Where to Start With Paid Ads
In case you missed it, at AdSkills we're now going all-in on Google to get our leads.
I've already got my keyword research doc ready… and I even went live on Zoom with Pro Leaguers to build our first search campaigns.
Exciting times! (For media buyers, at least…)
But with all this conquering new channels talk… our support desk got overwhelmed by dozens asking some variation of the same question:
"Justin, what if I'm just getting started with paid ads? Where do I start?"
Unlike a sales funnel that starts at the top, the paid ads funnel starts at the bottom.
This is because we want the MOST TARGETED traffic first, not the broadest.
If you're thinking the Paid Ads Awareness Funnel looks familiar, it should be.
All we've done is taken Eugene Schwartz's famous 5 stages of awareness and applied the correct ad strategy to each awareness level.
When you first launch a website or new product, the only traffic you'll have is your word of mouth or clicks from your internal email list.
You'd be vain to think all of these people are doing nothing else in their lives at the moment and all they care about is buying from you.
So that's why we start first with retargeting!
We want to maximize the value of every free click you're driving and then later your paid clicks too.
Use Google Ads to retarget any visitors to your page across the entire Internet and then Facebook ads to retarget them in Facebook.
With Facebook, you have two options… I recommend doing both: custom audiences and website custom audiences.
The difference is one is your email list uploaded to FB and the other is people who went to your website and got pixeled.
Now, don't just stop here at retargeting.
Word of mouth and social media drives lots of people to start Googling your brand name and product names.
So make sure you also set up a small Google search ads campaign targeting your name, your brand name, and your product names.
These 3 campaigns should be everyone's starting points and I can't think of any reason why any company would not have these 3 running at all times.
Let's move up to the Niche Aware level...
At this level, your prospects are well aware of their problem, the potential solutions, and the different players in the market.
Kind of like YOU.
You know you need marketing help.
You know paid ads is a solution.
And you know that myself, Jason Hornung, Mike Rhodes, Curt Maly, Billy Gene and others can help you with that.
The best way to start targeting these people is extending your Facebook custom audiences by creating what's called a lookalike audience.
These are people who match 6 or more points of interest with your email subscribers. It's very targeted traffic.
Next, I recommend Youtube ads targeting all the popular channels in your market.
This means as people go to watch videos by other influencers in your market, your Youtube ads will play first.
Finally, the secret weapon which is Twitter ads.
You can target the profiles of market influencers and show ads to all their followers.
Not only that, let's say there is a popular seminar or conference in your space - you can target their hashtag!
That's like being able to have a booth at the event WITHOUT having to pay the cost to have a booth at the event.
Next level...
The solution aware level are people who've done enough research on their problem to be deciding on a few potential solutions.
They might not yet know that you or all the other big players exist yet though.
If you sell a physical item like a book, blanket, kitchen knives, car parts, etc.
Then Amazon or Pinterest ads will be my first reco, because that's where customers go to look first for these kinds of products.
Like Wayne Gretzgy said... Skate to where the puck will be!
For everyone else, and also for you ecom heads, I recommend another Google search ads campaign.
This time you are adding on "buyer intent keywords."
These are keywords phrases that have modifiers attached like buy, best, top, online, near me, review, etc.
For example, if you sell hot tubs you want to drop an ad in front of someone searching "buy hot tub online" or "hot tub seller near me."
Same goes for service sellers.
If the prospect is searching "best facebook ads agency" you want to drop an ad in front of them.
You can do this in Youtube as well and I suggest you do when you are at this stage.
The only difference is instead of a clickable text ad, you're showing them a 30 - 90 second video ad.
Next level...
Ok, now we're getting into the open oceans of paid ads.
This is where the big guys play.
I do not suggest coming out here unless you are a professional, have a well dialed in sales funnel, and minimum $10,000/mo to spend.
At the problem-aware stage, you're reaching people who have just recently determined they have an issue they need to solve.
Could be a ringing in their ears, or a light came on in their car dashboard or something itchy in their pants.
The first thing these people are going to do is hit the search engines.
They don't yet know any solutions so they are going to type in really broad phrases like "Internet marketing" or "stop my itch."
I'd recommend starting in Bing ads because it tends to be more forgiving due to their audience being slightly more likely to buy.
Then when you're ready to open the floodgates add on the same things in Google search.
Finally, the wild wild west level...
In the totally unaware level, you need a totally different strategy than you've been using up until now.
Until now your ads should have been very relevant to your product and the benefits it gives to your customer.
However, in the totally unaware level, they don't yet care.
You need to appeal to what they do care about. Which are trending news topics, and primal desires.
And then you have to strategically tie in that mass appeal angle to why they have a problem that your product is a solution too.
It's a very delicate balance and takes a mastery level of copywriting to pull off.
The levels below can take you all the way up to spending $50,000+ per month. If you factor a 30% to 100% ROI that's about a million per year earned.
In the totally unaware level though you could be spending $50k per day EASY.
But that's a whole different topic for another Edge...