This Is What I Learned From Spending $3,142,735.39 on Facebook Ads
To grossly simplify a tale of epic proportions, I’ve spent the last 10 years travelling the world.
Together with my beautiful wife (and later our 2 cheeky children), we have visited and lived in around 33 different countries at last count.
Since getting married in the forest one Spring afternoon in 2007, Rebecca and I have journeyed far and wide. From huge cities like Zoo York, to little Nordic islands like Gotland, Sweden. From a cruisey coastal life Downunder, to ancient monuments, jungles, deserts, paradise islands, the top of the icy Arctic Circle in search of the real Santa Claus, and everything in between — we’ve had some wild adventures.
And it hasn’t always been easy.
Needless to say, it’s been one hell of a ride.
I’ve always been a Freedom guy.
Early on I decided that I wanted to earn my money in a very passive (or at least highly leveraged) way, rather than be locked up in a stale carpeted cubicle with a low ceiling over my income, cramping my style.
As a bored High School kid, I dreamed of a nimble existence. One that would allow me to live and work from anywhere in the world. In essence, I wanted something to take care of my finances so that I could concentrate on the things that actually mattered to me — like my wife, travel, music, new experiences, family, friends, food, fun and my ever evolving “spiritual” life.
So school was not for me.
My restless, boyish sense of curiosity and hunger for freedom soon lead me to venture into the intriguing world of business. And I was hooked. From Entrepreneurship, Direct Marketing, Online Advertising and eventually — Facebook Ads.
In my various roles through the years, from Small Business Owner, to Affiliate Marketer, to Startup Founder and eventually Growth Consultant — a large part of my revenue has been generated by leveraging the traffic of the world’s largest social network in one way or another. All while visiting interesting, exotic locations around the planet, and making beautiful connections with all kinds of people. Connections that matter.
My early years were so exciting.
Those were the days of finding my feet as an early member of a new and mysterious tight-knit community, scattered recklessly across the globe. I had become a Digital Nomad.
I have always been fascinated with the influence and psychology of Marketing in general. It still intrigues me how our brains work, and the messages that people actually respond to. And as that intriguing world began to merge with the instantaneous and rapidly growing reach of the Internet, I was in complete awe at the possibilities.
I used to sit in random cafés or lay on a lonely beach somewhere, poring through every single book on Direct Response & Digital Marketing I could get my hands on.
My first ever white MacBook became my own personal Science Lab.
I would spend hours creating, experimenting, testing & tweaking ads and landing pages. I would regularly stay up through the night just to click refresh on my browser, as the traffic and conversion stats updated. It was a private, thrilling game for one — some sort of scientific roulette wheel, as I counted the revenue figures against my Facebook Ad spend on a humble little spreadsheet.
At that time, only one simple metric mattered to me — ROI.
It’s not that I was particularly money hungry, it was more an undying passion to find my Freedom. I knew that too many more failed campaigns and my travel funds would dry up, along with all the fun, and my wife and I would be left homeless on a paradise beach in Phuket.
I remember my tipping point.
Back in 2008, living at a resort in the south of Thailand, I had suffered quite a few financial losses, and my morale was getting lower with each blow. But something in me kept holding on. I was desperate and determined to make this glamorous vagabond lifestyle work. I had grown up in a house of very modest means, and I was absolutely ready for the good life.
My wife, Rebecca and I both had dreams of touring Europe for our first time, but at this point, things weren’t looking too good. Our travel funds were almost completely gone, and it was up to me to fix it.
It was quite literally Rome or home.
I remember thinking,
If I could just work out how to turn $1 of ad spend into $2 revenue, all I need to do is ramp up my ad budget and do it millions of times…
By that plunge pool on the patchy third-world island WiFi (dropping out every 20 minutes), I tried just about everything. And after around 15 losing campaigns, I finally discovered an Ad and Landing Page combination that produced a positive ROI. The feeling of relief that washed over me is indescribable.
We did end up going to Rome, and onwards throughout Europe, returning to visit again multiple times over the coming years.
I had finally cracked the system.
From those early days of cutting my teeth on a social promotion for one of the world’s biggest banks, to campaign after campaign across everything from Mobile Apps, SaaS, Real Estate, Credit Cards, B2B Services, Photography, Health & Wellness Products, Home Improvement Services, D.I.Y. Guides, Local Businesses, Coaching, Events, and even Dog Training — I’ve seen a lot.
Early on, I realised the importance of having repeatable systems and processes that maximise the success of each new campaign I launch. And I quickly learned to never leave my results up to hope.
My huge journey with digital marketing has brought me many successes (and even more failures) through the years — but I wouldn’t change a thing. It has given me so much creative, time, location and financial freedom (and also taught me so much about myself).
Over the years, I transcended the existence of a stressed-out work addict, fumbling in the dark, searching for my freedom, to a become an advertising alchemist, who leverages both time and money to provide an ideal life for my family. I learned the hard way.
My own personal mystery school eventually taught me to balance the worlds.
In my later years, I discovered isolation tanks — that’s a story for another time. But those many hours spent deep in the void of vast nothingness gave me a completely new paradigm, one that made me a bit of a hermit at first, but revealed so many simple yet profound ideas for me to apply in the “normal” world.
But enough of the background. I’ll now reveal some of my findings with you, eager reader.
Yes, Facebook Traffic Still Converts Like Crazy.
There used to be a huge misconception that Facebook traffic doesn’t convert as well as Search.
I’ve heard that from many clients through the years, including one major bank. But I continue to blow that idea out of the water — time and time again.
In my experience, Facebook traffic converts extremely well if you know what to do with it.
I never go for silly vanity metrics such as Likes, Shares or even Comments, and I’m not the guy who runs ads to “strengthen the brand”. Unless of course it directly contributes to sales in a quantifiable way. At the end of the day, if you want your business to grow, we have to increase revenue. And to do that we’ve got to sell something. Facebook Ads can do that amazingly well, despite what you may have been told.
But in contrast to Search traffic for example, Facebook users aren’t usually waiting around to be sold something, so I like to do one of two things in my ads.
a) Deal with price resistance straight away, or
b) Forget about selling altogether.
Deal with price resistance straight away.
This is one of the many ad formats I have developed for my clients. This can be applied to almost any industry/product/service, and scaled to any geo.
This one is used to acquire customers for a local business, but I have different versions of this format for different use cases (both B2B and B2C) — eg. lead generation, user acquisition, client acquisition, webinar registrations.
Don’t be deceived by the simplicity of it. There is hundreds of thousands of dollars, and years of testing in this particular ad format. It simply works.
For example, this little local ad received $59,800 revenue in just 5 hours on a brand new FB Page (with $150 ad spend). And that was to a tiny demographic of less than 200,000. It’s done a whole lot more than that too, across many products, services and industries.
No bad ROI?
Let me break this ad down for you. Here’s how it works…
1. I lead with the price.
Everything changed when I started using the price in the headline. This went against all conventional marketing wisdom, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Most advertisers use the headline to get attention by arousing curiosity, but “clickbait and switch” is not for me, so I thought I’d try something honest. And it worked like crazy. This instantly separates the tire kickers from the buyers. It cuts to the chase by presenting an honest, clear, succinct and appealing offer to the target market right up front.
2. I give an incredible deal.
This part is so simple, but few of my clients truly understand the power of this. It’s like some people are hardwired to greedily try to get the long end of the stick in every transaction. They think they need to milk and squeeze their customer in order to make more money for themselves. But the opposite is true. One of my heroes said it best,
“Give, and you shall receive.” — Jesus Christ
The secret to my success has always been letting the customer have the better end of the deal, and then replicating that millions of times.
“Wealth = Value x Leverage” — Roger Hamilton
Scale the value. Understand that formula, and you’ll never have to worry about money ever again.
I often find myself working with a client as a sort of ambassador for the customer, encouraging them to put together a better deal. I push for more valuable things to be included in their offer to create a true win/win with customers that generates huge profit, while putting good out into the world.
2. I use a mood board as the image.
A picture says a thousand words. That’s why I try to have at least 5 of them in my ad image. By creating a collage of photos, I can demonstrate the end result more succinctly and effectively in one shot. Your ad has one chance to communicate to a busy newsfeed scroller. A mood board rapidly communicates the exact feel of the end result, and singles out those that actually want it. The “end result” is what the customer desires to achieve by purchasing the product/service. In this case — a beautiful garden. My ad image is honest. It basically says, “if you like beautiful gardens, here’s a deal for you.”
3. I ask for a comment.
This really ramps up response. Apart from making it super easy for a customer to take action, it also generates social proof. When other FB users see that lots of people are taking up the offer, they’re more likely to jump on board. It also helps with ad reach. When a user leaves a comment, the post is shown to all of their friends for that mini-viral effect.
4. I take it to messenger.
This is a huge conversion booster. When a user leaves a comment, I’ve been taking the conversation over to FB Messenger where the sales team (or in some cases a Messenger Bot) further qualifies the potential customer, answers their questions, deals with their objections, builds rapport and increases conversion rates.
5. I get a phone number.
After the customer is ready to go ahead, we take it to the phone. Speaking with a real person takes it all up a level. As the customer is already sold on the product/service, we’re usually able to get a full pre-payment or a deposit over the phone, schedule an appointment, make a booking or ship a product. All of this usually happens without ever sending anyone to a URL off Facebook.
3. Forget about selling altogether.
But Facebook is obviously not just for direct selling.
It’s the perfect platform to share valuable, life changing information (and to generate leads in the process).
In this ad example, I’m offering something life changing specifically for CEOs, Founders, Marketing Managers and Ad Agencies who are in my target market.
All they have to do is leave a comment, and I message them my PDF —
“7 FB Ads Hacks To 10x Your Profit”.
Do you think a CEO, Founder, Marketing Manager or Ad Agency might benefit from acquiring that kind of knowledge?
Although it looks like your typical “lead magnet”, the info I send them is so valuable and so profitable that I never have a problem with the relationship from that point forward.
Through regular communications via messenger and later email, some of them go on to become my high paying clients (I get paid monthly to rewrite their FB campaigns). Others just become good friends. Some have even flown us out to shout us dinner or take me and my family sailing on their yacht.
Through our conversations, we help each other gain more financial freedom (away from the desk) to spend more time with our families, and to do more of the fun stuff we love.
Once again, this ad format can be applied to any industry, product or service.
Forget trying to make a sale for a while, instead offer something extremely valuable to your market for free. You’ll be surprised at the opportunities that suddenly open up to you when you become someone who actually helps people without the fear of missing out on your reward.
Obviously, that’s my goal with this post — to help you in some way.
Facebook Ads are powerful. They can rapidly test markets, launch entire new companies (I took my startup from $0 to $11 million valuation in 6 months), rapidly grow old ones, create stars, make you a huge influencer in your field, acquire millions of users (I got 20 million users for my mobile app company in 24 months), and they can even win elections.
They’re so powerful in fact, that these days I am very picky about who I work with.
No banks, politicians, pharmaceutical, mining, gaming, adult or insurance companies these days.
I now choose to help people that put their family first, are honest, and are helping humanity in some way (in or outside their company). Even if it’s something as trivial as making international payments faster.
My personal goal these days is to help people truly find their freedom, and a big part of that is helping to turn surviving into thriving, so that we can all be nicer humans on this little rock called Earth.
And dare to dream, without worrying about survival.
I hope something in my article has helped you already. If it has, will you pay it forward?
Keep living the dream, and may you forever thrive my friend :)
Heath Sanchez
heathsanchez.com
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