Ep40: How Meta Ads Fit Into Online Offer Growth (And Why They’re Not a Magic Fix) with guest Ash Boston

When to start using Meta ads, how they fit into your bigger strategy, and what to know before hiring an ads manager.

Meta ads and Facebook ads are often positioned as the answer to scaling your online offer - and they ARE an essential ingredient to do this - but for many business owners, running ads leads to frustration, wasted spend, and confusion about what’s actually not working.

In this episode, Jada sits down with Ash Boston, Paid Ads Specialist and Funnel Expert, to break down how ads really fit into online offer growth.

This conversation is for service-based women selling online courses, memberships, programs, and who are wondering:

• Am I ready for Meta/Facebook ads?
  
  
• Why didn’t ads work the last time I tried them?
  
  
• Do I need to hire an ads manager - or would that be premature?
  
  
• What should I be focussed on when using Facebook Ads for my Live Launches
  
  
• What questions should I be asking when hiring someone to help me with my Meta Ads?

Together, Jada and Ash unpack the truth that ads don’t create demand - they amplify what works. And when the foundations aren’t there, ads don’t hide the gaps… they expose them.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why Meta ads don’t fix broken funnels - and what they actually amplify.
• How ads interact with your launches, messaging, and conversion points.
• The biggest mistake online business owners make by running ads too early.
• When using ads makes most sense.
• The difference between organic growth, live launching, and paid traffic.
• What needs to be working before you hire an ads manager.
• Why ads are not “set and forget” - even once they’re live.
• How to use Meta ads as a support tool, not a replacement for strategy.

This episode will help you make informed, aligned decisions about Meta ads - instead of defaulting to them because they’re marketed as the next logical step.

If you’re serious about growing your online offer in a way that’s sustainable, data-driven, and matched to your current business stage, this conversation will save you time, money, and a lot of unnecessary stress.

If you had a takeaway or ‘aha’ from this episode and want to share it with your business besties and community, screenshot and share it on Instagram, tagging me at @jada.businessmentor. I’d love to shout out your takeaways and your support!

Connect with Ash Boston:
Instagram @ashleybostonhq
Website: https://www.ashleybostonhq.com/
Grab Ashley’s generous gift and download her Build Your Daily Leads System in just 5 Days Course (Use your special Code METAADS to get it for FREE): https://www.ashleybostonhq.com/5-day-leads-355964

💬 Let’s connect!
Instagram: @jada.businessmentor
Email: jada@riseandshinecollective.com.au

→ DM me on Instagram @jada.businessmentor if you’re ready to explore launching and scaling your online offer in a more aligned, ease-filled, and higher-converting way through 1:1 Aligned Launch Coaching & Consulting or Holistic Online Business Growth Mentoring.

And please hit follow, leave a review, and share this episode with a business bestie if you’ve found it helpful - thank you in advance!

Transcript

Episode 40. Welcome to the Aligned and Thriving podcast for ambitious female entrepreneurs where we align systems, strategies and self. My name's Jada, I'm your host and today I have a guest Ash Boston joining me and we are talking all things meta ads or IE Facebook ads. So this is perfect for you if you are wanting to get in front of a new audience, if you are in growth mode.

if you're wanting to head into scaling, or if you are just wanting to begin to extend your reach, and you maybe are thinking about doing Facebook ads, or you've just gotten into doing Facebook ads, or maybe you have been having a go at them, but finding it frustrating, or you've even outsourced your Facebook ads and not had great luck with it. We dive into a bunch of really essential aspects around Facebook ads.

and growing your online offer as well as especially how to utilize them through live launches. So let's get into it together.

speaker-1 (01:09)
Hello, Ashley, welcome to the Aligned and Thriving podcast. I'm so happy to have you here today. Thanks for joining me for this episode.

speaker-0 (01:19)
state if I have a man looking forward to chatting to you today it's very exciting.

speaker-1 (01:24)
so Ashley is a paid ad specialist and funnel expert supporting women with courses and memberships in the digital space. So I wanted to bring Ashley in to have a bit of a chat specifically about paid advertising or what a lot of people refer to as Facebook ads.

which is kind of a hangover. It's now really meta-ads, but when we refer to it, oftentimes people talk about Facebook ads still because for such a long time, that's how we referred to them. But all of those things are one and the same. So I wanted to really bring Ashley in to talk about this because I know that lot of you who listen in here are either thinking about starting to use meta-ads.

or paid advertising to grow your online business, or you have started and maybe had struggles with it, or you're not sure about it, or you hear a lot of things about it because they are a whole world. They're a whole world from my experience. And so I thought it would be really cool to dive into being able to ask a few questions to you, Ashley, being a specialist in that area and supporting women like me who are growing digital businesses and also

What I love about what you share is you're very holistic about it as well. Like you're not into the hustle culture, you're not into just post 24 seven and all of the things. And so I love that about what you do and how you go about it as well. So I thought it might be really cool to even start off by asking you. What like where do ads fit into the picture or what do you see as?

paid ads job within the whole of growing an online offer.

speaker-0 (03:20)
great question. And I think that when we are looking at ads, there's always a question that comes to mind. It's always like, well, OK, are you ready for ads? And I think that that can, you know, that question goes in a lots of different conversations. But I will say to someone that if they're not ready,

for ads yet that we need to maybe look at all of the pieces that go into building out ad campaigns and making sure that we have an offer that is sound, that we have our organic audience that are being attracted to those offers, that particularly around if we are launching for the very first time, I think we learn a lot from launching.

organically and doing little Beta rounds instead of just going and throwing money at something that, you know, first of all, we don't even know if anyone wants to buy the thing. And I think that, you know, I like to look at all of the little pieces of the puzzle to make sure that, yes, we have conversions happening, whether that is through a lead magnet or on our sales pages. You know, we have email nurture sequences because ads

aren't just the thing that is going to drive more traffic. Ads can also break something that isn't converting. If we're not already getting those conversions, there's no ad campaigns that are going to make that thing convert. So ads, if we're looking at ads, it is the amplifier of what is already generating leads or generating sales and

I think we get really caught up in like, want to grow this thing really quickly and let's just throw money at it or let's just do ads because we see people talking about, I had like a five or six figure launch and you know, but that's it's not that simple. I wish it was that simple, but it's having all of those little pieces in alignment to what your big core offer is and then using the ads to

to amplify that, if that makes sense.

speaker-1 (05:46)
Yes, I feel like I was stalking you on Instagram one of your posts was talking about how a lot of people see Facebook ads as the thing that is going to convert. But I think I'm getting it right or remembering it correctly that what you're talking about is that ads are an attractor. They're

what you're using to attract people towards an opt-in page or a sales page or et cetera. And like that difference and being able to look at them in that different way and where they fit into that bigger picture.

speaker-0 (06:28)
Yeah, and I think there's so many, you know, if we think of ads like our customer journey, if someone finds us organically on Instagram, do they then follow us? Do they engage with us? Do they then build enough trust to go, ⁓ actually, I want that thing that they're offering for free and I sign up to the email list and then I'm, you know, receiving emails, I'm building that trust. Ads work the same. Like

when you're scrolling through Facebook or Instagram, you're not looking for a solution to your problem. It's the ad that is there stopping you from scrolling and making it. yeah, actually. Yeah, that ⁓ my daughter is not sleeping at night. I would like that guide. ⁓ Real life experience. you're not, you know, you're not. Yeah, you're you're just sitting on you're just sitting there scrolling. And so.

ads work the same way and it's important to have those different touch points along the journey within your ads, whether you're sending them to a landing page, you know, or you're retargeting them or you're live launching. you know, you're then wanting to bring all of your warm audience together to get back out in front of them. ⁓ There's so many different touch points and it takes someone a lot longer to build that trust these days before they

might even buy from us in some instances. yeah, ads are just a small part of it but they can really amplify things when you just focus in on like what's already working organically.

speaker-1 (08:09)
And so you mentioned a little bit earlier around, you know, whether people are ready for Facebook ads. What are some of the signs that someone is ready to start using Facebook ads to grow their online offer or launch or just to start doing that?

speaker-0 (08:31)
So when I work with someone or if someone is like, I want to run ads for my next live launch, I go through and I do a bit of an audit on their funnels. I take a look at what they're converting at. So if their funnels are converting over 20 percent in terms of like a freebie, then we know that, OK, well, there's traction there. That could work as an option.

One of the other things is I like to make sure that we are trying to cover our ad spend when we're running ads. So rather than just running ads to a freebie and our ad spend accumulating until we live launch, I like to find a way that we can cover that cost through an upsell or a little tripwire ⁓ and within the funnel. So we take a look at where can we maybe include that as an option.

And then I also go through their sales page and look at the conversion rates, whether it's into their courses or their membership or their programs, just to really see where things are at, because I've had ⁓ previous clients whose sales pages are like converting at 2 percent. And that is really low and tells me that either one

the wrong type of audience is going to that sales page or two, there's a copy and messaging issue. so there's things that are giving me signs that we need to work on before I will then say, yes, OK, let's run some campaigns for your next launch. And I think another great example.

of this is I had a client come to me at the start of the year. She did a launch in January. It didn't go very well. Wrong time of the year. You know, all those things. ⁓ when I looked at her, she was running ads herself and she was getting thousands of leads come in monthly into her freebie. She had an upsell and I immediately I looked at it.

And I think this is a thing as business owners, we forget to look at the data and to look at how things are performing. in 12 months, she had only had three people sign up to that upsell. And I was like, this is not aligned. This is not an aligned upsell. They were two very different offers that she was putting in front of her audience. know, they were coming in for one thing, but they were getting another thing. And there was a complete misalignment there.

So yeah, we kind of reworked everything and started a bit from scratch there because if you're getting all these free leads, that's not free leads, but if you're getting leads coming through a freebie, that's great. But if they're not converting in your live launch, something's wrong.

speaker-1 (11:27)
Yeah, I love that you're speaking to this. It's what I speak with my clients about a lot and really speak to a lot is how it's even if you, well, first of all, there are a lot of aspects that you need to have in place. It's not just one area. And if we're only looking at the final outcome, we're not seeing the whole picture. So we need to break it down into all of those areas and really look at all of that data.

And also it's really important that that it's actually aligned, that we're kind of working backwards from, well, what is our offer? And then if on a launch event or something, well, what event is going to become fully aligned with that offer? And then backwards from there, well, if we're going to put a freebie out before that, what's the freebie that's fully aligned with that launch event or basically your offer?

speaker-0 (12:10)
when we're walking.

speaker-1 (12:26)
and working backwards because like you said, know, wonderful if you're getting thousands of leads, but if they're not the right leads, then it's really throwing away that money. Or if your ads are working, but there's other aspects that are not working, then again, you're not going to get the outcomes that you're looking for. And so it's so crucial to understand how each aspect fits into the whole picture and also how we need to optimize each.

each of those aspects along the way. Yes.

speaker-0 (12:58)
Yeah, and just because we think something is great because we've put so much hard work into it doesn't mean it's what our audience wants. And I find that a lot. have a membership and I have women in there who have ⁓ like courses and one on one coaching programs. And we have this conversation a lot, you know, like, I'll just give an e-book. Like, I don't have time to read a PDF e-book. Like, does your audience have that time?

You know, like I'm not going to let you go and run an ad to that if I think that it's maybe not something, you know, that your audience will consume right then and there. And I think looking at that and you could run ads to it and look at the data and go, OK, that that didn't work. But I think it's just, yeah, you've got to like look at, OK, what does my audience want? And I love that you say like work back from the big picture. And I said that today, I was like, OK, you want to launch this?

Well, let's work backwards from that. Like what aligns with that? What, you know, so that that path ⁓ all matches and joins that puzzle to where you want them to go.

speaker-1 (14:07)
Yeah. So when you're speaking to those signs to know that somebody is ready to start running ads to grow their online offer or for a launch, it's really a lot to do with whether that, let's say, funnel or that freebie or the launch event is getting some traction with an organic audience is one of the main things that you look at when you're working with people.

speaker-0 (14:34)
Yeah, yeah, because like, and people want to grow fast, you know, like, ⁓ organic so slow. just had someone in my DMs like, you know, it's so hard. I'm not getting any traction organically. But at the end of the day, and actually this this lady just said to me, I have a freebie and I have and I'm nurturing them over seven days, but they're still not signing up to my program. Well, I'm not going to fix that.

just because you can get in front of more people, doesn't, like I said, it could be a messaging thing that, you know, your audience isn't resonating with, or maybe they need to build more trust. Like, I don't know what the price point of that program is, you know, it could be a big investment for someone. So there's, yeah, like your different touch points of, okay, let's first look at your funnel, let's see if that's converting.

Let's look at your messaging. Are there any gaps in your funnels that we can plug? Like, is there anywhere where we're leaving money on the table? ⁓ And then your nurture sequence emails. And then obviously organic plays a huge role in ads as well because it all is, know, meta is checking everything that you're doing. And so you still need to have an organic strategy and you still need to be

building that trust organically. But yeah, it is important to make sure that you are going through each stepping stone or each piece of that puzzle to ensure that, OK, let's give ads a go and let's see. And I think that ads are always a test. And in the beginning, ⁓ always like I'm always learning. And I think that's the beauty of ads is that you can look at the data and you can say, OK,

There's, you know, people are going to my landing page, but they're not joining. Why is that? And so you can always work backwards with ads and you can always look at is it my messaging? Is it my creative? Is it not resonating? And I think that's the beauty about ads. It's it. I was never a data person. I never understood maths and dropped out in school, but

For some reason, when it comes to ads, it gets me very excited. And I just been able to love that you can actually see, you know, what's happening and then figure things out from there on what we need to work on to improve it.

speaker-1 (17:08)
Yes, yes, love your numbers, friends, love your data. I was ⁓ never a maths person or a kind of data person, but I am a total data nerd now when it comes to all of all of the aspects and the data for launching and ads and I love it.

speaker-0 (17:24)
And it's so important and after every launch we all should be looking at our data like you know after a client finishes their launch I do a debrief we go through things like what performed the best because we learn from that and then next time we can do it better or we can go this is what you know worked or this creative or this copy and you can always learn from from

campaigns, ⁓ but you have to look at your data because I see most people don't look at it and that's sort of, you you could be leaving so much on the table there.

speaker-1 (18:01)
Yeah. Successful entrepreneurs look at their data. They make data-driven strategic decisions. This is very important. So if you mentioned there how organic socials are so important in combination with ads, could you speak to that a little bit in maybe a little bit of a technical term or what exactly that actually does?

when you're being very active and consistent with your organic social media and running ads and how that, or how they support each other or how your organic supports your ads. Because I know some people will look to potentially either lean fully into ads so that, or thinking that then they don't need to do so much on social media or

Yeah, I think there's a bit of that that goes on. Or that they won't use ads.

speaker-0 (19:04)
because I can just grow organically. And absolutely, yes.

speaker-1 (19:05)
Yeah, I mean,

No opinions about this and personal experiences and trying lots of different things, but I'd love for you to speak to that maybe a little bit kind of technically or why does that actually matter and how do they help each other?

speaker-0 (19:21)
So I think that we forget that meta is really across everything that we do. But they organic your you have like ratings and scores and your ad account gets, you know, scores put against them and if you're posting on organic socials and you potentially just just for an example, a client, she is a e-commerce coach.

And her Facebook page got flagged because on there she was posting content organically and it sounded like she was a multi-level marketer. Now, she was not. It was just that she was saying, here's how I achieved 10x revenue by, you know, by doing this. But they picked up on that. That then impacted her ad account. And so they are looking across everything that we do.

And if you continually are posting organically on social media, it just really helps to ⁓ everything is like driven by the data. Right. So if you can, you don't need to be posting like every day, just be consistent in what you're posting organically. And I know that I know there are people out there who don't post at all. And here's

what I believe when and I think that as we are scrolling and things like that, pay attention to what you do because when I come across an ad, I may not necessarily go and click on the landing page right away. I might want to go and learn more about them. So I might go to their Instagram profile and I might scroll and look at their content and

If there's nothing there and no one has posted for three months or six months, I'm thinking, are they still active? Or, you know, if I don't see they've got a story up recently or I want to build that trust factor. And to me, that's something that I know I do even when I'm not in marketing mode, I just automatically will go and do that.

And I'll go and consume some of their posts. And then maybe I might see another ad and then I'll go back and maybe I'll sign up to that thing. And so I think that it depends how you want to show up online. How do you want your audience to see you? Do you want them to see you're engaged? Like, I think it's important for me. I want to be posting. I want to be on my stories.

You know, I to me, it's important because I know that as someone who consumes it and watches my behavior, that's what I do. I go and see if this person is active and if their content resonates and all these things. So I think that it is really important to still have an organic strategy. The other thing and the other reason why I ensure that not only me posting, but clients are posting content.

One thing I think about these days when I'm posting is if this resonates with my audience, can I repurpose it into an ad? And that then helps my creative fatigue when I need new creative, I can draw on something from my organic socials. But I'm also using those posts in a strategic way to build trust, to build engagement through campaigns.

It's just another avenue like being able to test different hooks or test different copy, test different creatives. What is resonating with my ideal audience who already follow me? Then I know that I can then take that out to an ad campaign because it's going to resonate with the people that I want.

speaker-1 (23:23)
absolutely. Because really we are in and we're heading more and more into a trust economy with so much AI now. it's always been important, but it's even more important that people can see that we're a real person, that we, you know, that's why video is so important, that we're showing up on stories, that we're doing things like lives or that we're speaking to camera.

so that people can see that we can just naturally talk about the subject that we are promoting and that we have paid offers for. it's, from what I can hear you talking about is it's that works in tandem where your ad is getting out to a new audience and those people who don't really yet know you can stop by kind of your, unquote, because not everyone will see me in the video, your storefront, like your social media, and speak about it like it's your storefront, like you need to be changing your front.

window, right, if you were a physical store, regularly so that people can see that you're up to date and they can get that sense of that building that trust with you when they can see your social media, your organic social media. And then as you're saying, because Metta is across all of those, well, it is all Metta, Instagram, Facebook, all of those areas, then...

The meta is drawing the data and the information from all of that to utilize within your ad campaigns as well. So from that more technical side of things as well. Yeah.

speaker-0 (24:56)
I think you like when you just mentioned there about AI and videos and I my values just purely based on that is I would never maybe I shouldn't say never but for me right now I wouldn't have an AI clone video of me because it doesn't feel aligned to me or my audience even though I'm time poor. Sure it would be really helpful to clone myself.

But it just it doesn't feel it just doesn't feel authentic. And so I think you have to really do consider that like for yourself because there is a lot out there and and you can there may be so many incredible programs out there that that can create great look likes. But I can tell in ads. I know like it looks too good. And so I can tell in ads. And so it's kind of like

a little bit of a, I don't know, I just, I'm not drawn to it. And I think we just have to be very cautious of that. And Meta is obviously getting better with AI, although they have a lot to work on with their AI creatives, but they are getting better and they are going down that route and we obviously can't avoid it. But if it doesn't feel aligned, then you don't have to step into.

that space just because everyone else is doing it.

speaker-1 (26:28)
Yes, or just because Meta has that suggestion to when you put a creative up, if you're listening and you're already in ads and you're already running ads, then you have that option. You will have seen that you can create AI generated versions or it will come up with those. And at the moment, they're not.

They're not so much a match and there are probably other programs out there. But yes, it's that choice and you don't have to use them, I guess. But I mean, we could go on a whole tangent. But the, you know, it's that trust economy, I think with that organic social, it's backing that up and it's that multi touch point, which has forever been around with marketing. think this the touch points just keep on growing and growing in number. That's all these days. So.

If you were to give maybe, I don't know, your top three tips when it comes to live launching, your top three tips for meta ads or Facebook ads, what would they be when it comes to specifically live launching?

speaker-0 (27:35)
so with live launching, obviously we need a runway. So making sure that we're planning out ahead of time, we need to when we're doing a if we're doing a workshop or a master class, then two weeks is typically like a runway into that. We don't want to have too much time for them to then forget about it. And so usually we start around two week marks out from the date. We will have

campaigns, variety of campaigns. And at the moment, with all the changes that have just recently happened again with Meta, yay, I would still recommend testing. So like testing audiences, know, Facebook at the moment is very reliant on using their AI, but I am still getting results utilising other types of audiences like detailed interests and lookalike. If not,

they're performing better still. So just because Facebook recommends something, don't necessarily always have to listen, but give yourself some time. So two weeks, ⁓ know, set up your campaigns, come up with at least, I think, like four different types of hooks and copy because you have to be mindful that people will be drawn in to your offer.

through different challenges that they're going through, different pain points that they might be experiencing, but also to think about the positive side of it. And I like to come up with multiple hooks. I might have 10 that I might create and then have the copy that is in relation to that ⁓ creative images, face-to-face video, testing reels, but that's really where,

when it comes to that your ad spend side of it as well. You can always start off small and then always be increasing. So that's where I would sort of start with. Then once you have people come into your event, then we have like doors open if you're doing cart open for like seven days.

then those campaigns are set up and scheduled in advance. And I think that's the beauty about Facebook is you can go in, you can schedule everything, you can have it all set up and fully automated so that when your doors open, if you're on the masterclass, ads are going live while you're wrapping up and then, you know, they're going out. I think the other thing is to keep in mind that when you're doing doors open, we just want to focus on those warm people that are in our.

community, so we don't want to be running ads to our cold audiences when our doors open. We just really want to get back in front of those people that have signed up that are on our email list that, you know, are on our socials, engaged, maybe they're watching video content and running ads to them. And typically with our doors open, we'll have multiple different types of

ads, we might use testimonial videos, ⁓ we might use face to camera, we might have a video like talking through the program with like green screen and just have like your sales page in the background, you know, getting creative because you've got to get these people to stop from scrolling and be reminded that, you know, this is now open and it's for a limited time.

But it's so important to have that journey when you're life launching. And then, you know, obviously, making sure you've got everything, your emails and all those things, creating that urgency that are in alignment also with your ads. But yeah, I think that's pretty much about the sort of top things that I would.

Focus on when it does come to live launching. You've only got that short window and that short time frame. And if you can find a way during your live launch and leading into that with your opt-in is to try and recuperate some of that ad spend by having a little upsell or a little offer on the thank you page. Just so then I've seen it a lot where they'll throw

tens of thousands of dollars into the launch and then, you know, they may only kind of break even or their return might not be as high. And if you're just sort of starting out with ads, then it's a great way to try to just, you know, bring back some of that money and pay for those ads while you're going through that live launch.

speaker-1 (32:29)
Yes, it's a great tip to cover at least some of your ad spend with some kind of, even if it's a small upsell or bump offer when people are signing up, even if it is a free event that you're promoting. And so what I'm hearing a lot and what I'm experiencing and my clients are experiencing and peers inside the masterminds and spaces that I'm in as well, and you've mentioned it here, is that that need for a lot of creatives, because creatives as in for different videos, graphics.

images, copy, and really starting with a lot of those when you're going out. And especially when you've got that short window with a live launch so that you're starting with a lot. Whereas a lot of people, think, kind of come in and maybe put like, you know, one or two or three ads up. And why is it important then to have a lot of creatives? Because I feel like that's become even more of a theme

speaker-0 (33:25)
Yeah. So

when the Andromeda, fancy word, the update that they've done. basically the way that the platform is working or wants you to optimize is using AI and Meta's ⁓ Advantage Plus audiences. So really

You're not putting in any targeting. You're leaving it very broad. And so the creatives are now becoming the piece of the puzzle that are going to be really meta taking those ads and putting them in front of the right people. Now in saying that, so what they are wanting is multiple different types of creative. So you might have

For example, like your business journey, like the founder story, you might have like an ad about the workshop that you're running. And then you might have a testimonial from someone, you might have an image. And I think this is why your creative and your copy is so important because it's going to choose which ad to place in front of which person.

And so having multiple creatives and copy is really key right now. They're wanting anywhere between 10 to 50 creatives. Now, that's a lot of creative and I still can't get my head around that. It feels overwhelming to me. And then like testing 10 creatives a week. So it's a lot ⁓ where it has shifted.

you know, really to be this AI driven machine where it's going to go and find your audiences for you. But as I said, it is still important to look at what other audiences you could potentially be drawing on. And I said this today in our call that if no one if everyone's going to AI and using Facebook's AI and they're not using detailed interests, then

I might have more of an opportunity there. So I think that, and what I'm finding with this new update is that accounts are performing better using it that have all the data ⁓ because it has that to draw on. It's got the conversions, it's got the metrics in there and the way an ad account learns is through that data.

And that's why it's so critical for us to make sure that we keep that data because it's like gold. It's helping us to figure out what's working and what isn't working. So never delete any campaigns that happened to a client a few weeks ago. Seven years worth of campaigns gone because an agency deleted them all. So, you know, that data is really important. So make sure that we never delete that. But yeah,

it just tests so many different forms of creative because someone will interact with a video. Make sure you have captions on your video if you're talking because if you're like me and have my phone on silent 95 percent of the time, if I if there's no captions, I'll scroll past it. But images like just test lots of different variations, some with text, some without. I like to use like an Instagram story and just put like a

caption over the top and make it really bold and pop and stand out. Sometimes it's the weirdest things that perform better. But I personally love to use images that, you know, like you might have just taken where you're chilling out. It's you know, compared to like a really fancy professional photo shoot. Like, sure, test those. But I find that sometimes it's just the most relaxed ones that maybe you would share on Facebook or that, you know. ⁓

but always, always test and come up with at least, you know, 10 different creatives and making sure that they've all got kind of different hooks and different messaging as well.

speaker-1 (37:37)
Yes, so it's really that Metta is utilising the creatives being the graphics, the videos and the photos with text and also our captions like all of our creatives for our actual ads.

speaker-0 (37:54)
Yeah,

and they're listening to the videos as well.

speaker-1 (37:58)
And it's like, yeah, it's like the SEO, you know, we kind of all understand like, okay, our website has SEO and you know, Google is picking up on the copy and things like that. And so really now AI is utilising all of our creatives to find the information it needs to put our ads in front of the right people. And that's why it's so important to have more creatives now.

speaker-0 (38:20)
It's crazy. Crazy smart.

speaker-1 (38:23)
Crazy smart, crazy smart, but we're still smart too. So I hope everyone will what Ashley has said a few times, which is to yes, be doing that and let Facebook AI be smart and also lean on our own smarts about who we know our offers are good for and still leaning into that option of those specific audiences or putting, you know,

speaker-0 (38:27)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (38:53)
an idea or the age ranges and the different interests in there as well, because you're saying you're finding those are working well. maybe one final question before we wrap up. What kinds of questions should people be asking when they're hiring a meta ad specialist? ⁓

speaker-0 (39:13)
We should have done a whole episode on this.

speaker-1 (39:18)
I thought I'd...

Okay, cool. So what kinds of questions? Yeah, because obviously ⁓ it's a really it's it's a big area. I've done Facebook ads for many, many years and learned a lot about them. But it's and it's ever changing and it is a big area and a lot of people are afraid of them or overwhelmed by them. And obviously when you're going to outsource them, you don't want to be doing them. And

Oftentimes people are outsourcing them because they don't know about them. They don't know how to do them. They don't know about them. ⁓ And so, you know, I'm a big believer just generally as business owners in learning enough so that we understand what we want or how something is going to work and et cetera, even if we're not going to fully learn how to do the thing because otherwise we're passing over and

and we don't know if something's working well for us. And so I thought it would be helpful, yeah, to ask this question to you. What kinds of questions can people be asking when they're not a Facebook ad specialist and maybe they're going to look at getting someone to do that for them?

speaker-0 (40:35)
Yeah, so I do agree. I really do think that if you're just starting out, you should learn yourself at least, you know, even for six months or even just to understand and get a handle on it. It is your business and it is your money you are investing into it. And I you can imagine.

And you've probably seen and heard so many horror stories and it just it kills me every time because unfortunately not everyone out there is an expert in meta ads. But I think the thing just also to be mindful of is anyone, know, these changes that meta have brought out, it is supposed to make things easier.

for us to manage campaigns, for you to manage campaigns. But it's the strategy behind it. And I think that's where we all forget that it's what goes in behind those campaigns that make them successful. Sure, it's the objective you choose and all of those things. But when you're, if you're deciding to outsource it, then

I always ask for testimonials, case studies. I think you can instantly feel whether someone knows what they're talking about in terms of whether they're going to be aligned with your business and your vision. When I work with clients, I want to know what their values are and I want to know what their business goals are and where they want to go. It's not just about the ad component because

You need to look at the bigger picture to get a really clear idea on where your business is heading. And so, you you can interview them. You can ask the questions, make it just like it is an actual job role. they're, you know, I was thinking about this the other day. There's lots of agencies out there who are very e-commerce focused, who are, you know, specialized in and I've

done e-commerce for a number of years, but there's not many, many agencies that really are launching. There's a few OBMs I've trained who offer it as a support to their clients because they didn't want to bring in an agency, pay for the retainer fees. They just want support during their life launches. And I totally, totally get that. But I think you know, like, just

You can go to their socials, you can go to their website, but just ask the questions. But I do really believe that you should have a handle on things. And it's when you don't have a handle on things, I've seen things go completely wrong. The three main objectives that I focus on within a meta campaign are leads and sales. And the only other one that I will utilize for

potentially some brand awareness is engagement or testing creatives and hooks and copy. Other than that, you shouldn't be running traffic campaigns. you you want to optimize for quality and traffic campaigns are not going to bring you quality, unfortunately. So I think it's just like really making sure that you can go into an ad account or your own ad account.

and have a look at things and go, okay, I'm confident I'm getting leads there. This is what it's costing me. They should be giving you a report or like I do a looming video for my clients just so that they can see what's happening and what's going on. Just yeah, it's just such an area that I'm very passionate about because I've just seen so many people being burnt and to rebuild that trust again and to even

You know, I have clients who are like, I really don't want to do ads. Like, you know, I've burnt so bad last time. Like, I even know what I'm doing, but I just, I don't know. And it's because they've just thrown so much money at it and unfortunately, or trusted the wrong people. And find someone who is more of a boutique. Cause you go to those big agencies, you're just palmed off to like a young kid, probably who's out of university.

And, you know, as much as I'm sure they might do an okay job, they're not seeing your goals or, you know, where you want to go. It's just usually that salesperson on the call going, yes, we'll do that. And you're just another number. So, yeah, just be, just do your due diligence. Or if you're looking for someone, reach out to someone that you trust because they will most likely know someone that they can refer you to.

speaker-1 (45:39)
So it really sounds like you do recommend people learn at least the basics to understand about it enough to know whether whoever they're getting to help them is doing a good job. And then to also make sure that that person is going to understand their style of business and that there's going to be some level of strategy. Like if you don't have the skills and the knowledge to know what the strategy is behind the ads, then you need to make sure that you are

hiring that in or bringing that in as well as the person who can actually technically plug in the ads. And of course that piece which is so important is trusting our guts as well and making sure that you're listening to that and looking around. And of course, yes, know, word of mouth, recommendations, talking to your other business besties. But yes, can see maybe the question is more like what are... ⁓

Three red flags.

speaker-0 (46:35)
⁓ I did a post on that the other day because that's...

speaker-1 (46:39)
Well, there you go. So maybe you can share then please how people can connect with you and they can go find that red flag post about what are three red flags when you are hiring a Facebook ads or meta ads specialist and anything else with Ashley. How can people connect with you?

speaker-0 (46:59)
Yeah, so really just probably Instagram, Ashley Boston HQ. My website is the same. I offer some one-on-one strategy packages and then I also have a membership for course and membership owners. And yeah, I love being able to teach this and share it with others so that you can have more impact with your business and more freedom, which is what we all want.

And yeah, meta ads can do that, but we just have to make sure we have the right strategies.

speaker-1 (47:34)
as part of the picture, yes. And would there be some kind of freebie or something like that that might help people getting started with their ads that I could link into the show notes for people?

speaker-0 (47:48)
Yes, I will send you through a program with a coupon code that they can access. They'll be able to access this five videos in there. It is how to get your lead generation campaign up and running. So I'll send that to you and they can access that for free.

speaker-1 (48:05)
Well, that is special. So I will be popping that into the show notes so you can find it there. That's really generous. Thank you, Ashley. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for sharing your time and your expertise and your experience and some good real talk about what Facebook ads are, how they fit into the bigger picture and all of those different areas we've covered. And I invite anyone who's been listening to connect with Ashley. ⁓

speaker-0 (48:12)
Okay.

speaker-1 (48:34)
Reach out ⁓ and leave a review. Let us know what you loved about this episode. Reach out and tell Ashley as well if you're a person who shares on social media and all the things. know, tag us in your stories if you're listening so we can cheer you on and connect as well. But otherwise, thank you so much for being here with us and sharing your time, Ashley.

speaker-0 (48:54)
Thank you so much, Jada it was great to be here.