the secret to online advertising

Summary

I’ve spent millions on ads. people ask me for the secret like it’s a targeting hack or a magic creative. it’s not. the secret is you don’t turn them off.

treat ad spend like rent. fixed cost. not optional. the only adjustment is which ads you’re running and how much, never whether you’re running ads at all.

run three types in parallel.

1. content ads. brand awareness, top of funnel, getting in front of new eyes.

2. lead generation ads. capture the email. start the relationship.

3. sales ads. convert the warm lead into a customer.

even when a campaign is hitting 5x ROI, the temptation is to ride it until it dies. don’t. keep iterating, keep testing, keep the engine running. for tracking, HubSpot for CRM, Hyros or Wicked Reports for attribution. ads that are always on, always being improved, compound for years.

Transcript

introduction: my journey with online advertising and initial reluctance

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this, you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey. So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe. If you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. I’ve spent millions of dollars of my own money on online advertising.

And today I’m going to dive into the secrets and what I’ve learned. So maybe you can get better at it and grow your business. This is the Better Human Business Podcast. I’m Jerred Moon. And I have done a lot of online advertising. So when I say I’ve spent millions of dollars of my own money is, this is money that I could have taken out of the business in home as profit. I could have just, it could have just been mine, right?

It’s my money. There’s some people who run ad agencies and they spend millions of dollars of other people’s money like their clients. And then they’ll claim that they, they know a lot and I’m sure that they, they know plenty, but it’s just different. It’s different when your own, you’ve only ever spent your own money. I’ve never ran ads for somebody else. I’ve only ever ran ads for my own company and we have hired that out. I don’t specifically run the ads anymore.

early struggles with tracking and the pivotal lesson learned

I do oversee it, but I’ve learned a lot. And at one point in time I was kind of even known as like the ads guy, but I, I pivoted away from that as fast as I possibly can because I want you to know, I don’t really like digital advertising. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just kind of tedious and it’s not the type of things that I want to focus on a business, but it is very important.

I really would rather be known as the guy who will do anything that’s required to grow a business, you know, so long as it’s ethical and legal and all those kinds of things, but I’ll do anything it takes. And so if I had to learn online advertising, easy day, let’s watch some YouTube videos. Let’s take some courses, let’s hire some coaches, do whatever we have to, because I’m pretty sure this thing’s going to grow my business.

And so I went all in and I learned a lot. I learned so much that I learned more than most will ever know. And again, I don’t feel like I’m the ads guy. I’m just the guy who will do whatever it takes to grow a business, but here’s, here’s what I learned. And this was super early on when advertising is very scary because it’s like, you know, $500 a month is a big deal. You need an ROI, a thousand bucks a month is like any amount is a lot.

exploring tools that transformed my advertising approach

It just comes down to whether or not you’re getting an ROI. And so back in the day when I started online advertising on Facebook, there was no real way to track it. There’s a million ways to track it now, but there wasn’t a great way to track it. And so the only way to know if you’re, if it was going well as almost like radio advertising, you know, back in the forties, it’s like, okay, when I have these ads on, I make more money.

I get more customers. When I have these ads off, I get fewer leads, I get fewer customers. And that’s not a, that’s not a fun place to be at rather actually track it and use whatever software is available. And there’s lots of different ways to do this these days. If you want a couple of recommendations, I have three for you. The first is HubSpot and that’s my top recommendation because you can just see the whole customer journey.

Very awesome. So HubSpot’s number one. Another one is called Hyros. I haven’t actually used that one, but a lot of people do. Fairly expensive for tracking advertising. And the third that I have used and used for a long time before moving to HubSpot was Wicked Reports. Now, Wicked Reports and Hyros are more specific. Like they track ads. That’s what they do. HubSpot does a lot more than that. It’s an entire CRM, like it’s, it’s for helping you run your entire business.

detailed breakdown of the three types of ads every business should run

So they’re not all direct competitors, but HubSpot can do those things that Hyros and Wicked Reports do. So you can track, and I gave you some very tactical ways just now to think about that. But like I said, my biggest lesson learned is like, Hey, when my ads are on, I’m making more money. I’m getting more leads and my ads are off. I’m getting fewer leads. I’m making less money. And so what I decided on at some point was I’m just going to leave ads on.

I’m just going to leave them on. I’m not going to turn ads off and that one singular thing is the biggest secret to getting a significant ROI in online advertising. Did you miss it? Do not turn your ads off. Turn them on. Don’t turn them off. Period. There’s not a lot more to discuss here. You turn ads on and you don’t turn them off. And the reason you don’t turn them off is because you as a business owner just need to get accustomed to spending a specific amount or a portion of your income on marketing and advertising.

The fact that we’re going to get all of our customers for free is hilarious. I would rather spend 47 hours getting four customers than 4,700 bucks getting 50 customers. It just doesn’t make any sense. You’re either going to spend with your time or your money. And I’ve done podcasts on that before, so I’m not going to hash that out, but you’re spending to get customers. You just don’t calculate the cost. And so when you go to online advertising, you’re getting more customers, you’re getting more leads, but now it’s more leverage.

the power of never turning off your ads

So you can actually focus your time on other things. And so when you’re getting accustomed to just spending the money each and every single month on marketing, it’s not like I want you to sit there and waste your money. Let’s say you had a thousand dollar a month. It’s like Jerred said, leave them on. So I’m just going to spend $12,000 a year no matter what. No, if you’re going to spend that money, what’s it going to force you to do?

It’s going to force you to get good at it. It’s going to force you to pay attention. It’s going to force you to change things up. Because if I, if it was just like a tax, like it was just impossible. It’s like, Hey, once you start a business, just so you know, you have to have online ads on and it’s 4,000 bucks a month. And that’s just part of running a business. You can never turn it off.

You always have to pay it. Like you would probably be like, well, I’m going to optimize the shit out of this. I want to get good at it. I want to make sure that I’m actually getting leads and customers from it. So let’s try some new copy. Let’s try some new creative. Let’s try different ad campaigns. Let’s try a different lead magnet. Let’s try a different offer. You would do all of those things if you just had ads on.

how continuous optimization leads to sustained success in advertising

But what happens? People get busy. People get lazy. They turn them off. The ads aren’t working anymore. Another funny thing I see people turn ads off for is like they’ll turn ads off because they’re getting like a five X ROI. Yeah. So in all honesty, I see that all the time. People are getting, they’re like, I kind of really expected like a 50 X or a hundred X. It’s like, where are you getting five X on your money right now?

conclusion: embracing online advertising as a core business strategy

If you go put a thousand dollars in the stock market, where are you going to end up with $5,000 at the end of the month? Like where, like what, tell me which stock is doing that for you. You know, no, no one’s doing that. No one’s five X in their money month over month, over month, over month, over month. Cause if we calm down and calm down that over a year, it’s huge. So people have the ridiculous expectations.

So you just always have to have your ads on the biggest secret. But now let me give you a little bit more tactical, the three types of ads that you should be running. If you’re running online ads to keep this kind of in like an ecosystem of what you want to do. The first type of ad is a content ad. That’s it. It’s content. It could be to an article on your website. It could be to Instagram content.

It could be to YouTube content. It could be to whatever. I do recommend pointing people to your website. So either embedding those things, if it’s Instagram, you can keep it within that platform. But ultimately you’re spending money on getting more eyeballs on your content. And the reason is because this is fairly cheap advertising. You can reach a lot of people and then you just have to dial in the audience to make sure you’re sending your content to the right people.

Because this isn’t as much of a direct ROI type of ad, it’s a little bit harder to track on the ROI side. Some of those trackers I sent will help you figure that out over time. But ultimately you’re just deciding, hey, right now not that many people see my content or see my website or see my brand. I want to 10X the amount of people who see it. And so the easiest way to do that is with content.

And producing incredibly helpful content is the best way to go. The second type of ad that you’re going to want to have out there is a lead generation ad. And I’m not going to get super tactical about which audience is all the other stuff again. At one point in time I was almost like the ad guy, so I don’t want to go down that route again and make this like a Facebook ads podcast. But the second type of ad is just lead generation.

So basically you can re-target the people who are seeing your content. You can just blast it out to anyone. But ultimately it’s like, hey, you saw my content, do you want this free e-book, do you want this free video course, do you want this free newsletter, do you want this free podcast, whatever it is, enter in your name and email address so I can communicate with you further. That’s ultimately what you want. Lead generation ads. So we have content ads and we have lead generation ads.

Now the third and final type of ad you should be running is going to be that sales ad. And that’s the only one people really want to run. They want to turn on ads that get them a customer. But that’s also the most expensive ad that it is to run. It’s the most expensive one because it’s harder to find somebody who needs exactly what you have today and for them to give you money when they’ve never even heard of you before.

Like that’s the hardest ad to run, but that’s where everyone wants to start because they think that’s how they’re going to make money. Now this is the third and final ad you run only after you’ve been doing the other two. And when you throw that out there, it’s a lot easier because people may have seen your content. They may be on your newsletter, you got their name and email address, and now they’re seeing this other type of ad where they can actually work with you.

Maybe it’s discounted, maybe it’s a free trial, maybe it’s whatever. It has to be a good offer, but they sign up, right, and you have a customer now. But you need to be running those three because it makes an ecosystem. And when you have that ecosystem, then you can really be in a position to never turn your ads off. Because if you start with only the third type of ad and you’re spending $1,000 a month, you can very clearly be like, well, I spent $1,000, this ad got me no new customers, I’m wasting money, I turn it off.

But online advertising works. Why would you think that you have some unicorn business that online advertising would not work for? How are you that special? You’re not. Online advertising works, you probably just suck at it. And so you need to figure it out, you need to try harder, you need to do more to get better at it. But when you have all three of these on there, you’re building up an audience, people are starting to see more of your content and engage and realize you’re really helpful.

Then they get on your email list and you’re able to nurture them and communicate with them with whatever content you might be sending out. Then after they know, they’ve seen your content, you’re helpful, they’re being nurtured, they know all these things. Now you might be able to offer something that you have, a way for you to work with them. And they might want to do that because they have gotten to know you and your brand. If you do it any other way, you can, people do it, it’s just going to be more expensive, it’s going to be harder and you’re going to turn your ads off a lot more.

But if you want to run ads and you don’t want to ever turn them off, implement that strategy and try harder.