Have you ever thought about Facebook ads for your small business? With all the algorithm changes, many of us are noticing the "pay to play" atmosphere on most social apps and are feeling frustrated. While I share a bunch of ways to organically grow and network, organic growth and methods only work so far. At some point, ads and paid opportunities will help get you that extra mile. Katie Wright recently shut down her boutique to open an ads marketing business, and so I had to bring her on to share what she knows. Episode 124 of the Moments with an MEO podcast is about Facebook ads, and tips to improve your ROI (return on investment).
In this episode, Katie and I talk about:
Check out the Moments with an MEO episode on Understanding Your Ideal Client here.
Connect with Katie:
Instagram
Website
Connect with Britt:
Instagram
Website
Check out MilSO Box here: www.milsobox.com
Have you ever thought about Facebook ads for your small business? With all the algorithm changes, many of us are noticing the "pay to play" atmosphere on most social apps and are feeling frustrated. While I share a bunch of ways to organically grow and network, organic growth and methods only work so far. At some point, ads and paid opportunities will help get you that extra mile. Katie Wright recently shut down her boutique to open an ads marketing business, and so I had to bring her on to share what she knows. Episode 124 of the Moments with an MEO podcast is about Facebook ads, and tips to improve your ROI (return on investment).
In this episode, Katie and I talk about:
Check out the Moments with an MEO episode on Understanding Your Ideal Client here.
Connect with Katie:
Instagram
Website
Connect with Britt:
Instagram
Website
Check out MilSO Box here: www.milsobox.com
Katie Wright 0:00
And then once you find the winners and you're starting to make that return on investment, you're going to turn off all the ones that are losers. So you're not going to keep all audiences you know, that aren't doing so hot. Facebook does say you need at least 72 hours to let an ad run. So there is a part or you turn it on and you leave it, it's really hard not to check your ad manager every five seconds when you first get started. And let it do its thing like it is a really great algorithm. And it is very robust, but it does take time to start to find those people.
Britt 0:32
So welcome, Katie right to the podcast. I am so thrilled to have you here today because we are talking about something that I am personally not good at. I am confident in my abilities and my lack of abilities. And one of those is paid marketing and Facebook ads. So I'm so excited, because you're a military spouse who found your career niche and Facebook ad marketing, and you help small businesses Hello, basically everybody listening to this podcast, grow their own businesses through smart strategic choices. And I have been looking for someone for literally months to do this topic on the podcast. So I am overwhelmingly so stoked to welcome you welcome, Katie.
Katie Wright 1:21
Thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here and geek out about a topic I love.
Britt 1:26
You know, when it comes to Facebook ads, or honestly, like any paid marketing, it can be very, very scary for small business owner to not only make the investment, but know that the investment is actually going to be worth the risk, right, that ROI that return on investment is huge. And so I think with your tips today, because you send them to me before we obviously recorded this, I think your tips today are really going to help kind of ease that stress around investing in paid marketing, but also allow people to feel more confident when they're doing that. So let's start with your story. How did you meet your
Katie Wright 2:06
spouse? Okay, so this one's kind of fun. I was in college and Austin Peay State University, which is the college near Fort Campbell, Kentucky. And my husband was an enlisted soldier at the time. And we actually met at a Bible study. And I knew him for like two years had a huge crush. He was really funny. I love funny personalities. Very charming, cute, but we were just friends for like two years. And then he seemed to wake up and get the memo and asked me out and we dated pretty fast and like got married within a year of dating. So you know, you know,
Britt 2:41
I love that so much. And so what was it like going from knowing someone and like being friends to making it more than that? Was it awkward? Was it natural? Like what was that? Like?
Katie Wright 2:54
We are like best friends now. But I feel like when we first started dating, yeah, there was definitely a little bit of an awkwardness or I was like, man, I've had a crush on this guy for so long. He's like a super extrovert in a big group. But then it was like the two of us. It was like, you know, but we got over that hump. Thankfully, just really quick. I think marrying someone that's also your friend is where it's at, like, if you can't and it's so fun. So yeah,
Britt 3:18
absolutely. So how did you go from where you were in that moment to now like, Did you always know you wanted to do Facebook ad marketing? Like what was that journey for you?
Katie Wright 3:31
So my career journey has been a little all over the map. I graduated from college back in 2004. So it's been a minute. And I've worked in corporate jobs. I've worked for a startup, I've been an entrepreneur, I'm now back in the entrepreneur world. But everything has always been a bit in the creative space, whether it was photography, writing, graphic design. But about four years ago, now I started doing social media management for startup. I worked for them for three years. And the longer I work for them, the more I learned more about marketing and just started getting really interested and how it works. So I started listening like podcasts and books about Facebook ads. And I would just, that was like, what I would do for me time. And so there's, like utilize that stuff at work was super fun to like test things out. And that's just that sort of started in the marketing track.
Britt 4:19
That is wonderful. Now, let's jump into the difference between paid marketing and organic marketing. Because I focus primarily on organic marketing. That's what I'm good at. And so can we just define the difference between paid marketing and organic marketing to start?
Katie Wright 4:35
I'll start with organic marketing. This is what I do recommend that people do first. And this is utilizing all the tools like the social media platforms for free. And I definitely think you should start there. So great job on that. Eventually, it's a good idea if you're ready to start growing and scaling your business to move into paid marketing. But that's when you would start running ads on those social media platforms or Google Analytics like keyword searches and stuff like that. So I think that's definitely something you move into once you figure out, you have an offer that sells. And it might be something that you can amplify what you're already doing with organic, because if it's not working organically, it's not going to work paid all pay does is just put it out there to more eyeballs. And if it's working good on the few or the smaller amount that you can use for free, it's more likely to work, you know, as you get bigger.
Britt 5:29
Absolutely. So organic is free and paid is obviously some sort of investment. What are different paid marketing options? I
Katie Wright 5:38
know today we're talking about Facebook ads, but I know that there are other paid marketing options and different price points as well. Can you touch upon that a little bit? Sure. So Facebook and Instagram go hand in hand, because Facebook bought Instagram, most people know that. But some people think they're separate entities, you can also run ads on LinkedIn is a popular place, depending on your business business to business would probably be more likely to do LinkedIn business to consumer, which is just a business to your everyday buyer. That would be probably Facebook, Instagram, but you can also do business to business there. And then tick tock has gotten really popular, I have not run any ads on tick tock, but I know that organic is also killing it over there. So if that's something you want to try, and then Google Ads used to be really cheap a long time ago, but they got as they got more expensive. And Facebook started doing advertising Facebook became the place to buy ads. So that's sort of the place that I'm going to be focusing on, maybe I'll expand but for now I'm just gonna stay on Facebook.
Britt 6:39
Yeah, and you know, everybody has been noticing the shift on Instagram On Facebook, this pay to play kind of mentality of like, in order for your organic reach to really reach the audience you want. You have to invest, and you have to do paid marketing, which is why I'm really excited that you're joining us today to talk about Facebook ads. And I know that you have three tips for Facebook ads. Let's start with the first one. What's your first tip for Facebook ads? Let's dive into that.
Katie Wright 7:09
Okay, so the first one is to learn how to speak to your ideal client. And actually, I was just telling Britt, before we hopped on, I was listening to a podcast she did recently. And it was called Understanding your ideal client to strengthen your message. So I recommend go listen to that podcast, because she gave some amazing tips and questions to ask yourself, I know you even mentioned in there, people could email you and ask you for that list of questions. So if you haven't done that email, Brett get those questions because she had some really good ones. But basically, even when you start with your organic, you want to start figuring out how to speak to your ideal client. And you can think you know what they think, but you want to narrow it down to one person. And Brett mentioned this the other day, just that if you were speaking to everyone, you're speaking to no one. So you've got to narrow it down to ideally one person figure out, is it a certain gender? Is it a certain age bracket? Is there a certain language that they like to use. And there's a lot of ways you can do that. And one of the best ways is to interview people that you see as your ideal client, just, you know, have a coffee, start conversations with people wherever you're at, like they don't have to be anything super formal, and just start taking notes and even the way that they speak and things like that. So that will help across the board. Again, start with your organic look at your social posts, you know if they're super random, and it's not clear what you sell, like when you go to your bio of your business page, it needs to be very clear, what is it you offer, you want to speak at a third grade level in this department. Some people speak at a super high level, but you want to make it super clear and obvious because when people are on social media, they're in a hurry. And so anytime they have to stop and slow down to like really digest you're gonna lose them. So make everything simple. Clarity beats cute, any day of the week. So just be clear. So that's actually good news. Because you don't have to like bust your self trying to come up with all these, you know, ideas, you know, bring it down, and then speak to that person. And just kind of think of it like catnip. Okay. Catnip worked for cats. So you want to find the copy that works like catnip to your ideal client, okay, it's going to speak to them, maybe not somebody else, but that's okay. Because they weren't ever gonna buy from you anyway. Just be comfortable with that.
Britt 9:26
I love that. So first of all, the episode that she's talking about, it will be linked in the show notes. So feel free to click on the show notes of this episode. And you will find that episode because yes, knowing your ideal client is huge. And I think it's the one thing that like, I know for me, when I started my small business, I rolled my eyes I was like, I just want to help everybody or, you know, I want to help every woman do this and that's not really how you're going to sell them. I love that you were talking about clarity over cuteness because it's so funny. I have lots of clients and I find myself doing the As to I'm guilty of this as well, where I tried to show my expertise through being extra creative or witty or punny. And what ends up happening is that people get more confused, who or even more uncomfortable to ask if they don't get it. So if they don't get it, they're more apt to just move on than to ask you what it means or say that they don't get it. And so if you're talking to someone, especially if your ideal client is not like, I mean, if you're talking to C suite executives, and you know, that kind of thing, then throwing up the terms that they know is huge. Something that I mentioned in that ideal client podcast episode is speak the language of your ideal client. And I love that you mentioned catnip be has at first of all, I'm a huge animal lover, love animals like cats. And it's so true, right? Like, if you're speaking dog treat to a cat, they might sniff it, but they're not going to be interested. Whereas if you're speaking catnip to a cat, they're all over it. So just something to consider and kind of to grow upon. Okay, what's Tip number two, because now we're getting into the really good stuff.
Katie Wright 11:11
So this actually just goes right along with that. But you want to learn how to find your Facebook audiences to test so as you're researching your ideal client, pay attention to things that they like, maybe sort of in the realm of what the offer is. So like, if you're a mom, and you are selling tips to help your baby sleep train, ask them about like, who do they follow, what kind of podcasts are they listened to what sort of shows are they into, and that's going to help you later on when you are ready to set up your ads to find interest that they like. One cool thing about Facebook is maybe maybe you have like a big list, and some of them will be in that there's like a selection of interests, some of them will be in there, and some of them won't. So you want to have like a bunch to pick from. So when that time comes, you just have a huge bucket of audience ideas that you can test out.
Britt 12:03
I honestly think that this can be the hardest part of setting up a Facebook ad is really understanding, okay, who do I want the algorithm to send this to? Because if you send it to the wrong people, or the wrong interests, the wrong audience, then that ROI that return on investment is not going to be as high as if you send it to the right audience. So when it comes to setting up an audience, whether you're a service or product based, does it matter? Does that change the audience? Or is it all really based on your ideal client?
Katie Wright 12:40
It's all based on your ideal client. But sometimes you might find your client in the audience that you didn't realize the longer you task. So maybe your clients very interested in Whole Foods, or something like that. So you might want to like bring in some like side pieces, like the television shows, or things like books they may have read, because that might filter in your client in a way that you didn't know, and, unfortunately, really don't know until you test but you make the best educated decisions you can. But making a great big bank of people were like, This is not hitting, you know, is it my offer? Is there not in there, you notice Facebook being quirky, you know, there's just a lot of things to keep in mind. The more information you have, the better.
Britt 13:23
Wonderful, okay, and then what's your third tip for Facebook ads.
Katie Wright 13:27
So the third tip would be the mindset when you're running ads. So try to think of ads a science class. It's something where you have a hypothesis that you've put research into, you've already researched up into this point, your message, hopefully you've tested your offer some even organically. Actually, on that same podcast we referenced, you mentioned that you'd have found your ideal price point. But you wouldn't have known that at the beginning. First, it was too low, then it was too high, you found that spot that works for you. So try that when you're doing organic things. So that when it does come time to do the testing, you have an offer that you feel like does sell and you've got a little bit of data to back that up already. Because unfortunately, if you don't have a good offer, it doesn't matter what you do, it's just not going to also think about when you're first running your ads, assume that you're not going to make that money back. That is a testing budget that you're going to do for the first couple of weeks, you're going to be testing your audiences. And you're also testing your ads, and maybe an opt in, that you wanted to try that you think might people might click on, well, maybe the opt in isn't working, you want to try something else. So just don't assume we're gonna get any of that money back. But what it's doing is you are finding things that do hit like different copy, and that you're going to try and you are finding audiences that do work for you. So all of that stuff is getting your data you are buying data. So it's not a total loss. But I'd always encourage people not to come up with a budget that they can't lose. Like if you were going to Vegas in gambling, you wouldn't spend money that you didn't have hopefully That's kind of the same way with Facebook ads. But also No, it's still one of the cheapest ways to get in front of your ideal client. I mean, let's say direct marketing, you're gonna spend all this money on flyers that you got in the mail, when you're sending that to zip code houses, you have no idea. But on Facebook, you can be like, I'm targeting women in this age bracket, who are in the maybe the United States or whatever country and you are able to target down in a way that you're just gonna spend way less money than you would old ways of doing marketing. So think of it as like, this is awesome. This is a test and I am eventually going to get to something that works in time if I test it long enough. And just be okay with that. Because people can get real stressed out on the budget. I think when you have that mindset, it'll help take a little pressure off.
Britt 15:46
someone's like, Okay, I'm ready to invest. I'm gonna go all in, like, What should their budget be?
Katie Wright 15:52
When I talk to people, I do recommend having like a 500 to $1,500. And hopefully, you get to a place where you can spend like 1000 to $1,500 a month. And I know that can be sticker shock to some people. Now, there's all kinds of different strategies and price points. I mean, you could technically do $1 a day, you could do five to $10 a day. And maybe that's what you need to do for your business and your budget. And that's okay, it just means it might take a little longer for you to find the audience that works. Sometimes you're buying time when you put a little more money in on the front end, I think it all comes down to sort of like what is your offer? You know that a high price point is a low price point, what is it you're trying to do with your strategy, and everyone's going to be really unique with that. But when I get to a place where I'm helping someone, this ad manager, I am going to recommend, hopefully at least $500 or more would be great.
Britt 16:39
I know you mentioned like you're buying data but like that $500 That's not just for, like having an ad on Facebook, it's for promoting it like you were talking about a certain number of dollars a day. Do you want to just touch upon that? Like, what is it that those dollars go towards.
Katie Wright 16:58
So the dollars are gonna go towards different audiences different ad sets, until you find a winner. And then once you find the winners and you're starting to make that return on investment, you're going to turn off all the ones that are losers. So you're not going to keep all audiences you know, that aren't doing so hot Facebook tests that you need at least 72 hours to let an ad run. So there is a part or you turn it on and you leave it, it's really hard not to check your ad manager every five seconds when you first get started. And let it do its thing like it is a really great algorithm. And it is very robust. But it does take time to start to find those people.
Britt 17:35
That's awesome. So let's talk about a little bit about what you do, because you just left your boutique to do this. So let's talk about that. Like what are you up to? How can people work with you? And where can we connect with you to make that happen?
Katie Wright 17:51
Okay, you can find me at Katie, right marketing on Facebook and Instagram. And you can DM me in either place. And that's a really great way to find me. But I'm going to be working with small businesses, they've found that they do have an offer to sell, they're ready to amplify. And I'm going to be helping them come up with a sales strategy and like a full picture strategy more than just turning an ad on it's going to be what is the point of the ad all the way to that sales piece. So there's a lot to that. It's going to be people who aren't in the budget to work with a very expensive ad agency. But it's going to be probably a lot of small business entrepreneurs who are ready to take that first paid advertising leap.
Britt 18:30
I love that. And I know a bunch of people in our audience are feeling that so they will connect with you. I've got two final questions for you. The first is what does success look like to you? And can you describe a time when you felt successful even if it was just for a moment?
Katie Wright 18:46
So success looks like to me, when you step out of your comfort zone and you try something and explore. I feel like in our culture, sometimes we don't. We get so afraid that we have to be perfect right away, that we don't try the thing that we're interested in. And that has held me back at different times in my life. Just wanted to have it all together before I start something. But success looks like when you are going in a direction and you just take that leap even if it's not 100% Perfect. And see what happens. I think that's very brave. A time that I felt successful, was probably choosing to close down my Lionheart style ecommerce shop. I had been working on it for about a year and a half. And I got to a place where I felt like this just isn't quite the right fit for me. I don't know if you've heard of the Venn diagram, icky guy, but it asked you what are you good at? What do you love? What can you be paid for and what does the world need? And that helped me choose like marketing. I love marketing the most and I want to focus on that. I love the store. It was super cool, but I can't do everything. Do all the things I've got to pick. So I chose to fail it Really, and I felt like that was a brave decision because it was like, Oh, they're gonna be people think but it's like, it doesn't matter. I learned a ton. It was fun. I serve some people and I'm going to serve people in this new way.
Britt 20:11
Can we just talk about how powerful it is that you said that a moment in time when you truly felt successful? was when you closed down one adventure to open another? That is so huge, like the power behind that the confidence and the courage behind that statement is amazing. And I am so here for it. I truly hope everybody rewinds this episode, hit that back 15 seconds button on Spotify, and listens to that like five times, because that is truly entrepreneurship. It's about pivoting. It's about changing. It's about figuring out, you know, what, in this season, and what military spouse hasn't heard of seasons of life? What season Am I in? And where do I need to be right now? And understanding that true connection for yourself? That's so huge. Oh, my gosh, I got goosebumps. That's amazing. I love that. Thank you. All right. Last question. How do you embrace being an M E. Oh,
Katie Wright 21:14
because my husband is in this, you know, crazy career just like a lot of our spouses or partners are and we have to move every couple of years I have found working for myself as an entrepreneur is it's something I would rather do than anything else in this world. And so being brave enough and bold enough to step out as an entrepreneur, try things out. And you know, yeah, be okay, if maybe something isn't quite fitting, pivot and explore the new thing and then pick it up. You know, when you move every couple of years, like don't put it down, keep going and you'd have your own career. It's awesome. I love that.
Britt 21:47
Well, Katie, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day taking time out of building a whole nother business to offer some tips to hopefully get us off on the right track and definitely connect with Katie all of her links are in the show notes. Y'all know the drill by now. But seriously, thank you, Katie so much
Katie Wright 22:07
for having me.