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Most Facebook Ads don’t fail because of targeting. They fail because your system can’t convert the attention. If you’ve: run ads before and got no results generated leads but no sales felt like you were “just burning money” You’re not alone. And more importantly… you’re not the problem. THE REAL REASON YOUR FACEBOOK ADS AREN’T WORKING Most people think Facebook Ads are about: targeting creatives budget That’s what most agencies optimise. But here’s what actually determines whether your ads work: 👉 How many conversion touchpoints your prospect experiences before they decide to buy If someone clicks your ad once… lands on one page… and then disappears… You don’t have an ads problem. You have a conversion system problem. WHY MOST FACEBOOK ADS AGENCIES FAIL Let’s be honest. Most agencies will: launch your ads test creatives tweak audiences send you reports But they don’t fix the thing that actually drives revenue: 👉 buyer readiness They assume: “If we send more traffic, conversions will happen” But that’s not how people buy anymore. Today’s buyer needs: multiple exposures different angles repeated trust signals time to process If your system doesn’t support that… More traffic just means more wasted spend. WHAT WE DO DIFFERENTLY We don’t start with ads. We start with your conversion system. Specifically: 👉 how your prospects move from “interested” → “ready to buy” Using what I call a: Multi-Touchpoint Conversion System Instead of relying on: one funnel one webinar one message We engineer multiple touchpoints across: different angles (mistakes, myths, objections, results) different formats (video, posts, checklists, emails, etc.) short time windows So your prospect doesn’t just “see” your offer… They understand why it’s the right decision. WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU When this is set up properly, you get: Higher conversion rates (without increasing ad spend) Shorter sales cycles More “ready buyers” instead of cold leads Better performance from the traffic you already have In simple terms: 👉 You make more money from the same audience HOW WE WORK TOGETHER No generic “Bronze / Silver / Gold” packages. Everything is built around fixing what’s actually broken. OPTION 1: CONVERSION LEAK DIAGNOSTIC + 30-DAY FIX PLAN Best if: you’ve run ads before something isn’t converting you don’t know where the problem is We: identify where you’re losing buyers map your missing touchpoints give you a clear 30-day plan to fix it OPTION 2: THE AD SPRINT (21 DAYS) Best if: you want fast traction you need leads + buyer readiness you don’t want a complex funnel We: launch a focused ad campaign build supporting touchpoints turn cold traffic into “ready buyers” OPTION 3: FULL SYSTEM BUILD + SCALE Best if: you want this handled end-to-end you’re ready to scale you want consistent results We: build your full conversion system manage your ads optimise for revenue (not vanity metrics) BEFORE YOU SPEND ANOTHER €1 ON ADS… Ask yourself: Are people seeing my offer more than once? Do they actually understand why it’s right for them? Am I building trust before asking for the sale? If the answer is no… That’s your bottleneck. START HERE If you want to know what’s actually holding your ads back: 👉 Find Your Biggest Conversion Leak (Free) or 👉 Get Your 30-Day Fix Plan FINAL THOUGHT Facebook Ads still work. But not in isolation. The people getting results today aren’t just running ads… They’re building systems that turn attention into decisions. If you fix that, everything else gets easier.

Let’s clear something up. Most people think targeting business owners on Facebook is the hard part. It’s not. The hard part is getting them to actually care once you find them. If you’ve: boosted posts and got nothing run ads that didn’t convert struggled to get attention from the right people You’re not alone. And more importantly… 👉 you’re probably focusing on the wrong thing. Why Targeting Alone Won’t Fix Your Results Facebook gives you a ridiculous amount of targeting options: job titles interests behaviours lookalike audiences So naturally, most people assume: “If I just find the right audience, everything will work.” But here’s what actually happens: You find your audience… you run ads… they click… …and then nothing. No leads. No sales. No momentum. That’s not a targeting problem. 👉 That’s a conversion problem. Where Most People Go Wrong Here’s the typical approach: Find an audience Create one ad Send them to one page Hope they convert That used to work. It doesn’t anymore. Today’s buyers need: multiple touchpoints repeated exposure different angles time to trust you If you skip that… Even “perfect targeting” won’t save you. Yes, You Still Need to Target Properly Let’s get practical. Here are the main ways to target business owners on Facebook: Interest and Behaviour Targeting You can target people based on: entrepreneurship small business owners digital marketing specific tools or platforms You can also narrow by: job titles industries behaviours This is where most people start. Custom Audiences (Underused) This is where things get more interesting. You can target people who: watched your videos visited your website engaged with your content These people already know you. 👉 This is where conversions start to improve. Lookalike Audiences Once you have data, you can ask Facebook to find: 👉 people similar to your best leads or buyers This is powerful. But only if your original data is good. The Strategy That Actually Works Here’s the part most people miss. Step 1: Get Attention (Cold Audience) Use: short videos simple posts problem-focused content Goal: 👉 stop the scroll Step 2: Build Familiarity (Warm Audience) Retarget people who engaged. Show them: different angles different messages different formats Goal: 👉 help them understand your solution Step 3: Ask for Action Now introduce: a lead magnet a webinar a diagnostic Goal: 👉 turn attention into leads This Is the Part Most People Miss You don’t need: better targeting more ads bigger budgets You need: 👉 more conversion touchpoints per prospect That’s the difference between: random leads and ready buyers Before You Run Your Next Campaign Ask yourself: Are people seeing my message more than once? Am I showing them different angles? Am I building trust before asking for the sale? If not… That’s your bottleneck. Want to Get Better Results From Your Ads? Most people focus on targeting… …but that’s rarely the real problem. 👉 Read this next: Why Your Facebook Ads Aren’t Converting (And What to Fix Instead) Final Thought Yes, you can target business owners on Facebook. That part is easy. The real question is: 👉 what happens after they see you? Fix that… and everything else improves.

Lucy didn’t have a traffic problem. She had a conversion problem. Her ads were getting clicks. People were watching. Some were even opting in. But very few were buying. If that sounds familiar, you don’t need better ads. You need a better conversion system. In this post, I’ll show you why most Facebook ads don’t convert and what to fix first. What is a Conversion Rate? Understanding conversion rates will help you assess if your ad types and ad copy are effective. You want your audience to perform the desired action after interacting with your Facebook Ad. They aren’t just there to look pretty. So, what is a conversion rate? Simply put, it is the percentage of people who convert into a new behaviour after being exposed to an intervention. In the context of Facebook Ads, it is the number of people who purchase your product, or sign-up for your email list, after being exposed to your ad.  Facebook advertisers do not need to only be concerned with low click-through rates, it is essential that their Facebook Ad conversion rate is also high. Clicks should lead to a specific action and new customers for your business. Facebook Advertising Benchmarks One benefit of running Facebook Ad campaigns is access to Facebook Analytics. This powerful tool can lead to high conversion rates by allowing you to assess what is and isn’t working when it comes to converting Facebook users into customers.  Facebook metrics also help set pricing for the site with your advertising cost being tied to social media users’ interaction with your Facebook campaign. Remember that Facebook takes a variety of factors into account when setting pricing on the site, including your campaign goals, so the prices listed here are average. Cost Per Click Cost per click, or CPC, refers to the price per click on your Facebook Ad. The average CPC is $0.94 per click. You can choose to bid on CPC when running your Facebook Ad. Facebook will then attempt to get you the most clicks possible in the budget you set. This can be a great way to generate views for your blog posts or to bring people to a landing page. Cost Per Mile Cost per mile, or CPM, refers to the price you pay per one thousand impressions. Where did mile come from? It means thousand in Latin. You are learning language and average cost today!  CPM is a great option to get your ad seen by as many potential customers as possible. When you bid on this advertising option on the social network they will get your ad seen by as many of their millions of daily active users as your budget allows. The average cost is $7.19. Cost Per Like Cost Per Like, or CPL, refers to the cost per like your Facebook page receives from your ad. Increasing likes helps build brand awareness. It can also lower costs by increasing the number of people seeing your content outside of sponsored content. It currently averages $1.07. Cost Per Action Cost Per Action (CPA) is a choice when running Facebook Ads that will have you paying per your desired action. Once you set your budget and your desired action Facebook will optimize for you to receive as many actions as possible.  This is a better option than just paying for link clicks when your concern is your Facebook Ads conversion rate. The price is $5.47 on average. Factors Influencing Facebook Ad CPA Facebook Ads does not charge everyone equally for any of their four price options. A variety of factors are at play. We will take a look at some of them here.  Prospective Customers The people you are seeking to reach with your ad will affect the cost of the ad. Facebook allows you to narrow the Facebook users seeing your ad to those that fall within the parameters you set.  This prevents you from shooting in the dark at all 25-40 year-olds in the Midwest but rather lets you drill down into only those that share an interest in what you are offering. For example, if you are offering running shoes it would display to those that are interested in marathons. This targeting increases the effectiveness of ads but can also come with a price. Not all audiences clock in at the same dollar amount. As you tailor your audience you will see the pricing of your ad change.  Ad Quality and Relevancy Facebook rewards ads that its users like. They use a variety of metrics to determine whether the ads people see are relevant to them and engaging. The better your ad scores the cheaper it will be to run the ad on Facebook.  To reduce your costs produce good ads. This has the added benefit of enticing customers. Conversions are higher with good-quality ads.  Ad Placement  Where you opt to place your ad within Facebook’s ecosystem will also affect the price of your CPA. Options include choosing to only display your ads on mobile, placing your ads in Facebook newsfeeds, integrated videos, and more.  The abundance of choice lets you select where you can gain the most traction, and conversions, for your business. Though some of these options come at higher price points consider whether the increase in conversions makes up for the increase in Facebook Ads costs.  Why Your Facebook Ads Aren’t Converting Most people think the problem is: targeting creatives budget It’s not. The real problem is this: 👉 You’re asking people to buy after 1–2 touchpoints Buyers don’t work like that anymore. They need multiple exposures, angles, and proof before they decide. That’s where most campaigns break. How to Increase the Conversion Rates of Facebook Ads Facebook ads are a powerful tool to drive traffic to your site, but they aren’t magic bullets. To make sure you’re getting the best results possible, follow these tips to boost conversions. Concentrate On Relevance With the ability to target your Facebook Ads so precisely comes great responsibility. You want your ads to be seen by people that are interested in what you have to offer. Increase the effectiveness of your ads by targeting them to the right people.  Facebook lets you target your audience based on age, location, gender, interests and more. Assess who your customer is and then go find them on Facebook.  Make Use of Dynamic Ads Facebook utilizes dynamic ads to show your products to the right people. Facebook automatically show your ad to people who have expressed an interest in what you have to offer whether that be on your website, app, or anywhere else across the internet.  Opting for this targeting is an even narrower form of audience selection. These are not just people who share demographic details with your customers or are interested in things related to your product.  These are people who have already gone through the trouble of interacting with your content outside of Facebook. They are highly primed conversion and are a great value for your Facebook Ad budget.  Do Not Skimp on Quality Facebook rewards you for creating ads that people like. Advertising doesn’t have to be bleak and salesy. It can be engaging and fun. If your ad is something that people like and find value in, then Facebook wants it on their platform.  Ways to ensure high-quality ads make quality graphics, including great photos, and writing witty copy.  Write Copy That Emphasizes the Value Writing good ad copy not only means that Facebook will reward you with more views it can also be a part of creating more sales itself. Your copy should clearly lay out what you are offering and why people should want it.  Emphasizing the value that people receive from choosing you is also best practice. Even those with large budgets do not want to receive less for their money. We all want to receive more for our money.  Lay out in your ad the value they will get from choosing you. In a crowded field, why do I want to opt for you as my wellness coach? Why do you offer the best-knitted ferret jumpers?  Make it clear they will receive a high-quality product at the best possible cost. Highlight any features of what you offer that stand out from the rest.  If possible offer them a bonus. You could run a giveaway for people who sign up for your email list. You could offer free bonus materials if selling a course. The possibilities are endless. What you offer is high value make your potential customer see that.  Keep an Eye on, and Improve Your Campaigns Facebook’s analytics tools are there for you to take advantage of. Look and see what ads are getting engagement and which aren’t. With the power of the world’s largest social media platform providing performance reports, there is no reason to not see how things are going.  Once you have an idea of which ads perform well you can improve lower-performing ads to be more like the ads that are getting traction. You can also apply those analytics to your Facebook page posts and see which of your regular posts is performing best and consider boosting it or turning it into an ad.  Ad Fatigue Should Be Avoided People are fickle. They love what you are doing one moment and hate it the next. Familiarity breeds contempt so avoid oversaturating your market with ads. Consider varying the ads so that your market doesn’t become annoyed.  Perhaps worse than annoyance is indifference. If you are running the same ad over and over it can become part of the wallpaper. Your target customers might grow so used to your ad they view it as an extension of the navigation bar.  Vary things up to keep your audience engaged and primed to follow through on your call to action. Keep your branding consistent of course but add interest and spice things up from time to time.  Get Your Creativity on Point Have fun with your advertising! Get creative. Test things out and see what works. We can’t overstate enough how much Facebook and your audience will value this. Don’t sit on your laurels and let your advertising become boring and stale.  Use Facebook’s analytics tools to see what people like and think about how to deliver more of what the peopl

Stacy wanted this year to be different but she needed help with her goal-setting exercises. After looking at what she managed to accomplish over the last 12 months she knew that something needed to change. Some weeks over the last financial year were downright hairy because of the limited amount of cash flow. Plus her dream of living on a tropical island for 6 months of the year hasn’t materialised just yet. If you can relate to Stacy let me know if these points sound familiar. Setting goals and achieving them can be quite daunting You’ve rarely ever accomplished the goals that you set in the specific timeframe Others seem to be better at setting goals but it doesn’t work for you You have a goal but you are clueless about the steps needed to take action Wouldn’t it be lovely if there was a realistic way to set achievable goals with action steps as well? In this resource, you’ll discover a few key secrets that separate the winners from the others. Join me as we look at a few goal-setting exercises for complete beginners. The Goal-Setting Process Before looking at the various goal-setting exercises available for you to use. It is important to understand the various aspects of the goal-setting process. Many people make the mistake of looking at the ultimate goal while ignoring the reasons behind that goal. For example, if you have professional goals like getting a 6-figure deal or having an income of $10k/month why do you need that money? I’ll tell you why… It’s because you have a number of personal goals behind those specific goals. This could range from larger goals like buying a mansion or a sports car to smaller goals like hiring a fitness coach. At the end of the day, the goal-setting process should start with the realistic goals of improving the quality of your life and the lives of your loved ones. It’s important that you have a process that walks through the stages by adopting the 7 whys principle. At each stage of the process ask yourself why you want that thing. Here’s what that looks like… I want to make $100K a year so that I can Pay for living expenses so that I can Buy a beautiful home so that I can Provide a secure life for me and my family so that I can Not have to worry about emergencies so I can Live my perfect day so that I can Do the things I enjoy Of course, you can also do this powerful exercise in reverse order. The most important step is that your focus is on accomplishing the right goal to create a life worth living. Also, these must be meaningful goals for your future self so that you’ll be motivated sufficiently to accomplish them. 1. Your Perfect Day A number of years ago I was encouraged to write out in detail what my perfect day will look like. At the time, I was not a digital nomad or even a virtual assistant. In fact, I thought that it was a lot of wishful thinking. With a bit of hesitation, I sat down with a pen and a few sheets of paper. I scribbled down my perfect day from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed. Here are a few things I included. The ideal time for me to wake up each morning Who I would like to wake up with in my bed What I did after waking up The atmosphere and location I’d like to wake up in Items that I would include on the menu for breakfast At what time would I check messages and emails What I would do for work My working hours and days of the week Extracurricular activities Things I would like to do with my loved ones My downtime routine What I do at bedtime Things I do during the day for self-improvement Although I can’t remember every single thing that I wrote down many years ago, I can tell you that this stuff works. It’s crazy what happens when you get crystal clear about what you want to include or even exclude from your perfect day. I’m living some of that dream even today which really amazes me because I really believed that it wasn’t possible to have a perfect day. 2. Vision Boards Have you ever wondered if creating a vision board will work for you? I always thought that they were useless until I discovered a dirty little secret. You must always use photos of actual places, locations, fun experiences and things that you want in your life. For example, a number of years ago I wanted to get my hands on the Chanel No. 5 perfume. It looked good in the adverts so maybe it will be good for me too. To tell you the truth I never walked up to the beauty counter and did a scent test, I just decided to get it. That bottle of perfume remains on my bathroom shelf many years later because it doesn’t match my body scent. The most important thing to learn from this lesson is to get crystal clear about what you include on your vision board. Do a test drive, trial or just try it for a few days because chances are you may not like it. When next you are creating a vision board get photos of places, things and experiences that you know would work for you. No more magazine clippings, go try out that mattress, the sofa, the dream destination, etc. If you like it, include it, if not, move on. Vision boards only work when you get real with your dreams. 3. Mind Mapping One of my absolute favourite goal-setting exercises is mind mapping. At first, I just didn’t get what the excitement was about but then one day I came across a great tool called Xmind. My life changed forever. Something just clicked and there I was mapping out world domination before sunset. In case you’ve never done any kind of mind mapping before it’s like writing down your big dream and working backwards to figure out the next steps. Here’s an example of how it works. Say you would like to achieve an income of €100K a year. Just look at that number it may seem impossible but let’s break it down. $100K/year = $8,333/month What can you do to make $8,333/month? You can do a split of 3-4 income streams like $2,000 from digital products, $3,000 from client work, $2,000 from UGC and $1,500 from sponsored content. I have to warn you that the items that you include in the income streams must align with those things on your vision board and your perfect day. There’s no point in you generating income from things you absolutely dislike. Mind Mapping Visual Example Now that you have an idea of what you want to include in a mind-mapping exercise. Let’s do a practical example. My favourite free powerful tool that I like to use is one called Whimsical because it’s so easy to use and you can share your mind map with team members. Always start at the end goal and work your way backwards through the process of achieving that goal. Here’s a screenshot of the first stages of my mind-mapping process. Let me explain some reasoning behind why I chose these vehicles for my income streams. I know that I only have 24 hours in one day so I’ll need some sources of income to be passive and others will need my time and attention. I’ll also need help creating quite a number of deliverables. Notice that under the section for digital products, I’ll need to create 1,000 different products for my store. I already know that I can outsource the product creation process. Using this method gives me tons of fun accomplishing items. 4. Bucket Lists One of my favourite and fun goal-setting exercises is the bucket list. The reason why it’s so much fun is because I use it to cover all 8 areas in the Wheel of Life. So, it goes beyond entrepreneurial goals. I’ve used it to cover areas like self-growth, romance, travel, learning a new language, learning a new instrument and volunteering for charity. If you are one of my regular readers or listeners then you would be familiar with my bucket list. However, if you’re new you can check out my 50th birthday bucket list here. I created it before the global health crisis so that slowed my progress significantly. However, I’m so happy to report that I’ve achieved quite a number of the items on that list which is so very exciting. At this point, you’re probably wondering how many goal-setting exercises you’ll need to achieve your goals. The answer, my dear, is only one. I’m giving you a peek behind the scenes of the ones I’ve tried and what I liked or found exciting about each one. I am also letting you know the dirty little secrets about how to get them to work for you.😉 Notice how each exercise is different in its own way. Action Plan Now we are at the point of setting goals where quite a number of people get lost. This brings me nicely to a famous quote by Greg Reid. “A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.” Greg Reid In order for any goal-setting exercise to work we need to ensure that those goals have a plan with steps so that we can take daily consistent action. This is probably the most scary part of the process. I remember the time when I had a goal but I had no idea the steps that I needed to take to make that goal a reality. Sometimes that goal can seem insurmountable when you realise that it can potentially take you 5 years instead of 12 months to obtain results. Let me give you an example, 10 years ago I knew what a funnel was but I had no idea how to build a high-converting funnel. In fact, the cost back then was prohibitive. However, slowly but surely I started that journey into learning about the tech and marketing aspects of creating gorgeous funnels. I was curious, I was determined and I put in the work. Now, I can build them in my sleep and I know which platforms are the best to get specific results. Action Plan Visual Example As I already mentioned mapping out the steps so that they can be actioned is probably the biggest hurdle for many people. This is why I don’t want to leave you hanging by not sharing a practical example of effective goal-setting activities. If you rem

Siobhan needed help promoting her small business but she didn’t know what are the current freelance marketing consultant rates. This is important for her because she didn’t want to pay too much for digital marketing services. Yes, leads and sales are important to the survival of any business. Like many entrepreneurs and small business owners, Siobhan prefers spending time doing what she enjoys. She just was not interested in learning to become a digital marketer herself. Let me know if you face these struggles like Siobhan. You need more leads and sales in your business this year Setting up a 12-month marketing plan is outside your comfort zone You like showing up on social media but you don’t have a marketing strategy in place Terms like ROAS, abandon cart emails, CTR, conversion rate, LTV and MRR are way outside your wheelhouse If only there was a way to figure out the cost of a marketing consultant so that you can include them in your marketing budget. In this resource, you’ll discover simple strategies to plan, budget and hire your digital marketing strategist to significantly increase your business revenue. What or Who is a Marketing Consultant? For the purposes of this resource, a marketing consultant is someone who works alongside a business at a strategic level to lead their marketing plan. In many cases, a business will hire a marketing consultant to fix issues like underperforming campaigns. Sometimes they are brought in to help an organisation adopt a more cohesive approach to their marketing strategy. Ideally, there would need to be a budget set aside for marketing spend and your marketing consultant can oversee how to spend it effectively. Your marketing consultant should help you get a good return on your marketing spend. A marketing consultant can look at the historical data from your marketing spend vs results over the last 3-12 months and give you wise insights. It is important to note that even the best marketing consultants are not magicians. They don’t have control over external forces, economic factors, market trends or making things go viral.🤣 Social Media Manager vs Marketing Assistant vs Marketing Manager vs Marketing Consultant Before we look at rates it’s important to understand all the different roles that promote a business. Let’s spend some time understanding who these people are and what they do. 1. Social Media Manager Depending on the size of your business you may already have someone who looks after your social media accounts. Their role would be to develop a plan for the social media channels, write the copy, create the graphics and schedule out the content. They would also look at the performance of the content and suggest ways to improve the results of their social media efforts. Another vital role would be to keep up with the latest trends and grow the social media community for the business. 2. Marketing Assistant or Marketing Coordinator So how does the social media manager differ from a marketing assistant or marketing specialist? Well, a marketing assistant also known as a marketing co-ordinator does just that they assist. They are not responsible for leading a specific strategy. In most cases, the business owner makes a plan and the marketing assistant would help implement the plan in the business. They can create graphics from existing templates, transcribe copy based on what the business owner said and pull + compile the reports for someone else to interpret. 3. Marketing Manager If you decide to hire a marketing manager in your business here are a few things that you can expect. They expect to be hired on a full-time basis. The marketing manager would own, plan and develop the marketing strategy for the business across multiple channels. It is their responsibility to deliver the results that they promised. The kind of results that you can expect from a marketing manager will be centred around leads, not sales. If you look at the typical customer journey where you have awareness, interest, consideration and retention. The marketing manager is responsible for awareness and interest. However, they assist with the consideration phase where the sale takes place. 4. Marketing Consultant So, what’s the difference between a marketing manager and a marketing consultant? As a general rule, the marketing manager is treated like a full-time employee. They don’t work with other businesses, so they are an in-house marketer. However, the marketing consultant would be more like a freelancer or independent advisor who is brought on for a short time, like 3 months. They are more objective in their approach to marketing solutions. Their fees tend to be higher when compared to a marketing manager. 7 Signs That You Need a Marketing Consultant At this point, you are probably feeling a little bit confused because you are not sure if a marketing consultant is who you need. Here are 7 clear signs that you need a marketing consultant. You are looking for someone short-term (3-6 months) to come in and set up an overall marketing plan Your business online presence includes several organic channels including a blog, several social media channels, YouTube and Pinterest. There are also paid campaigns across Google Ads, Facebook Ads and TikTok Ads. Right now everything feels disparate so you are looking for a more cohesive approach to digital marketing You are not really sure which digital channels are the top contributors to sales, awareness and retention It would be lovely if you had better visibility into the customer journey from awareness to consideration You need help improving your offers and product suite in order to go from a 6-figure business to a 7-figure business Current Freelance Marketing Consultant Rates So, you’ve come this far because you know for sure that what you need is a marketing consultant. However, you are not quite sure how much you should expect to pay to hire that person. According to a report by Credo, the average hourly rate for a marketing consultant depending on years of experience is $150/hour. You’re probably thinking that you could only pay them a flat fee of $1,500 a month or maybe even $3,000/month. However, remember that they will not be as expensive as a regular Marketing Director who has an annual salary of $150,000 a year. There’s no need to pay a marketing consultant $12,500/month unless you are a multi-million dollar organisation with a team of 100 employees in marketing alone. The beauty of hiring a marketing consultant on a part-time basis is that you get the impact of their marketing expertise without the ridiculous price tag. Some, like me, can do project-based fees of $7,500 over a 3-month period. In fact, other names for these types of marketing consultants include Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or Fractional Director of Marketing. How to Budget for Your Marketing Plan Now that you know the freelance marketing consultant rates, it’s time to figure out how to make a budget so that you can hire them. It is standard practice to set aside 20% of sales as part of your marketing budget. I’ve seen other places online where the figure is much lower because they are saying that it depends on the target audience. In fact, I’ve seen suggestions of between 2% and 10% of sales. After working with several businesses over the years what I’ve seen work effectively is a budget that is somewhere between 10% and 25% of sales. Included in the figure is the cost of hiring team members like a social media manager, copywriter, graphic designer, ads manager, SEO specialist and many more. By the way, copywriters are not cheap and the work they do is very effective. SEO specialists do require a long-term view of 12 months minimum. Budget Example If your business is doing $15,000 a month and you decide to set aside 20% of that figure. Then you’ll have a monthly budget of $3,000 available to spend on marketing, this will work for a short-term marketing campaign. By the way, you should be doing 3-4 launches a year on top of your evergreen campaigns which will help you to have a bigger budget for marketing. Need help improving your evergreen and launch campaigns? Check out my portfolio here to see how I’ve helped other businesses like yours to increase their income. You can start to exponentially improve your business results just by hiring a Fractional CMO for as little as $500 to $1,000 a month on an as-needed basis. There’s also the option to hire a good consultant on a project-by-project basis for a flat rate. Freelance Marketing Consultant Rates FAQ Well, you probably have a number of questions that you need to clear up before taking the next step. So, let’s look at the most frequently asked questions that many small businesses have before hiring their first Fractional Director of Marketing. 1. How much should I pay a marketing consultant? The reality is that it depends on a few factors including: The skills you need in your business right now What results you are hoping to achieve Their experience level How much budget you have available each month The quality of work needed While the average rate is $150/hour there’s also wiggle room to do profit share to sweeten the deal. 2. What is an acceptable marketing budget when considering bringing on a marketing consultant? There are many sources online that suggest a budget of between 2% and 5% of sales. However, based on my experience you are better off setting aside between 10% and 25% of sales. The reason for this is that you’ll need to hire a small team to help you implement your marketing plan. 3. What kind of results can I expect from hiring a marketing consultant? It really depends on why you want to hire them in the first place. What type of work would you like them to do? Before rushing out and hiring someone to develop and execute marketing plans for your busin

Shelley started her business recently and she had a burning question, how to get potential clients through cold email? As an entrepreneur, you know that it’s important to constantly have cash flow in your business. Without any consistent income, your business is just an expensive hobby. The one skill every entrepreneur needs to master is getting sales or clients into their business. Shelley was keenly aware of this which is why she needed to find a way to master this skill. Here are three things to consider when you decide to use cold emails as your way of generating leads. You’ll need a fresh list of people to email every week Sending out emails that get responses is crucial Doing this 100% manually can be a daunting task Nobody likes to be sold to but everyone likes to buy If only there was a way for Shelley to get proven strategies and resources that work every single time. In this resource, you’ll discover a number of key elements and insider secrets that you can use to get the results that you need. Email Marketing Statistics So, you’re probably wondering why Shelley decided to use cold email as her lead generation strategy. Well, according to Oberlo, there are 4.3 billion users of email globally and this is set to increase to 4.6 billion in the next few years. Another surprising statistic from the same source reveals that over 3 billion emails are sent every day. To put that into perspective, there are 2 billion active users of Facebook daily. In terms of return on investment, the figures show that you can expect to generate $40 for every $1 spent on emails. 81% of business owners continue to use email as their source of customer acquisition. Also, welcome emails have the highest open rates at 68.6% when compared to the average email open rate of 19.7%. Did you know that 49% of consumers said that they like to get promotional emails from their favourite brands weekly? Based on what you know now about email marketing do you think that Shelley has made a good decision? List of Potential Clients One of the toughest things Shelley needs to do before sending out cold emails is to develop a list of her prospective clients. Have you ever wondered where people find a list of ideal clients? If you have no idea who your potential client or buyer persona is then it will be more difficult to find them. So, spend some time developing an avatar of your prospective client before moving to the stage of getting a list. One of the things to figure out when profiling your ideal client avatar is where you can find them quickly and easily. When you know who they are and where they spend most of their time then it becomes easier to find them as well as their email addresses. A number of places where you can find them could include: LinkedIn Business website Instagram Facebook 3rd Party Publications Let’s look at ways in which you can develop a solid list of prospects. How to Get a List of Email Addresses Broadly speaking there are two ways to generate a list of email addresses. These two ways are called inbound and outbound. Inbound involves you leaving a link for people to access a free resource and they’ll need to enter their email address to get it. Outbound is quite different, you basically need to go and find them and send them a cold email introducing yourself and giving them a reason to respond. Everyone likes inbound email marketing because it is like if your prospective client raises their hand to get what you have. However, if you are like Shelley and you’re starting from scratch there are a few ways to get this started. 1. Social Media Hand Raiser The next time you are publishing content on social media instead of sharing a link publicly ask your prospective client to send you a DM. If the thought of getting your prospective clients to send you a cold direct message gives you butterflies in your tummy then take a step back. Imagine you have the perfect solution to their pain point and all they need to do is message you for it do you think that they will do it? What I like about doing a hand-raising post is that you get instant feedback on whether your messaging is working. So, say yes to using social networks to help you grow your customer base. 2. Freebie on Website Another way to get people’s email addresses is to offer a freebie like a lead magnet on your website. This will need to be something too good to pass up and it should give them a quick win. You can use the same lead magnet for the handraiser on social media as well as your website. 3. Other People’s List A really clever way to grow your email list fast is by doing a collaboration with a business owner who does something complimentary to your business. For example, my zone of genius is tech and funnels. I can team up with someone who does copywriting. We can put on a shared event together or that person can invite me to do a free masterclass with their audience. 4. Online Research This is probably the hardest way to find a list of potential clients but it can be done. You can do a manual search on LinkedIn and find your target audience. For example, if you’re looking to create a list of all the Accountants in the US, you’ll need to do a search on LinkedIn. When you find them, you’ll need to add each one of them to your list and then find their email address manually. Yes, there are several 3rd party tools that you can use like Hunter.io or Slik Prospector Chrome extension but they are never 100% accurate. Once you have a list of first names, last names and job titles you can upload it to a tool like Hunter and they’ll populate the email address for you. Then download your list of leads ready to do your cold email outreach. 5. Buying a List A few years ago I was heavily involved in affiliate marketing which involved buying lists. I cringe every time I think about this because it’s such a terrible way to do business. However, there is one platform that has made this process non-sleazy by giving you the ability to purchase high-quality B2B emails. It’s called Lime Leads and it gives you the ability to filter your leads before paying for them and downloading them. After using these resources you should be able to drum up a list of 1,000 leads. Cold Email Campaign If you are like Shelley and you don’t have any experience at all in copywriting or email marketing. You may be stuck thinking about what to write in your cold prospecting emails. The world would be quite boring if we were all good at writing email copy. I have over 20 years of experience sending out cold emails and all I can say to you is that there are so many different methods and templates available. However, recently I came across one resource that is great for those on a low budget. It’s priced at $5 and you can also purchase additional cold email templates for $30. If this sounds like something you would like for your business, grab it here. When you make the purchase, you’ll notice that it also comes with emails for the follow-up process as well. Tools for Cold Emailing Now that you’ve got your list of leads as well as the email copy that you’ll be sending to your potential customers. You’re probably wondering if there’s a way to efficiently send out these emails to a minimum of 100 people each week. Maybe you’re ambitious enough and you want to send 50 emails a day. What should you use? You’re probably thinking of using Outlook, Apple Mail, Postbox or Gmail. Is there a way to save your email templates so that you can save time? Can you track the open rates of the emails you’ll be sending out? What about the ability to set follow-up reminders after a few days? There are several tools that you can use to help with these features. The two popular options include Mixmax and Mailtrack. Warm Email Campaigns If you decide to grow your email list using inbound techniques like the handraiser and freebie on the website that I mentioned previously. You’ll need to have a welcome email sequence to deliver that freebie and then nurture that list with weekly newsletters. In case you didn’t realise it there are significant differences between warm email templates and cold email templates. So, it is important for you to decide which one you would like to do and develop your email content to match the right audience. Yes, you can certainly decide to do both types of campaigns because the warm email campaigns can be set up and automated. Conversion Rates If you’ve never done any kind of marketing campaigns, sales outreach, lead generation or anything similar. You’ll know that it’s all a numbers game if you get all the components right. Whether it’s a cold email or a warm/regular email marketing campaign there are some key numbers you need to look at to determine if you’re doing it right. These key numbers include delivery rate, open rates, click rates and sales/conversions (income generated). There are other analytics as well like unsubscribe rates, bounce rates and spam complaints. This is not a comprehensive guide on email marketing so let’s focus on what those key numbers should look like. Delivery rate – 100% Open rate – 35% Click rate – 10-15% Conversion rate – 1% (minimum) When you are not married to a specific prospect or company here’s what you should be doing. Take a step back and look at the numbers. It helps you to focus on what really matters. In other words, if you only sent 50 cold emails and got no conversions then you’ll know that you just need to send more emails to get to the 1% result. How to Fix Your Email Results If you sent out 1,000 emails and your analytics don’t look like the benchmark numbers that I gave you previously. Here’s what you can do to fix those problems. Low Delivery Rate If your delivery rate is less than 90% then there could be a few reasons why this is occurring. The platform or

Nellie sighed, her business has experienced a great level of success over the last 3 years but now she wondered how to get clients through Facebook Ads. She knows that in order to take her business to the next level and generate the revenue needed to fulfil her dreams. It was imperative for her to scale her cash flow. Nellie had about 110 clients on a monthly retainer or subscription. What would be nice is if she had two new groups of clients. Project-based clients for VIP day engagements Consulting clients who needed more high-end services Have you experienced something similar to these points in your business as well? You’re making 2-3 sales a week on your signature offer You are making between $12k and $15k per month consistently It is your dream to get to $20k and then $50k per month but you’re not sure how Just recently, I was listening to one of my peers say that they were unsure what to do next to get the results they needed in their business. In this resource, you’ll learn a simple step-by-step process about how to get clients through Facebook Ads. Why Facebook Ads? Before looking at that process, it’s important to understand why Nellie is interested in learning about Facebook marketing. So, let’s spend some time looking at the latest Facebook advertising statistics. Facebook currently has over 3 billion monthly active users based on an article from Demand Sage. According to Hubspot, Facebook Ads reach 62.2% of all Americans from age 13+. In that same resource, we can see that there are over 10 million active advertisers on the Facebook platform compared to an audience of 2.25 billion in terms of advertising audience size. That means, only 0.45% of active advertisers compared to the audience size. I’ll let that sink in for a second. During 2022, Meta generated $113 billion in ad revenue. This means they make $51/person in their advertising audience. Most users in the US are aged between 25-34. Facebook is used by 67% of social media advertisers and 25% of marketers say that Facebook has the highest return on investment. Now that you know this essential information do you think Nellie’s interest in using Facebook Ads for her business is justified? Ideal Client No matter how good the Facebook ads statistics appear to be. It is really important that you answer this question. Is your target audience hanging out on Facebook? If yes, then it means that Facebook is a great platform to get clients. Having a clear understanding of who your ideal client is will help you to succeed with Facebook ads. The reason for this is that one of the most intriguing aspects of Facebook Ads Manager is the ability to choose the right audience. This is accomplished using a process called audience mining. A few good examples of this are knowing who your target market follows, what they listen to, where they spend their time online and what apps they use to stay informed. If you know that they like shopping at Lululemons, own a Peleton and spend winters at Breckenridge in Colorado every year. Guess what? You can use Facebook audience targeting to find them. Facebook Page One of the first things you’ll need to have in place if you want to find clients through Facebook ads is a business page or a Facebook page. All you need to do to get one is to sign up and complete your details. You can name the page after yourself or use a business or brand name. It would be best if you also have a branded email address and a website address. If you’ve never created a page before head over to your personal profile and click the 9 dots on the top right-hand side. You’ll see the option to create a page in that menu. Please note that apparently there are different versions of the platform depending on where you are located so yours may look a bit different. After creating your page, complete the About section as much as possible. If you are like me and you have a business that’s 100% online then there’s no need to include a physical address, phone number or opening hours. Meta Business Suite After creating your business page you’ll be given access to Meta Business Suite. It is like the control centre for all your business needs on Facebook. You’ll be able to upload images and videos to your library so that you can plan, schedule and publish content. You can link your Facebook page to your Instagram account. After getting a minimum of 100 likes on your business page, you’ll get access to insights (formerly known as audience insights). The scaled-down version of this control centre is called Facebook business manager. If you want to understand the differences between the two platforms you can check out this resource here. In my experience, you are better off using Meta Business Suite because it has everything you need. Facebook Pixel Many years ago when I was a new kid on the block learning about Facebook ads. I never realised how important it was to help Facebook with audience targeting. If there is one thing you need to do months or years in advance of running ads is to install your Facebook pixel. You can use it to track your website visitors. Here’s why… The technology that Facebook uses to find leads and buyers for your products and services is extremely good. Let me show you what I mean in real terms. A few months ago I started running ads on Facebook to a specific audience. In that space of time, my ad has been seen by close to 17,000 people and I got over 500 leads from that Adset. Now imagine if someone gave you a list of 17,000 people and asked you to use it to generate leads for your business. Will you be excited? Lol!!🤣 Installing your Facebook pixel is not the easiest thing in the world and the process keeps changing. Rather than going through those steps here please head over to YouTube to get the most up-to-date methods. How to Find the Right Audience As I mentioned previously, one of the most important skills that you can develop from running Facebook Ads is the ability to do audience mining. It’s very similar to panning for gold but without damaging your knees, messing about with metal detectors or covering a lot of territory. In fact, all you need is a great understanding of the habits of your audience and access to the section or tab of your Business Suite called audiences. It is advisable to develop or create a saved audience before creating a campaign. To do this head over to “All tools” and scroll down until you can find “Audiences”. When you click through you see the ability to create audiences in there. When you click on ‘create audience’ you’ll see the option to create a saved audience, a custom audience and even a lookalike audience. Audience Mining Let’s spend a little bit of time looking at audience mining because it is where many people get it wrong. The most effective campaigns are the ones where the person running the campaign has invested time and effort in audience mining. For the purposes of this resource, we’ll choose the option to create a saved audience so that when a campaign is created we can just choose this audience. After choosing a saved audience you should get a pop-up window that looks like this one. Give your audience a name, choose their location, age range, gender and language. Next is the best section of all called “Detailed Targeting”. Earlier on I mentioned a specific audience. People who owned or had an interest in Peletons, wear Lululemons and spent winter every year at the Breckenridge ski resort. Guess what?? When I selected all three my audience size was 62 million which is too big. So I opted to narrow my audience further and choose those who had an Instagram business profile admin. My audience size went down to 2 million which is manageable. Facebook Ads Funnel Another well-known secret is to step your potential customers through a Facebook ads funnel. When you look at the buyer journey there are several stages to include the following. Brand awareness Consideration Decision Retention So, you can develop a set of Facebook ad campaigns that take people from becoming aware of your brand to signing up for a lead magnet, joining a masterclass or workshop, and purchasing your offer. Finally, they purchase again and become a raving customer. Here’s a big hint for you, people who are loyal to their brand include regular buyers of the following brands. Starbucks Apple Lululemons Pelotons Wholefoods You might want to create a sticky brand like these so that you can build a loyal following too. Facebook Ads – Phase 1 So, the first step in that journey is to write down your business goals and to get people to know that your brand exists. This can be achieved by creating all or one of the following. Page likes campaign (for new followers) Video views Engagement You’ll notice that in each of these campaign types, a very low commitment call to action is required. They can like, watch and react to a piece of content by liking it or even sharing it. You can create ads using single images or videos by adding the images at the campaign level or using an existing post that’s published on your page. In the know, like and trust factor phenomenon, potential clients are getting to know your brand. Engagement campaigns are an excellent way to build social proof. Facebook Ads – Phase 2 Now that they have seen you once or twice it’s time to test that brand recall with lead-generation activities. People are now required to give you their contact information in exchange for something valuable. This can be achieved with the following campaign types. Instant forms (on Facebook leads) Conversions (leads via a landing page) Messenger (asking people to send you a message) Using any of these methods will require you to test your pieces of content to see which one will give you the qualified leads. My a

Melia felt tired and frustrated from working 50-hour weeks, something needed to change fast. She would do anything to start her own business but didn’t know how to attract clients. Melia knew that if she didn’t figure this out in the next 6 weeks, she would need to quit her job of 14 years. Yes, there’s a lot of information available on YouTube and blogs across the Internet. However, what would be nice is if she could find a resource that would lead her through the client attraction process successfully, step by step. Let me know if you struggle with any of these. You know that client acquisition is very important for your small business No clients means no cashflow, revenue or income It would be best if you generated a lot of income to become profitable Getting your business to 5-figure months consistently is the ultimate dream If only there was a way to get this process automated or at least have multiple streams of consistent high-quality leads. In this resource, you’ll discover how implementing a few simple systems can generate leads that’ll help you generate the income and profits needed to go laughing all the way to the bank. 5 Things You’re Probably Doing Wrong Before looking at those 5 incredible ways to attract clients let’s spend some time looking at the things that don’t work. At least when you know what not to do you’ll understand the reason why you’re not generating leads for your business. You’ll also have a better idea of how easy it is to settle for these default or vanilla options in your business. 1. Talking to Everyone Several years ago when I was brand new to business I didn’t understand the concept of target marketing. When asked by my business advisor who is my target market, I responded with, “Anyone who needs my services”. There’s a common phrase in marketing which says, when you talk to everyone, you’re talking to no one and this is so true. 2. Not Digging Deep Enough Another common mistake is when you are addressing a specific target audience you are not digging deep enough. What I mean by this is that you are solving a core problem for your potential customers and this core problem has symptoms. For example, when someone is constantly late for all their appointments, what is the real problem? Please don’t say that they need a watch. Lol!! 3. Wrong Platform You might not be someone who has difficulty with talking to everyone or digging deep but what about the platform you are using to promote your business? Are you using the right platform where your ideal client is hanging out? Business is so weird, sometimes I find certain types of audiences hanging out in the strangest places. 4. Suffering From Analysis Paralysis This may not be you but there are some people who spend a lot of time analysing everything before taking action. They’ll choose 2-3 platforms and go on each one to spend time observing conversations and results others get. However, spending 6-24 months lurking and observing will definitely not bring you leads. 5. Stuck in the Content Creation Phase This is probably the most popular challenge that many new business owners, entrepreneurs and freelancers face. If you are stuck trying to make your content perfect before publishing it then I have some news for you. Nobody is perfect and your client cares more about solving their problem compared to any errors you made. Who Are Your Potential Customers? I know I mentioned this briefly previously but let’s take a look at this in a little bit more detail. Understanding who your potential new customers are will not only help you to better customise your research process. It will also help you to coin a message that speaks to them at a deeper level. You’ll have much better results if you spend time listing out the things that irritate them or even keep them awake at night. In the previous example, I mentioned the fact that someone was late for all their appointments. Let’s look at several reasons why this might be the case. They are tired all the time Maybe they have trouble sleeping Potentially, they may need an eye test They are unhappy about their current situation in life It’s possible that they may be experiencing a mid-life crisis Figuring out the real reason why your potential clients are tired, sleepy, sad, worried, stressed, frustrated, bored or apprehensive would help you to speak to their needs better. Develop a Marketing Strategy It’s important to look at the promotion of your business from a 10,000-foot view because it helps you discover how to attract clients. There was a time when the phrase marketing strategy made me break into hives. However, it simply means taking a step back and looking at your business holistically with the end result being that you are meeting that big objective using a marketing plan. The most effective way to achieve this is by looking at the journey of your ideal clients and reading their thoughts at each step. Here’s an example map of your potential client’s journey. Notice how their search or questions change the closer they get to making a decision to buy a solution. Your digital marketing strategy will look at each stage of the journey and decide what is needed to get to the end goal. This could include collateral, budget, audience size and conversion rates. Most people would work backwards through the journey. If you need 20 sales a month, how many leads would you need to generate at the start of the journey? How to Attract Clients in 5 Sensible Ways Now that you have a good idea of what not to do, who your potential clients are and how to develop a digital marketing strategy let’s look at how to attract them. By the end of this section, you will have 1-3 client acquisition techniques that you can implement in your business in a single weekend. Remember that there’s no need to overthink it. 1. Short Videos You may have noticed that at the top of the client journey diagram, I suggested images, GIFs and short videos for brand awareness. At the time of creating this resource, Reels on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram are taking the world by storm and it’s also a great way to attract clients into your business. Would you like to know what kind of short videos to create to attract your audience? Let me introduce you to two different tools. Social Blade The first is called Social Blade. Before you can use it you’ll need to find 3-5 accounts on Instagram and TikTok that your ideal customers follow. Grab their usernames and research them using Social Blade. If their account is growing exponentially fast then they are doing something right. You’ll see in the screenshot below the fast growth of Tailor Swift’s account without adding much content. So, look at the videos that have many more views than normal. PipiAds The second tool is called PipiAds. It allows you to see which ads are performing the best by country and category. You can browse their platform for free or upgrade to a paid plan to filter your search results. It means that you get to see what’s working right now for short-form video content. 2. Blogging A very organic way to attract potential customers to your business is by starting and growing a blog. This method is also known as content marketing. The reason why this is great for client acquisition is because your ideal clients find you when they are searching for a solution via search engines. Of course, there is a right way to develop a blog using search engine optimisation. One of the best tools on the market to accomplish this is called RankIQ. Personally, I have been using it for over 2 years and it takes the heavy lifting out of keyword research by providing the relevant keywords you need. The trick is that you need to consistently publish 8 blog posts a month as a new blogger for 12 months. If you are an existing blogger then you’ll need to publish 8 pieces of content and rewrite 8 old ones. While it is not easy to develop a blog it is so worth it because the results are exponential. 3. Testimonials and Case Studies To help attract your new clients to your business showcasing a case study and a number of testimonials can rapidly build the know, like and trust stages. Your ideal client will see people just like them in a before-and-after scenario that’s associated with your product or service. They will think to themselves, if this person can have this level of success chances are that I can have a similar experience. You can share these assets about your satisfied customers on your social media platforms as well as with your email list. Testimonials in the form of video content tend to increase conversions faster. 4. A Masterclass or a 5-Day Challenge Giving clients a taste of your teaching style before they buy or at a relatively low cost is a great way to help them decide if you are the one to solve their problem. This can be accomplished using a masterclass, workshop or a 5-day challenge and offering them a free gift for attending. At this stage on their journey, they have a shortlist of solutions that they believe are suitable for them. However, choosing the right one is difficult simply because they are not clear on the transformation that you offer. Inviting them to join community events where they get a taste of what it’s like working with you really helps with clarity. Also, giving them special offers if they buy within a certain time period will help you to seal the deal. Either way, you’ll have their contact information which will help you to nurture them using email marketing campaigns. 5. Customer Retention One of the least practised client attraction activities is customer retention. It is really important to keep your current customers happy and to encourage them to refer your services to their friends as well as their peers or other people in their network. Using community areas li

Are you wondering how to get clients from Facebook groups without feeling icky? You’ve come to the right place because I’ve made at least $10,000 using this method. In fact, let me tell you the story of Ethney… Like many people getting started in business Ethney had big plans of how well her business would do during its first year. Ethney was a planner so she wanted to prepare everything before finding her first client. She developed a solid business plan, put all her software and systems in place, and got her branding and website ready. She also hired an accountant and even consulted with a lawyer for her contracts. So, when you look at her business from the outside it was perfect. However, there was only one problem… Ethney didn’t have a single client. It means that she really needed to get clients fast otherwise she’d end up with one expensive hobby. So, what can she do to resolve this problem? In this resource, you’ll learn 5 ways to find clients using Facebook groups as well as what you need to do to be ready to get paid. 5 Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Clients in Facebook Groups Before diving into how to quickly and easily find clients using Facebook groups, let’s first at 5 ways that don’t work. A little background about me… I started my digital business just before 2020 when we had that major global event. My first client as well as my first $5,000 online came from me finding a client using a Facebook group. I’m telling you this so you’ll realise that I’m not just talking about theory but something that worked for me in real life. So, here are 5 ways to repel potential clients inside Facebook groups. 1. Ignoring a Potential Client’s Request to Not Send a DM I see this quite often inside Facebook groups where a potential client would say something like “no DMs”. Quite a number of freelancers or VAs would ignore this and send a direct message anyway. I remember there was a time when I advertised a role for one of my clients and I asked potential freelancers to send me a DM. It was so overwhelming that I swore never to do it again. 2. Not Paying Close Attention to Their Requirements One of the most annoying things anyone can do when offering a service is not ‘listening’ to your potential client’s needs. When a prospective customer publishes a post inside a Facebook group giving an overview of their needs and pain points. In many instances, they are looking for a specific solution or result. For example, the person may say, “I’m not looking for a program or training but a done-for-you service”. A freelancer may write in the comments, “___________has a really amazing program that would be a great fit for your needs”. What does the client want? These potential customers are normally cash-rich and time-poor so they have no interest in yet another training program. 3. Using Vanilla Responses When Commenting When trying to get the attention of new clients one of the best ways to get lost in the crowd is to reply like everyone else. Responses like “I sent you a DM”, “here’s a link to my portfolio” and “Applied”. Yes, I hear complaints all the time from freelancers who say that they don’t bother applying for a role that has dozens of comments on it. The question though is, what are you doing to stand out in that crowd? 4. Doing a Copy and Paste Attempt Another reason why you’re not getting clients using Facebook groups is when you take a slapdash approach. In other words, you prefer to hurriedly apply or reach out to 100 potential clients every week. Instead of spending quality time reaching out to only 25 using a unique approach for each one. Remember that quality beats quantity every single time. 5. Looking for Work Posts This may sound strange… You are looking for clients and publishing a post inside a Facebook group saying that you are looking for clients doesn’t really work. The reason for this is that it screams desperation and potential clients will take advantage of this weakness. There is a clever way to do this which I’ll mention later in this resource. Your Ideal Clients Okay, to begin this journey, having a very clear picture of your ideal client would help you to succeed at finding clients in Facebook groups. If you don’t know who your ideal target audience is then you won’t have a deep understanding of how you can help them. Let’s look at a specific example of a social media manager. As you probably know when a client is looking for a social media manager the person they are likely to hire is someone who understands their clients. Here’s why… Your ideal client dislikes the hiring and onboarding process, so the person who can hit the ground running is the person who’ll get the job. Take some time to figure out what you enjoy doing the most in the services that you provide. Also, figure out which clients you absolutely enjoy working with to provide that service. Knowing who your ideal client is, where they hang out, where they go when they have specific questions and where they are in that painful journey will enable you to speak to their need better. Joining Relevant Groups When you know who your ideal client is and where they go to ask questions then it’s time to join those groups. Did you know that as of August 2022, there are over 10 million groups on Facebook? That’s a lot of Facebook groups! Also, the maximum number of groups that you are allowed to join is 6,000. It means that there is so much opportunity out there when it comes to finding clients in large Facebook groups. Are you still wondering which groups to join to find your clients? Let me ask you a question… What software or platforms are your clients using daily in their business? When they have a problem or question with that platform where do they go for help? Let me give you a practical example, I enjoy helping clients with Kajabi and ActiveCampaign. So, I’ve joined groups in that area of specialisation so that I can meet potential clients. For example, Kajabi has an official support group on Facebook. Therefore, you should do the same, even if all your clients are interested in are bullet journals or pretty stationery. Depending on your offer remember that you can also join local groups to find clients. Start Your Own Facebook Group Did you just say that you cannot find a group on Facebook where your clients are asking questions? If you said yes, then I would encourage you to create your own FB group to develop a sense of community. Now, I have to tell you that growing your own Facebook group is hard work and it does require some level of strategy to pull it off. Using Facebook lead ads or Facebook ads with the lead objective is an effective way to grow your Facebook group. The good thing about having your own Facebook group is that you decide who gets in or not. Your Facebook group members will get access to you and learn the best practices for their business. You get to post whatever you want (well almost because Facebook is now deleting posts everywhere like crazy). You’ll have a group of business owners at different stages of their growth journey and it means that your pipeline of prospects will always be full. As a service provider, you can publish valuable content and even use live video to warm up the members of the group so that they can become ideal customers. Another advantage is that you’ll get to assign group admins and assess your client’s needs by looking at the popular posts inside the group. Create a Facebook Business Page In order to build that know, like and trust factor online it’s important to have a presence about who you are and what you do. It not only builds brand awareness but tells people in your industry that you are serious. A great way to achieve this is by having a Facebook page. It demonstrates that you are serious about doing business online. If you are worried about having a page without any likes or only your friends and family like the page. Remember that you can always run a page likes campaign so that you can get to your first 100 – 200 page likes. It’s important to complete it as much as possible so that you can let Facebook know that you are serious. There’s no need for you to add an address or phone number and you can always link to another social media platform if you don’t have a website just yet. How to Get Clients from Facebook Groups Now that you have an overall idea of how to know your ideal clients, why join relevant groups or even create your own Facebook group as well as what you shouldn’t do. Let’s look at 5 ways to find clients using the strength of Facebook groups. Remember that you don’t have to use all of these methods. In fact, just using one of them will get you the results that you need. 1. Answering Questions This one may or may not come as a surprise to you but answering questions in a clever way always sets you up as an expert. The answers you give must provide value without expecting anything in return. In fact, when you answer the question it would be like writing a summary of a blog post for the question that has been asked. Of course, there are some questions that would take a bit of screen sharing to illustrate the solution so try bullet points instead. So, do as much as you can within reason. At the end of your answer or at the start you can say something like this. “Several of my clients had a similar challenge and the way I solved it was….” Or, “some of the members of my group had a similar challenge and we got it sorted within 24 hours by doing…” 2. Asking Open-Ended Questions Sometimes a potential client may come into a group and say something like, “I’m trying to make a decision between X and Y, what’s your preferred option”. Most service providers will jump in the comments and say, “X” or “Y” but you need to be the

Martha was desperate she started her business and she wanted to know how to get clients on LinkedIn. The challenge is that Martha was unexpectedly made redundant at her 6-figure job due to her company outsourcing to low-cost locations. Rather than adopting a wait-and-see attitude, Martha wanted to develop an alternative income source as soon as possible. Her 15 years working in business operations leave her with no choice but to promote her business and close sales, even if this is 100% new to her. Do any of these sound relatable to you? You’ve always used LinkedIn as an online resume Your current connections are not your ideal clients The thought of promoting your business to your connections makes you feel icky You have no idea how to use LinkedIn to find clients If only there was a simple guide to give you step-by-step instructions. In this resource, you’ll discover 5 secrets to getting your first client on LinkedIn in the next 30 days. Why LinkedIn is the Best Platform to Find Buyers Have you ever wondered why LinkedIn is one of the best places to find clients or for lead generation of any kind? Well, let me help you with this aha moment. When it comes to social media platforms, LinkedIn is the only one that your potential clients volunteer to divulge their buying power. As a professional network, people are forced to complete details about their profession and qualifications. The only other platforms that come close are X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Titles like VP, Manager, Director, President, CEO, Founder and COO scream to others that I influence buying decisions at this company. A person’s LinkedIn profile also reveals information about education, interests, past experience and stability. The only difficulty you’ll encounter is actually sending a ‘cold outreach’ connection request or sending an InMail. If you feel so inclined you can upgrade to the Sales Navigator subscription on this social media platform. Your Target Audience One of the first things that you’ll need to do before reaching out to prospective clients is to figure out or get clear on your target audience. Do you know who that person is and where they hang out online? What about their problems or the pain points you are trying to solve? Ever wondered about where they are in their journey right now and what questions keep popping up in their heads each day, week and month? What keeps them awake at night? Having a really good understanding of your target audience is one of the keys to successfully finding and/or attracting your potential clients on LinkedIn. In case you are wondering why, I’ll explain in greater detail in the next section. Let’s look at the best practices for your LinkedIn profile. You do need a LinkedIn account for this to work. Your LinkedIn Profile Did you know that your LinkedIn profile acts as a sales page for your potential clients? I know you’re skeptical about that statement but hear me out. When you reach out to someone on LinkedIn, especially if they don’t know you the first thing they do is head over to your profile to ‘check you out’. If your profile has a professional headshot, is optimised and speaks to your target audience then there’s a high chance that they’ll convert to a paying customer. The top section of your profile serves as a headline, sub-headline and summary of what you do and who you help. Below that you have a featured section which is a great place to add links to items such as lead magnets, testimonials and your lowest price offer. The next section is your latest activities, posts, articles and stuff you commented on across LinkedIn. Right below that is an about section, use this space to speak directly to your potential clients including the results you can give them. This is followed by your experiences showing your potential clients why you’re qualified to help them. On the topic of optimisation be sure to add relevant keywords on your own profile that your clients are searching for on LinkedIn. Also, check out this resource I made a few years ago. Do you see why your LinkedIn profile is like a sales page? LinkedIn Company Page Depending on where you are in your business growth or journey, you’ll be interested in setting up a LinkedIn page for your business. A key benefit of doing this is that it gives you the ability to see more granular analytics on who is engaging with your content. It helps you to grow a business brand too. If you plan to run ad campaigns on LinkedIn at some point then you’ll only be able to do this from your LinkedIn page. Paid campaigns are not available for personal profiles. You also have the ability to boost employee posts as thought leaders from a business page campaign. Having a LinkedIn page is not a requirement for you to effectively generate leads on LinkedIn. Advanced Search Feature This is super important if you want to find potential clients on LinkedIn. Using LinkedIn’s advanced search functionality will really help you identify and pinpoint your potential clients in a crowd. For example, if I want to find anyone who is a founder and also a business coach. To get the best search results possible click on the filters on the far right. You’ll notice that you have the ability to search by connections, followers of, location, current company, past company, industry, profile language and title. Plus, if that wasn’t giving you the results you need you can also add boolean search to your query. For example, “(founder + business coach) OR (owner + business coach)”. Including the parentheses will help strengthen the results of your search. 5 Ways to Get Clients on LinkedIn Fast Now that you have a better understanding as to what’s available on the LinkedIn platform let’s see how you can use it to get clients. Remember that you don’t have to use all these 5 ways to get clients. I’m not asking you to suffer from overwhelm. Just take note of each one to see which one resonates with you and the way you work. It’s important that your profile is ready for traffic before attempting any of these options. 1. Commenting on Viral Content – Where Your Potential Client Hangs Out One of the best ways to get in front of your potential clients is by commenting on the feeds where they can see you. Before you head off to comment on everything that’s going viral, first curate your feed so that you can see content that’s relevant. When you go to LinkedIn type in the hashtag(s) that your ideal client would follow. For example, here is a search I did looking for the hashtag business coach. As you can see straight away the very first post is a viral post. I can simply read the post, watch the video and leave an intelligent relatable comment. It’s important that you’re not obnoxious but you can be kind and entertaining. When you make people laugh you become more memorable and they head over to your profile to ‘check you out’. 2. Creating Delicious or Valuable Content Okay, I have to admit that this one takes more creativity and genius to stand out from the crowd. Publishing original content means that you are in the spotlight. I also need to remind you that it’s difficult to get engagement on average LinkedIn posts. However, one cool hack I have learned from publishing content on Facebook is to create a series on an interesting topic and make sure that it’s entertaining. You can also just create something edgy as Shay Rowbottom does on her feed. See the screenshot below. The video itself is less than 2 minutes long and it got over 2,000 comments, close to 18,000 likes and over 1,300 reposts. With high-quality content like this, you’ll be sure to have new leads in your Inbox daily. Be sure to create relevant content if you want to attract your dream clients. 3. Join LinkedIn Groups A less effective method of getting clients on LinkedIn is joining groups on the platform. While this strategy is not as effective as commenting on viral content or even creating cool content it still works and here’s why. When you join relevant groups on LinkedIn you increase your exposure and network. The way it expands your network is a bit strange but hear me out. Before joining a group you have the ability to message people in your 1st and 2nd level without paying for LinkedIn Sales Navigator. However, after joining a group you’ll instantly get the ability to directly message other people in your group because you are now connected to them. 4. Sending Messages (warmish outreach) You might have heard this statement before but it is often said that the fastest path to cash is having conversations. In other words, sending a message to a potential client to see if they may be interested in your offers is another way to pick up clients. Of course, remember that nobody enjoys being sold to but they do enjoy buying the stuff that they need. Here’s what you need to pull this off really effectively. You need a strategic outreach plan to help them. After all, there’s a good chance you’ll generate warm leads from this activity alone. So, you may visit their profile and notice that you can give them a few quick tips and tricks on how they can improve areas of their business. For example, Hello (prospect), we’re part of the ___________(name of group) and I have a quick question for you. I noticed that you’re a __________ helping ________. Would it help you if I were to share a free resource on how to get__________(the result that you offer)? If they say yes then share it and ask them if there is anything else that they need help with in their life or business. 5. Sending InMail Messages (cold outreach) Nobody likes sending cold outreach emails and nobody enjoys receiving them except in rare cases when it solves an urgent problem for them. LinkedIn has a feature or powerful tool called Sales Navigator that gives you

Rebekah lost her job last week so, she decided she wanted her own online business but she had one problem. She didn’t know how to get clients online. Her background and experience spanned 20 years working for Fortune 500 companies in her capacity as Human Resources Director. So, the idea of doing any kind of sales and marketing for a business was foreign to her altogether. However, she knew that for her business to make money she needed to figure out how to get clients fast. Let me know if you find these relatable at all. You’ve always wanted to start your own business but wondered how to make it work The whole 9 to 5 job scene is no longer appealing The fear of failure at a business venture is keeping you stuck in that cubicle Getting that first client would really boost your confidence by 1,000% If only you knew how to navigate the digital marketing world effectively to find paying clients. In this post, you’ll learn practical ways to get clients online that would say yes to you even though you don’t have experience as an entrepreneur. How to Build Trust and Authority Before diving into the process of finding clients for your new business let’s talk about building trust. Believe it or not, the number one reason why potential clients may not say yes to you is because they don’t trust you. You’re probably thinking, well Alvern, I don’t trust me either so why should my potential clients? The truth is the only difference between you and the person who has been in business for 3-10 years is that they are more confident than you. Yes, confidence is the thing that separates those who book clients and those who don’t. So, how do you get clients to trust you? Did you know that potential clients will “check you out” before deciding to have an initial chat? Since this is the case it is important for you to give them something to chew on by creating 2-3 social media profiles. This helps you to establish an online presence. Here’s what you can do, choose a business name and then… Create an Instagram profile for your business Publish a Facebook business page Create a simple one-page website (use a Canva template) Right now it may all seem quiet because you don’t have any content published yet but hang tight because we’ll look at that next. What Content to Publish on Social Media? When you’re just starting in business it’s really difficult to figure out everything on your own. One of those things includes knowing what to post on social media also known as content marketing. The number one tip I’m going to give you next is going to change your life forever (well almost) and here’s why. Most solopreneurs complain that social media feels like a constant content hamster wheel where you have to post fresh content daily. However, I can tell you that 3 times a week is fine. The secret to coming up with 365 days of content ideas is this… Write down the top 12 topics in your niche. If you get stuck remember that you can always use ChatGPT to help you complete the list. Now that you have the list head over to Answer the Public, type each topic and take note of the top 30 questions for each one. At the time of creating this resource, you could create a free account and get 3 free searches a day. There’s also the option to get a lifetime account for only $79. What to Do With Those Questions from Answer the Public? Now that you have the questions be sure to grab the one with the highest searches. You can choose to do all the questions focused on a specific topic in one month or place them in a spreadsheet and shuffle them. For each question create content suitable for each social media type. Here’s an example of what I mean. One of the questions on the topic of lead generation was, how to generate leads with Facebook Ads. I can map out the content like this… A carousel on Instagram Also, a Reel outlining the same question Repurpose that Reel on TikTok as well as my personal profile A simple post on my Facebook business page Create a blog post and podcast episode Repurpose the carousel and caption as a post on LinkedIn As you can see, one question can lead to several pieces of content by type. Your Ideal Client If you’re one of my existing blog readers or podcast listeners you should know by now the importance of focusing on your ideal client. Are you unsure as to who your ideal customer or target audience is? If yes, figure out who is the person you would like to serve, I struggled with this for a few years too. It was only after working with a few clients that I got to know who my people are in real life. Recently I discovered that you can reverse engineer the process of finding your ideal clients using artificial intelligence. Once you have an idea about what you want to offer you can find your ideal client avatar as follows. Head over to ChatGPT and create an account if you don’t already have one. Tell ChatGPT your profession or area of specialisation and ask it to give you a list of services you can offer (I did this pretending to be Rebekah and I got a list of 17 services) Next, pick one of the services listed and ask ChatGPT to outline a program for that specific service (I chose HR Strategy + Planning and asked ChatGPT for a program outline) The next step is to ask ChatGPT who it thinks the ideal client is for the program (I did it again for Rebekah and got a list of company types by business stage) Finally, ask ChatGPT to create a specific client avatar for the program ( I did this for Rebekah and got back the screenshot below) As you can see creating a client avatar is now easier to create thanks to artificial intelligence. Your Client Sales Funnel Just before I go into a lot of details about how to find clients it’s important that you have a system in place for client acquisition. The reason for this is that every potential client is at different stages of their decision-making process so you’ll need to nurture them along the way. Here’s an example of what the different stages of your client’s journey will look like. One other important thing to note is that it is a lot easier to convert leads into sales if your prospective clients are problem-aware. If you need help understanding what I mean then take a look at this diagram below. When someone is problem aware you don’t need to spend a lot of time educating them about their problem before you can introduce your solution. Now that you know who your target market is and what content you need to provide at each stage of their journey let’s look at how to find them. How to Find Clients Online You probably already know this but there are so many ways to find clients online because it all depends on your niche and your potential clients. The first step, ask yourself, where do your clients hang out? What resources do they use to find solutions? Knowing this will help you save a lot of time and money. Write a shortlist of the top 5 places where you believe your client is hanging out. Let’s look at a list of ways to find clients online. 41 Ways to Get Clients Online Whether you are doing freelance work or a virtual assistant or you just started a side hustle looking for client work or freelance clients. You are going to find these techniques valuable to your situation. No matter what business model you have or maybe you have an established small business and you considering pivoting into offering something for service providers there’ll be something here for you too. If you enjoy cold pitching by writing cold emails or messages, I’ll talk about a powerful tool that you can use. 1. Instagram Content Suppose your business is focused on offering services related to Instagram like social media management, social media strategy, Reels creation and editing, etc. on a number of social media platforms. The best platform for you to publish content regularly is Instagram. Even if you don’t offer any offers, products and services related to Instagram you can still get clients on this platform by focusing on Reels and carousel posts. Your content should offer scroll-stopping value so that you can attract engagement and get visits to your profile as well as link clicks. If all else fails you can also use Gary Vee’s $1.80 rule and use the One Dollar Eighty service to implement it. 2. TikTok Videos Oh my, a few years ago when TitTok was new on the scene everyone thought that it was a platform only for young people. Now here we are and it is considered mainstream because of the fact that you don’t have to dance to get your point across. So, how do you win on TikTok? Find 3-5 accounts that resonate with your audience and take note of their handles. Take a look at their last 10-20 videos and what you’re looking for are those videos that receive a higher amount of engagement than usual. Look at the type of caption as well as the number of hashtags used and make your own version. 3. Facebook Profile Until recently I always believed that I couldn’t use my Facebook personal profile to build awareness of my business. One day, I published a Reel that got over 2,000 views which really surprised me. Since then I switched to the professional or creator mode and I’ve been getting great engagement on my content. Of course, there are a ton of other things you’ll need to do which you’ll be able to find in this training here. By the way, this is very different from a Facebook page or business page. 4. Eventbrite I’ll be honest, I never saw Eventbrite as a place to find clients until I saw a 60-minute training on how effective this can be. It does require you to host a recurring training at a basic level over a period of 6 weeks. A good example of this would be “Introduction to Social Media Management”. As you do this over time you’ll build up a following on Eventbrite. After hosting the training you can have a

It was 2020 and Julie got very confused about the Facebook Business Suite vs. Facebook Business Manager platforms. While she was quite familiar with the platform this new addition to the Facebook family left her quite baffled. As if the health restrictions weren’t bad enough Julie thought that this change was adding injury to insult. As a business owner if you are looking to streamline social media management on Facebook then you’re probably familiar with the Facebook Business Page and the various tools available.  For growth, any Facebook advertiser or content creator must identify the right tool.  I’ve been playing this game for over a decade and have seen so many people struggling to figure out which tool is right for them. It’s like trying to choose between pizza toppings – so many options, so little time. If you’re feeling lost in the jungle of Facebook tools, fear not! In this resource, you’ll discover how to conquer the social media world and Facebook, its undisputed king and you’ll be able to pick the perfect tool for your needs. It’s like a battle royale between two heavyweight boxers, Facebook Business Suite vs. Business Manager. And just for kicks, I’ll throw in Creator Studio as a wildcard contender. Don’t worry, you’ll come out on top. Facebook Business Suite – Info Guide Facebook Business Suite (now Meta Business Suite), is like assembling the ultimate team members of social media superheroes to help small business owners conquer the world of social media management.  Launched in 2020, Facebook Business Suite is the ultimate sidekick that integrates the Facebook Pages Manager app and the Instagram app, creating a powerful force for businesses to manage their accounts on the go. It’s like Gamora and her sister Nebula teaming up to conquer the galaxy but for social media. Facebook Business Suite was designed to replace Facebook Business Manager. Let’s face it, FB Business Manager can be as complicated as trying to solve a Rubik’s cube blindfolded, especially for small businesses with limited resources. Facebook Business Suite, on the other hand, is user-friendly and accessible for businesses of all sizes. The new interface with powerful features is as easy to use as playing a game of Monopoly with your family. You can access Facebook Business Suite on both desktops and via mobile app, giving businesses the flexibility to manage their accounts from anywhere. And you can schedule posts and stories on both Facebook and Instagram in advance. This game-changer feature allows businesses to plan and organize their social media content like a pro. Facebook Business Suite also offers a range of additional tools that can help businesses improve their social media strategy. These include ad management tools, audience targeting options, and insights into the performance of their content. With these great tools, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their audience, create more engaging content and ultimately drive more traffic and sales to their website. It’s like having a secret weapon in your back pocket. Facebook Business Manager – Info Guide Compared to the sleek and user-friendly Facebook Business Suite and Creator Studio, Business Manager feels like a clunky relic from a bygone era. It’s not as powerful as its newer counterparts, and let’s be real, it’s just for managing page settings and assets.  And don’t even get me started on the way Business Manager handles ads. It is like trying to swim upstream in a river full of obstacles. It’s an outdated way of managing ads that can leave even the most experienced marketers scratching their heads. It’s mainly intended for managing page settings and assets, like who has access to your page and what permissions they have. If you’re looking for a simple way to manage your page and assets, Facebook Business Manager might be a good fit. For a few businesses, it would be the best tool if they wanted to have a separate Facebook business account and Instagram business account rather than having everything combined in one platform. But if you’re looking to take your social media game to the next level, it might be worth checking out some of the newer and more powerful tools available. Facebook Creator Studio – Info Guide Facebook Creator Studio is a hub for all your content creation needs. It’s like having a video assistant that helps you launch, test, and analyze your videos across Facebook and Instagram pages. Plus, it’s loaded with royalty-free tracks and sound effects to make your videos pop! If you’re all about monetization, Creator Studio has tools that help you earn money from your videos. With ad breaks, you can earn money by showing short ads during your videos. And if you’re all about those Instant Articles, Creator Studio can help you monetize those too. As per the latest update, the tools from Creator Studio are packing their bags and heading over to the new and improved Meta Business Suite. But don’t worry, you’ll still have access to all the amazing new features that allow you to create, manage, and monetize your content, now all in one convenient location. You should also get ready to say goodbye to the Instant Articles feature after mid-2023. Facebook Business Suite vs. Business Manager The classic battle of Facebook Business Suite vs. Business Manager is like a fight between a fancy, high-tech robot and a clunky old car. Business Suite is all like, “Look at me, I can schedule posts and manage multiple platforms!” while the Business Manager is like, “Eh, I’m just here to manage your page settings and ads.” It’s like the difference between a smooth, easy ride and a bumpy, pothole-filled road. But hey, at least they both are great online business assets and get you where you need to go. Why Facebook Business Suite Is Better Than Business Manager Let me tell you why you should embrace the improved and new Facebook Business Suite with open arms. Facebook Business Suite is the superhero of social media management, leaving Facebook Business Manager in the dust. Its user-friendly interface and detailed Insights dashboard give you the tools to target your audience effectively and make your business shine. And just like the Wasp suit, Facebook Business Suite is designed to help you navigate the digital landscape with ease. It is like having a personal spy on your social media activity, providing you with all the juicy information you need to target your audience effectively. The new unified inbox collects all your social media messages across all meta platforms in one place. The content calendar view is like having a personal assistant who never complains about being overworked, allowing you to schedule your Facebook and Instagram posts with ease. And let’s not forget about better ad management, Facebook Business Suite’s main interface is like having a superpower that allows you to create and manage the most epic ads that will make your competition weep in envy. So if you’re serious about Facebook marketing and growing your business name, you should upgrade to Facebook Business Suite. Why You Should Switch To Facebook Business Suite As a small business owner, managing your social media presence can be as stressful as watching a horror movie in the dark. With Facebook Business Suite’s new layout and home screen, managing your social media platforms has never been easier. Facebook Business Suite also features a detailed Insights dashboard that will help you understand your potential customers. Plus, its unified inbox will make sure you never miss a message from your customers. And if that’s not enough to convince you, how about the fact that Facebook Business Suite works like robot scheduling posts in advance? No more getting up at 3 a.m. to post memes. Let’s not forget about the better Facebook ads manager, which is more powerful than a superhero on steroids. Most importantly, if you want to add a Facebook admin to your account to manage your ads then you’ll need Facebook Business Suite. How To Switch Back To Business Manager From Facebook Business Suite While Facebook Business Suite provides several useful features, some businesses may require the Business Manager. Especially if they aim to focus on Facebook pages and ad accounts. If you want to switch back to Business Manager from Facebook Business Suite, you can do so by following these simple steps: Look for the ‘Give Feedback’ option in the menu located on the bottom left-hand side of your sidebar.  Once you have located ‘Give Feedback’, click on it, and you will see the button to switch back to Business Manager. Click on the ‘switch’ button and confirm if you would like to switch. After confirmation, you will be asked to provide feedback. Click on the ‘your feedback’ option and write a summary of your reason for switching. Finally, press ‘done’, and the screen will refresh, giving you access to the Business Manager. Facebook Business Suite vs. Facebook Creator Studio Facebook Business Suite and Facebook Creator Studio are like two siblings with different personalities. Business Suite is the responsible one, while Creator Studio is the free-spirited one. Business Suite is the ultimate multitasker, managing both your Facebook and Instagram accounts seamlessly. Creator Studio, on the other hand, is the perfect playground for content creators to unleash on Facebook. Both tools offer content scheduling, but Business Suite takes it to the next level by allowing you to post stories on Facebook and Instagram. Creator Studio, on the other hand, can only post stories on Facebook, making Instagram feel like a neglected child. If you’re looking to make some money, Creator Studio is the way to go as it offers monetization options for your content. However, if you’re running a business and managi

Aoife broke out in a cold sweat because she wondered how much to spend on Facebook Ads. In the past, she dabbled with Facebook Ads spending $600+ with very little return on that investment. You see, Aoife saw many entrepreneurs and small business owners who publish stellar results from their Facebook Ads campaigns. This has never been her experience but it would be lovely if she could finally crack the code and get significant results for her business. Facebook is one of the most powerful tools that allow businesses to quickly and easily create targeted campaigns to reach their desired customers. With its growing popularity, it is important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. I have come across many marketers feeling nervous about Facebook ads’ costs and budgets. Many get iffy with thoughts of how much to spend on Facebook Ads and what is a good daily Facebook ads budget.  In this comprehensive guide, you will learn how much to spend on your Facebook Ads in order to get the best results. In the end, you will have a better understanding of how to allocate budget and run effective and successful Facebook Ads. How Much To Spend On Facebook Ads – Budgeting Guide For 2023 With the right Facebook Ads strategy, you can reach your target audience and grow your business. But how much should be spent on Facebook Ads? The answer depends on your budget, size, industry, and goals. To work out optimal spending, it’s important to set a budget that is realistic and achievable.  If you’re ready to start advertising on social media, don’t be intimidated by the Facebook cost. You can start small with just $1 per day and start seeing results. This approach works for those who have a limited budget and want to test the waters before diving in. Before you start looking at allocating more money, here’s a step-by-step guide that you can use. Step 1: Determine Your Monthly Facebook Advertising Budget When it comes to determining your monthly Facebook advertising budget, the key is to start small and adjust as you go. There are a number of factors that would lend to good results. For example, a lead generation campaign using the most relevant ads can be achieved at the lowest cost. To be more specific Facebook lead ad cost is surprisingly low per lead compared to other objective types. You’ll want to consider how much you can realistically afford to spend. Another way to look at it is what is your lifetime budget. A good starting point is to allocate 5%-10% of your overall advertising budget to Facebook and Instagram ads. This will give you the flexibility to experiment and learn from the campaigns.  Once you’ve allocated a budget, it’s important to track your results. This will give you an idea of how effective your campaigns are and how much you should be spending. Try using different budget strategies for different campaigns.  For example, you can use a cost-per-click (CPC) pricing model for campaigns that focus on conversion rates, and a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) for campaigns that focus on brand awareness. With the right budget and strategies in place, you can ensure that Facebook Ad campaigns are working for your business. Step 2: Consider The Size Of Your Brand & Average Product Cost When it comes to deciding how much to spend on Facebook Ads, the size of your brand and the average cost of your product are two important factors to consider. Small business owners tend to have a much lower budget than larger brands and hence may not be able to afford the same amount of advertising.  The cost of your product will also play a role in how much you spend on Facebook Ads. If you’re selling a premium product, you may need to invest more money in ads in order to reach the right customers. On the other hand, if your product is more affordable, you may be able to get away with a lower Facebook ad budget. Ultimately, you need to consider the size of your brand and the average cost of your product when deciding how much to spend.  Step 3: Distribute Your Facebook Ad Spend Based On Objectives If you’re looking to maximize your Facebook ad spend, the key is to know how much money to put into each of your objectives. This helps you to better target the right audiences and get the best results for your money. Generally, it is recommended to allocate a budget based on outcomes. For instance, if you want to increase brand awareness, aim for a higher budget for reach and high-frequency ad sets. One example of brand awareness is traffic campaigns which require the implementation of a Facebook pixel. These ad types are normally used by big brands to warm up an account. If you want more conversions, allocate more money to conversions. Additionally, you can create audiences for each objective and analyze how much you should be spending based on their performance. The key is to use the data to make informed decisions and stay flexible.  A good starting point is to allocate 1/3 of your budget towards lookalike audiences, which will help you quickly build an audience. Lookalike audiences are based on existing customers, so you can be sure that you’re connecting with people who are likely interested in your product or service.  With another 1/3 of your budget, you can target interests and behaviours, which will ensure that you’re reaching people who are likely to take action. This could be anything from people who have recently moved house to avid gamers.  Finally, the last 1/3 of your budget should be used for retargeting campaigns, which allow you to reach out to people who have already interacted with your business. This is a great way to drive conversions and maximize ad spend. So there you have it – a strategic way to distribute your Facebook Ad spend. Step 4: You Can Start Small With Just $1 Per Day You can start with a small budget of just $1 per day and go from there. You can experiment with different ads, find out what works for your target audience, and slowly increase your budget as you go. Plus, you don’t have to commit to a long-term contract – you can pay as you go and adjust your budget at any time. However, do bear in mind that conversion campaigns would have a higher cost when compared to lead generation objectives. Step 5: Pass The “Learning Phase” With 50 Conversions Per Week Figuring out how to run effective Facebook ads can be a daunting task. And one of the biggest hurdles is getting past the learning phase, where you’ll likely spend a lot of money with no return. To ensure you get the most out of your Facebook ad campaigns, it’s important to set a tangible goal. A good place to start is aiming for 50 conversions per week. This will give you a baseline number to measure your success and help you get a better grasp of how much to spend. With some trial and error, you’ll be able to identify an easy way to reach 50 conversions per week. After that, scaling up your ad spend to get even more conversions is just a matter of tweaking your ad spend, content and targeting. So don’t be afraid to take the plunge and reach for those 50 conversions per week goal. However, keep an eye on your conversion rate. Also, your landing page and ad creatives can have a significant effect on your total conversions per week. Step 6: You Can Scale To $20/Per Day/Per Ad Set With the right strategy, you can scale your ad spend up to $20 per day per ad set. This means that you could be spending $20 a day on each ad set, with potentially unlimited returns. But don’t jump into this too quickly. You need to have a plan in place to ensure that you’re spending money wisely. To start, you should have a clear understanding of your target audience and the type of ads that will be most effective. Once you have that data, you can create a budget, and experiment with different ad sets and spending levels. You can then adjust your spending levels according to performance.  Step 7: Identify Your Winning Ad Sets & Scale More Identifying your winning ad sets and scaling more is essential to success on the platform. With a successful ad set, you will be able to get more out of your ad budget and maximize ROI. To identify winning ad sets, you should start by testing with different creatives and targeting options. Once you have found a winner, you can then scale up your budget and increase the reach of your ads. Pay close attention to your Facebook ad campaign metrics and optimize the ad sets that are performing well.  Step 8: Always Have ROI In Mind Whenever you decide to spend money on marketing, always have a return on investment (ROI) in mind. This means that for every dollar you spend, you should be getting back more than a dollar in sales. How much you spend on Facebook ads should always depend on the ROI you expect to get from them. Of course, the amount you spend on Facebook ads should also depend on your budget. Setting a budget and sticking to it is a must when it comes to online advertising. But you should also make sure that the budget you have set is realistic and achievable. That way, you can ensure that you’re always getting a good return on your investment.  5 Things To Avoid When Spending Money On Facebook Ads 1. Not Spending Enough Not spending enough is one of the biggest things to avoid when spending money on ads. The cost of Facebook ads can quickly add up, so it’s important to budget for your campaign goals. But it’s also important to spend enough to see results. If you don’t spend enough, your ads may not get the reach or engagement they need. Too often, businesses fail to invest enough in their Facebook Ads campaigns, resulting in minimal returns. The key is to set a realistic budget and adjust it as needed. 2. Quitting Too Soon Quitting too soon is one of the biggest things to avoid when spending money on Facebook ads. It’s easy to become discouraged

Picture this: you’ve spent countless hours crafting the perfect Facebook ad for your business. You’re convinced it will boost your sales, and can’t wait to see the results. But after a while, you notice something strange. The same people keep seeing your ad over and over again in their Facebook feed. They’re starting to get annoyed, and they are leaving negative feedback. So, what’s going on? Well, my friend, it seems you’ve encountered the issue around Facebook ad frequency.  And if you’re not careful, it can hurt your campaign more than it helps. But what is Facebook ad frequency, and how much is too much? Let’s dive deep into the world of Facebook ad frequency, and I’ll share with you some practical tips to make sure your ads stay fresh and relevant to your target audience. What Is Facebook Ad Frequency, And Why Does It Matter? What exactly is Facebook ad frequency, and why should you care? Facebook ads frequency is the average number of times your ad has been shown to each person in your target audience. It’s crucial because if you have a higher frequency, people might experience ad fatigue, leading to lower engagement, higher costs, and a potentially negative perception of your brand. On the other hand, maintaining an optimal frequency can be beneficial for ad recall, particularly for a potential user or new user who is not yet familiar with your brand. A well-managed frequency number helps ensure your target audience sees your ad enough times to remember your message and associate it with your brand. By striking the right balance, you can optimize your campaigns for better ad recall without overwhelming your audience or causing high ad fatigue. This can help you achieve higher engagement and conversions, making your advertising efforts more effective and efficient. Managing Your Facebook Ad Frequency Managing your Facebook ad frequency is about finding the right balance between reaching your Facebook user audience and not overexposing them to your ads. It can be tricky to master, but here are some best practices to help you manage your ad frequency effectively: Monitor your ad frequency regularly to ensure it stays within an optimal range. The optimal frequency varies, but it should be around1 to 3 per ad set  Adjust your ad targeting to reach a broader audience size if your frequency gets too high. Rotate your ad creatives to keep your ad quality fresh and engaging. Another thing you can do is use the frequency cap feature to limit how often your ads are shown. Understanding Facebook Ad Frequency Cap Now that you know what Facebook ad frequency is and why the frequency metric is important, let’s talk about how you can control it using the Facebook ad frequency cap. There are a couple of ways to set frequency depending on your needs and the features available.  First thing, if you are creating a campaign, Facebook Ads Manager only allows setting frequency caps for awareness campaigns. You’ll be able to find that option when clicking the show more options under bid control. The default frequency cap is 1 impression every 7 days, but you can edit it to whatever number you’d like. Another option is to create automated rules. To do this, you’ll need to:  Open the Facebook Ads Manager. Highlight the specific campaign where you’d like to implement the rule. Click the Rules drop-down button beside campaign tags in the main menu, select Create a New Rule, and click Custom Rule.  Provide a name for the rule, and decide if it should apply to all active campaigns or only the selected one.  Select the action for the rule to perform. You have three options: turn on the campaign, turn off the campaign, or send a notification only.  Set up the desired frequency cap and time range for the rule under Conditions. Unfortunately, this option does not enforce a strict frequency cap, as it is limited to, for example, only turning off the campaign if a specific cap is met. However, it can be useful.  Qualified Facebook advertisers may have access to reach and frequency buying functionality. If you do, you’ll be able to play around with the ad frequency of your campaign in the Custom option under Reach and frequency balance. You can then toggle the Increase average frequency option to turn it on. And that’s it! Now you’ve set a frequency cap to help prevent ad fatigue and keep your ads relevant to your audience. Facebook Ad Frequency: How Much Is Too Much? Now that we’ve talked about setting caps, you’re probably asking yourself: how much Facebook ad frequency is too much? And in reality, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. It really depends on various factors like your industry, audience, and campaign goals.  However, a general rule of thumb, recommended by Social Media Today, is between 1.8 and 4 views on average of an ad. But that is an estimated metric, and it is essential to take into account other data points, such as ad impressions, the length of your campaign, and your advertising objectives.  Understanding the relationship between these factors will help you tailor your campaigns to reach the right audience without oversaturating them with content. However, If your frequency exceeds that, it might be time to consider adjusting your strategy. Finding The Optimal Facebook Ad Frequency Remember that your ideal frequency may vary depending on your specific goals and the audience you’re targeting. By analyzing the performance of your ads and monitoring key metrics, you can adjust your strategy to achieve the best results for your unique situation.  Ultimately, striking the right balance will help you maximize the effectiveness of your Facebook advertising efforts. Finding the optimal Facebook ad frequency can be tricky. To help you along, here are some ideas to consider: Test different frequency caps and monitor their impact on your campaign performance. Analyze your ad relevance diagnostics (we’ll dive into this in the next section) to identify areas for improvement. Keep an eye on your ad’s performance metrics, such as click-through rate, cost per click, and return on ad spend, as they can indicate if your ad frequency is too high or too low. In today’s digital world, the average internet user bumps into many ads daily. That’s why it’s important to find the optimal ad frequency that ensures your particular ad stands out without overwhelming your unique users. Remember that too many ad impressions can lead to negative comments and a less effective frequency for your campaign. Alrighty, now that we’ve covered the importance of finding the right balance in ad frequency, the next step is to explore the Facebook Relevance Score.  What Is Facebook Relevance Score: When It Increases And When Plummets? Facebook Relevance Score is a metric that measures the overall quality and relevance of your ads to your target audience. A higher score means your ad is more relevant and engaging, which can lead to better results and lower costs. Your relevance score can increase when your ad content resonates well with your audience, and it can plummet when your ad is poorly targeted or not engaging enough. Relevance Score vs. Facebook Ad Frequency Understanding the relationship between Relevance Score and Facebook ad frequency is essential. A higher ad frequency can lead to ad fatigue, causing your relevance score to decrease.  On the other hand, a low frequency may not give you enough exposure to your target audience, which can also negatively impact your relevance score. Finding the right balance between ad frequency and relevance is crucial for a successful campaign. 3 New Metrics For Facebook Relevance Score In 2019, Facebook decided to shake things up a bit and replace the old relevance score with three new metrics to give you a clearer picture of your ad performance: Quality Ranking: This important metric compares your ad’s perceived quality with other ads competing for the same audience;  Engagement Rate Ranking: Your ad’s expected engagement rate measured up against other ads, and lastly; Conversion Rate Ranking: Ranks your ad’s expected conversion rate against ads with the same optimization goal but still competing for that audience’s attention. These diagnostics are like your personal ad performance detectives. They help you spot your ad campaigns’ strengths and weaknesses. By checking out your ad’s quality, engagement, and conversion rankings, you can determine if tweaking your ad’s presentation, post-click experience, or targeting will make it even better. In some cases, it could be a less obvious issue, like targeting the wrong audience, that has a major effect on your campaign. 💡But don’t get too hung up on sky-high relevance diagnostic rankings. High rankings are nice,  but they don’t guarantee mind-blowing results. Focus on improving low rankings and use these diagnostics to fix underperforming ads rather than aiming for perfection in every aspect. With Facebook’s ad platform always changing, staying in the loop with the latest metrics and diagnostic tools is important. This way, you can optimize your Facebook ad campaign like a pro and get the best possible results. For instance, understanding different ways to analyze the number of impressions, link clicks, and average cost can help you fine-tune your frequency campaign and cater to larger audiences. So, always be on the lookout for the best way to keep your Facebook ads in tip-top shape and ensure they resonate with your target audience. 8 Tips To Lower Facebook Ad Frequency & Increase Relevance Score Now that you know the importance of managing your Facebook ad frequency, let’s explore some tips to help you lower your ad frequency and increase your relevance score. 1. Set up frequency rules when you create your Facebook campaigns When building your Facebook

Kimberly heard a lot about Facebook lead ads cost and she was wondering if it will work for her business model. As a new course creator Kimberly was finding it difficult to figure out what marketing strategy to use to achieve her goals. While Udemy and Coursera look like attractive options because they have an existing audience. Kimberly knew straight away that these course marketplaces are not the best solution for her dream life. Let me know if you can relate to these points. You’ve enrolled in several coaching programs that promised visibility but didn’t deliver You don’t have an existing audience to promote your course After spending $1,000s on resources you’re wondering if to throw in the towel All you need to see is a silver lining behind your current dark cloud If only there was a way to grow a targeted email list of potential students quickly and simply with a minimum budget of $1,000/month. In this post, you’ll learn how Facebook lead ads can be a breath of fresh air and how they can generate leads for you while you sleep at a very good price. What is Facebook Lead Ads In case you are brand new to Facebook advertising and wondering why you haven’t heard about it before this is for you. One of the best ways to explain Facebook lead ads is to show you what it looks like and how it works. However, before doing that here’s a brief explanation. Facebook lead ads are a form of advertising specifically designed to generate qualified leads for businesses. The reason it is called Facebook lead ads is because the lead generation occurs on the Facebook platform itself. It means that people viewing the ad will be given the opportunity to enter their details to obtain the offer without having to leave Facebook. So, everything occurs on the platform. How is it Possible to Generate Leads Without Leaving Facebook When you are logged into Meta Business Suite and you click on Ad Manager you’ll see the opportunity to create a campaign. After clicking ‘Create’ at the campaign level you’ll see a list of objectives to choose from which will determine your ad type. Choosing leads as your campaign objective will give you a list of possible results that you’ll receive from running this type of campaign. Notice the four options given include: Calls Instant forms Conversions Post engagement It is important to note the conversions in this particular case refer to you generating leads on your own web property. As opposed to getting them to sign up via Facebook. ‘Instant forms’ is the not-so-popular name for Facebook lead ads. What Does the Lead Ad Form Look Like? After creating your ad set and creatives you’ll see the option to customise your Instant form before publishing your Facebook ad. As you can see Facebook is pretty thorough in that they’ve included an area for Privacy policy which is very crucial. This is because you’ll be collecting personal details or contact information like an email address. The key to getting high conversion rates on these forms is to remember that people are busy so the less you ask them the more leads you’ll get. Although a Facebook pixel isn’t required to run an instant forms campaign you’ll still need a link to your privacy policy page. This leads us to the next question, the ad. What Does a Lead Ad Look Like? If you’re wondering how different a lead ad looks compared to regular ads the answer might surprise you. A Lead ad looks very much the same as regular ads with the only difference being the call to action at the bottom. Typically the call to action would be to download the free resource that you will be offering them in exchange for their details. Here’s an example of one such ad as it would appear on Facebook Of course, this resource would not be complete if I fail to include what Instagram ads look like so here you go. I bet just seeing these two examples just gave you lots of ideas about how you can do the same in your business. Where Do the Leads Go After People Complete Their Details When your potential clients complete the form Facebook saves them inside a CSV file which you can manually download daily. I know what you’re thinking, isn’t that a lot of hassle? Well, the good news is that there are several ways for you to automate the lead collection process. Depending on what you are using as your email service provider you can integrate it directly with Facebook or you can use a third-party platform. The two third-party platforms that integrate with Facebook instant forms are Zapier and Make.com. If you decide to use Zapier then you’ll need to use the paid version but you can use the free version of Make. You also have the option of using ActiveCampaign because they have a direct integration with Facebook Lead Ads. Using ActiveCampaign’s direct integration means that you’ll need to upgrade to the Plus plan so it would set you back $75/month on the monthly plan. Yes, it does require some technical ability to know what you’re doing but many of these solutions have step-by-step training on YouTube. Any direct or third-party integration also gives you the ability to deliver the freebie or item that you promised in the ad. How Much Do Facebook Lead Ads Cost? If you’re wondering about how much Facebook lead ads will cost for you I may not be able to tell you precisely. However, I can tell you what the typical range is for a lead ad that’s performing as it should. A normal lead cost can be $1.50 each if your ad is performing in the good range. An excellent ad can cost 0.30 cents to 0.99 cents each! I’ll cover what are the telltale signs that you have the ability to get this lead ad cost shortly. These figures do not apply to webinar leads or lead generation that is done on your own web property like a website or landing page. How Much Do 1,000 Facebook Ads Cost? When you set up a lead ad campaign normally Facebook charges per impression (not per lead or per click). However, you can see in the report based on the leads you receive the cost per result or per lead. In other words, if your campaign doesn’t generate any leads at all you still get charged per impression. If your campaign is overperforming then this actually works well in your favour because the cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM) should be $20 or less. It means that if you’re only paying $1 per lead then every 1,000 people who see your ad 20 will sign up for your freebie. This represents a conversion rate of 2% which is quite good. Anything less than 1.5% means that your copy may need to be improved. How Much Should I Spend a Day on Facebook Ads? Specifically as this resource to Facebook lead ads, the suggested budget is $10 – $15 a day. When you first set up your campaign to get it approved you can start with $10 a day. After it has been approved wait about 3-4 days and check to see how it’s performing. If your cost per lead is $1.50 – $2.00 each then check other statistics like your CPM, CTR and CTR Link-Click-Through-Rate. Here’s a good rule of thumb to follow. CPM -> should be less than $30 CTR all -> should be 4% or higher (if not, change the image) CTR Link-Click-Through-Rate -> should be 1.5% or higher (if not, fix copy) If all of these are bad it could be the freebie itself or the audience. This is the reason why people hire a Facebook ad manager to figure all this out for them. Do you need help from a Facebook Ads Manager or Strategist? Book some time in my calendar here. Is $5 Enough for Facebook Ads? Yes, I’ve used a strategy where I had Facebook ads running for $5 a day and I got results. If you start off at $10 or $15 per day and you find your winning combination of image, copy, freebie and audience then here’s what you can do. Every 1-2 days reduce your budget gradually by $2.50 a day. In other words, you start at $15 then reduce the budget to 12.50, then $10, then $7.50 and so on until you get to $5 a day. What was very surprising is that Facebook still delivered 10 -12 leads a day when my budget was $15 and $10 a day. I enjoy testing Facebook Ads just to see if the daily budget actually makes a difference. One of my coaches would say if you give Facebook $50 to spend in a day they will do it and give you the same result as $10 a day. Lol!!🤣 What is Better Google Ads or Facebook Ads? The honest truth is that it depends on a combination of things. Here’s that list of things. Your niche/audience The goal of your campaign How much you are hoping to spend The offer Your funnel I know that it’s not the answer you are expecting but the competition on Google Ads can be very high depending on your niche. It can also be very low if your niche is less competitive. My advice is to start with Facebook and when your campaign is proven and generating results then you can move it to Google Ads. Why is my Cost Per Lead So High on Facebook? If you are using Instant Forms on Facebook then check the following stats in your reports. CPM – if it’s less than $25 then leave it. CTR all – if this figure is less than 4% then try split testing with a new image CTR Link-Click-Through-Rate – this figure should be 1.5% or higher if not then create a new ad with new ad copy Be sure that the form is as easy to complete as possible If all of these are terrible then either your audience or your freebie needs changing or both. Do you need help figuring it all out and you would like someone else to manage it for you? If yes, book some time in my calendar to discuss your options. Alternatively, you can visit the Facebook Ad Library for inspiration on how you can improve your ads. How Do You Calculate Lead Cost? Bearing in mind the fact that Facebook charges per 1,000 impressions we’ll use this as our main metric to calculate lead cost. The best way to demonstrate this is by choosing a budget. So, let’s say you ha