Happy Saturday,
Are you working a 9 to 5 and have an affiliate side hustle like me?
This week, I had a retreat for work. I was told that for three days, Wednesday through Friday, I would be at a cabin, sharing a room with some coworkers and bonding.
To be honest, when I first found out about it, I was totally in a panic. Thinking about the time I would lose working on my business gave me anxiety.
I was being forced to go MIA for three days….
But you know what life happens, and knowing I had the retreat Wednesday through Friday, I spent some extra time Sunday-Tuesday working on my business to prepare.
It was really nice getting to know my coworkers and spending time in nature! We got to spend time on the lake and eat a lot of great food. We even had a Harry Potter themed murder mystery night.
Living in San Francisco, people take the dress-up thing seriously, so I came prepared with my outfit, wand, and cape!
It is important to participate in life, live in the present moment, and give your all to what you do.
I have the same attitude when I work on my business. When I sit down to work on my business, I give it all I have for the time I can.
Thankfully, I just started using Facebook Lead Ads. AND the really cool thing about paid traffic is that you can set it and, in a way, forget it – at least for a couple of days 😊.
Taking the time to set up a welcome email sequence and making sure that your Facebook Lead Ad connects to it automatically, resulting in almost instantaneously delivering your promised gift, and testing it to make sure it works is critical before you go MIA (lol).
Monday was Week 6 and Sophie’s final Facebook Lead Ads class. This class got me thinking, and I really believe that more automated emails will help free up my time and help me provide value consistently. So, this weekend, my goal is to work on extending this automated email sequence. I assigned a tag when people went through the 8 emails, so now I can create another set of emails for this new tag!
And while I am gathering data on my Facebook Lead Ad, it’s a good time to work on it.
Facebook has a lot of tools for looking at statistics to determine if your ad is a “winning ad.”
I wanted to show you my ad and the data thus far:
Let’s look at the above graph from Facebook and break down what the numbers mean.
I started running my ad on May 27th. From May 27th to June 2, 25 leads joined my email list. And currently, it costs me an average of 1.22 to acquire each of these 25 leads. I spent a total of 30.41 dollars. If you take the total spend ($30.41) and divide it by the total number of leads (25) this equals our cost per lead = 1.2164 which I will round up to $1.22.
That’s pretty good, but not as good as I want it to be. My goal is less than a dollar for cost per lead!
It is really too early to make decisions about the ad, I will need to run it for awhile longer before determining if any adjustments are needed and what those adjustments should be.
It is a good habit to check your data daily and keep track. So every morning I get up and look at the previous days numbers and record them in my tracker sheet.
If you would like a tracker sheet of your very own, click here!
After looking at the ad data, you will also want to look at your email statistics….
By looking at these every day you know what is going on, build a really good habit of knowing your numbers, and once we get enough people on our email list, let’s say 100 we can really start making actionable steps to improve.
I made a little video about how I check my Facebook Lead Ad and Email data. You can check it out on my YouTube Channel by clicking here!
The big question is how do you make sure your ad brings in the best results for you in regards to growing an audience and making sales?
How do you increase ROI once people have joined your list?
This week, Sophie did a deep dive into how to get a “winning” ad.
I really appreciate how she pointed out that it’s not all about cost per lead, it’s tracking to see how that lead converts into sales, and how to identify your return on investment.
You are paying money for these ads, and it is important to understand that the goal is to make money, not just spend a lot of money to gather email addresses that don’t convert to sales. This means you really need to make sure you are targeting the right people and making the right offers to them.
Different elements of your ad will attract different types of people.
So it is critical to know your audience, set the demographics and targeting in Facebook, make sure your Ad Copy and the lead magnet being offered solves a pain point or desire of your target audience. Both the copy and the image need to resonate with them.
Another important thing is to make sure that your head magnet delivers on what was promised – the quickest way to kill trust is to have a miscommunication of what you are saying you are giving vs. what is delivered.
To summarize….
Your ad copy and image + lead magnet + email sequence + offer you are making in your emails all need to be aligned. Targeting the right person, solving that person’s pain points, and helping them with their desired outcome.
It is not just about the number of leads or cost per lead; it is about the return on investment. The people requesting the lead magnet open your emails, click on the links, and eventually make purchases.
To determine if your Facebook Lead Ad has a good ROI you will need to be patient because you will need to gather enough data to really understand the ad performance and conversion.
So make sure to wait until you have enough volume to make decisions, give enough time for people to go through your email sequence to build a relationship, and you need to make the right offers.
The better your leads are aligned with what you are selling, the better the results.
Remember that only about 1% will buy from you. Yup, that is it – 1%.
From a number perspective…If you have an open rate of 40%, you will need a minimum of 250 people on your list to make 1 sale.
That is why volume and time are important.
Lastly, remember that if you build a good relationship with your list, they could buy from you for YEARS to come. Keep that long-term vision.
With Ads, you are building your list.
Your list is an asset. Just like the time it takes to build a blog, YouTube, and Social media, this asset is like a garden. If you treat it well, it will grow over time. This is a long-term strategy.
So that’s it in a nutshell. So, time will tell if my ad is a “winning” ad. And don’t worry I am going to let my ad run for a month than have Sophie do a deep dive with me. Documenting the results and sharing it all with you.
If you want to make sure you don’t miss a thing, then subscribe to my email list by clicking here!
And, if you have any questions, feel free to comment below or fill out the contact form above.
And remember, wherever you are on your journey, just keep moving forward. Small steps every day lead to big results. If you want to see all the small steps I am making daily, then continue to follow my blog or check me out on my social media by clicking here.
Let’s ride from rookie to riches together!
To our success,
Alison Blaire
25 Responses
Alison, another awesome post! I can relate to being away from my business and not working on it for a while. Frustrating to not make progress. But I also know it is good to take a break and do something fun to help recharge. Playing catch up with BA, I look forward to learning about FB Lead Ads. You explained everything so well. I will reference this for the future. I always learn from your posts and look forward to them. Welcome back to getting involved in your side hustle 🙂
Jordan
Jordan, If you have any questions or need help with your FB read Ads when you’re ready, please reach out! I’m happy to help in any way I can.
Hi Alison,
It’s great to see how you managed your work retreat while balancing your affiliate marketing side hustle. Your focus on Facebook Lead Ads, automated email sequences, and tracking key metrics shows your dedication to optimizing your marketing strategies. Keep up the strategic approach and continuous improvement – your commitment to building relationships and providing value sets a solid foundation for long-term success. Best wishes on your affiliate marketing journey!
Warm regards,
Ezequiel Wells recently posted…Navigating New Heights: This Week’s Business Progress
Thank you so much, Ezequiel for your kind words and well wishes. Where are you at in your journey?
“Wow, Alison! From Harry Potter-themed murder mysteries to Facebook ad wizardry, you’re living the dream! 🧙♂️✨
Love the way you balance work, play, and data tracking, it is inspiring.
Here’s to hoping your cost per lead drops faster than a Slytherin at a Gryffindor party!
Tony
Yes! Please I would love that for my cost per lead! The ad is doing okay, I’m still giving it some more time to gather data, but I’m excited to say I am generating leads and testing out my emails!!!
Alison, It’s great to hear you made the most of your work retreat while still staying on top of your business! It’s impressive how you prepared in advance and used automation to keep things running smoothly. The retreat activities sound fun, especially the Harry Potter themed murder mystery night. I appreciate your detailed insights on Facebook Lead Ads and the importance of tracking and optimising them for better ROI. Thanks for sharing your journey and tips! Thanks, Atif
Atif Perwiz recently posted…Affiliate Marketing Tools & Resources – What is it and what can it do for me?….Part 1/3
Thank you, Atif, for your kind words. I appreciate you following my journey, and I have been following yours as well. How are your emails and your Facebook Lead Ad coming along?
when I first read that people in San Francisco taking dressing up seriously I knew I missed something. This is the West Coast, we don’t dress up, but then I saw it was for a Harry Potter themed event. Oh yeah, we dress up like that.
Tracking those leads all the way to conversion is so important. We can get impressions, we can get clicks, we can get leads, but if those aren’t turning into sales then something is wrong. Figuring out the right audience and targeting the audience correctly seems to me to be the most difficult thing.
I agree, Nathan. Figuring out the right audience and targeting is difficult, but it is so important. What steps do you take to see if a lead is converting? I have been logging my ad stats and email stats in a tracker and will be doing a deep dive at the end of the month and sharing it here on my blog! I know it takes time to really gather enough people into an email sequence to truly make actionable steps, but doing a monthly review will help guide me, provide insights, and allow me to be able to compare month to month.
Thanks for the breakdown on your subscriber acquisition, Alison. I think $1.22 per subscriber is pretty good indeed. Am I right in assuming that 25 new “leads” = 25 new readers of your blog? In any case, I don’t doubt that someone as methodical and persistent as you will not achieve the conversion rates you want. All the best – Tony
Tony, 25 new leads are leads added to my email list. These leads were not directed to my blog. I exchanged a lead magnet for their email address in an ad I ran on Facebook. When they fill out the form on Facebook, it sends them an email with my lead magnet, then it continually sends emails to build a relationship and make offers. My goal is to have the cost per lead less than 1.00, let’s see if I can make it happen!!!!!
Hey Alison,
Thanks for sharing your recent experiences with balancing work and your affiliate side hustle. It sounds like your retreat turned out to be a pleasant surprise, and it’s great to see you embracing both work and life with such enthusiasm!
Your insights into using Facebook Lead Ads and analyzing data are invaluable. It’s clear you’re dedicated to optimizing your marketing efforts and achieving your goals. I’ll definitely be checking out your video on checking Facebook Lead Ad and Email data—it sounds like a helpful resource.
Your reminder about the importance of aligning ad copy, lead magnet, email sequence, and offer is spot on. Building trust and delivering value to your audience are key components of success in affiliate marketing.
Looking forward to seeing the results of your ad and hearing more about your journey. Keep up the great work!
Meredith
Meredith Moore recently posted…The Power of Free Content
This blog post will definitely be one I shall refer back to for a long time. You explain things so well and to someone who is eager to know how to use FB lead ads, it is invaluable. 25 leads in a week! I don’t know about all the tracking stuff but that sounds like a pretty good result in my book. Thank you for sharing this!
Andy Jacobs recently posted…Virtual Partner Event – April 2024 – Part One
My pleasure Andy, and please don’t hesistate to reach out if you need any help setting up Facebook Ads, happy to help!
Hi Alison,
Great post. Thanks for sharing your FB Lead Magnet journey and look forward to what you learn.
Your reference to Sophie reminding you that when you track the information, you will learn information that will help you target the right people and make the right offers to them.
You will also learn the different elements of your ad that will attract different types of people.
You will also be able to continually refine your audience targeting and use Facebook’s advanced targeting options to narrow down your audience based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.
Testing different segments will help you identify the most responsive audience at a lower cost.
Looking forward to what you learn about your target audience.
Eleanor Hope recently posted…Entrepreneurial Values
Elanor, I will be sure to keep documenting and posting my results. I am really letting this ad ride because I want to gather enough volume to see how my emails are performing and see if I am attracting the right people. I will be sure to keep you posted, and I appreciate your insights.
Alison very informative post! I will be very interested in your results with your ad. Thanks for sharing!
Ken McGarvey recently posted…Can You Really Build Your Future 1 Hour A Day?
Thanks Ken, stay tuned I will be documenting and sharing the numbers and any changes or tweaks I make along the way!
Hi Alison – You did it and you are doing it! This is so encouraging to see you getting a response and I am so confident that it will grow for you. Thank you for being so open and transparent and for being willing to teach those of us that are a few steps behind you. That is definitely me but I may be calling on you in the next few weeks if I cannot get my Facebook lead ad set up like you. Last week’s blog that you produced was possibly one of the most beneficial blogs to help me understand the process in setting up a lead ad. I do appreciate you putting out that video so that I could pause implement pause implement rinse wash and repeat.:) I’m excited to see where this will take you and as I said, it really is encouraging and inspirational for those of us that are wanting to follow the system and process just like you. Have a great day and week!
Ernie, thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words! It truly means a lot to me to hear that you find value in what I share and that it’s helping you on your journey. I’m thrilled to know that last week’s blog and video were beneficial for you, I’ll keep them coming! Don’t hesitate to reach out if you run into any challenges – I’m more than happy to assist you in any way I can.
Hi Alison,
Love your post and find it really helpful. As I’m new to FB lead ads, I’ve got your feed on my RSS, you have a lot of knowledge I can learn from 🙂
You got great results! I’ve had my ad up for a week and now have 10 leads on my email list added. Look forward to your future posts and to see how awesome you ad continues to perform. All the best!
Denny
Denny Medeiros recently posted…3 – 2 – 1 – BLAST OFF 🚀
Hi Denny,
Thank you for your kind words! I’m glad you found my post helpful and added my feed to your RSS. Congrats on getting 10 leads in your first week – that’s fantastic for someone new to FB lead ads! happy to look at your ad. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Keep up the great work!
I loved reading about your retreat experience—it sounds like a something I would have loved! It’s so important to take those breaks and enjoy life outside of work. Plus, a Harry Potter murder mystery night? Count me in! My daughter and I have only recently (This week!) got into Harry Potter so I’m starting to understand it a little more. It’s great to see how you managed to balance work and play by preparing ahead of time for your business. Your approach to using Facebook Lead Ads is smart too—setting it up to run while you were away is genius. Keep up the awesome work and looking forward to your next update!
Cheers to finding that balance and making progress both professionally and personally!
Thank you so much Sarah! The retreat was really fun, and the Harry Potter murder mystery was great! Balancing work and play is key, and I’m happy to hear you liked my strategy with the Facebook Lead Ads. Looking forward to sharing more updates soon!