Why list building is still the most popular type of ad objective

The last few weeks there have been lots of conversations in my peer group about list building and how important it still is for businesses. Especially for coaches, course creators and service based businesses but equally so for e-commerce businesses. 

It made me think about this topic more, and how this information should be shared further and not just kept in my peer group of ads managers. 

So in today’s episode I want to talk about list building and why it’s still the most popular type of ad objective. 

For as long as I’ve been an ads manager, and this goes back more than 7 years, I’ve been talking about list building. At some stage I even had an entire course dedicated to Facebook ads for list building.

List building is still one of the ads that I run for my clients. In fact, it’s the ad I run most for clients. That and retargeting ads. I mostly run list building ads for my course creator and service based clients but I’ve also set them up for e-commerce clients.

So what does all this mean?

List building ads are ads created specifically to get someone in your audience to join your email marketing list so that you can email them about your program or products. 

Tune in to hear more 🎧

Links:

Book a free game plan session
Email marketing benchmarks
Email marketing statistics

Transcript

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Hey there, and welcome back or if you’re new here, welcome to the new school of marketing podcast. The last few weeks there have been lots of conversations in my peer group about list building and how important it still is for businesses. Especially for coaches, course creators and service based businesses but equally so for e-commerce businesses. 

It made me think about this topic more, and how this information should be shared further and not just kept in my peer group of ads managers. 

So in today’s episode I want to talk about list building and why it’s still the most popular type of ad objective. 

For as long as I’ve been an ads manager, and this goes back more than 7 years, I’ve been talking about list building. At some stage I even had an entire course dedicated to Facebook ads for list building.

List building is still one of the ads that I run for my clients. In fact, it’s the ad I run most for clients. That and retargeting ads. I mostly run list building ads for my course creator and service based clients but I’ve also set them up for e-commerce clients.

So what does all this mean?

List building ads are ads created specifically to get someone in your audience to join your email marketing list so that you can email them about your program or products. 

Why list building?

One of the reasons I rave about list building is because getting someone on your email list means that you sort of ‘own’ the list. 

Only relying on social media means that you operate on rented land. You have no control over the social media platforms, which means that you’re at the mercy of the algorithm and can’t control who sees your content. You’re also at risk of losing your account or being shut down. And sadly this happens all the time. 

Getting people on your email list means that you have more control over being seen too, because people check their email inbox every day (well, most people) plus getting into their inbox means that they have specifically given you permission to get in touch and show them what you have to offer. 

Why email marketing?

Email marketing has been around for a long time and the data on conversion rates is amazing. Like I said before, not only do you ‘own’ your email list, you’re also more likely to be seen in someone’s inbox. Of course there will always be people who don’t open your email and the average email open rate is 21.5% in 2022 according to a report done by the CM group. 

Email marketing has a high ROI, return on investment, so it makes sense to invest your time in it. The return is known to be around 4000%, so for every $1 dollar spent on email marketing you can make $40 in return. That’s much higher than any of the social media platforms. 

Also, the global email marketing market was valued at $7.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to increase to $17.9 billion by 2027. (Statista, 2021)

Email is here to stay and it’s one of the strongest marketing performers you can use. 

I see this with my clients too. Emails convert.

So why is list building still the most popular type of ad objective?

Because getting people on your email marketing list is so incredibly valuable!

That said, list building ads have become a lot more expensive over the past few years. Especially for B2B marketers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work.

It’s important to know what you can spend on a lead and what your conversion rates are so that you’re not wasting your money. 

For example, if you’re a service provider and your conversion rate is 4% in terms of lead to sale and your service lands you on average $30,00 you know that you can spend a bit more per lead than if you sold a $50 service. 

What your cost per lead should be is all relative because it depends on your conversion rate and your price. 

One thing I know for sure though is that using Facebook and Instagram ads to drive traffic to your landing pages and getting leads speeds up your lead generation efforts. 

That’s why list building is still the most popular type of ad objective and if you pay attention to your Facebook news feed you’ll see many examples of it.

My little tip for you is to take screenshots of ads that capture your attention and start a library of inspiration for when you’re ready to run your own list building ads. 

If you’d like to set up list building ads for your own business but you don’t know where to start, please get in touch with me on a free 45 minute game plan call. Together we can brainstorm ideas for your business and I can help you get started with your own high conversion, profitable Facebook ads. 

You’ll find the links in the show notes. 

https://www.biancamckenzie.com/game-plan/

https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-stats

Outro

That’s it for this week, thanks for joining me on this episode of the New School of Marketing podcast, I hope this episode was helpful and I can’t wait to share more marketing tips with you next week. 

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level with Facebook and Instagram advertising, make sure you visit www.newschoolofmarketing.com to download practical free resources, plus subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. Until next time, take care and market your business every day.