Episode 238: Demystifying Facebook Ads for Course Creators

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Uncovering the Basics of Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads don’t have to be so complicated, but they are often a crucial part of a course creator’s marketing strategy. Which is why I brought on my two favorite Facebook Ads experts to help us out today.

With a contagious enthusiasm and a knack for simplifying the complex, Ashley + Elizabeth believe that Facebook ads don’t have to be scary, hard, or expensive.  Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, they’re on a mission to empower you to amplify your voice with Facebook Ads!  Outside of business, they are real sisters + best friends raising their combined 5 kids in the North Georgia Mountains. They love Disney World, punny jokes, great coffee and an extra full glass of wine. They believe in community over competition, ethical marketing and widening circles so everyone has a place.

Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Join me on Monday evenings at 4:00 pm Pacific time/7:00 pm Eastern time for my weekly YouTube Lives!
Snag the 2025 Chasing Simple Marketing Planner!
This week’s action step: Go check out Ashley and Elizabeth’s Ad Starter Kit on their website.
This week’s book recommendation: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Find us on Instagram and tell us you completed this week’s action step: @mrsamandawarfield and @thepaidadacademy

Social Links:

http://www.thepaidadacademy.com/

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Rather Read? – Here’s the Transcript!

*Just a heads up – the provided transcript is likely to not be 100% accurate

Facebook ads don’t have to be so complicated, but they are often a crucial part of a course creator’s marketing strategy, which is why I brought on my two favorite Facebook ads experts to help us out today. With a contagious enthusiasm and a knack for simplifying the complex, Ashley and Elizabeth believe that Facebook ads don’t have to be scary, hard, or expensive.

Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, they’re on a mission to empower you to amplify your voice with Facebook ads. Outside of business, they’re real sisters and best friends raising their combined five kids in the North Georgia mountains. They love Disney World, obviously whoever great friends, punny jokes, great coffee, and an extra full glass of wine.

They believe in community over competition, ethical marketing, and widening circles so that everyone has a place. And today you’re listening to episode 238 of the Chase and Simple podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This Episode was brought to you by the Chase and Simple Content Planner, and you can grab your 2025 version at amandawarfield.

com.

Amanda: How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways, and how do I do it? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly, How do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head. When you think of marketing welcome friend, this is chasing simple or practical marketing strategy meets simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content, marketing and launch strategist, speaker, educator, and author of chasing simple marketing.

I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business, so that they have time to grow their business, take time off, and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

When I’m working, you can find me working with one on one clients, such as The Contract Shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or helping my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell, reading in our hammock, watching Gamecock Sports, traveling, or forcing our cats to snuggle me.

If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simply an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really want to be doing isn’t is the thing that they started their business to do.

Which is why I’m here. To help make marketing simple and less time consuming, so that you can spend less time on your marketing, and more time growing your business and doing what you love. Each week, I’ll bring you transparent conversations about Actionable steps and judgment free community to encourage and equip you.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choice is and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips, and advice on uncomplicating your marketing and business. Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we?

When it comes to creating your monthly content calendar and sitting down to create your content because you’re batching it, right? The first step is not writing in the monthly calendar. It’s not even writing your categories and important dates on the calendar. If that’s where you’re starting with your content planning, well, all you’re creating is a plan.

But what you need is a strategy. What’s the difference? A strategy is like the inner structure of a building, while the plan is the decor. A strategy is what helps you achieve your goals, and your plan is how you achieve them. Your strategy is where you’re leading your audience, and your plan is what you’re talking about and when.

Without having a strategy first, putting together a plan will simply mean pulling ideas out of thin air. So, how do you start with a strategy? By starting with your goals and working backwards to ensure that you’re moving your audience toward them. What are your yearly goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals, and weekly goals?

And how can you translate them into content your audience wants to ingest? You’ve got to consider those questions before you even begin deciding what it is that you’ll post about. And if you want a simple way to create both your strategy and your plan, grab your Chasing Simple content planner. The planner is my number one bestseller, and for good reason too, because this massive, more than 130 page planner was designed with strategy in mind.

It’s not merely a place to write down what you’re going to post and when. Yes, that’s part of it, but first, you’ll walk through intentional pages full of strategic questions to get your brain moving in the right direction before you even start writing down your topic ideas. In addition to the traditional calendar pages, you’ll find yearly planning pages, monthly prep work, monthly reflection questions, repurposing worksheets, and so much more.

If taking your content to the next level is a goal of yours, the Chase and Simple Content Planner was created for you. Grab yours for just 27 at amandawarfield. com slash planner.

If you are interested in running Facebook ads, but you have no idea where to start and how to use them to fill seats in your course, you’re in the right spot because I am so excited to have Ashley and Elizabeth of the Paid Ads Academy with me today. For those that don’t know me, I’m Amanda Warfield. I am a simplicity focused content marketing strategist and copywriter.

I go live here every single Monday at 7 p. m. Eastern time, 4 p. m. Pacific to help course creators simplify their marketing so they can make a larger impact in less time. And I’m so excited to have Ashley and Elizabeth here with me today, uh, because I am a student of theirs and they have so much genius to offer.

So I’m just super pumped that we get to bring some of that to all of you. But if you guys want to introduce yourself and just tell everyone a little bit about who you are and a little bit about the business.

Ashley: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having us, Amanda. It is such a joy because your community is just People that we love so much, creative educators, and just really obsessed, obviously.

Um, so I’m Ashley and

Elizabeth: I’m Elizabeth.

Ashley: Yes. We sound a little bit alike. So hopefully your podcast listeners can tell us apart, but we’re real sisters and we own this business together jointly. And, um, yeah, it’s called the paid ad Academy. We teach, you know, female entrepreneurs, how to run Facebook ads. We’re trying to help people have more impact, less stress, all the things that you were talking about.

Yeah, what do you think? Anything else?

Elizabeth: Yeah, we have like, you know, we have, um, like done with you stuff. And we have our membership like Amanda was talking about. So a lot of different, a lot of different facets, but we’re excited. Yeah.

Amanda: Yeah, I love Yall’s membership. I’m just gonna go ahead and plug it for everyone because it’s, it’s so helpful.

Thank you. Not only because you guys have such a plethora of knowledge, like, I feel like every time I have a question, you’re like, Oh, we have a resource on this. Let me link it to you, right? But the fact that you guys have two calls a week where you’re just like, what are your questions? How can we help?

It’s, it’s so helpful and it’s so, it’s exactly what I look for in communities and in courses at this point is like, Yes, the education, but also just like, That community aspect of, there are times when I show up to y’all’s calls, and I like, I’m like, I don’t really have a question, I’m just here to make sure that I actually work on the things that you already told me to work on, right?

Like, it’s, it’s accountability, it’s education, it’s everything, so thank you guys for creating that, and we will definitely be linking to that in the description, in the show notes, everything, so people can check it out.

Ashley: You’re so kind. We’re actually, I’m going to just go ahead and say it. We’re actually changing that a little bit.

I know we’re, we’re not, we’re not going to have two live calls. I just think that sometimes it’s a little overwhelming for people, but we wanted to find a way to really support. Cause I do think the accountability is a big part of being in a membership like that, because for me, I’m in a bunch of stuff and I don’t participate in it.

Or I forget that I’ve even bought it, you know? And so yeah. I don’t want it to be like that. Um, but we still want to make things available. So with Facebook ads, because they changed so fast and so. I mean, like I could do we could do we’re doing a lesson actually this month on, um, the election and then like the holiday.

So it’s election waves to holiday craze, and it’s a pre recorded lesson, but we want people to have access to that kind of information because I think that’s what’s going to pull them back in. And then we’re still going live. It just won’t be as often and the Facebook group. We’re going to start doing more things in the Facebook group instead of just on zoom calls.

So I think I think that’s going to help people who. Maybe don’t, can’t really do the time, can’t really like get two hours a week to get on a Zoom call and maybe get your answers, or your questions answered, you know. So we’re hoping that it’s, it’s going to be a good fit for everyone. But I mean, we’re building this for our community.

And so like, we’re listening to the feedback and hopefully, hopefully giving people what they want, which I’m sure your audience resonates with.

Amanda: Absolutely. I know. And that’s, That’s the hard thing is so often we, we start these memberships, we start these courses and we have these preconceived notions

what we have to do and what we should be doing.

But the reality is, is that until you get in it and you do it, you don’t know what your unique audience is going to want.

Ashley: Yeah, absolutely.

Amanda: So I have to ask. And this, you know, this has nothing to do with ads really, but I just want to know, what’s it like working with your sister?

Ashley: Oh, I, I think it’s cool, but

Elizabeth: she’s like, it’s so fun. I’m like, oh goodness, it’s crazy. Uh, no, it’s crazy and fun. We have a lot of, um, midday laugh sessions, you know, just about random stuff. But then we also can like buckle down and be like, Uh, I think it’s cool because we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, like, really intimately, and so, like, we are, I mean, we’re sisters, we’re business partners, but we’re also best friends, and so, like, we hang out constantly, and, um,

Ashley: It’s gonna make me tear up! It sounds like you’re tearing up.

Elizabeth: No, I’m just coughing. Um, we’re trying to hold it in, but,

Amanda: The duality of sisters.

Ashley: I know, no, it’s so true, because Elizabeth is like, Elizabeth is definitely, like, the, you know, very direct, she’s like all, you know, like, she has emotions, but, but they don’t exit her as often as mine exit me, and so it’s, we always joke, like, when Elizabeth will give me a hug after something, I’ll be like, oh my gosh, like, cause she’s not really a hugger, but it’s just, you know, it’s so funny.

But I always say that working with my sister in this business is one of the greatest joys of my life. Like it has been such a blessing to get to spend this time together and get to make so much impact with people and get to see, you know, like it’s when you see your husband or your, you know, like your spouse in their work self and you’re like, Ooh, like, I don’t know about you, but I’m like, that’s sexy.

My husband’s a pilot, you know, like, men in uniform, all the things. But it’s cool to see her, like, in her work element, too. I’m, like, so proud, because, like, I’m the big sister. So I’m like, get it, girl! And we get to do it, like, every day, you know? So it’s, it’s really cool. It’s good times.

Amanda: So sweet. My sister is not a hugger, either.

And so every time I get, like, a real hug, I’m like, oh my gosh. Not the little, like, side, like, pat. That’s what I always get. So, okay. Moving into Facebook ads. If someone hasn’t started. And they haven’t started simply because they’re scared, and they just feel overwhelmed by all of it. What is your, what’s the like, one starting step that you would suggest?

Elizabeth: You probably need to have a Facebook or Instagram.

Amanda: Okay. You know, like That’s simple enough. Yeah.

Elizabeth: You have the page, whatever. But if you’ve never done ads specifically, I think, um, just having like some sort of little lesson on ads manager, just so you can like not feel quite as overwhelmed, because I think that’s a hard part when people log in for the first time and they’re like, Oh, no, there’s more than 20 buttons on this page.

What am I supposed to push? You know, it’s a can be really overwhelming and intimidating. Um, so I think giving some like, uh, maybe behind the scenes.

Ashley: Yeah, just to help people feel more comfortable for sure. And then I think as far as like ad strategy and like what to actually run first, um, The answer’s different based off where you are in business.

If you have a more established business and you’ve been on Instagram, on Facebook, like you have a website and you’ve had some traffic coming through and you have an audience, then I would say, put a retargeting ad up and send people that already know you, which would be like a custom warm audience. It sounds scarier than it is.

I promise. It’s actually really easy to build. Um, send them to a discovery call or send them to buy something or do whatever it is that you’re. Your people need to do. And then if you’re brand new to business and you don’t have that warm audience to send something to you, then put up like a traffic ad to your Instagram and put some kind of existing post on there.

Like, you know, those POV reels that people put out like POV, like work with me, worked with me and blah, blah, blah. Or like, we have a friend who’s. Who put up an ad that was just like a day in the life of CEO and it was just her and talking about her business and that kind of stuff. And just put something out there to attract your people, but also repel the people you don’t want and start building that warm list.

And it’s cheap to do it that way, like five bucks a day max.

Amanda: Okay, so then speaking of budget, what should someone expect to spend if they are retargeting? Or, slash, if they are running traffic ads, so like, they’re just starting out, they’ve never run ads before, what should they budget?

Ashley: Well, it depends on what you want.

Like, what are your results that you want from this? Because if you’re just You want to dip your toe in and just kind of try it. You could do like five dollars a day. Um, but if you’re like, Hey, I’m running a webinar next month and I want to fill it with a hundred people, then you’re going to have to spend, you know, you’re gonna have to do the math.

So it really is. It’s all about mapping. And then there’s, well, and to kind of talk about that too, when people are talking about optimizing on inside of ads, Facebook wants 50 actions in a week of whatever it is you’re trying to get done. So if it’s a sale, if it’s getting people to your website, if it’s getting a lead, whatever.

And so if you’re getting leads and you need to get 50 leads to fill that webinar, right, in a week, technically, um, then let me just do the math. You would have to do, let’s just say your leads are like 3. And then that’s 150 for the week. So you need to spend about 21 a day. And so that’s for some people, that’s a lot of money.

Cause if you’re thinking about 21 a day over 30 days, that’s almost 650 bucks. So it’s, it just depends how fast you want to go, because you can go slow and steady, or you can just like shoot it straight to the moon. Like it’s. It’s really up to you, whatever you want to do with that.

Amanda: Okay, walk me through that math again.

How did you how did you get to where you got?

Ashley: Sure. Yeah, so 50 actions in a week

Amanda: And an action being?

Ashley: A lead. So an email and a name. In this instance, a lead. Yeah, in this instance. It could be any of the objectives. But, yeah, lead in this instance. And then I’m making the assumption that the lead is an average of 3 per lead.

Which is, it’s very middle of the road. Some people get a lot cheaper, some people get a lot higher. So 3 is probably, uh, Even, I would say, maybe a little bit lower than what the typical would be. Right. But just assuming 3. 3. So, 50. Leads times 3, 150 for the week, and then divide it by seven, seven days to get your daily ad spend.

Amanda: Gotcha. Okay. And is there a reason that Facebook wants those 50 actions or is that just? What you guys have learned.

Elizabeth: Yeah. So, uh, they’re taking from this giant cold audience, right? Um, from like millions and millions of users, and they’re trying to filter down into your people. So you can give it a little bit of guidance, um, or you can go straight broad and let the AI, like, you know, AI beast take control and see if it can find your people.

Um, but it wants to have those 50 actions so that it can feed the AI system of who. who are the people that are interacting and getting you the action that you want so that it can learn. Um, just like you have to train, you know, GPTs and like all that. If you’re, you’re training the AI inside of Facebook to find your people that are going to do those actions.

Ashley: Yeah. And Facebook tells us that it takes about 50 actions in a week to train their algorithm. So that’s why they want it to be that way. Yeah.

Amanda: Okay. Okay. Gotcha. So your goal should be to put enough money in. To hit those 50 actions.

Ashley: Yes. Yes. Now here’s the caveat though, is that this is for a cold audience, right?

People who’ve never heard about you before. This is a huge audience. So if you’re like, I don’t have enough money to do that. Like, that’s fine. We’re all about the small budget. I’d rather you run a little bit of ads with a small budget than

Elizabeth: And yeah, you know, yourself back because you are like intimidated by the cost.

Ashley: Absolutely. Absolutely. I read these, you spend, you know, 2 a day on a retargeting. So what you can do then is do a cheaper ad, which would be like an engagement ad or a traffic ad. Those are pretty inexpensive. You can get 50 actions on those for just like pennies on the dollar. And then retarget with whatever you want, a lead ad, whatever, to people who’ve interacted with your Facebook, Instagram website.

Whatever, there’s lots of different ways to retarget. And so that way you’re spending. a little bit up here on your engagement ads, and then you’re putting more money behind your retargeting, but you don’t need 50 actions a week because it’s a warm audience. So Facebook doesn’t need to optimize that.

Elizabeth: So they’re only going to show that to people who have already interacted with you.

Ashley: Yeah. So that’s why you can spend a lot less because you’re not trying to get 50 a week.

Amanda: Oh, okay. Okay. So you, a cheaper way to do it is engagement ad and then retarget from that engagement ad. Yeah. What?

Anyone who’s listening is probably like, okay, well, why would I not just always do that? What would be the reasoning for the first strategy?

Ashley: Yeah, absolutely. Because the first strategy is a lot faster. You’re going to get way more leads at a lower cost in the long run. And it’s just gonna, it’s, it’s like. I don’t know if you’re like this, but I, we grew up not super rich.

Right. And so I’m like, we’re a little bit cheap sometimes. And so we’ll buy something that’s like not the best quality and I’ll have it for a few months and then it breaks. And then I’m like, well, crap. And then so eventually you end up buying another one and another one. And then you’re like, I should have just bought the really nice one to begin with.

Like instead of wasting all this money, that’s basically what we’re doing. We’re giving you a cheap route. If you truly, truly cannot afford the more expensive one, but you’re going to have to keep doing this one and keep doing this one and keep doing this one. to get the results of this other one. So if you have the money, do the other one, because it’s better.

But if you don’t, you can get away with this. It’s just not going to work as fast. It’s going to cost you more money in the long run, but it’s just going to be slower.

Elizabeth: It does help you build confidence though. So there’s a lot of times where we have like people who are honestly just scared of running ads in general because they’re putting their face out to thousands of people that they don’t know, which is Scary.

It is. Um, so, I mean, we faced that, like, when we run our ads, we’re like, oh, I don’t know if I want that angle. I don’t know if I want this. Like, oh, this is weird. You know, holes too.

Ashley: Oh, of course.

Elizabeth: Yeah. Like random people, you know, we accidentally got picked up by a fetish group. That was a whole thing. It was, You a really great time.

Um, so bad world is so weird, super weird. Um, but it really does give you a, like, gives you confidence as the business owner to keep going with your ads. Um, and then, you know, then you can maybe branch out into some of those other things once you’ve built that confidence, it’s a good testing route to you.

Like if you’re not a hundred percent sure if your offer is going to work, it’s a good way to be kind of like, is it going to work?

Amanda: Okay. So for course creators. Is there a difference in the strategy you would suggest for an evergreen course versus like, oh, I’m running a live webinar in this thing. It’s like I’m doing a live launch.

Ashley: There’s so many answers to that. So different routes, even just within that one, like segment, there’s a lot of different ways you can do it. It depends on how are you selling the evergreen? Is it a, is it also a webinar, like an evergreen webinar? Is that what you? Want this methodology to,

Amanda: um, for the sake of the example, if that makes it easiest, let’s do that.

Yeah.

Ashley: Okay, cool. Cool. And it’s free, right? Free webinar, right? Yes. Okay, cool. So in this case, my Follow up question to be, to that would be is how much is the course? Because that also makes a difference on what you’re, what you’re doing. In an ideal world, if we’re just going with, you know, basics here, I would say run some kind of traffic ad to your Instagram, if that’s your, your main platform.

And that way you can test your audiences there. And then spend 5 a day on like four different audiences. Do it over the course of a couple weeks before you’re just going to start your ads to your webinar and your. Then once you’ve kind of got a good audience there and you’re feeling solid, then we’re going to put up a lead ad to your webinar.

And that lead ad is going to go to a cold audience, but it’s going to be broad because you’ve already taught the algorithm with your traffic campaign. So now we’re using that algorithm to just go out and find your people here. And then if it’s a live webinar, you, like, if you’re going to do it repeating, you could keep it up and just not put any dates.

And that’s like top notch.

Elizabeth: Really good strategy. Yeah.

Ashley: Really good strategy. If it’s evergreen, you can do the same thing, obviously, because it’s evergreen. Um, but then after you do that, you’re going to want to retarget people to come back and buy the course. So with live, live, you probably already know this live webinars convert a lot better than evergreen webinars do.

Um, but it’s open close, right? Like open, close, open, close. Whereas evergreen, you can keep going forever and it’s just, it’s easier. So make your money fast or make your money slow. That’s it’s, it really comes down to like.

Amanda: Okay, so the strategy would essentially be the same though, other than the fact that one is open closed on the other is all going.

Ashley: Yes, and the strategy is the same because it’s the same selling mechanism of a webinar. We’re assuming it’s the same course. So it’s the same price point. And there’s a lot of different things. It’s because it’s the same, like it would, I would tell you something different. If you said you were doing a challenge or a lead magnet, or like, you need to do something different for different selling mechanisms.

And also if you have to have a discovery call or something, cause your course is like, you know, four or 5, 000, or it’s a mastermind that’s different too. So there’s different things for different, and it’s, this is where you could talk about customer journey too, because the customer journey is different.

And that’s the customer journey is what dictates. Everything for ads because we do not want to just put up a one size fits all like here’s a lead magnet to this to this and everyone’s doing that because that you I mean, you know, that does not work for every audience. It does not work for every like course creator either.

So you have to customize your ads to what you’re doing, but it’s not as hard as people make it sound. It’s really not.

Amanda: Okay, so let’s dive into that idea then. How in the world, where do you begin if you’re like, I want to make sure that my, my ads, because, okay, well, I think, based on my own experience, that what a lot of us do when we’re like, okay, we’re ready to start running ads, and we, we pick up a little strategy here, or a little strategy there, and we run it, and then it kind of works, but then it’s like, but then what, right?

Um, and you guys have even pointed out to me, you’re like, you’re, you don’t have a strategy. Like, you don’t have an overall ad strategy. Which I think ties back to this customer journey, right? Is, you know, creating an overall strategy. How do you use the customer journey to do that so you’re not just like running a random ad here and running a random ad there?

Ashley: I’m gonna let Elizabeth answer this, but I did want to say first that you’re not alone in that. In any stretch of the imagination, we have clients we work one to one with. I literally got into her account the other day and I was like, you have 15 campaigns going. This is like, Way too many because you bet against yourself if you’re not careful and then you’re just raising your own ad prices.

So, but Elizabeth can talk more about the at the customer journey for sure.

Elizabeth: Yeah. So when you’re building, um, your ads, I mean, you want to think about where your people are at and how you can best talk to them where they are. Because I think a lot of the things that kind of turn us off a little bit with like bro marketing, you know, and that kind of like way is that they’re forcing you to feel, to feel a certain way and to act a certain way.

Um, and it’s not like you have to be whatever, like it just that’s the subconsciously kind of is what’s happening. Um, so how can we instead turn around and have like a really ethical way of providing people and in to what they need when they need it? Um, That just feels more authentic, right, without like having that gross feeling around it.

Ashley: And not so manipulative too.

Elizabeth: Yes. Yeah, definitely. Um, so if you just take a, like, think about your business and then take a few steps back, like, and you’re looking at it from a bird’s eye view, you know, and you’re thinking about it kind of in a linear way, where are they starting? Like, how are they finding you?

How do they know your name in the first place? Like, is it maybe through a traffic ad where they’re like, Seeing you and then you get sent to their Instagram and then get to know them that way. Um, or is it from a YouTube video or a podcast or like, how are they finding you? And then maybe put some ad money behind that, if possible, so you could run ads to your podcast or to YouTube videos or things like that.

Um, and then just being like that in each stage of your business. So then what’s next for them? Once they get to know you, where do you want them to fall? Like, is it a lead magnet? Is it. You know, something different. Um, maybe like a little intro course or a digital product, whatever that is. Um, and then maybe, maybe that’s a retargeting or maybe that could be a cold audience too.

Like, is that a good way for people to find you? Um, and just thinking about kind of each step of where you want them to be and what is the end goal? Like, do you have a one on one? Do you have, you know, what’s, what is your end product? And some people it’s the course and that’s the end. And that’s, that’s great.

You know, you just have a little bit less steps. Um, but each of your. I’m trying to say the word, like each of your offer stack, like your offer ladder, that’s what I’m trying to say. Your offer ladder, each rung, you know, has an opportunity for ads.

Ashley: Well, and it’s like a funnel too, basically. You’re just creating an ad funnel.

So I used to teach it that when you, when you did the linear way, like Elizabeth was saying, like there are natural points where people fall off. Where they just, you know, people follow you on Instagram and you’re like all they, all they like for like two weeks. And you’re like, man, this person really likes me.

And then the algorithm doesn’t show your stuff to them anymore. They forget you exist. And then you launch and you never hear from them. And it’s just like, it’s all, it’s natural. It’s, it’s natural for that to happen. But with ads, it’s cool because you can kind of like put a little bandaid on that and show some retargeting ads that catch those people who were really interested 30 days ago and just want to.

forgot about you because the algorithm didn’t show it. So that’s one reason that I really fell in love with ads in the first place was just because I’m an introvert, like to the max, and I have crippling anxiety, if we’re going to be honest. And so like the idea of having to do so much marketing all the time and constantly, and I know you and I even talked about this, Amanda, with before when you were on our podcast, like it is the consistency has always been a for me.

And so the fact that I can put 30, 60 behind some ads, and it’s consistent for me, like, it is giving me so much peace of mind. Like, honestly.

Amanda: Yeah, absolutely. So you mentioned not wanting to bid against yourself, but then for those that have this whole value ladder, like Elizabeth was talking about, what, how do you make sure that you’re, when you’re creating an ad strategy, that you’re, Running ads to the different parts of your value ladder without bidding against yourself.

What does that look like?

Ashley: Yeah, you have to actually map your value ladder first. So you actually need to know like where you’re sending them and you need to know, do they have to build on each other or can they be purchased at any point in the journey? And then also what does your back end marketing look like?

Are you doing email marketing too, which please Lord do email marketing. Please let that be the blanket statement of today. Um, do email marketing and make sure you’re following up with those people you’ve already paid to acquire. If you’re using ads or, you know, busted your butt to acquire because you’re not paying for them.

And so ads should really just be filling. filling this funnel for you, and then you mark it to the other. And now when you’re talking about ads to your different offers, though, you can do it different ways. If you want to run it to people who interacted with a certain video or looked at a certain post or trying to bend to a certain URL on your website, like there are traffic numbers you need to hit to for Facebook to be able to find those people.

But. Yeah. There are very, um, innovative and really cool ways that you can do this kind of stuff. You just have to be willing to like, sit down and think it through. And so if you’re the type of person who can back up and see a plan, big picture, which not everyone is, and that’s fine. Um, but get some help if that’s not you, because there’s in there too.

Like you can even, especially with AI these days, I mean, my goodness, when I first made my first customer journey, it was like 2017 or something, you know, like AI. Was not around. And so I like mapped all these different customer journeys and I used to do these like marketing plans for people. It was like all this crazy stuff.

And now I feel like you go to chat GPT and just tell them what you want and probably get something pretty decent. So I don’t know if that answered your question. I just talked to the circle.

Elizabeth: You can also like segment people, like just how you segment like your list, right? You could say like, well, if they’ve interacted with me in the first Like 30 days of getting to know me.

I want them to see this set of things in the next 30 days of getting to know me. I want them to kind of switch over to maybe something different. Um, you know, and you can start like maybe excluding people from your audiences too. So it’s, you know, a touch more advanced of targeting, but not hard, just an extra couple buttons.

Um, But yeah, you can kind of start playing around with some of those things. You just have to have the numbers to do because like she was saying, there’s some traffic requirements. You need to have around 1000 people in your audience for Facebook to show, um, to show the ad to them. So, if you start excluding big groups, then you’re kind of pigeonholing yourself a little bit with that.

But. Well, and that, you know, this is these, the strategies we just talked about were several different strategies. And that’s the thing with Facebook ads is that what works for one might not work for another. And so that does kind of suck that you have to try different things. The testing ground is, and different things work at different times, which is why we made a membership and not a course, because it needs to be updated.

And people need to be in there. Like. Learn when they’re running ads, like they need to be somewhere where they’re keep staying updated. Cause right now, like carousel ads are doing really well right now, or they were like two weeks ago, actually. I don’t even know if they still are. I’m pretty sure this is the one who manages all that.

But, um, you know, if you don’t, if you took a course three months ago, they’re going to tell you not to run carousel ads and so you’re not going to know.

Amanda: Yeah, absolutely. Everything changes so quickly.

Elizabeth: And take away buttons, like, yeah, so quick. Well, it’s never fails. We’re always teaching on it whenever they add or take away a button.

And so we show our page and we’re like, it’s not the right way. Every time, every time, but yeah. So, I mean, we just, Those kind of things, like, it can be intimidating when you go on and you’re like, this is not the right color button that I’ve always clicked. Is this even the same button? I have no idea. And then you get a little update from, you know, the group and you’re like, oh, this is the same.

We did. It’s a little different now, but it’s fine.

Amanda: So with The traffic requirement needing 1000 people in the audience. If you’re trying to run ads to a specific part of your value ladder, um, let’s say to, well, let’s just say to a course, um, in order, let’s say this, you want to run ads to a course. But before someone takes that course, they need to have probably, I don’t know, let’s say there’s a freebie, a lead magnet ahead of that.

Do you need a thousand people to have landed on the lead magnet page before you start running ads to the course page? What would that look like?

Elizabeth: You could go about it a couple ways. So you could just go, I mean, honestly, what we would start with probably for Everyone in that scenario would be get your leads and then email market the course on the back end.

Um, just make sure they know it’s available in your, in your Instagram, you know, make sure you’re talking about it, that kind of thing. Um, but that’s going to be really, I mean, that’s really the only surefire way. Um, unless you are putting some budget behind serious budget behind your leads and then getting all those in delay launching your retargeting budget for a little while and get up to a thousand people.

So maybe it took you 30 or 60 days to get a thousand people and then in your warm audience, you retarget for the last. Maybe 90 days of anyone who’s downloaded or something like that. You can kind of hack a little bit around it. Um, but the true answer is that they would have to put a good bit of budget behind it to get there.

Ashley: And I think maybe something to think about. I know this is like a makeup thing, but one thing that I had to learn the hard way is that I was pigeonholing my audience into they have to do this and then they have to do that. Like, they can only be in Big Break Club if they’re, they follow this specific whatever.

And the reality is, it’s just not true. If people want to buy from you, why are you turning away their money? Do they really need that? Like, and that’s not something I learned on my own. That was, you know, our, our business coach had to like really nail that into me, but we had a client a couple months ago who specifically teach this, like one skill to moms, that’s all their messaging, all their marketing, 40 percent of their audience base is men.

So like, tell me, please, like, you know, not even just audience based, they’re customer based. Yeah. They’re paying customers. Yeah. You’re right. 40 percent of their paying customers are men who are not moms, obviously.

Amanda: Interesting. That is so bizarre. Okay.

Elizabeth: I know it’s wild.

Amanda: Okay. So you’re essentially saying though, In that scenario, go back to those first two strategies that we talked about at the beginning, where you’re either putting the money behind the leads or you’re doing the traffic retargeting kind of workaround, right?

What? Go ahead…

Ashley: I was gonna say you could do a video views ad too. I know, I’ve been,

Elizabeth: she loves video views. She’s been cracking me up about this. Every single person, she’s like, oh, but you could do a video view.

Ashley: I’m like really loving it right now. You could just do a video. Right? And run a video view to add to it, and then, because you don’t need a thousand people, you could re target anyone who watches this specific video.

So if it’s like, a really good video about whatever it is they need to know before they join your course, then. Okay, now you can ask your question now that I’ve got my video views out of the way.

Amanda: I love it. So, okay, but going back to what you said about Not have it. People don’t have to take a specific route.

When it comes to ads, do you suggest selling just straight to a product, like running ads straight to a product like a course? Or is it better to do the get the leads, get them into your email marketing?

Elizabeth: It all comes back to the 50, the Facebook 50. If you Are you going to pay for that? Because if your course is a thousand dollars and it takes 500 to get somebody in and you have to have 50 of them in a week and you’re, you know what I mean, that is, whoa, you’re spending some serious money, um, which there are people who do that, uh, but.

on just a normal person, you’re probably not going to want to spend 20 grand on ads. I mean, just, just right out the get go. So the other direction is going to be the more used route.

Ashley: Yeah. And also depends on the cost of your product too. So It’s just, it’s like business model. We all have slightly different business models and it works differently for us.

It works differently for our customers. It works differently for our products and our verticals ads are the same way it is going, the ads are going to work differently for you than they work for us. So every single one of our clients is unique in their ad setup. None of them are set up the exact same way.

And maybe to start out with, we might start people on like, we do have like some common strategies that mostly for most people will work. And we’ll recommend those first, but everybody transitions out of it into something different. So it really, you have to run the numbers. You have to sit down and be like, If I have this conversion rate and you have to know what your average conversion rates are or what your industry’s average conversion rates are, and then you have to run the numbers, put a spreadsheet together, like spend a little time on it.

Um, we have our, our business coach puts together spreadsheets like this, like if she sells them, I can give you her information if you want it, but like do that, like run the numbers and, and see, because

Elizabeth: It might be on our Instagram. We actually have the backwards ad calculator linked so you could go in and like click the buttons and add it.

Yeah, I think that’s on our if we don’t you guys.

Ashley: Yeah, if it’s not, I don’t think it is right now that I was saying that if it’s not on our link in bio, anybody’s welcome to DMS and we’ll send them the link because we don’t have a good place to do that. For resources, because the cobbler’s children have no shoes, so.

Amanda: That’s so real.

Ashley: I know.

Amanda: So real. Um, okay. Yeah, that’s so helpful. So, whether or not you run ads straight to a paid offer, depends on how much money you’re willing to put into the ads.

Elizabeth: And how much you’re offering. Right, yeah. If your offer is like 27 or 47, like, sure, you could run them straight through.

Ashley: So, again, that’s another thing.

That’s like a SLO, right? Like a self liquidating offer. Or, I know, um, Funnel Gorgeous is rebranding it this, right now, as the PLM, which is a paid lead. Magnet? Magnet? I don’t think that’s what it is. No, it’s paid lead maker. Paid lead maker is what they’re calling it. So basically it’s, you’re paying for your lead.

And the idea is that people who are willing to spend some money are better quality leads because they’re going to be willing to spend money now, they’ll spend money later. So just like I was saying, business model, that’s a business model choice. You can make a business model choice for something else.

There’s no right or wrong here. Like this is all. morally neutral, you know, and I think a lot of us forget that, but if you did it that way, and we’re teaching the ads in that program right now, that’s why I’m like right on the brain, but we’re teaching that you run sales ads straight to that. So that has the immediate Self liquidating offer, PLM.

What are the main offer? And then it has a bump offer, and then it has a one time offer, and then you’re selling something on the backend. So you’re increasing your average order value with those things. So you probably won’t break even on this one offer, but add the bump, add the OTO, add the whatever, and you’ll make way more money doing that than if you ran free lead magnet and then sold into the thousand dollar course or whatever.

Amanda: Mm hmm. Yeah, man, every time I talk to you guys, I just feel like I learn so much And then have a million more questions, but

Because you know so much about this and you guys are just both so knowledgeable, um, I love it. Yeah, I’m so glad that One of my clients actually was like, oh I just learned about these guys and you should check them out And I immediately was like, yes I’m in. Like, I’ve never, I’ve never given someone my money so fast.

Ashley: Oh, that’s so sweet. That is so sweet. I remember that now. Like, that was such a sweet thing, too. You even messaged us, and I was like, this girl’s so kind.

Amanda: Yeah, she was like, I did this free thing that they had, and I tried to find it, and I messaged you. And then the more I looked at your stuff, I was like, you know what?

Forget it. Like, I’m just, I’m in. And then I learned that you guys are both Disney adults, too, and I was like, oh, I’m in for life.

Ashley: Yes. You see, you see my mickey in the back?

Amanda: Yeah. Love it. Um, okay, so Ashley, you’ve shared why you love Facebook ads, but I’m curious, Elizabeth, why do you love Facebook ads?

Elizabeth: Oh goodness.

Amanda: Or do you?

Elizabeth: Um, um, I do, but I think that, um, because you can, you can like take a break and you can, you know, like still be a human being. Cause I think a lot of times we just like work ourselves into a hole. Um, so being able to like, Take a step back. Like I, I took last week off to Ashley’s demise. She was like, please come back.

No, not really, but I took the week off and it wasn’t a huge deal. I mean, you know, like I had to make sure that was done, but, but like our traffic didn’t suffer. Our, you know what I mean? Like those kind of, like our business is still growing. It’s, you know, like, so those things, um, I think if we just keep Thinking about the bigger picture.

I like to just like, every time I get like overwhelmed in the moment, I’m like, okay, but if I like back up three steps, like, is this actually as serious as I’m making it? Um, and I think ads allow me to do that a little bit. Like, okay, let me have some separation from the business because. I don’t have to get on stories in order for people to see my face today.

Like, yeah, it’s just freeing.

Ashley: Yeah. Ways to do that too. Like you could do it with batching. You could do it with automations. You could, I mean, you could do it with email mark. There’s a ton of ways, but Facebook ads just. Are the most controllable. And like I, I know if I pay Facebook, they, my, my people are gonna see it.

It’s not like, well, they might not open it or they might not get the algorithm. No, no, no. I paid for that. like, mm-hmm , they’re gonna see that. So that makes me feel good as the type A control freak that I am.

Amanda: Well, and it just. It can take the batching, all of that, just such the next level, right? Because you don’t have to put out as much content.

That’s such

a huge part of it for me. It’s like, I don’t have to show up on Instagram every single week. Where, you know, previously, it was, okay, well, I want to be at least one post a week. Right? Like, I’m not trying to be constantly on there. I very much teach consistency instead of constancy. But, I can be consistent.

With one post instead of one every week now, you know, it’s, it, it just takes it to the next level, that stepping away, and I think what I love about Facebook ads, although I’ve had to say this a lot lately to clients, potential clients, I am not a strategist, I, like, there’s a reason I’m, I’m in Big Break Club, um, I don’t know anything, and, no, I really don’t, um, and still, Ashley Elizabeth being like, you need a strategy, not just ads.

Ashley: It was one time. It was a long time ago. You’re, I’m so sorry that I put that on you.

Amanda: No, oh my gosh, no, I’m so glad you said it, because it’s what I needed. Don’t be sorry. No, I, I’m all for the, the, the teach, teach me. That’s why I’m there. Um, no, but it’s so true. Like, I, you know, anyways, my point of that being, there’s so much I don’t know.

Yeah. I, I am like at the very beginning stages of figuring out ads, but it’s a good reminder of the fact that business is all just one big experiment. And I feel like more than any other marketing that I’ve ever done, Facebook ads is such a good reminder of that. And that’s something as a type A person that I really need is like, it doesn’t have to be perfect.

You can play around with it. It doesn’t have to be right the first time. That to me. Is a reason that I, I love and hate them. Um, cause I wanna, I wanna be able to just like put a strategy in place and then, and then it’d be good. Right. But for me, it’s something that I need. It’s a good reminder that I need constantly of just like, it doesn’t have to be done perfectly.

Right from the start. You’ll figure it out and there’s no one right path. It’s like, um, geometry. I freaking hate a geometry because like, in algebra, there’s one way to do things, right? And then in geometry, they’re like, well, you could go this way with a proof and this way with a proof. And I was like, my brain hurts.

I just want one path, you know?

Ashley: Yeah, that’s valid. So anyways, okay.

Elizabeth: It’s so frustrating.

Amanda: Yeah, yeah. Which is business, right?

Ashley: Yes. And it’s just like anything you have to pick your hard because like we could choose not to do Facebook ads and our hard would be showing up consistently and finding different traffic sources.

Maybe I would pick putting email marketing more robustly or a better website or SEO are, you know, like we do Facebook ads, but our SEO is in the toilet, basically, you know, like we don’t blog, we don’t, cause it’s a We’ve been a service based businesses for years and we haven’t needed to, to be honest, because we couldn’t take any more than a certain amount of clients.

And so it’s. You just have to pick your hard and do one thing at a time. And if it’s not ads, oh my gosh, we are not gonna judge you. Like, like, we totally get it. But if it is ads and you want some help, like, we’re always happy to help people. Like, especially people who are really trying to make the world a better place.

Because, I mean, at the end of the day, life is so short. And there’s only so much you get to do. And so I don’t know about you, but if I can automate or outsource, hand something off, I want to do it because I would, I, I love my business. I love working, but like, I want to be with my family. I want to be hanging out with Elizabeth.

I want to be going to Disney world, you know, like I don’t, and I think we forget that, right? Like we, at least for me, I have an Enneagram three. Type A, oldest sister, control freak, all the things. And I’m like, I will work, like, I will work myself into a hole. Like I will and have and do, but life is short.

And when you get those reminders of how short life is, you’re just like. It’s not worth it. I’m going to be 80 and I’m going to look back on my life and be like, is this really? I spent my life stressing to the max over a business that has no, like nothing after I’m gone, you know? And I hope that’s not how it is.

Like, I hope there’s something that’s, that stays after I’m gone, but it won’t be Facebook ads. It’ll be the way we treated people and the way we helped our people help other people. And it’s not the methodology that we’re teaching. It’s the impact it has. And I think that’s for everybody. I don’t think that’s just for Facebook ads.

Amanda: A hundred percent, yeah. I mean, yeah. But, none of us started a business because we were just like, Oh, I really love Like, I didn’t start my business. I was like, I love marketing and like I’ve come to love marketing. That’s not why I started my business. Yeah, yeah. Right. You know? Um, yeah. There so much more matters.

So much more. And I’m also, I’m the exact same way, except that I’m a type one instead of a three or agree. Wanna set a three? Um,

Ashley: I love a type one too. Mm-Hmm. .

Amanda: But like, type A, like, gotta have my Lexapro like, you know, like I am like older sister, like. A

Ashley: little cocktail in the morning of medicines, yes.

Amanda: Mm hmm.

Um, but, yeah, I find myself working myself into a hole all the time, and it is this nice reminder of like, Okay, but does this really matter? No, like we moved out here to Washington a year ago so that we could have more time together so that my husband doesn’t have to work. So there’s all this stuff, you know, and it’s like, it’s so easy for me to get caught up in that.

Oh, but I got to keep working. I gotta grow into business. Like no, I don’t. I could just let it ride. Anyways, okay. That was a whole side tangent. Yeah, exactly.

Ashley: No, I love a side tangent because that’s a You know, that’s what, sometimes what people need to hear, there might be someone right now listening or listening to podcasts or whatever.

And they’re like, oh my gosh, I never thought of it that way. And maybe they’ll stop working themselves into a hole. I mean, are we going to start working ourselves into a hole? Probably not, but maybe less holes. How about that?

Amanda: It comes in waves for sure. Yes.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Amanda: Yeah. And that’s why, yeah. Simpler marketing.

That’s, that’s the whole point is that impact of like, how can you make a larger impact in less time so that you don’t have to spend all of your time on your business?

Ashley: Yeah.

Amanda: Um, Man, I feel like I could talk to you guys for hours. We may have to have you back at some point. For anyone here live with us, this is the last call for questions.

If you have questions about Facebook ads or anything that we’ve discussed for Ashley and Elizabeth, drop them in the chat. Um, and while we wait to see if anyone has any questions for y’all, there are two things that I don’t let anyone get out of here without giving us. First is an action step to take moving forward.

And then the second are book recommendations. They don’t have to be business books, it can be literally anything. So,

Ashley: I don’t know if you sent that in the prep thing, but I would have a list. Okay. I did not. So good. You have book recommendations? Let me get my good reads up, okay? Hold on. I know, for serious.

We’re book people, okay? Okay.

Amanda: We can just link to your Goodreads and people can add you as friends. Well, I’m gonna

Ashley: have to have a disclaimer online if they do that, but, you know. Thanks. All good. It’s all good. Nothing.

Amanda: There’s no judgment allowed here.

Ashley: Okay, no judgment allowed. Um, okay. Action step, though. If you want to get started with Facebook ads and you’ve never done it before, we have an ad starter kit.

It’s completely free for you guys. It’s normally 47, but I, I really think like so many people need this because it’s just a place for you to go and not . Get overwhelmed and just be like, Oh, it could be a little easier than I thought. Or, Oh, I’m just going to pick this one strategy. We gave you baby steps inside of it.

We’re like, here’s a baby strategy. Here’s, here’s a little baby budget. Here’s, here’s some creative you can pick. Here’s a little baby ad copy that you can try. So we tried to make it really simple. Is this going to change your life? Probably not. Is it going to maybe help you get over the initial hump? I hope so.

Amanda: Yeah. Amazing. Well, yeah, we will get the link to that and put that in the description in the show notes for everyone. Thank you, guys.

Ashley: Of course. Of course. All right, book recommendation. Of course, if you have not read A Court of Thorn and Roses.

Elizabeth: That’s A number one. A number one. Must be done. Go do it right now.

Ashley: And then when you’re done with it, read Reese’s Point of View from Mist and Fury. Have you read that?

Amanda: No.

Ashley: Oh gosh. I literally read it in one day. I just, because it’s like a fanfic. And so you have to go like download it. Just google it. I’m sure it’s somewhere like you can find it. But yeah, Reese. Is that how you say his name?

Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Oh my gosh. Okay. Okay. It’s so good. Yes. And then, okay. You tell your book you just read because it was, you were telling me it was so good. Okay. Well. Okay. Wild love. By Elsie Silver. I just read that. It was super great. The Patriot by Jennifer Millican. I don’t read those. I didn’t like these ones.

Um, A Dawn of Onyx. That was really good too.

Amanda: Okay.

Ashley: If you want to link the good read. Oh look, look, this is my, this is literally my screensaver.

Amanda: I love it. I love it so much. Have you seen, did you see the new Kindle colors?

Ashley: I have. I have. But I’m like, I don’t know if I need that. I feel like. I know. I don’t. I just want things to be simple when I’m reading.

Like, I do use my Kindle, but I kind of. Only because I could put it in my little stand and have my little buttons. Be like a little hermit with my little blanket. What’s your recommendation?

Elizabeth: Okay. All right. Well, you have to read Fourth Wing. That’s, those are really good. I mean, I feel like there’s like the top popular ones, but also I really enjoyed the, um, autobiographies from Julie Andrews, uh, Home and the Two Part.

I know. She’s trying to not be judged. Oh, wait. I’m okay. If you want like a, like a, a spicy one, um, I really liked Done and Dusted. It’s like a cowboy romance. Very cutesy. Um, not Demir. Not Demir. No. Um, but it also, there’s one, oh my gosh, what’s it called? Hold on. I literally have like, I have 30 minutes left in the audiobook and I’m dying.

Um, it’s called Huck from Lulu Moore. It’s a hockey one.

Amanda: Okay.

Elizabeth: Good one. It’s a good one.

Amanda: I love it. Wow, you guys gave us a plethora. I love it. I know. And if you want to link

Ashley: our Goodreads, like, just Instagram and we’ll, we will, but we have to, like, vet you first. Yeah. Like, are you related to us in some distant way?

No, you can have it. Yes? Mm mm. Nope.

Amanda: Amazing. I love it so much. Um, okay, no questions have come in. So, for anyone watching this later, if you’ve got a question, drop it in the comments and we will come back and answer it. Thank you guys for being here today. I, uh, Man, I learned so much from you. Still, again, like I said, every time I talk to you and I know that everyone watching did too and listening.

So thank you for being here.

Ashley and Elizabeth: Oh, thanks for having us. Yeah. Thank you so much. It was an honor.

Amanda: And we will link your website, social media, everything in the show notes. So people can find you and check you out.

Ashley and Elizabeth: Awesome. Sounds great.