Is now the right time to hire a Facebook ads strategist? | 51
In this week's Saturday Strategy Session, we take a deep dive into figuring out if you are ready to hire a Facebook ads strategy. Everywhere you turn on social media you see ads and you might be thinking to yourself that it is time that you take the leap. This is a notebook and pen kind of episode. Trust me!
So are you ready?
Is your offer (free or paid) proven yet? DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT start running ads to a brand new something before you’ve shown that people want it. It may work occasionally, but more often than not you’re asking to lose money.
Do you have a holistic marketing strategy in place yet? Don’t know what I’m talking about… Listen to Episode 44 for all the details!
Do you have a solid marketing foundation? You need to know your ICA and their pain points better than anyone else does.
Even if you said yes to all of those questions, don’t go about hiring just yet…
I often recommend people run ads themselves at first. Running ads yourself will help you understand the platform and the metrics better. It will help you understand what your Facebook ad strategist is saying when you do eventually hire them out.
Let’s chat budget and goals…
Facebook ads are not cheap, but they’re a powerful marketing tool and extremely important in today’s digital marketing era. Additionally, an ads manager will likely have a 4-figure management fee. While you may be thinking you can’t afford Facebook ads, I want to challenge you by asking “Are you sure you can afford to NOT run them?”
Before hiring an ads manager, you need to think about your goals so you can find someone with that expertise. List building? E-commerce? Evergreen funnels? SLO? Local business? What are you looking to promote… find someone who knows how to promote it!
Who should you hire?
someone experienced in your niche and with the types of ads you’ll be running
someone with a repeatable process that isn’t identical for everyone - your strategy needs to fit your business needs and goals
someone with a communication style that matches your needs
Be Ready // Beware
Be ready for a 3-month contract that has a month-to-month option afterwards
Beware of anything longer
Be ready for it to take 30-60 days for your campaigns to break even or make a profit.
Beware of promises/guarantees the ads manager can make something happen.
Be ready for the management fee to include a flat monthly fee plus a percentage of ad spend.
Beware of pushy or extremely salesy ads managers. Just say no!
I hope you found this episode informative and helpful! Send me a DM on Instagram (@heyitsjenzaia) with any questions!
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If you’re looking for support running your ads, I would love to help you. Whether you’re looking for a 1:1 strategy session, to build your email list or full ads management it is my mission to empower ambitious teacherpreneurs just like you! Let’s unleash your limitless potential, turn your dreams into reality and have an even bigger impact on the world!
Episode Transcript:
Hey there, I'm Jenzaia and this is Market, Scale, Grow. A podcast created for ambitious teacherpreneurs looking to have a bigger impact on the world, achieve freedom, flexibility, and ultimately make more money with weekly strategy sessions and inspiring stories from fellow teachers just like you, my goal here is to help you create a customized marketing strategy so you can grow your teacher business beyond your wildest dreams.
Okay, so before we jump into the episode, I am super excited to share a brand new freebie with you. It's my targeting ideas for Facebook ads. If you've dabbled in Facebook ads or you've done them and you've tried them, and you're just looking for some fresh inspiration for your audiences, this freebie is for you. I share my top Facebook ad targeting groups for you so that you can have inspiration and find those people that are perfect for what you have to offer. From warm audiences to cool lookalike audiences, to cold interest-based audiences. I cover all three in this freebie. Head to marketscalegrow.com/audiences to grab your copy today.
This week. I'm going to be answering one of the most frequently asked questions that I get. And that is how do I know when I'm ready to hire a Facebook ad strategist? So I'm actually going to cover how to know you're ready, some considerations for hiring or things to look for when you're hiring, what you need to be ready for, and what you need to be aware of. Okay. So let's jump in.
Am I ready? So to know if you're ready or not for Facebook ads and to hire a Facebook ad strategist, your offer, whatever you're selling needs to be proven and different people have different definitions of a proven offer.
But to me, it means that your offer has sold consistently in the past. I would say that consistently would mean at least half a dozen sales for each launch and that it's picking up steam. As you launch, you may have done more than one launch, but maybe you've only done the one launch and you had a hundred people sign up that I would consider a proven offer.
If you are running ads to a lead generation, so either a freebie, a lead magnet, or a masterclass, then again, it should be proven. You should have gotten organic registrations to your masterclass. Organically gotten people to download the freebie before starting to run ads to it.
The second question you need to ask yourself before you start running Facebook ads is do you have a holistic marketing strategy in place. If you want the whole rundown on exactly what my take on a holistic marketing strategy is then head to episode 44 and take a listen, but quickly it means that you have a content marketing strategy, an email marketing strategy, and a community-building strategy in place that are working together to build your business in a sustainable, intentional and authentic way.
So if you can say yes, my offers have been proven yes, I have a holistic marketing strategy. Then here are things my suggestions for you to consider when you're hiring.
First of all, do you have the capacity within your business, within your schedule within your day to run the ads yourself? Is it's something that you want to do.
Is it something you're interested in? Is it something you're capable of? I do recommend most people run Facebook ads themselves first because it gives you an understanding of the platform of the metrics of all of the pieces so that when you do have. You have a better understanding of what the things like CTR are and what CPM is and what a cost per click is.
All of those different acronyms and metrics are going to be looked at. If you've never run Facebook ads yourself and your Facebook ads person is like throwing that information at you. It may be a little bit overwhelming. So I do recommend at first you at least try to run the ads yourself.
The second thing you need to consider before hiring is what's your budget. Facebook ads themselves are not inexpensive. However, they are an extremely important investment for your business. So can you afford the marketing? And I would venture to say that in today's era, the digital marketing era, most businesses can't afford to not be marketing, but can you also afford the fee on top of that ad spend?
Because an ads manager or an ads strategist will have a management fee as well. Generally speaking, that fee is going to be a four-figure investment every single month. So is it in your budget for you to be hiring out? How can you make it happen? As I said, in today's digital marketing space, it is an extreme disadvantage for you to not be using paid marketing.
The platforms are becoming increasingly paid to play and it can be very, very time-consuming to grow organic. So that's something to keep in mind.
The third thing to consider before hiring is what are your goals? Are you looking to grow your email list? Are you looking to increase registrations to a webinar?
Are you looking to set up an evergreen funnel, knowing exactly what your goals are going into hiring will help you to find the right person who has experience in what you're looking for. I have very little experience with e-commerce stores. And I have a lot of experience with lead generation and building email lists.
So if somebody comes to me and says, Hey, I have a candle shop. I want you to help me run ads for my candle business. I'm going to say, I'm sorry, I can't help you. I have no experience there, but I can help them find someone because I do have a network of ads managers that I'm connecting with. I can help them find somebody who is similar, I don't run ads for real estate agencies or other local brick and mortar places, but I can help them find somebody.
So knowing your goals is really going to help find the right person. And the last thing to consider is, do you. Or can you articulate who your ICA is, what their pain points are, and are you really dialed in on your messaging to the point where you can pass that information off to a third party? Now 100%.
One of the very first things I do with new clients is I sit down and I have a 60 to 90-minute strategy, deep dive, where we talk about ideal clients. We talk about pain points. We talk about messaging and I really help them dig in and find those pieces, but it needs to be something that you can articulate to your ads manager so that they can be sure that your ad copy and ad images and everything is targeting the right people and messaging to the right people. So if you can't articulate those things, then before you hire, you need to really sit down and think on that and get very, very clear on who your ideal client is and what the messaging is, what their pain points are.
Now, When you've decided you're ready to, hire here is what I recommend you look for in an ads manager.
So, number one, I already said this, but somebody who has experience in the type of ads that you're looking to run. That is going to help them to have strategies in place and experience and to have an understanding of the metrics and the targets that are within spec and out of spec, you also will hopefully find somebody who works with others in your niche.
So I specifically work with teacherpreneurs who have courses, memberships, and services to grow their email lists and to build their businesses in that way, I don't work. Like I said, with real estate agents, I don't work with e-commerce brands that are selling scarves or candles or crystals.
Even though I buy from those, I don't serve them in the Facebook ads world, because that's not where my experience is. And so it's really important that you go out and find somebody who works with your niche and has experience running the types of ads you're looking for. It's also totally acceptable to ask them what their training is, who have they learned from and with, and what is their plan to continue to learn going forward?
Because in the last year I can't even count how many changes to the Facebook ad platform and to the privacy regulations. And it's not going to get easier going forward. Privacy is getting more and more important and dialed up and people are so much more in tune with that than they were even just a year ago.
Because of that, things are constantly changing. So you want to know that your ads manager is either part of a community of other ads managers or is taking training or as committed to learning on a regular basis so that they stay up-to-date with all of these changes and all of the important information that continuously.
The next thing that you should be looking for is somebody that has a repeatable process but isn't cookie cutter. And what I mean by that is they can go into a business and they know the steps that they're going to take, but there's flexibility within that process to bend and form to your specific business and the products you offer, the audience you serve.
Make sure to tailor it to you as a person because no two businesses are alike. And that means that your marketing strategy really has to fit you as a person and as a business and your audience and the bigger community. So you want someone who has a repeatable process and can get results repeatedly with that process but is also willing to bend and tweak to meet your individual needs.
And then the last thing that I recommend that you pay attention to and you look for is the person's communication style, specifically around reporting results and recommendations for campaigns. There are some managers that are a little bit more closed and may not communicate well. I personally have a very direct communication style. I send regular emails to my clients that include KPIs, what we worked on in the past week or the past month and what we're going to be working on going forward. I always include recommendations for the next steps, even if it is, we're just going to keep going and scale this campaign up. But it's very important that you find somebody whose communication style works with yours, and that they're providing you with the information and the reports that you, so that you get the information that you need to effectively run your business.
If you are going to be hiring a Facebook ads manager or a Facebook ad strategist, you need to be ready to sign a three-month contract. Anything longer than that, I think is a little bit too much for me personally, I start with a three-month contract and then we go to month by month after that, the reason for the three months is it does take time to get everything set up to test, optimize and start scaling in that first 30 to 60 days. Hopefully, you're breaking even, but you may not be turning a profit. And so it does take that time to really zone in and figure out the account. And that's why many ads, managers, many agencies require that three-month contract.
The other thing you need to be ready for. And I said this already but is the monthly management fee will likely be at least a four-figure investment. And it will likely have a flat fee plus a percentage of your ad spend. And that is because the more you're spending on the ads, the more work is involved. And so as your account and your spending grow, the person is putting in more time and energy to your account. So just be ready for that and know that it's coming and what you should be, where.
People who are super, super pushy, and that bro marketing, if you are feeling pressured in any way, then just turn away and walk away. And I don't just mean this with Facebook ads or just, I mean, this was an online business, completely, always somebody who is genuine and will value you as a client is going to allow you the time you need to make this decision.
It is not a cheap investment for you to make it is extremely valuable. And I highly recommend that you start investing in Facebook ads to grow your business as soon as you can. But that doesn't mean you should be pushed into it before you feel ready, or if you are unsure or uncomfortable. So just be aware of the pushy tactics and the bro marketing and turn around, find a different person to work with.
Also, be aware of people who are promising or making guarantees about Facebook ads. Well, any paid advertisement is impossible. Yes. There's past performance. Yes. There are case studies and testimonials and all these amazing things that Facebook ads strategists, including myself, can show you of things we've done with past clients and in our own accounts.
But that doesn't mean that you will get those same results. And so you could scream it from the roof that I've got a 10 X return for this client, but what we're not talking about is the other client that we are struggling to break even. So just know that if somebody is guaranteeing results and that is a huge red flag and you should turn and run the other way.
So this has been a bit longer of an episode than I expected it to be. We talked about how to know if you're ready to run Facebook ads. What you should consider when hiring things to look for in an ads manager and then what you should be ready for and what to be aware of when hiring, if you have any questions about hiring a Facebook ad strategist, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram.
I'm at @heyitsjenzaia. I will be back in your ear next week with another Saturday strategy session. Take care.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. Today was brought to you by Dubsado, my absolute favourite customer management tool. If you're looking to streamline and systematize your service-based business, I highly recommend Dubsado. For 20% off of your first month. Head to marketscalegrow.com/dubsado that's D U B S A D O and use the code Jenzaia at checkout. And don't forget to head to our community at marketscalegrow.com/community where you'll find inspiring, ambitious teacherpreneurs who are looking to grow and scale their businesses just like you... See you soon.