WHY SHOULD YOU TRUST ME?
I am not a Facebook ads expert. There. I said it. I am not going to teach you everything that there is to know about Facebook ads. This is not the course for that.
What I will teach you is what I do day to day (yes, I said daily) to make ads work for my business. I have been running ads for a little over two years, I spent a lot of money and made a lot of mistakes but also have had a lot of success. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here teaching you.
I learned what works for my type of business. And if you're here, it means that you too sell digital products. So what I'm going to talk about in this course should apply to you and should make sense for your own business.
If you want to really learn how to run ads to sell digital products, stick with me.
⭐️This is the part where I tell you my Facebook ads experience and a little bit about my story.
In early 2021, I sent out an email to my audience telling them a little bit about my business story and how I was able to grow my business to multiple six figures in one year.
Honestly, I couldn't have been able to do that without Facebook and Instagram ads.
Before you start watching any of the other videos... Let me walk you through the first three months of my business running ads which was January 2020 until April 2020. Watch this video to see the ebbs and flows inside a real Facebook business manager. It will give you a better picture of what you can realistically expect in your own account.
I show you how much I spent and how many sales I brought back in during those first three months.
😳YOU SPENT HOW MUCH?!?!
As of January 2022 I have spent $71,000 on Facebook ads. This is since January 23rd, 2020.
Yes, it sounds absolutely crazy. Every time I look at that number I can't even believe it. I used to be a teacher. I taught Elementary School for eight years. The most money I made in a year was $46,000. So to spend way more than that on ads is absolutely crazy to me. And the fact that I know people who spend that amount of money in one week it's even crazier to me.
But rest assured, that the return on ad spend has been monumental. 💰💰💰
IT HASN'T ALL BEEN GREAT
I have hit a few hiccups along the way. This wouldn't be an honest recount of my experiences if I didn't tell you that I did, twice, hire an agency to run my ads.
How was my experience? Less than perfect, that's for sure.
I hired the first agency back in August 2020. We worked together for 2 months and it was okay. They were able to find a new audience and a new ad creative that worked very well for a while. So I am very grateful for that. I definitely got my money's worth out of that Agency. For context, they charged $3,000 as an agency fee for those two months.
In the image below you can see the ad spend for those two months that I spent with that agency. That was for August and September 2020.
Watch the video below for a quick deeper look into the spend and return on ad spend with that particular agency.
It's safe to say, looking at the final numbers, that I did earn a profit by hiring that first agency. After that, I continued running my own ads all the way until January 2021.
I had a few ups and downs because it was an election year and I ended up turning off my ads for about three or four days in November, waiting for the dust to settle because my ad spend tripled. And I was barely breaking even with ads. All in all, I was doing very well running my own ads. But like every entrepreneur I started thinking that I needed to hire someone who, in theory, knew more than me about ads. You know, an "expert".
Up until this point, to be honest, I thought that I had gotten lucky. I thought that my ads were doing well because I found those two audiences that were responding very well to my ads and that I had hit the jackpot.
I decided that I was not capable of finding any more audiences on my own, let alone to scale my own ads. Because after all, I was just a teacher. Oh no, how much have I learned from that! If you take anything from reading this story: let it be to always trust yourself. You are capable. And I don't say this in a romanticized way to cheer you up and make you feel like you can continue doing this on your own. I say it because I really mean it. I have lived it. Now, let's get into the results that came out of that second agency.
SECOND TIME AROUND
A little background: this agency charged $3,500 per month with a three-month contract. So yes, I spent $10,500 in agency fees alone. And this was not some random agency that I found. They came very well recommended, I have seen other very successful people in the industry working with them.
So I thought that it was time for me to upgrade and "play with the big guys". But remember what I just told you before, it came from a place of me not recognizing that the work that I had been doing for the past year was working. And that I was capable of doing this on my own. I love running Facebook ads. I have a Masters in Business Administration. I really enjoy the "businessy" part of business. But I didn't trust myself.
Watch the video below so you can see some more specific numbers and dates.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So what's the point of me telling you all of this? Very simple: trust yourself.
Do the work In learning who your audience is. Who are you selling to? Who is your ideal customer? Be very clear. When you're running ads, you need to know down to the very detail who your person is.
And this is even more important with Facebook ads (compared to Pinterest or YouTube ads). Because with Facebook ads you do need to do a little bit of work in finding the audiences that you want to start testing with first.
It really helps when you are your ideal customer because you know yourself. Which is my case. I am my own ideal customer so I knew from the beginning who were the people I was looking for.
⛔️WHEN SHOULD YOU NOT RUN ADS?
Whenever you feel like it's driving you crazy. That's an easy answer. There are a lot of people out there who are really good are running ads that won't cost you an arm and a leg.
If you learned anything from my story, more expensive does not mean that the agency is better. Sure, there are very expensive agencies that are very good. I just happened to not run into them 🤦🏻♀️.
If after trying it out for a while, you decide that this is not for you. Try out an agency or try out some one who can help you.
DID ANYTHING GOOD CAME OUT OF IT?
In simple words, yes. That one bad experience made me get my whiney head out of my butt and think of ways that would allow me to recoup all of the thousands and thousands of dollars in lost revenue. And boy did it pay off!
I sent a few emails, fixed a lot of things in the back end of my business and got to work. With the amazing help of my even more amazing affiliates I was able to launch two products. I got to work! I worked nonstop for two weeks to get everything ready and set up for my customers to be able to purchase two new products.
In March 2021, I had my biggest month ever (yet 😜). My business made a little bit over $75,000 in one month (Thrivecart is not the only cart I use) in revenue. What is even more exciting is that I got to pay a lot of money to my affiliates. Real people.
I'm telling you this, because of this wouldn't happen possible without ads. Sure, I did not use ads to achieve a month like this. But I did use ads (for this particular launch) to acquire the audience that would go on to buy from me, and that would become my affiliates.
I promoted to my existing audience and my affiliates promoted to their audience. So even if you don't see your returns immediately, just know that down the road those people who came to you and learned about you from an ad, will buy from you when the right product is presented. 
🌱I'll leave you with this: trust yourself and learn from bad experiences.