Some Rude Awakenings for Businesses that want to do Facebook Ads

Awe, Facebook Ads. A mythical place where businesses go to make money, grow, and gain a business following. Or at least, that's the stigma. In my line of work (a marketing consultant at Disruptive Advertising), a lot, and I mean a lot of people who come to us, or to the Facebook ads platform, are there in order to be saved. Meaning that they aren't meeting their business goals, they want to grow, and think that Facebook Ads is the solution. I've had my own mother-in-law come to me asking about Facebook ads, thinking that it could be the magic bullet to take her MLM team to the next level.

Now, I'm not trying to humiliate anyone who wants to make their business better — I love my mother-in-law and other entrepreneurs. These people are amazing. They have already done more in trying to start a business than the majority of humans will do in their lives. It's risky, takes a lot of work, and I applaud you. You are doing something I never could do.

But that's why I think this post needs to be written. So that the people who are working hard can work smart too. As for my brief and very bushwacking approach. It's because this topic is constantly coming up, and I think some plane, direct talk is needed.

Rude Awakening #1: You Need the Dolla Dolla Bills

I think the best way to illustrate this point is my experience with my own family. My mother-in-law works for one of the more stable MLM's. She actually makes decent money off of it and was looking to move into some of the eastern countries in Asia and the Pacific Islands. So she came to me. She was incredibly optimistic as Facebook is much bigger in those countries than in the states. I felt terrible when I had to bring the hammer down.

Facebook Ads, like any type of advertising, is expensive. Now there are some factors like location and optimizations that can lower costs, but they aren't as effective. In my role as a Marketing Consultant, I recommend the lowest anyone spends on ads is $3000 a month.

In fact, there are Facebook programs in the ad space that aren't even open to businesses that spend less than 45K in the last 90 days. And that's the low end. When Facebook works with agencies to really help a business get the most out of their ads, a budget of 60K in spend per month is the requirement. Facebook won't touch anyone lower.

Now some could say that that's because Facebook wants to reserve their time for those who make them the most money. And to that, I say that's a fair point. That could totally be the reason. But I think there might another one. And that is that Facebook's fancy algorithm, that they won't stop talking about recently, works its absolute best when you throw huge sums of money at it. Which is awesome for companies that can. But for smaller businesses, it could mean not seeing results. Sorry. But it will take a significant more amount of time to get the results you want, if you ever get them, then if you spend more money. Which leads me to my second rude awakening.

Rude Awakening #2: Time

Some of you may be saying, "Well Jake, you said earlier that $3000 is the lowest you would recommend, so that means that there are still some businesses that are advertising with that amount and are getting results."

You are 100% correct. There are some businesses that can afford the $3000 and do get good results. And sometimes it only takes them a month to get them. These are cinderella businesses though and I would not recommend someone using these are as an example to get into this ad space.

For the majority of businesses, getting to a good spot with facebook ads takes time. And I mean a lot more time than people are normally okay with. And let me tell you why.

A lot of businesses that are running this $3k to even 15K budget, don't have a lot of research done. Which I get because audience, marketing, and CRO research is expensive. Facebook Ads are great in this regard because you can kill three birds with one stone if you have time and money, but is terrible if you don't.

These 3K to 15K businesses don't have research and literally going in blind. Us and them are guessing audiences and trying to find creative works. This can take ages. And most businesses can't afford it. They need results now.

Facebook is not for you if you fit this description. If you don't know you are selling too, what their MO is, and what creative resonates, don't go to Facebook ads expecting miracles. It could happen. But probably not. You need time, and as a result, money to really make it work.

Rude Awakening #3: Holistic Approaches

This is a part of time and money, but I'm putting it as a different rude awakening because it's something that a lot of people don't seem to get.

YOUR ADS COULD BE THE BEST THING EVER, BUT IF YOU HAVE A TERRIBLE SITE, YOU'LL MAKE NO MONEY!

Sorry, that's something I've wanted to tell so many clients.

Look, I'm not one to pass the buck. But I have worked with clients who have an 80% to 90% bounce rate on their site. And that includes organic traffic. That means that 80% of people who were actively searching for their site are bouncing. 60 to 70% is a good paid search or social bounce rate. You should have a 40% to 50% organic bounce rate.

Because here's the thing. Once people get from a Facebook ad, to your website. The whole fight changes. If you have a terrible website. Don't even try Facebook ads. It could work. But probably not. Even the best traffic from the best audience in the world won't want to stay on your site if it's not relevant, helpful, and easy to navigate.

You have to see marketing and advertising as a holistic effort. If you don't have the money to fix the website and do ads, then fix the website first, and then do the ads. Or if you can, do both at the same time to see how changing one affects the other so you can make a website that works with your ads and Vise Versa.

Rude Awakening #4: Bigger is Better.

This is the culmination of everything above and it's also the reason why the agency I work for has stopped trying to cater to small businesses. At Disruptive Advertising, we call a small business "proof of concept." As the term denotes, if a client hasn't made a $150K in sales in the last 12 months, then we are trying to prove their business works, and normally they fail.

I think it was around 80% (and that might be generous) of clients who don't hit that mark will all cancel with us and try other methods of advertising. And it all stems from what we talked about above.

Now you don't have to be huge. But, you need to have some clout in your marketing space. A good following with people who are organically purchasing your products just because they are good and your website/social media profiles speak to them.

Good marketing is needed at the ground floor in order to build you up to a good place, and then Facebook Ads can get involved.

Don't take this article the wrong way. Facebook ads is an awesome place to advertise and I have seen it rocket businesses up in sales and help them scale. But if you don't have the fundamentals down, then it isn't going to work.

Conclusion

These are general rude awakenings. Of course, everyone's business is different. There are a million reasons you could go against the advice I gave you above, but please consider it.

One of the hardest things that I experience in my job is seeing people I come to care about, make a bad decision and see them suffer the consequences. There are times when Disruptive Advertising lets clients go because it just isn't the right time. We don't want to waste the client's money and we want to do what's best for them.

So consider the points above before you dive into Facebook ads. It could save your business tons of money, if not your business itself.