3 Things I've Learned From 5 Years of Running Ads

In the last couple of months I have been getting a lot of questions about ads.

Specifically, Facebook (Meta) Ads.

Most people ask a variation of three things:

1. How is a good ad made?

2. How do I read the data?

3. How much should I spend?

I have been advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Google for over 5 years now. I remember asking those same questions as if it were yesterday.

Advertising is intimidating because in order to play, you have to pay.

That's why most business owners veer away from it.

I get it.

I hope this article helps you take that leap of faith into advertising. If I had an article like this five years ago, I wouldn't have wasted so much money.

Similar to driving from Minneapolis to Denver, there isn't one right way to do it. There are plenty of roads to take. But so long as I:

• Go forward.

• Go west (and a little south).

• Follow the signs.

I'll make it to Denver at some point.

My principles below are the same. So long as I follow them, I have successful ad campaigns at some point.

Overtime, I've just figured out how to use a repeatable map, a compass and drive a V12 Lamborghini Aventador to reach my goal faster.

Now, let's dive in.

Test Weekly

A good ad is made through A/B testing.

This could be testing different:

• Photos: Interesting parts of your property.

• Headlines: Your pitch.

• Demographics: Your guest avatar.

• Time of day: When your guest avatar is in that "buying mood."

And more. There are so many different things to test.

For example, this is usually how I start a new advertising campaign:

1. I test 16-20 different headlines and find the winning three.

2. Then, I take those winning three headlines and pair them with 16-20 images or videos.

3. After I have nine winning ads (3x3), I layout the next variables to test based on the data I collect.

I don’t go more than a week without testing a new variable.

Once I even find a good ad that gives a nice return, I'm always testing on the backend because at some point soon...

That good ad will get worn out.

Set Up Tracking 

This may seem obvious, but I didn't do it when I started and I feel like I'm not the only one.

If I am, then i'm a dum dum.

If I want bookings, I need to tell Google or Facebook that their goal is to get someone to click that “book now” button.

I do this using either:

1. The Meta Pixel (Facebook and Instagram Ads)

2. The Google Conversion Tag (Google Ads)

I'm not going to go into detail on how to install those items, so I'll link my favorite videos at the bottom.

I really want to drill this point home because it's super important.

Without tracking, you won't know ads are working and you'll get sad 😭 .

Avoid getting sad and spend the time to learn how the tracking codes work.

It is THEE way to measure success.

Set Guardrails

I used to freakout once I started a campaign and saw the bill rack up.

Now I have a 30 day trial period.

I will spend the bare minimum needed to understand, “is this ad channel going to work for me?"

If not, then I try a different channel.

Here's how to find your bare minimum cost:

1. Figure out how much a single click to your website costs. You can do this for less than $10.

2. Multiply that by 10, and set this number as your daily budget.

3. Run the campaign for 30 days.

Here's a real life example from a vacation rental property management client of mine.

1. It costs them $0.62 per website click right now.

2. That's $6.20 per day in ad spend.

3. They should get roughly 300 website visits in a month.

If nothing had happened from those 300 visits, I would've suggested that we try a different channel. Since they got bookings, we stayed with it.

Note: I am still testing weekly during that first month.

Allow yourself guardrails. Not all channels are created equal.

I've Had Advertising Anxiety Too.

To be honest. I gave up advertising for a while. I was genuinely scared to run ads for businesses for a long time.

Why?

Because I didn't follow the above three principles.

Now my company runs several ad campaigns in any given month because I:

1. Test weekly

2. Set up tracking

3. Set guardrails

Allowing me to repeatedly get more back for every dollar spent.

And if you don't give up, you will too.

That's all for today. I'll see you in the next article.

Resources Mentioned:

Learn more about the Meta Pixel by watching this video.

Learn more about the Google Conversion Tag by watching this video.