Esthetician Podcast; Business tips for Beauty professionals

097: Esthetician Ads that Actually Book Clients: $5 Strategy

• Kari Jo

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We break down how estheticians can turn $5 per day into steady bookings using Meta’s ad objectives, smart creative, and a two-step retargeting funnel that builds trust. Robin shares practical benchmarks, simple scripts for Messenger, and a repeatable system you can run yourself.

• big budget myth and why boost fails
• choosing objectives that match outcomes
• creative that works with sound off
• hooks and headlines that earn clicks
• mixing images and video post Andromeda
• building a two-step local funnel
• retargeting viewers and engagers
• simple DM scripts that convert
• metrics that matter such as CTR and CPL
• ROI thinking and lifetime value
• ways to learn ads inside Robin’s membership
• book recommendation for building your business

Grab my book today. It will make a great holiday stuffing stuffer. Send it to your husband, tell him you want it. HERE is the link - https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Prosperity-Growing-Aesthetician-Business/dp/B0DHN31GQT

Hey, thanks for listening. And make sure you like and subscribe and follow this podcast. Leave me a review. It means so much to me, guys.

You can find Robyn at Robynthebrilliant.com
askrobyn@robynthebrilliant.com



To learn more about Kari Jo visit: https://www.karijopatterson.com

Want to do a live Business Breakthrough Audit on the podcast with me?

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Book a Free Discovery Call - https://stan.store/EstheLaunchAcademy/p/free-20-minute-consultation-

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Links You May Want to Check out:

Join the Client Building for Estheticians group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/clientbuildingforestheticians
Check out Kari Jo’s courses here https://esthelaunchacademy.com

Announcer:

Hi, Jana, owner and licensed esthetician of Unalom Aesthetics in Wisconsin. I have a solo practice that was really struggling when I first started out. And I reached out to Kari Jo and did some coaching with her. And I cannot begin to express how grateful I am for everything that she taught me. I have a 98% rebook right now and incredibly busy. I am so grateful for her coaching and her tips.

Kari Jo:

You keep telling me how your ads aren't working, or maybe you've run an ad on Facebook or Instagram and people are clicking, but they aren't booking. Girl, you probably are feeling super defeated. And I totally get it. So today I decided let's dive into running ads. And so I brought in Robin, and she is literally brilliant at breaking down ads into simple, doable steps. Robin, I am so pumped to have you on the aesthetician podcast, in particular, because not only do you know how to run digital ads, but you also have helped your sister was an esthetician. And so you have a background in running ads for aesthetics, right?

Robyn:

Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here as I know how important this work is, and I love helping specifically women help women. That's like a passion of mine. So really, really excited to dig in.

Kari Jo:

Yes, I know. That's I'm passionate about that too. So, okay, so before we dive in, I want to know what is the biggest misconception that you feel aestheticians have about running ads or anybody in general running ads, what's their biggest misconception that's keeping them stuck?

Robyn:

I think the biggest misconception is that people think that you need a big budget. And that's just not the case. You can make a huge impact in your business with a small budget. And when I mean small budget, I mean $5 a day. It doesn't take a whole lot in order to help you reach more people. And so I always put it into terms like this for people who just really don't know what they don't know when it comes to running meta ads. And I'm meta certified, so just Facebook and Instagram is where I focus. So on Meta, particularly, it's not the same for all platforms, but on Meta, you can spend as little as like two to three dollars a day on an ad. And that can reach 500 to a thousand people. And so when you take that into consideration, with a small budget, you can get your business in front of thousands of people, and it can really make a difference, especially if you're getting like two or three people who are interested per day. That equals up to quite a lot by the end of the month, you know, if you're if you're converting the people who are interested. So I always say start small. You'll figure out what works small, and if it doesn't work small, it usually won't work with a larger budget. So spending more money doesn't equal more success.

Kari Jo:

Okay, yeah, because I think I I you get on these Facebook groups and they're like, you can't spend anything less than this, or you can't spend anything more than this. I love that misconception. And I guess my question is this, and I feel like what a lot of people have a question about is what do you need to put in an ad to like make it work? Do you know what I mean? Is it so if it doesn't matter about the money, what does an ad have to have a goal or something specific?

Robyn:

Yeah, yeah. So this is a oh my god, this is such a good question. And there's a bit of running ads that is kind of a science, and part of it that is an art. And it's that combination of the science and the art together that helps the ad be effective. And so a few things. When you're uh I've heard people say, Oh, I boost ads all the time. I run ads, I boost ads all the time, they don't work. When you're boosting a post, that only allows you to have an ad that is the engagement objective. So Meta has a list of objectives, which is the goal that you want for your ad. Boost is automatically defaulted to engagement. And of course, they don't say that because you're looking on the app or you're on your device or something like that. It doesn't go into the full scope of the power that you have when you actually run ads from the ads manager. And so I always tell my small business owners, you've got to get in the ads manager and choose an objective that aligns with your goals. That's not always engagement. Sometimes you do want people to comment, but the ads algorithm will bring you what you ask for. So if you're looking for comments, it's gonna show your ad to people who are most likely to be like, this is great, or like comment. Not necessarily someone that is going to book a call or give you their contact information for you to reach out to them, right? So you get these other objectives in the ads manager. So you want to make sure that you're choosing what you actually want. If your goal is to have someone book a call with you or to have a messenger conversation, those are all options in the ads manager that you don't see when you boost a post. Um so that's the technical side. Now, the bit of the art side, as far as what you say, there are like three components that I'll say are the most important. You have your creative, right? So it's about what you're seeing. When we say creative, we mean like the image or the video. It's about if a person were to see that image or video with the sound off and without reading any of the words around it, would it catch their attention? That's your main focus with the creative. Is are you showing something that is going to catch the attention of the person who would be the best fit for your product or service? So you might not want to show, and this is like kind of silly, but I mean, bear with me, but you might not want to show like a lady petting a puppy if your business is about facials. Yeah. You know? So it's all about like it's the your imagery and what you're seeing in the creative. You want to show something that is directly related to your business, which seems like duh, but people do it. So that's the one, that's one piece of it. Then you have like your headline and like your hook and your headline. Those two pieces, the image, that hook and the headline, are the first things that people see within the first three seconds of them coming across your ad. So is it grabbing them immediately and is it conveying the message that you want them to get immediately within the first three seconds? So, for example, I'm in Charlotte, North Carolina, and for let's say my sister was running a deal for new lash customers. The hook or the image and or the video might be my sister putting the lash extensions on one of her customers, right? And then, like the headline might be like, hey Charlotte, want a new set of lashes, something like that. That might be the headline, and then in the first two sentences, we're gonna get straight to the point so that people know exactly what's going on. We're running a lash deal for new clients, any any set 99 bucks. We want to say what that is, what we're getting at within that it would take maybe three seconds for people to see the ad, read the headline, first two sentences, and be like, oh, I'm interested in that, or oh, I'm gonna scroll. That's the magic sauce. If you can get those things correctly, you'll lead the right people to take the next step you want them to take.

Kari Jo:

Okay, yeah. And I think that makes so much sense because when you do turn the a lot of times I watch my my Instagram without volume. So I see why you're like, turn off the volume, and like what's what is your image actually saying if you turn off your audit?

Robyn:

Yeah, so Meta actually published some data, and that's one of the data points that Meta made a point to share is that half of the people scrolling social media are doing so with the volume off. So make sure your creative says a thousand words without anyone needing to hear anything. And if you are speaking, make sure you have captions so they can read what you're saying.

Kari Jo:

Yes. Have you noticed is there a difference between what gets better results, like a video or a word post?

Robyn:

Yeah, that's an amazing question. And were this maybe 2021, I would say video 100%. But there's been an update in the ads algorithm that Meta uses. There's this Andromeda update, which is a new algorithm that Meta's rolled out since last year. And what we're finding as ads managers is that where it used to be that video content created three times as more uh as many conversions. We're finding that a mixture of creatives like images, graphics, and video in one ad set. And I know I'm using jargon right now, people be like, what is ad set? But just stick with me. Using a mixture actually is the best for you because different people respond to different things, and so you kind of need both now because there is gonna be a portion of the population that sees an image and it's like, oh, this is great. And there's gonna be a portion that says that sees the video and they're gonna be drawn to that. So you just kind of want to make a mixture of different things so you can grab the people that are interested in whatever it is that they're interested in. So mix your media up. That's the best that you can do in order to like just bring you the most results. Mix it up, don't just stick to one.

Kari Jo:

Okay, so like do should we be running almost like two ads at the same time, like one video and one wording?

Robyn:

Yes, like an image with just text, yes, you should. And it's important to note that it doesn't mean that you have to spend double the money in order to do that. So when you get in the ads manager, you'll see that there's a way for you to set your ad up so that you have one budget and you say, I'm not spending any more than this per day. And I want you to test these three to five different ads, and I want you to find which three to five do the best for the audience I'm targeting, and also you can have like five different versions of words, which we call copy. You can have up to five different versions of words as well. And when you run that ad, what Meta will do is Meta will take all of the ad creatives, whether it like it might be three images and two videos, it'll take all of the ad creatives and it'll take all of the versions of copy and it'll start to rotate through all of them and find the combination of creative and copy that works the best for the audience. When the algorithm finds that, it spends the most of your budget on whatever one is bringing you the most of the objective you've optimized for. So let's say you've asked for leads, you want people to fill out a lead form and give you their contact information. It's gonna start testing all of those different combinations together, and whichever combination starts to get the most leads, it'll direct most of the budget to that.

Kari Jo:

Okay. So with your because you ran ads for your sister and helped build her business with it. And so most of my listeners they want to get more clients. What kind of ads should they be running then? Should they be adding running ads for like interaction, like you were saying, or like just straight up direct book call now? Here's the special. You know what I'm saying?

Robyn:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's a great question. This is a personal service, and so people want to be able to trust who it is that they're going to, right? They want to see reviews, they do their research. You're very close. And so, what works really, really well for this business because it's such a personal service, is running an ad that first reaches as many people as possible. So that might be a video view ad or an awareness ad to just reach as many people as possible. And since it's like a local business, then I would do within a certain range of a zip code, right? And then the next thing that you want to do is retarget the people who engaged with that ad. So this is a little bit more advanced, but if you're running an ad for video views and you have like a longer video that's teaching people what to do with their skincare, or if you have aging skin, here's what I recommend, right? And you're going through those details. If you run a campaign that is a video view focused campaign for just people that are within like maybe 20 miles of your location, you'll be able to see in the ads manager how many people stop the scroll, how many people watch 25%, how many people watch 50% of that video, how many people got to 75, how many people watch the whole thing. And then what's best is to retarget the people who watch the majority of the video, right? Because you're able to measure who's interested. Those people have now seen your face, they've now seen your brand or your logo, and now they become warm and you know that they're interested. Then you'll want to retarget those who stayed for you know the majority of the video with a hey, send us a message, either messenger, I love messenger ads, or you know, just a lead form, like book a call or give us your contact information and we'll reach out. So that's what we call a two-step in marketing, and that warms people up instead of just saying, Hey, book these services, they're probably not ready yet. So warm folks up first and then retarget with the second ad.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, that makes sense because you hear all the time like people need to see you like seven times. So the goal is really to keep retargeting.

Robyn:

Yes. That's correct. That's the goal.

Kari Jo:

And that's what people are probably missing.

Robyn:

That's the piece that people are missing. And people, and it's so it's like a very simple concept, but believe I mean, gosh, you know, everybody makes this same mistake is that you're you go about creating content, like your organic content, and then you might have an ad that's running, and you have all these people who are seeing your content one time, and you have no way to get in front of them again unless you're retargeting them, or unless you're getting their email address on that, like let's say you're running one ad and that's just a a lead, you want them to like get a free guide or something like that, and you're getting their email address so that you can get back in front of them. But those different touch points you are impossible for you to get unless you have a way to get back in front of them. So if it's retargeting with an ad or following back up with them via email, you've got to create the atmosphere where you can have multiple touch points with the same person.

Kari Jo:

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. So the goal is, guys, not just to keep running a new ad all the time.

Robyn:

Retarget, retarget. So that you you kind of build this relationship, and then the magic that happens is that once people see you multiple times and over and over, and they see four or five different ads from you, they're like, Oh, I know you when they get on the phone or they walk into your salon, they're like, I see you all over the place. They feel like they know you. So that's what you want to create.

Kari Jo:

Yes, okay. So going back to the very beginning, because one of the things I hear the most, you know, is like, I don't know how much to spend. And you're like, you don't need to spend that much. How do you respond to someone who's like, I don't know how much to spend, how do I do this? What's the best formula?

Robyn:

Yeah, I would say start small, start with what you have, even if it's it wouldn't matter if it's like I'd say like five dollars a day. Five dollars a day is enough for you to create an ad that does like your video view. You could do a video view for three dollars a day and then retarget for two dollars, right? That creates your two-step and that combined with the your five bucks a day, and test with that. And I go with that formula do video views as the sort of top of your funnel because the way you structure your ads is going to follow a funnel. You're not gonna you're gonna reach way more people than who are actually gonna be interested and take the next step, right? So the top of the funnel is always the biggest. So you want to go big with your top of funnel, so you want to use an awareness objective if it's an image or video view, if it's a video with the awareness objective, and then you want to retarget with something that's more focused on conversion that will ask someone to take a step, click to send you a message or to fill out a form. Those are the lead objectives. So I do awareness if it's an image, video views, if it's a video, for the top of your ad funnel. And then for the next step, I would do a lead. Because that at least before you ask people to actually book, that at least asks them for contact information so that you can follow up and have a conversation. If you just did those two types of ads, you would absolutely see an uptick in business or an uptick at the very least of people who are interested and continue to stay in front of those people that reach out, and that follow-up becomes really important at that point. So your follow-up does need to be good.

Kari Jo:

Yes. Cause then I also hear people that are like, Well, I don't know what to say once somebody messages. What do you what do you say?

Robyn:

Well, it depends on what you're offering, right? So let's say you're offering a free consultation and someone reaches out, right? So you've got your video that you're introducing yourself, you're talking all about who you are, what you do, and How you can help them. The ad itself should be talking about a problem that you're solving for them, right? You've got fine lines and wrinkles, you've got hyperpigmentation, right? They've got a problem that they're trying to solve, and you're showing up as the solution. And so when you retarget them or when they reach out to you from your retargeting from one of your ads in there, they usually have a question for you. Like they start the conversation with the questions. If not, there is a way for you to have them answer a few questions in their lead form. So you can optimize for them to enter some details about themselves. Like, what are you struggling with the most? How long have you been struggling with this? What's the best date and time to reach you, or something like that? Any questions you want to start the conversation off with, you can have them answer those questions and then start a messenger conversation. And when you first start talking to them, you want to be conversational. You want to talk to people like you normally talk to people. Like tell me a little bit about what you're experiencing and let them just tell you their problems. If you just leave it open-ended when you first start that conversation, like tell me what you have going on. They'll tell you all the things that they want you to fix for them. And then you can from that point say, okay, so here's what I'm hearing. So you've got you've got hyperpigmentation, you've got some fine lines and wrinkles. Let me show you, or let me talk to you a little bit more about what we do here and what I can offer to help with that. And then go into your go into your services and give all the details. And at the end of that conversation, you can say, How does that sound? Would you like to come in, or can I get you on the schedule? If they have more questions, they'll ask them then. If they're sold, they'll say, you know what, yeah, give them your calendar link. And that's that's it. That's it's as simple as that. But it's really step-by-step. That's how it's just like just like a regular conversation.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, I've I hear so often that like you'll never get a client that will look until they have that conversation with you in that messenger. And so it's like just create that conversation, yeah. You know, and keep it going.

Robyn:

Yeah, and don't be afraid to have the conversations. I think, and especially like just this day and age in the marketing space, we're talking about this trust recession, which I think whoever coined that term is so brilliant because everyone is so scared of everything. They're worried about being scammed, they're worried about, you know, are they going to get the value that they're expecting? And they also want to have a personal connect connection with someone who's going to like be touching their face or touching their body or their skin. They want to connect, even if it's just a little bit. So just them opening that conversation, just them starting the convo, they've already taken a step to show that they're interested. And it's just your job to answer all the questions that they have in order to get them the rest of the way over the line. That's pretty much it. And I know that's when you're first getting started, it can be like, you know, a little scary. But if you become unattached to the outcome and focus on why you started your business, which was so that you can serve. If you approach with a servant's heart, and if they are ready, they're ready. If they're not ready, you can say, Well, here's how we can stay connected. If you have any questions or you you decide you you want to come in, like just message me, send me a DM, I'll be happy to help. Leave it there. High pressure sales is so like 2021. Like, yeah.

Kari Jo:

I love that. Well, so what happens? How do you know if, like, so you run those ads? How do you know if it is broken or not working?

Robyn:

So that's oh my god, that's such a good question.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, because I feel like some people might even, well, I do hear people like are like, well, I hired someone or whatever, and it's not working. How do they know that it's actually not working? Or yeah, give us the goods.

Robyn:

Most people don't know what they don't know when it comes to ads. And that's a really dangerous game to play because when you hire someone, unless they're teaching you alongside them, like what they're doing for you, which I do that. I teach my clients, and a lot of my clients they want to know. I don't expect for my clients to stay clients with me until you know for 20 years. I teach small business owners how to run their own ads so that you don't have to pay somebody else. So if you're hiring someone, find out what they'll be doing to help you learn alongside them so that you know the metrics to look for. And I could tell you the metrics to look for, but if you've never seen the back end of the ads manager, you will have no idea what I'm talking about. So I will just say this: this is what's really important is whoever you're going to hire, make sure that they're explaining what it is that they're looking for so that you can look for it too. And you begin to learn. Even if you outsource it 100% and you have someone else take care of it, you can always go in your own ad ads manager. You can go in your own and you can look at the data and tell what's going on. And that's just basic data analytics. But mainly, there's a rate called the CTR that stands for click-through rate, and that's a percentage of people, the percentage of people that actually click on your ad versus how many people overall saw the ad, right? So if you're looking in terms of marketing, we have what we call CPNs, and that's cost per mil. It stands for the cost for you to get in front of a thousand people. So if you're looking at how much Med is charging you to get in front of a thousand people, Meta will show you how many people you got in front of, that ad got in front of, and then you'll also see a click-through rate. What percentage of people stopped on that ad and performed a click? You want to be looking at around about if you're doing, if it's a really good ad, you're doing great if you have a click-through rate of 3% or better. That means you're you're doing good. That's what that's what we're looking for. And so from there, from the data analytics side, we look at who actually performed the action that you optimized for and what percentage of people did that, right? So we have the click-through rate that's measuring clicks, so we can tell did that ad resonate with them? And then there's the link click-through rate, which is a little bit more specific, but that's how many people click the button to take the action that you asked for. So if it was click the button below to send me a message, or click below to learn more, how many people click that button? That means they read the ad and got to your CTA, which is what we call the call to action. What do you want them to do with this information? When you look at the percentage of people who actually performed that click and got to your lead form or your messenger conversation, you're able to see how effective your ad was. And we don't want everybody, we want to be very, very specific. So again, click-through rate, 3%, link click-through rate around about 3% is good there as well. Right? So that just means like you're on target. If you can get better than that, you're golden. And I always say, like, if you're doing a $5 a day budget for a lead, let's say, if you can get one lead a day for five bucks, what is the lifetime value of that person? They're gonna come in and more than likely spend more than a hundred bucks. And if you do a great job, they're probably gonna come back. So your ROI for such a small investment is really, really good. So I would even say I don't mind spending five dollars a day. If I get one lead a day for five bucks a day, I feel great about that, especially in this kind of business where you you have the potential to have clients spend thousands of dollars with you over the course of a year. So that's what I would be looking for. Out of a thousand people, did I get at least 3% of those people to click on the ad? If you can say that, if you can look in your data and say that you were able to do that, then I'd say you've got a good thing going on.

Kari Jo:

Okay. I love that. That's so helpful. Well, oh my gosh. Okay, Robin, you are amazing at this and you know all the ins and outs. How can my listeners work with you or find you? Do you have a way that you can help them? Tell us about that.

Robyn:

Yeah, so like I said, I teach small business owners how to run their own ads inside of my membership community, brilliant ads. And you can connect with me on socials. I'm Robin the Brilliant on all the platforms: Instagram, TikTok. It's Robin with the Y. And yeah, if if nothing else, just follow me. I teach for free on my social platforms. I go live and show up and teach for free. And also, if you wanted to jump into the membership group, there's a link in my bio.

Kari Jo:

Yeah, well, that is so exciting because I think so many people need help, they need guidance, they need to know what to look for, all of those things. And so I think your membership program is like just ideal for anybody. And I love that you don't have to spend a bunch to get going.

Robyn:

Yeah, I wanted to democratize ads, especially for small businesses, because small business is the backbone of this entire country. So it's changed my life to be able to be in business for myself. And this knowledge of how to run ads has absolutely transformed my business and the business of hundreds of others that I've helped. And so I just love doing this work. It's so much fun for me. So I am just incredibly blessed and grateful to be able to share with you today. So thank you for having me. And if anyone has any questions, send me a DM.

Kari Jo:

Yes, and we will put a bunch of links for how you can find Robin in the show notes below. Robin, thank you so much for coming on. And guys, we'll get you going on some digital ads today. Bye guys. Bye. I want to thank you guys for joining in on my podcast today. And guys, look, if you are looking for a system of how to build your book, I wrote a book. It's called Fearless Prosperity. You can click the show notes below, and you should be able to find a link to going and getting it. This book I poured my heart into, and it's going to give you the steps of like what you need to do in each phase of business. And I break it down into six phases. So you have like phase one where you're like opening your business. Like, what do you have to nail down in that? And then you tend to go to the survival phase and it breaks down what exactly systems do you have to learn in the survival system to then get to the next, which is the growth phase. Anyways, if you are wanting to know what you need to do and you want a book, you are a reader, you want to do this on your own, you want to DIY it, guys. Grab my book today. It will make a great holiday stuffing stuffer. Send it to your husband, tell him you want it. Get the link out of the show notes. Hey, thanks for listening. And make sure you like and subscribe and follow this podcast. Leave me a review. It means so much to me, guys. And I will see you next week on another Esthetician podcast.

Announcer:

Thank you for listening to the Esthetician Podcast with Kari Jo Patterson. Each week, Kari brings you real-world lessons on how to grow your empire. To learn more about Kari's Fearless Prosperity Mastermind Group, one on one VIP coaching opportunities, and more, visit www.karijopatterson.com. That's kari jopatterson.com. See you next week for more insights and strategies on the Esthetician Podcast.

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Robyn Stoney

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