phase three, which is the sales phase. This is when your doors are open or you have an open cart period, and you're inviting people to join your program, whether it's a course or a group program or one to one offer.
This is when you're saying, come join me. Typically, you're going to have bonuses or some sort of incentive. Maybe it's a discount to get people into the doors during this sales phase. You don't have to do that, though. You absolutely do not have to do that. I just find that having some sort of incentive can motivate those people who are kind of on the fence.
So you can definitely consider having that incentive. During this phase, you're going to be using sales retargeting ads. And these are ads that are driving traffic to the sales page. This is the primary part of, like, there's many different ads you can run in this phase. But the primary one is driving traffic to that sales page.
I do not recommend sending anyone directly to a sales page who has not shown some sort of interest in your offer. And so I call these trigger actions where they do something and it triggers them to start seeing the sales ad. So some examples of a trigger action would be going to the sales page. If someone lands on the sales page, then that is them showing an interest in your offer and they can continue seeing ads for the sales page.
Signing up, registering or participating in your live event is another trigger action. So if they sign up for the webinar or they show up for the webinar, then that is them showing some sort of interest and they can absolutely see. Sales ads. Some email providers can actually do things like budding clicks or link clicks from in an email list, and then you could target those people who have clicked something in an email to start seeing ads as well.
And so that could be another way that you determine that they're interested in it. This program. Absolutely. Under no circumstances do I recommend that you are showing a sales page for anything more expensive than like 47. I never really recommend that you are showing those sales pages to someone who hasn't shown some sort of interest.
If it is less than 47, that is a very different situation. That is a different topic for a different day. You can send like 9 tiny offers out to cold audiences very differently, but anything over that 47 mark should be exclusively for somebody who is shown and expressed an interest in it. We are going to be retargeting so that means.
That they've done that action and then they start seeing the ads and for this your budget can be kind of like Anywhere, it could be a lower budget on ten dollars a day or it could be like thousands of dollars a day Now once we're getting up into the higher numbers there, you're going to want to diversify the ads that you're running Some of the ads that I really like are mock ups of the product that's available, so the course mock up or the group program that just shows like some of the features, some of the workbooks, those pages, with like a list of these are the things that are included.
I love using videos where the person, the host of the program, again, talks to the camera and says, Hey, I'm super excited that you're interested in XYZ program. Here's some of the benefits. Here's how it's going to change your life. Come on, jump on in right now. I also really love testimonial ads for this, whether it's in a carousel or a video format where testimonials that you have from past participants are being shown to new potential participants because it is, that social proof is huge.
Sometimes we're wondering if we can trust and if we see all these other people had success, it really helps our brain to get on board. So testimonial ads are great, whether they're written testimonials or video testimonials that you have from past participants, both of them are excellent. You can also use time sensitive ads where it says carts close or like doors are closing in 24 hours, jump in before it's too late.
And that adds that piece of urgency. You can showcase the different bonuses as well. You can get really, really creative with these sales ads. Those are some of the ones that I really like doing and that I've had a lot of success with in the past. I hope that you've found this breakdown of those three phases.
We have the warmup phase where we're really focused on list building and nurturing, and then we move into registration, which is a form of list building, but specifically getting people registered for your live event. And then the third phase is sales, where we are really focused on selling that signature offer that you pitched or that you.
Really pushed during your live event. If you are looking for Facebook ad support in 2024 for a live event, please send me a DM. I would love to chat. We have some openings in late January and February. And so I'm super excited. Our prices are going up as of January 1st. So if you wanted to lock in the 2023 prices.
Now is your chance to do it and I will not be back next Saturday with another Saturday strategy session. We are taking the next few weeks off. I'm not sure when we'll be back yet, but I'm excited for the day to come when these Saturday Strategy Sessions and Market Scale Grow come back. I wish you the most wonderful rest of 2023 and beginning of 2024. Thank you so very much for being a listener, and I will catch you when I get back!
And then this week we're going to be talking about Facebook ads for launching. And when I say launching, I'm specifically talking about a live launch of a virtual event. Facebook ads for a virtual event that is happening live. And then there's another caveat. So these are virtual events, not in person events.
In person events, is a very, very different promotion that you need to do and how you're going to be selling tickets and how far in advance you need to be selling tickets and all of that is very different. So this is a virtual event. And then when I say a live virtual event, I mean more like a time sensitive virtual event.
And by that it could be a live. Launch, as in a webinar, a video series, a challenge, it could even be for a summit. And these are typically time sensitive events, whether or not it's happening live. It could be pre recorded, but that content, the webinar, the video series, the summit, whatever it might be, is only available for a short period of time, probably somewhere from two to seven days is what I would say is like the average.
Depending, like a webinar might only be available for the day of the webinar and 24 hours later, or a summit could be available for the five days of the summit. Sometimes summits are only available for the 24 hours when it goes live, and then like day ones are only available on day one, and day two is only available on day two, and day three is only available on day three, that kind of thing.
So this really kind of depends on what type of event you're running, but when I say a live event, it is more like a time sensitive virtual event, and not a live in person event. Now sometimes these live events are happening live. When I'm recording this tomorrow, I'm actually presenting in a summit live there.
We're in this really cool platform where we can be live and people are interacting with us and I've never done it before. So I'm really, really excited about that. And I love the idea of the summit actually being live and having real face to face interactions with people, there's a chat platform and everything.
So it's going to be really cool. I'm really excited about it. So that's what we're talking about. We're talking about Facebook ads for these virtual events.
There are three phases that I want you to keep in mind. And we're going to talk through each of those three phases and the different types of ads that you're going to be using as you go through this process. So the three phases are the warmup phase, the registration phase, and then the sales phase. The warm up phase happens 8 to 12 to maybe even 16 weeks before your live event.
So sometimes people call it the launch runway. There's lots of different terms for it, but it really is that time building up to the live event. And then we have the registration phase, which is when you are getting people registered for the event. And then the sales phase actually happens after the event when you're opening your doors or opening the cart and offering whatever your program is your, it could be a course or a one to one service I've seen done group programs, memberships, like whatever is after the live event, after that event happens, then you open the doors and that's the sales phase.
So that's kind of the big picture. So the warm up phase, I said, is going to be like 8 to 12 to maybe even 16 weeks before the registration phase is probably 10 to 20 days before the live event, then the live event is going to be anywhere from an hour, if it's a webinar, to 5 days, or However long your challenge or your series is, and then your open cart is going to be three to seven days long.
That sales phase will be three to seven days long. And so in total, we're talking anywhere from 10 to 20 weeks, 10 to 18 weeks from very, very start to end with the warmup phase. This is something that I honestly think should be ongoing, whether or not you have a live launch or an event coming up.
That warming your audience should just be a part of your routine, your everyday habits. But it does become even more important with that live launch aspect. So you might consider this warm up phase completely separate and it not actually part of the launch, but I do know that a lot of businesses get extra intentional with the warm up phase when they have a live launch coming.
My personal recommendation is actually that you use a hybrid model where you have Sales mechanisms happening on evergreen so whether you're using ads or collaborations or whatever it is to get people on your email list and buying your offer every single day you have something running most common I would say or the most.
Commonly known would be that evergreen webinar, so somebody sees an ad, they opt in to watch the webinar, they watch this pre recorded webinar, and sometimes it's like that fake live where people quote unquote live, but everyone knows it's not live, especially now. because it's happening every 15 minutes or whatever.
Other times it's not gimmicky and the person running the webinar will say, I want to just be completely honest. This is pre recorded. Thank you for joining me. Blah, blah, blah, whatever. I can see the pros and cons to both. Whichever way feels more authentic and genuine to you is what you should be using in your business.
So, that evergreen webinar, you opt in, watch the webinar, at the end of the webinar, there's a pitch that says, Hey, if this information was really valuable for you, join the program, you'll get XYZ results, and then people either purchase the program right then, or they get dropped into an email sequence where the program continues to be sold for the next 30, 60, 90 days, whatever it might be.
I also recommend that your email list, that you are regularly making offers to them, reminding them of the services that you have, the programs you have, the membership, whatever it is that your signature offer is, that you're reminding them on a regular basis so that people who join your email list can Jump in when they're ready, but we also know how humans act and how they are and how they behave and we need that little push that piece of urgency and that's where live launches come in so you can have that evergreen mechanism going.
In the background all the time, and then also I would say once a quarter that you're hosting some sort of live event, some sort of bigger, exciting thing, whether it's a webinar or a challenge or a summit, something big is happening to build that excitement and also create some sort of urgency with in the form of discounts or bonuses or some other piece of the puzzle, right?
So that's kind of like the hybrid method that I would recommend, and in that case, the warm up phase is really going on all the time because you're bringing in new people, having them watch that webinar or participate in that evergreen challenge, whatever it might be, and then you're continuing to warm them up and bring them along the journey.
But for the rest of this podcast episode, we are going to talk about the warm up phase, registration phase, and sales phase in the live launch framework. So with the big event, the hype, the excitement. First thing I want to mention is that we see these gigantic events. And then our first couple are what we feel like are flops, only 10 people register, or maybe 100 people register, only 2 people show up, or 0 people register, right?
Like, it feels like this terrible thing that's happened, and what we forget is that the Amy Porterfields and the Jenna Kutchers and the other gigantic names out there that we all know and recognize had those launches as well. What we're seeing now are the gigantic launches where there's thousands of people who are registered and not even just thousands of people registered, thousands of people buying after, which means that there's potentially even tens of thousands of people who have registered for these events, right?
They're gigantic, but it takes time to build to that level, and it takes a lot of effort with tweaking and changing and updating your messaging and. The offer and really figuring out the launch event that's going to work for you. So just because a launch doesn't work, I highly discourage you to just throw everything in the garbage.
Instead, try and look at what worked, what didn't, the individual pieces, so that you can tweak and make adjustments to what didn't work and get it working for the next time. That's kind of like my blanket advice for these types of events. The first few that you do might be very challenging and very discouraging, and I think that it's not normalized enough, and we have to talk about how nobody showed up.
I've had multiple events that nobody showed up for. With Dreamless Essentials, the first three events that I did to promote it, nobody signed up, nobody showed up. So, it's very normal, and it can feel Disheartening, and it can feel devastating, especially when the people are sharing messages about hundreds of people, thousands of people, all of these gigantic numbers.
Okay, let's stop talking about the sad things and talk about how Facebook ads can support your launch. So in phase one, the warmup. phase. This is where you're focusing on list building and nurturing. And so I'm not going to get into too much detail about what list building ads and nurture ads would entail because that's what part one and part two of this series were all about.
At this phase, you're really going to be focused on growing your email list with some sort of free resource that those buyers. After the live launch, they'll need and that you can get them on your list. They'll be the right people who would be interested in what you're selling. And then you're going to be nurturing them with content.
So that can be social media posts. Emails, and some sort of long form content like this podcast. I also highly recommend in this warm up phase that you have a huge push to collaborate. Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. If you're doing a summit, you can collaborate with the other presenters or just find people with similar niches so that you can spread the word.
And in those collaborations, your call to action at the end, if they give you that like minute. Or two at the end to say like, where can people find you? Make sure that you are directing people to your lead magnets. You can get them on your email list. Another great way to collaborate is by going on a podcast tour and then creating a Spotify playlist with all of those episodes that you've done so that you can share that link out really easily.
I love that tip. Thank you to Brittany for giving me that tip. So that's your focus in the 8 to 16 weeks before your live launch. You are really, really going to be focusing on list building and nurture. And so with the Facebook ads piece of that, again, go back and listen to part 1 and part 2 of the series.
But you're using ads to drive traffic to your lead magnet. And you're using ads to drive traffic to your long form content. So that you can be getting more people on your email list and then warming them up. And moving them through that funnel and making sure that they're building that relationship with you.
And in this phase, do not, do not, do not underestimate the power of email. Being consistent with your emails, sending out an email every single week to really build those relationships with your email list is very, very, very important. Phase number two is my must do phase. This is the absolute most important phase.
This is the registration phase of The live event of the launch. And so in this phase, your goal is to get people registered for that event. So you're going to be doing that organically through your emails, through social media, and if you have a summit or a conference or something where there's multiple participants, you're going to be wanting to encourage them to get people signed up as well.
And then you're also going to be wanting to use ads to get people signed up for this event. You can run ads to warm people and cold people for this and get people who have heard of you before registered and just as yet another reminder to that warm audience. But I also recommend that you send these registration ads out to cold audiences, people who have never heard of you before, and get them registered for the event as well.
In today's day and age, in this digital marketing era that we are currently in, it's very unlikely that those people who have never heard of you before are going to register for your event. And then buy from you. That's not very likely. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but the percentage is going to likely be low.
However, what I want you to keep in mind is these people are now on your email list, so they are worth every single penny, and hopefully they will actually participate in your event, which is an amazing form of nurture. They're going to build that relationship with you. They're going to get to know you really, really quickly, and they're going to be swept up in the hype that is the event.
Some of the best events that I've been to have had bingos that are associated with them or, um, like a passport where you have to do these different actions to get stamps quote unquote. And so some sort of excitement or hype around the event to really grow the excitement. And so these new people, the ads that are going out to cold audiences, people have never heard of you before joining your email list.
And then being part of the hype, consuming the content, whether it's the webinar or the challenge or the summit, they're consuming that and that's nurturing them so that they continue to open your emails, they continue to consume your long form content. And then the next time that you have a launch, they are.
Already a loyal raving fan. They absolutely love you. And that's when they're ready to buy three months down the road at your next live event. That is very, very normal. And I want you to expect that. And that's why it's really important that you are. Hosting a live event once a quarter so that people are continuously moving through the cycle, and they join your list at one event and are ready to buy for the next event.
So the main type of ad that you're going to be running during. The registration phase is a registration ad. These are lead generation ads. They run very, very similar to an ad if you are running for like a lead generation or a lead magnet. So you're going to want to set this up to get people signed up for the event.
Make sure that there's an email sequence, that they're getting emails about the event after they sign up. Very important. And then the other type of ad that I like to run, and this is absolutely not a necessity, this is a bonus, I like to run engagement ads. And so after somebody signs up for the event, they would start to see some sort of engagement Ad. Typically, it's going to be a video of the host saying, I'm really excited that you're going to be part of this event. I'm just wondering, blah, blah, blah. And then they ask a very specific question. And the goal of this ad is to get them to comment and answer that question so that they stay engaged. In the event, this is really great for something like a webinar that's just an hour long and sometimes people are like, Oh, I like I forgot about it or I'm no longer interested or I solved my problem already or whatever it might be by having this engagement ad that pops up.
Not too often. I would definitely set the frequency here If you're running that type of ad that you can set the frequency where you don't want them to see it ten times every day You know, this is an ad that you want them to see once a day Maybe once every other day just reminding them like hey, this event is coming soon That's the other one.
You could just do like a very simple image. That's the Facebook ads course live event happening tomorrow, right? And it just pops up 24 hours before the event happens, pops up to remind them that it's happening. These are really, really simple ads, and they're only going out to people who have already registered.
So you can run them for like 1 a day because it's such a small audience that you really don't need it. a huge like a huge budget for them. So that's really, really great. And again, it's a really great way to keep people engaged with this live event between having registered and when it actually happens and you really don't want people to fall off.
You really want them to remember the events coming. That's why the email sequence is so important. That's why I like these engagement ads as well. Okay, so then you do your live event, whether it's a day or five days or whatever, and you move into phase three, which is the sales phase. This is when your doors are open or you have an open cart period, and you're inviting people to join your program, whether it's a course or a group program or one to one offer.
This is when you're saying, come join me. Typically, you're going to have bonuses or some sort of incentive. Maybe it's a discount to get people into the doors during this sales phase. You don't have to do that, though. You absolutely do not have to do that. I just find that having some sort of incentive can motivate those people who are kind of on the fence.
So you can definitely consider having that incentive. During this phase, you're going to be using sales retargeting ads. And these are ads that are driving traffic to the sales page. This is the primary part of, like, there's many different ads you can run in this phase. But the primary one is driving traffic to that sales page.
I do not recommend sending anyone directly to a sales page who has not shown some sort of interest in your offer. And so I call these trigger actions where they do something and it triggers them to start seeing the sales ad. So some examples of a trigger action would be going to the sales page. If someone lands on the sales page, then that is them showing an interest in your offer and they can continue seeing ads for the sales page.
Signing up, registering or participating in your live event is another trigger action. So if they sign up for the webinar or they show up for the webinar, then that is them showing some sort of interest and they can absolutely see. Sales ads. Some email providers can actually do things like budding clicks or link clicks from in an email list, and then you could target those people who have clicked something in an email to start seeing ads as well.
And so that could be another way that you determine that they're interested in it. This program. Absolutely. Under no circumstances do I recommend that you are showing a sales page for anything more expensive than like 47. I never really recommend that you are showing those sales pages to someone who hasn't shown some sort of interest.
If it is less than 47, that is a very different situation. That is a different topic for a different day. You can send like 9 tiny offers out to cold audiences very differently, but anything over that 47 mark should be exclusively for somebody who is shown and expressed an interest in it. We are going to be retargeting so that means.
That they've done that action and then they start seeing the ads and for this your budget can be kind of like Anywhere, it could be a lower budget on ten dollars a day or it could be like thousands of dollars a day Now once we're getting up into the higher numbers there, you're going to want to diversify the ads that you're running Some of the ads that I really like are mock ups of the product that's available, so the course mock up or the group program that just shows like some of the features, some of the workbooks, those pages, with like a list of these are the things that are included.
I love using videos where the person, the host of the program, again, talks to the camera and says, Hey, I'm super excited that you're interested in XYZ program. Here's some of the benefits. Here's how it's going to change your life. Come on, jump on in right now. I also really love testimonial ads for this, whether it's in a carousel or a video format where testimonials that you have from past participants are being shown to new potential participants because it is, that social proof is huge.
Sometimes we're wondering if we can trust and if we see all these other people had success, it really helps our brain to get on board. So testimonial ads are great, whether they're written testimonials or video testimonials that you have from past participants, both of them are excellent. You can also use time sensitive ads where it says carts close or like doors are closing in 24 hours, jump in before it's too late.
And that adds that piece of urgency. You can showcase the different bonuses as well. You can get really, really creative with these sales ads. Those are some of the ones that I really like doing and that I've had a lot of success with in the past. I hope that you've found this breakdown of those three phases.
We have the warmup phase where we're really focused on list building and nurturing, and then we move into registration, which is a form of list building, but specifically getting people registered for your live event. And then the third phase is sales, where we are really focused on selling that signature offer that you pitched or that you.
Really pushed during your live event. If you are looking for Facebook ad support in 2024 for a live event, please send me a DM. I would love to chat. We have some openings in late January and February. And so I'm super excited. Our prices are going up as of January 1st. So if you wanted to lock in the 2023 prices.
Now is your chance to do it and I will not be back next Saturday with another Saturday strategy session. We are taking the next few weeks off. I'm not sure when we'll be back yet, but I'm excited for the day to come when these Saturday Strategy Sessions and Market Scale Grow come back. I wish you the most wonderful rest of 2023 and beginning of 2024. Thank you so very much for being a listener, and I will catch you when I get back!
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