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Let’s get to this week’s blog!
Today’s Topic and Guest
I am honored to bring on a special guest today, Emily Green. She’s a Facebook Ads strategist, and I personally work with her. She runs my Facebook ads, and I just love working with her because not only does she run my ads and help get me lower ad costs for the leads that I do get, but she also makes the process so much easier because we go over strategy and mindset as well.
And so, in this episode, you’re going to hear all about that. You’re going to hear all the golden nuggets of when you might want to consider running ads, the common mistakes to be aware of, and how she’s personally helped me run the ads that I have currently going.
So enjoy!
Question To Emily: Emily, can you tell us a little bit about what you do and who you help?
Emily: Yes. Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you. My name is Emily Green. I’m an Ad strategist and funnel strategist specifically for the coaching niche. So, I work with life coaches, business coaches, weight loss coaches, all the coaches are my clients.
Alison: I love that. And you know, people have lots of thoughts and sometimes lots of drama around Facebook. I’m happy you’re here to enlighten us.
Emily: You know what, the thoughts, they just popped into my mind. I went to a Life Coach School Event back in March, and Brooke had to ask people, what are some of your thoughts around ads? And I was shocked to hear what some of them were.
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People said things like, ads are sleazy, ads feel like cheating, those are the two that really stood out for me. So I think what they mean by ads are sleazy are like, the coaching industry has just changed so much over the last few years, right? And people have signed up for programs maybe that they didn’t see results from. Now, they like to see ads for maybe big-name people, and they’re like, “I don’t trust it,” or, “I don’t trust it as much if it’s on an ad instead of organically.”
Alison: Yeah. So then, if I do an ad, that’s how I’m going to appear. They’re projecting their own stuff onto themselves.
Emily: Well, I think, too, with ads, it’s a huge visibility event. Everyone is going to see which is strategic, how I set them up, all of your followers will see your ads, your e-mail list, and then a lot of cold traffic, people who have never heard of you before. And so, there is a mindset component in there where you’re just very visible now with your offers and your messaging and all of your posts and everything. They’re going to your profile, and they’re seeing that.
Alison: And it’s a thing because, I haven’t experienced this yet, knock on wood, because I’m currently running ads, and I had to work on my mindset. Because I would see my own ad, I’m like, “Oh my god, everyone’s seeing the ad.” But there are people who have judgment and are not afraid to express it on an ad or criticism about your ad or what you’re doing, so you have to be prepared for that as well.
Emily: Yeah, you know, I think I see this, I mean, I guess everybody gets hate on their ads. I do too, my business coaches, my weight loss coaches, it just comes with the game. And what I tell my clients is like, obviously, negative comments on there aren’t great, like, nobody wants to see them, but you can hide them, and they do nothing but help your engagement and push the ads out to more people. Right? So it’s a double-edged sword.
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Question To Emily: I’m sure everyone’s curious to know, when should I start my ads?
Emily: Yes, I love this question. So I would recommend that you definitely don’t want to start at the very beginning before, like you haven’t sold anything organically, right? But you definitely don’t need to wait until you’ve hit a million dollars in your business or something like that.
I would say, once you have validated an offer to around 100,000, you know that the market wants it, you know how to position it, you know what kind of messaging works and converts, then it’s time to start thinking about putting some ad spend behind that.
And so, you can start out small, depending on what the budget is. I recommend doing it like a lead magnet funnel. There are all kinds of various lead magnets that you can do. But that way, you can start testing things with a little bit of money, it goes a little bit faster to see what works and what doesn’t, than you would typically get with organic.
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Question To Emily: So do you believe in the philosophy, if someone has dialed in their organic marketing, and just to clarify for people who don’t know what organic marketing means, is you like boots on the ground out there doing social media posts, going to networking events, just building your audience, building your email list with no paid traffic of any kind, where you’ve tested it enough, doing post and playing around with messaging and emails, that the Facebook ad at that point when you potentially have hit six figures can be the gas on the fire to what you’re currently doing?
Emily: Yeah. So I think with ads, what it’s going to show us really quickly, where there might be some bottlenecks within your funnel as well. So it can be the gas on the fire in terms of what kind of budget you have. Like, do you have maybe thousands of dollars to spend out, to want to send out ads to one conversion event that you want to do? Or do you want to start slow and start testefeing out, “Okay, I want to grow my e-mail list every day.” You know what I mean? Slowly, over time.
And then, like I always say, coaching funnels are long-tailed funnels. So what I would say is, you can run a lead magnet, nurture those people on your e-mail list. And then when you do a larger, like a conversion event, a masterclass, a challenge, or something like that, you’ll pull all of those leads into there. So it’s a little bit of a longer process. But it’s really effective.
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Alison: Yeah, I love that strategy. Because I’m always telling my people that you have to remember the big picture in mind with your business, it never should be a hustle race to continuously sign clients now today, everything’s urgent, everything needs to get done right now, it’s just not a sustainable process.
So that strategy is in alignment with like, remembering that the work you’re doing now will impact your future work, potentially making it easier.
For example, I’m in the middle of launching my Mastermind group, and I had 90 people registered for that webinar. And not all those 90 people are going to convert into the Mastermind this round. However, some people who showed up live or watched a replay or even just read the emails, planting seeds for the future, so now they have time to think about it and be like, “Oh, okay, now I know what she does. I know how she can help me. These are the areas where I do need help. This is the cost I can now plan and budget for it.” So then, they’re going to be there when I’m ready to launch again.
Emily: Absolutely. And I think that, I like what you said about planting the seeds, right? Because it might, sometimes, with my health and weight loss clients, I’ve noticed those specific ones, it usually takes about two rounds for people to start converting. So they did a big Masterclass in November, and then by February, a lot of those people were joining. So they were able to learn their process and get to know them on that training.
And obviously we had conversions from it, but then a lot of people, it was almost like they’re a quarter behind from when they <inaudible> as a lead, and then when a lot of them start converting.
So that’s kind of what I mean by coaching funnels, are they’re a bit long tail as opposed to like E- commerce. When you see ads for like, I get ads all the time that’s called Noom, and it’s like a shaving alternative, and they have the funniest ads, and they run ads direct to a purchase. Because they think, it’s like $40 or something like that. So they can do that, right? Because it’s not a huge investment. But with coaching funnels, it takes a little bit longer, to build, know, and trust with people.
Alison: And I think that helps with the mindset because, let’s say I had this huge expectation, of course, I want as many people to join, well, I’m shooting for 10, The Mastermind, as quickly as possible, but it’s also remembering the big picture strategy in mind, like, “Okay, I just planted a lot of seeds for the future as well.”
And I can kind of reel my mind in from the disappointment of maybe failure that sometimes happens when you’re doing a workshop or putting out messages for one-to-ones or not getting as many conversions as you want. It’s remembering the big-picture strategy. You just don’t know who’s going to be ready quickly and who is going to be ready several months from now. Or sometimes I’ve had people message me a year or two after first meeting me.
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Emily: And then they think about it, and they’re like, “Oh, yeah, Allison, I went to that great training with her,” or “I’m on her e-mail list, I read her e-mails,” and then you’re top of mind for them!
So some people, that timeline just takes a little bit longer, but I find that they usually end up being great clients and a great fit, and they think, there’s all these buyer personas out there. And some people just take a little bit longer to really think about the investment and the time and money. And when they’re ready to go, they’re ready to go.
Alison: Yeah. And they’re committed, and they’re loyal. And, as you said, they’re great to work with. And so are the people who have met me quickly and decided to work with me, they typically are, too. So you just got to know what’s right for you.
Question To Emily: What types of ads are good to run? And also, because I know I have a lot of yoga teachers reading this blog who have public classes and a lot of low ticket offers, like weekly yoga classes and workshops and things like that, is there a way they can use ads for them? Or should they stick to like a free opt-in or lead magnet?
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Emily: Yeah! So I would say that now these funnels, they can be complicated, like running an ad to a sales page and wanting to purchase, it does require a certain amount of ad spend. But if it’s under $100, I’d say that that typically can have an ad go to a sales page.
Now, if you have been running lead ads for a while, and then you send out an offer like that to your list that is warm, and a list of buyers that buy from you, it’s much easier to sell that lower ticket offer to that e-mail list that maybe did come in through a lead magnet as opposed to an ad that goes direct to a sales page.
Now, let’s say you have a big following of yoga practitioners. And if you own a studio, you have a following already. You could always turn on some ads to your warm audience. So people who already follow you on Instagram, you can upload your e-mail list, and they can see ads, right? So you would have a higher probability that they would be likely to convert right off of an ad. But I certainly have clients who have successful funnels, low ticket funnels, running ads directly to that.
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Alison: Yeah, it’s a great way to build the audience. And then develop the cold audience from that freebie, and then having a low ticket, an ad from the warm audience to the low ticket item. Did I get that right?
Emily: Yes, yes. So that reminds me of something else. So, a lot of times what you can do is also a tripwire. So let’s say you have a lead magnet, right? And you want to collect an email address, but you can offer them, you know that they’re interested in something, in you, in what you’re offering already.
So, a lot of times, what I will set up is on the Thank You page, and then in an e-mail sequence, I’ll give them an option to buy something low ticket. The, “Hey, if you’re interested, I’m doing this XYZ” maybe workshop or something, and give them a promo for that, for opting in. Some type of limited-time deal. In that way, you’re still collecting an email address, but then you’re starting to qualify your leads in a way of like, who may be more serious?
Because even though there might be a huge gap between a low ticket offer and a high ticket offer, somebody who has paid you, they’re more likely to pay you again for something else, especially if they have a great experience with the low ticket offer that you put in front of them.
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Alison: Yeah, I love that. And something else I love because I work with you for my own ads, which was such an unexpected, pleasant surprise, is that all the strategy, information, and mindset work that, because you are a certified coach, which I just love.
Emily: Getting certified.
Alison: Okay, on the way! But you bring that into your work. So it’s not just setting up the ads and being like, “Okay, this is the ad we’re going to run and I’ll take care of your audience and the look alikes,” and etc. But we actually talk it through, it’s been so helpful.
Emily: Yeah, I mean, I guess I’m going to toot my own horn here a little bit. What I noticed is that, I mean, there are a lot of great ads managers out there. There are also a lot of not-so-great ads managers, and what I think really differentiates the great from the not-so-great is, especially for coaching funnels, like ads need a holistic approach, right? You need somebody who is willing to go through your messaging with you, your offers with you, what the entire funnel looks like, including landing pages, email sequences, follow-up sequences. And so, the ads really only can do so much, right? It gets somebody who’s interested from Instagram or Facebook online was, everything that happens after that, that is where the real work comes in and mindset.
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And so, when I was deciding whether or not to get certified, I was like, there really is such a mindset component ads, because we’ll get to some mistakes, but spoiler alert, here’s one, the only way to fail with ads is to give up, is to stop trying and testing things. Right? And so, obviously, there is always a money component and a budget component in there. It’s another reason I have my clients take their ad spend a little bit slower, especially when they’re brand new, right?
If somebody comes to me with a validated funnel that I’m like, “Okay, let’s go,” but when it’s a new funnel that we’re creating, which is what I help my clients do their first ads funnel and getting that to convert, we go a little bit slower, until we can pick out what’s working and what’s not. And then we’ll ramp up the ad spend.
Alison: Yeah, I love that. Okay, so you did give the sneak peek.
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Question To Emily: Let’s talk about the common mistakes when it comes to ads.
Emily: So mistake number one is people come to me, they’ve been like, “I’ve done ads before nothing worked, blah, blah, blah.” And what I found out is that they probably tried to DIY it, they might have purchased a course or something, and then they tried to get their ads up on their own.
Now, similar to what we just talked about, that course might be very effective in how to properly set up an ad campaign in the business manager, which is complicated in itself, and it changes all the time.
So, having an ads course it might be outdated within a couple of months, right? So it might teach you how to set up your ad campaigns correctly, but it doesn’t teach you the strategy that comes with those ads. So they tried to DIY it, and they put a bunch of money into the ads, and they didn’t see any results, because those courses probably aren’t covering, here’s what your email sequences should look like, here’s how to test and see where the bottleneck is in your funnel. Right? People are registering, but they’re not showing up.
That tells me, “Okay, we have to make a change somewhere in there.” If people are coming, but then they’re not booking consults to a webinar, that tells you, “Okay, maybe we change something around.” If all those things are happening, maybe nobody’s opening the e-mails. And that’s a big deal. I had a client who, no one was opening her e-mails. The emails weren’t bad. It was a tech issue. So it could be various different things. So deem them with knowing nothing about ads, I think is a mistake right then and there.
Alison: I tried to do that for my brick-and-mortar physical therapy clinic. And I can tell you, and I actually, I think I tried to do it yourself for one time, for my business coaching business, I can tell you that my ad spend was a lot higher for the number of leads that I got, because I probably, I’m not proficient at figuring out right audience and all that kind of stuff in the look-alikes. And I just remember kind of pressing and guessing and hoping at some point.
Emily: Yeah. So I think that’s a good point, too. When people DIY is maybe, they just don’t know, what needs to be on a registration page, what kind of audiences do I need to be targeting? Like, broader audiences are working much better right now. That wasn’t always the case a few years ago, and it’s still not always the case, like with some of my clients, right?
So it’s knowing how to test both of those and see which one is working. And to get that lower cost per lead, which is, what does the ad copy look like? Are people stopping the scroll in the feed to look at your ad? And then, when they get to the actual landing page, is it compelling enough for them to opt in? And those are the two things that will really lower that cost per lead for you. And knowing like, Okay, is it my headline? Is it my ad copy? Do I need to try reels ads or static image ads or carousel ads, which are doing really well right now for all of you?
So I think it’s just knowing what you need to even be looking at. And most people don’t know. They just haven’t learned yet.
Alison: Totally. That’s why you’re the expert.
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Question To Emily: So tell us, do you have any more mistakes, common mistakes?
Emily: I do. The second one would be hiring the wrong person.
So, kind of back to what we’ve been talking about, like you want to find someone who’s not just going to be like your media buyer. What I mean by that is the person who’s doing all the clicking around in the ads manager, right? You, again, want to find someone who’s going to take the time and dig into your business, dig into your funnel, go through your messaging with you, and really look at everything holistically.
Also, you want to make sure, if you’re a coach, that you want to hire someone who does ads for coaches. I don’t take on accounts for E-commerce. It’s just not my area of expertise. Do I think I could figure it out? Of course. I run enough ads, but I mostly refer those over when people come to me to someone I know who really does e-commerce ads.
So, finding that right person, if you are just getting started at that $100,000 mark, you don’t need an agency that charges $5-10K a month and a retainer. You probably need a blend of done for you and coaching in there until you graduate to that level later on. You definitely want to be strategic and ask the right questions about who it is that you’re choosing to work with.
Alison: Awesome! Love that!
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Question To Emily: Anything else they should be aware of?
Emily: I think this one goes back to DIY. So I know we’ve talked about this a lot. But there are a lot of scammers out there. What I noticed is that when we run ads, we have that visibility of that you’re almost like a target for scammers.
So when you’re DIY-ing it, and you don’t have someone to work with, you’re not going to know when you get these messages like, your page has been banned, you violated a policy or anything like that. So you definitely don’t want to be clicking on any of those where giving out any of your private information because I have had people come to me before who lost their Facebook pages, their Instagram accounts, they had like 30,000 followers on. So you definitely want to work with somebody <inaudible>
Alison: I just remembered suddenly, I got a message one day, and I was like, “Oh my god, this is <inaudible>” and you’re like, it’s a scammer. I was like, “Oh, God!”
Emily: You know what’s funny is that day, because I tell everybody, if they’re my clients or not, I’m like, just send it to me if you want me to look at it. And that day, I had gotten like four people. They’re like, “Emily, what do you think of this?” I was like, “It’s a scam. Block them and delete. Don’t click on anything. Change your password.”
Alison: Oh, my gosh, yeah. so horrible. I just can’t get over that that’s what people spend their time doing. But that’s another story.
Emiliy: But, I think, I mean, there’s so many mistakes I’ve seen, but those are probably the main ones, and I think I’d end with just, you can’t win with them if you’re not trying with them. So keep trying.
Alison: I love that.
Emily’s going to be a special guest in the Awaken Mastermind for this round. So, if you want to hear more details and actually ask her your personal questions, then you can join this Mastermind, just be sure to do so by September 4. And you can speak to her personally.
Question To Emily: And for our readers who are reading after this date, where can they find you and get a hold of you?
Emily: The main place I hang around is on Instagram, it’s Ads for Coaches by Emily. And there I have information on an upcoming bootcamp that I’ll do. You can DM me, I love doing ad audits for people. If you’re running ads right now, I’ll take a look at the numbers quickly and see if I can’t make any suggestions. So just send me a DM on there.
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