9. Expectations vs. Reality- What Facebook Ads can't do

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Episode Summary:

In this episode of "Facebook Ads Quick Tips," Stacy Covitz sheds light on the core functionalities and limitations of Facebook and Instagram ads, equipping online business owners with the knowledge to effectively leverage these tools. Stacy underscores the importance of managing expectations around ad campaigns, ensuring listeners understand what ads can and cannot achieve. Her insights steer business owners towards realistic goals, fostering better decision-making in their advertising endeavors.

Key Takeaways:

• Facebook and Instagram ads effectively drive traffic and expand brand awareness, but their success hinges on a sound business strategy.
• Properly aligned expectations are crucial; ads enhance existing sales funnels but cannot independently generate sales or fix inherent business issues.
• Ads can target specific demographics, facilitating refined audience engagement for better marketing results.
• The job of ads is to direct users to a business's sales platform; the responsibility of conversion lies with the business owner.
• A strategic follow-up, such as lead nurturing, is essential to capitalize on the audience's interest generated by ads.

Notable Quotes:

• "Ads will improve or enhance whatever you already have going on."
• "ADS are the driving force to get traffic, more people to see what you have."
• "Ads won't get people to buy your product; it’s your job to sell the product."
• "Ads can’t fix something that’s not working."
• "Ads aren't designed to always make you money"

Stacy Covitz is a Meta Ads Strategist who dedicates her career to helping online business owners navigate the complexities of Facebook advertising. With extensive experience in the digital marketing space, Stacy specializes in simplifying the often overwhelming process of utilizing Facebook ads to boost online business success. Her expertise allows her to provide actionable insights and strategies that aim to optimize ad performance

Grab my free resource to set up your Facebook ad account!

Transcript

 Hey friends, today I want to talk to you about what ads could do for you and also because this is super important, what they can't do for you or what you shouldn't expect them to do for you.

0:00:45 - (Stacy Covitz): I find this to be super important because I work with clients and a lot of times when I'm talking to business owners, they tell me what they want for their ads and their goals and their budget and all of that. Sometimes it doesn't, doesn't line up. So a lot of times, you know, people that aren't familiar with ads and the process and everything that goes into them might have expectations that they could do a lot more than they can or that they maybe can't do very much.

0:01:18 - (Stacy Covitz): So this episode is for you if you are considering doing ads and you would like to know some basic things that they could do for you. So let's go ahead and start with what ads can do. Essentially, ads will improve or enhance whatever you already have going on. If you have sales and your funnel and your sales process and you're getting leads and all of that already in your business, you just want to scale, you want to make more, you feel like you've tapped out of your current audience, or you just know that if you reached more people that you would be able to scale and make more money. And that's one thing that ads could definitely do. They essentially, ads are the driving force to get traffic, more people, more people to see what you have that you want to show them. If you have a podcast or a website, a store, a product you're hosting, a webinar, wherever you want more traffic, that is a great way to get it, is by using ads.

0:02:35 - (Stacy Covitz): They can interrupt people from their scrolling. So everyone's distracted and scrolling on Instagram and Facebook and having fun. And if you have a good ad, people could stop and want to see what's going on. You could get more recognition for your business. You could run ads that show to a lot of people and show them continuously. And so by the time someone maybe reaches out to you or you reach out to them, they already have seen you. They think you're everywhere. They could build your credibility if you're doing videos that entertain or Educate.

0:03:11 - (Stacy Covitz): And they could be really detailed about who, who you reach. You could have a very specific ideal client and you could actually target those people using Facebook and Instagram ads. That's what ads can do. Now let's talk about what they can't do. And this is super important because a lot of times businesses will hire somebody to do ads. They end up thinking, oh my gosh, you know, my ads didn't work. I think my ads manager was, you know, they didn't know what they were doing or they were terrible or whatever. And it's, it's an easy, it's an easy way to excuse what happened. Right? You can blame the ad manager Sometimes that's true.

0:03:56 - (Stacy Covitz): Sometimes that's true. I'm not going to defend all ad managers, but a lot of times it's because, and maybe this is on the ad manager. If they didn't, if they didn't set expectations. That's one of the things that I really want to make sure that I do when I'm talking to a client or someone who might be a client is to find out what's already going on in their business. So I ask a lot of questions and make sure that the business has all of the elements that are needed in order to have success.

0:04:32 - (Stacy Covitz): And if they don't, maybe this isn't a good time for you. What I really want you to understand is what ads cannot do or you shouldn't expect them to do now, you never know, right? But ads won't get people to buy your product. Ads job. If you have a product to sell, the, the job of the ad itself is to get people to go to your landing page or your sales page or your website or your webinar. And then it's, it's the business owner's job. It's your job to sell the product.

0:05:07 - (Stacy Covitz): They are, the traffic. Ads are what will get more people looking at your website. They cannot fix something that's not working. So if you have an ad running and somebody clicks on it and it's a broken link, that's not the ad's fault, Right? That is a broken funnel, a broken sales funnel, a broken landing page. If they, if they click on the ad, they can't read or they can't see the image because it's not optimized for mobile. And most people are on that now. It's probably 80% are looking at ads on their phones.

0:05:53 - (Stacy Covitz): They can't fix something. Another thing they can't do is if you have a brand new service or a brand new product that you're launching and nobody's ever bought it before, so you really don't know how it's going to go down and if people are even interested in it. You could get a lot of people looking at your ad, clicking on your ad, but that's not going to make them want to buy your product if it's not a product that they want.

0:06:23 - (Stacy Covitz): I hope that makes sense. Also, ads can't always make you a tangible amount of money or they're not just for sales, they're not just to make you money. I hear a lot online. If you've been on the, in the online space for a while or around at all, I'm sure you've heard like, roas, we got 10x, we got this, we got that. Sometimes I'll talk to, to people that, you know, want to, want to run ads and they'll say, okay, well what's your, what's your Roas?

0:06:55 - (Stacy Covitz): What that means is what's your return on ad spend? Well, if you're not selling something, if you don't have a product that we're running an ad to, then there's no money. There's no money. Roas, the ads aren't designed to always make you money. There's different things you can do with ads. Like I had mentioned before, get more brand awareness, be out in, in people's feed a lot, get people to click on your website, get traffic in your brick and mortar store.

0:07:25 - (Stacy Covitz): Doesn't always have to involve a return, a financial return on ad spend. Okay, so you can't, it's not tangible, so there's nothing to show other than, well, you got 2,000 more visitors to your website. Now it's up to you, what did they do there? If they didn't buy anything or sign up for anything on your website, then that's a website issue. Or it could be an audience issue. You might not know who, who the right fit is for your product or service.

0:07:54 - (Stacy Covitz): You could, so ads could get people to sign up for your email list. You could have a great free offer and it's very popular and you could run ads to that and people will sign up. Now here's what ads won't do. Once that person is on your email list, they have your free product. What happens then? A lot of people just don't do anything. So they have this email list that they've built. And then surprisingly enough, we'll say, yeah, my leads weren't good. Well, your leads weren't good because you didn't follow up.

0:08:28 - (Stacy Covitz): You didn't have a nurturer sequence. Once they got your free product, they never heard from you again. So that wasn't the ad's fault. This is just a basic understanding of what ads can do, what you shouldn't expect them to do. As long as your expectations before you decide to run ads are at least you what not to expect when you run your ads. When you're and last episode we talked about what questions to ask a potential ad manager or someone that you're going to outsource this to. You want to know?

0:09:00 - (Stacy Covitz): Well this go this can piggyback on that because your ad manager isn't going to be responsible for sales. Your ad manager is going to ad manager. If they're a strategist and they and they know what what kind of strategies and all the elements that go in to make a successful campaign, then they will get people to click on the ad and go to wherever you're sending them and that's their job. If they're not doing that, or if your ad's not getting anyone to see or click, then yes, let's have a conversation with the ad manager. But if people are clicking on the ad and there's a lot of views and a lot of interest and then it stops, then that's not the ad.

0:09:44 - (Stacy Covitz): That's not the ad manager either. So. Okay, well I would love it if you hit the follow button and I thank you so much for being here. See you next time. Woohoo. You made it to the end. I hope you found this informative and that you can go use something that you learned in your business. Make sure you check out the show notes for all the goodies and resources you could learn more about meta ads. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you next time.