When Should You Start Running Ads (And What to Do First)

If you've ever wondered whether you should be running Facebook ads or Google ads for your business, or tried running ads and watched your money disappear faster than a Tim Tam at morning tea, this episode is going to save you a lot of heartache and money.

Everyone feels like they should be running ads—you see other businesses posting screenshots of their amazing results, and it feels like you're missing out on this magical money-making machine. But here's the truth: ads aren't a magic bullet, and jumping into them too early can actually hurt your business more than help it.

I'm breaking down exactly when you should start running ads, what you need to have in place before you spend a single dollar, and how to know if you're ready to make advertising work for your business.

This episode will either give you the confidence to start advertising strategically, or save you thousands by helping you realise you're not ready yet.

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Instagram: @bianca_mckenzie

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Transcript

Hey. Welcome to the New School of Marketing podcast. I'm Bianca McKenzie and this is the place where we break down marketing strategies that actually work without the overwhelm.

Before we dive into this episode, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I live and work on, the Palawa people of Lutruwita. I pay my respects to elders past and present and I acknowledge the deep connection they have to this land, culture and community.

Now let's dive in and make marketing work for you.

If you've ever wondered whether you should be running Facebook ads or Google Ads, or you've tried running ads and watched your money disappear faster than a Tim Tam at morning tea, or if you keep seeing other businesses talking about their ad success and you're wondering what you're missing, then this episode is going to save you a lot of heartache and a lot of money.

Today we're talking about when you should actually start running ads, what you need to have in place before you spend a single dollar, and how to know if you're ready to make advertising work for your business.

Because here's the truth.

Ads are not a magic bullet, and jumping into them too early can actually hurt your business more than it can help.

So let's start with why everyone feels like they should be running ads.

You see other businesses posting screenshots of their amazing results, and you get bombarded with ads promising to teach you the secret formula. And I'm doing air quotes here.

And you've got ads managers sliding into your DMs promising guaranteed results.

I know it's all out there. It feels like everyone else has cracked the code and you're missing out on this magical money making machine.

But here's what those success stories don't tell you.

For every business posting amazing ad results, there are probably 10 others who burnt through thousands of dollars with nothing to show for.

The problem is advertising looks deceptive.

Simple from the outside.

You create an ad, target your audience and money flows in. Right?

If only it were that straightforward.

Before we talk about when to start running ads, let's get clear on what advertising actually does for your business, because there's a lot of confusion about this.

So here's what Ads do well: Ads are brilliant at amplifying what's already working.

If you've got a proven offer that converts well, ads can help you reach more people with that offer.

It's like they're a megaphone for your existing success.

Ads can speed up processes that are already happening.

If people are finding you through Google searches, Google Ads can help you show up more prominently.

If your social media content already converts followers into customers, social media ads can help you reach more potential followers.

Ads can also help you test new audiences or new markets more quickly than organic methods.

Here's what ads don't do.

Ads won't fix a broken business model.

If your offer isn't compelling or your pricing is wrong, ads will just help you lose money faster.

Ads actually won't create demand when none exists. They can tap into existing demand and redirect it toward you, but they can't make people want something they don't want.

So they won't substitute for having a proper sales process or customer journey. If people click your ad and then have no idea what to do next, you're wasting money.

Ads won't build genuine relationships or trust like the way organic marketing does it.

So what do you actually need to have in place before advertising makes sense?

Here are the non negotiables.

The first prerequisite is a proven offer that converts. And this is a big one.

You need to know that when the right people see your offer, a predictable percentage of them says yes.

You should have sold your product or service multiple times through organic methods before you start spending money to amplify it.

So how do you know if your offer converts?

You should be able to answer these questions.

• What percentage of people who see your offer actually buy?
• What percentage of leads turn into customers?
• How long does your typical sales cycle take?
• And what is your average customer value?

If you can't answer these questions with real data, you're not ready for ads yet.

The second prerequisite is a clear customer journey.

So someone clicks your ad and then what?

You need a crystal clear path from that click to becoming a customer.

And it could look like something like this.

You got your ad, they get taken to a landing page where they sign up for your something freebie.

Then they get an email sequence.

It could be a sales call and then they convert as a customer.

That's one way. Another way is they click on the ad, they go to your product page,

they buy they're a customer. This is for e commerce.

Another one might be they click on your ad, they sign up for your Lead magnet.

There's an email nurture part of it. Then they purchase which classifies them as a customer. This is like your funnel in a way.

So what happens next?

What you can't do is send someone from your ad to your homepage because then what next?

Whatever it is, you need to know exactly what happens at each step and have systems in place to support that journey.

Your third prerequisite is the ability to track and measure results.

If you can't measure what's happening with your ads, you can't improve them.

So you need proper tracking setup. And that means Google Analytics, Facebook or Metapixel or data sets, it's called. Now you need clear metrics for success, so you need to determine what success looks like.

You need a system for monitoring results regularly.

Don't just like, you know, set it up and then never look at it.

And you need the ability to make data driven decisions.

Numbers talk. This is how you need to make decisions because of what the numbers tell you.

The fourth prerequisite is enough budget to test properly.

And this isn't just about having money to spend, it's about having enough money to get meaningful data.

If you can't afford to spend, you know, a couple of dollars per day, ideally $50 a day if you want to collect leads.

But if you can't afford to spend money on ads, you're probably better off investing that money in organic marketing instead.

So a general rule of thumb, you need enough budget to get at least a thousand impressions and ideally 50 to 100 clicks per week to gather useful data.

And I know that this is kind of like a generic kind of statement.

I tend to look more at leads because that's the work I do.

So you need to have enough money to get one lead per day and you don't know what your lead cost is going to be.

So I generally Recommend at least $50 a day to spend on ads if you are going to generate leads.

Part of me says that because I'm very impatient. Some people do it with $10 a day if your lead cost is less than $10 a day, and that is totally possible.

I recently heard of someone who still gets under a dollar leads.

So you can do it with a small budget, but for a testing budget, ideally you have some money anyway. The point of this is prerequisite number four is that you need enough budget to test properly.

It's not going to work with $1 a day unless you are running visibility ads. But I'm talking about lead ads here.

Prerequisite number Five is you need time and skills to manage them properly.

Successful advertising needs ongoing attention.

You need to monitor your performance regularly. You need to be able to test different ad creative, different copy.

You need to adjust your targeting based on your results if needed.

It's like one of the last things I fidget with.

You need to know how to optimize your landing pages and your sales processes based on your numbers. And this is what I saw recently with a client I was mentoring, someone who thought their ads weren't working, but when we dove in deeper, their landing pages weren't working.

So you need to be able to optimize your landing pages and you need to stay up to date with the platform changes. And this is a big one.

It changes all the time. And if you don't have time to do this properly or have the skills to learn it, you, you need to budget for someone like me who can manage your ads.

I'm not saying you need someone to run your ads because you can totally do this yourself, especially with some help, but you need to set aside time for it.

All right, so how do you know when you've ticked all the boxes?

Here are some green lights that suggest that you're ready. And this is getting excited.

The first one is that you're consistently getting organic sales. Your business is already generating revenue through non paid methods.

So you're getting customers through referrals, through social media, through SEO, through networking or other organic channels.

And this proves that there's a demand for what you offer.

You need to have some sales already.

The next one is that you understand your customer journey. You can map out exactly how your best customers found you and actually what convinced them to buy.

You know which touch points matter most and how long the typical sales cycle takes. So from someone finding out about you, about your product to them, then purchasing. And this is different for everyone.

Higher price points sometimes take longer depending on the client.

The third one is you're clear on your numbers.

So you know your conversion rates, you know how many people go to your page and then how many convert.

You know your average order value, you know your customer lifetime value, and you know your profit margins.

You can calculate how much you can afford to spend to actually get a customer and still be profitable.

Because for some of you, your lead cost might be like 50 or $100. But because you know your profitability, you know how much you can spend on getting a lead and getting a customer.

The fourth green light is that you have systems in place.

Your website, your email marketing, your sales processes.

It can actually handle increased traffic and leads.

You won't crash and burn if your ads suddenly sends you ten times more inquiries than usual, you need to have those processes and systems in place.

The fifth one is that you are ready to invest.

You're ready to invest in learning.

You understand that advertising is a skill that requires ongoing learning and ongoing optimisation.

And you're prepared to invest time in understanding the platforms and testing different approaches.

So what do you need to put in place before you actually spend a dollar?

So once you're ready, here's what you actually need to put in place.

You need to set up proper tracking. So install Google Analytics if you haven't already. I really hope you have because it's so important.

Install Google Analytics, your Facebook pixel, which is now called Data sets, and any other tracking tools that are relevant to your platforms.

Set up conversion tracking so that you know which ads are actually driving sales and not just clicks.

I don't like advertising for clicks. It's part of a strategy. I do it because it's part of a strategy. But you need to know all of those metrics.

You need to create dedicated landing pages.

Don't send traffic to your general homepage.

You need to create specific landing pages that match your ad message and have a clear call to action.

The message to page match is really crucial for good conversion rates. And the message to page match means your message that you have in your ad needs to match what's on the page that you send them to.

You really need to set up dedicated landing pages.

One, because if you send them to your homepage they are going to be confused. They don't know what they need to do next. So you need to send them to a page where they have one option only.

They can only take one action.

And two, dedicated landing pages allow you to track your ads better with where you put the pixel.

Okay, the next one is prepare your customer journey.

Make sure that you have email sequences, that you have follow up processes, and that you have sales systems that are ready to handle the new leads and the new customers.

You need to map out exactly what happens after someone takes the action that you want them to take.

Like what is the next step?

They land on your ad, they go to your landing page, they download your freebie.

Then what are the next steps? You need to map all of that out. The next one is that you need to define your success metrics, decide what you're trying to achieve and how you will measure it.

I see so many people run ads and they just kind of like click boost and I just want to send it to more people.

But what do you want them to do? What does ad success look like to you and how are you going to measure it?

Are you focused on lead generation?

Are you focused on direct sales?

Are you looking for brand awareness?

What are you going to do? And you need to set really realistic expectations based on your industry and based on your business model.

And by that I mean if you're looking for direct sales and you have a mastermind that costs, you know, five figures, generally you don't send cold traffic to something that costs five figures.

Sure, some people might take the step, but they might need to get to know you a little bit. So realistic expectations and start with a test budget.

You can start with a small budget that you can afford to lose while you learn.

And I like to think of the first few months of advertising as like paid education.

It's not a guaranteed revenue. It's like you paying to get educated.

I still like to use a daily budget of $50. You don't have to, you can start with $10.

I just like to speed things up a little bit.

So, you know, $50 for, you know, three to four weeks can get you a whole lot of data. It might not even take that long. Like it could go faster.

But start with a test budget.

All right, so I'm a meta advertising expert, but you might be asking the question, do I start with Facebook ads, Do I use Google Ads, do I use LinkedIn ads or something else?

So I'm going to tell you how you can decide.

Start with Google Ads.

If people are already searching for what you offer.

So Google Ads work really well for people who are problem aware and looking for a solution.

They also work really well if you have a local business with a clear search intent. So people actually searching for, you know, I don't know, hairdresser near me, something like that.

Start with Google Ads. If you're selling something people actively research before buying.

So for example, you want to buy a new bike, you would go and do all the research and that's all, you know, Google based.

And if you want to capture existing demand rather than create new demand, so there's already a demand for what you offer.

You're not creating like something new that, that you need to create demand for, then Google Ads are really good.

So people have to already be searching for it.

Start with Facebook and Instagram ads. If you offer benefits from a visual demonstration, if you're targeting specific demographics or interests,

if you want to build awareness for something new, or if you have engaging visual content and you understand social media.

I like to think of the difference between Google Ads and Facebook and Instagram ads by saying, like I said, Google is for people who are problem aware and searching for a solution.

Facebook is not a search engine.

With Facebook you can get in front of people who are not actively searching for what you have or what you offer, but they could really benefit from it and they might be really interested in it if only they knew that it existed.

So you can kind of get it in front of the people that need or might want what you have, but didn't know that they needed that. So that's how I look at it.

And obviously it's very visual. I mean Google is a search engine, it's all word based. Whereas Facebook and Instagram ads, it's a visual kind of platform.

Instagram more so than Facebook.

And you want to do LinkedIn ads if you're business to business and you're targeting specific job titles or industries and I don't know enough about LinkedIn ads to talk about things like this, but it is a business to business platform.

If you're selling high value professional services, LinkedIn could be a good option for you as well.

And if you already are on LinkedIn, like as in for organically and you know that your target audience is active on LinkedIn, it could be really good for you as well.

It's basically for businesses or people that have content that appeals to business professionals because it's a professional network.

My recommendation is that you should start with one platform, get good at it before you expand to others.

It is much better to master one platform than to sort of, you know, be mediocre across three and you don't.

Not all businesses need all platforms, so start with one that you think is the most appropriate for you and put your intention and your time there.

Now there's a lot of mistakes I see people make and I don't want you to make them.

So I'm going to tell you what the mistakes are so that you can avoid making them. The first one is that they start too broad.

Don't try to target everyone who might be interested. You need to start with your most specific, your highest converting audience and then you can expand.

Really, if you know who buys your product already, you need to go for those people. Even if you think it is a very small market.

The second mistake is, and I've already said this before, focusing only on clicks.

Clicks don't pay your bills. Conversions do.

A high click through rate means nothing if those clicks don't convert into customers.

So yes, clicks are important, but they need to be the right clicks.

Mistake number three is not testing creative.

So your ad creative, your images, your videos, your headlines, they make a huge difference to performance. And I'm specifically talking about Facebook and Instagram ads here because that's my area of expertise.

But you need to have lots of different creatives. You need to test different options rather than assuming that you know what will work.

And also I've learned that AI is really good and Meta's AI is definitely improving, but it is not the be all and end all. I do play with it.

I'm seeing more success in the e-commerce space with Meta's AI, you know, learnings than I do in the course creation space.

So create lots of different creative. You don't know if people are going to respond better to a photo of you or some other photo or a video or if you know headline number one works better than headline number three, you need to test multiple creatives.

Mistake number four is giving up too quickly. And I see this so often.

Most ads need at least, at least a week to optimise, sometimes even longer. And you need several weeks of data to actually be able to make meaningful decisions.

So don't panic and change everything after two days.

And I know it's really hard. I look at ads every single day and sometimes like my fingers literally itch because I want to change things, but I know that I haven't got enough data yet. Some ads need to take like, they need some time to gain some momentum.

And I've seen it, I've seen it where I've wanted to change something and then, you know, after a few days they actually gain momentum and off they go and they're doing really well.

So don't change things too quickly. Give it time.

Mistake number five is ignoring the mobile experience.

Most people will actually see your ads on mobile devices.

I know I'm working on my desktop every single day and I still forget this kind of thing.

You need to make sure that your landing pages and your checkout process works perfectly on a phone. So always test your entire funnel on a phone because most people will be on their mobile devices.

Now here's what you should actually expect.

When you start advertising the first month, you're probably going to lose some money maybe.

While you learn what works, focus on gathering data, on testing different approaches.

Some people, because, you know, ads are amplifiers, some people get it not like perfectly right, but they get it right from the start and off it goes. And then they can sort of Tweak and optimise, but be prepared to lose some money while you learn what's working.

Your second and third months, you should start seeing which ads and audiences are performing better. And this is why you needed a test budget, because you need to test a lot of things and you know, you actually might start seeing some results or more results, profits, breaking even, that kind of thing.

Then after the third month, if you've been testing and optimising consistently, you should start seeing positive returns on your ad spend.

Now remember, advertising is a skill that improves with practice and with data.

Don't expect overnight success.

You need to have the right budget. You need to give it time and let the data tell you what is working and what is not.

I love ads for the fact that it will tell you to some extent what is working, what isn't, so that you can make changes, test again, keep making improvements.

And like I said, it's a skill that improves with practice and data. I've been doing this for 11 years and I can dig into the numbers and see what it is telling me, like I did recently with a client.

I could tell from the numbers that Facebook was giving me that the ads were working, but the rest of the steps fell short.

So time and some decent testing budgets.

So before we wrap up, let me remind you that advertising isn't the only way to grow your business.

If you're not ready for ads yet, there are some alternatives that might be more appropriate.

And you might already be doing some of these. I hope you are actually.

So the first one is content marketing. So create valuable content that attracts your ideal customers organically.

Another one is SEO.

Optimise your website so so that it shows up in search results when people look for what you offer. And this is like extremely important for people who have local businesses or businesses that people do lots of research, like topics that people do lots of research on. So SEO, definitely optimise your content on your website.

Another one is partnerships. So many people don't do this.

You can collaborate with other businesses to actually reach their audiences. This is, I love this one for local businesses.

Email marketing. This is something that you should have in place already. So I'm not going to go too much into this. You need to build a nurturer list of interested prospects, people that you know you can warm up to, then purchase from.

You go and network build relationships that could lead to referrals and that could lead to sales. This is really important for service providers and obviously social media. You can use organic social media to build awareness to have those relationships, you know, get people to slide into your DMs, that kind of thing.

And yes, these methods take longer than ads, but they are part of your ecosystem.

They can be more sustainable and for some businesses, more cost effective.

So don't dismiss them. I really love ads because it speeds everything up. But every everything works in harmony. It all has to work together.

So there you have it.

When you should start running ads or you know, when you can start running ads. I don't like shoulds. When you can start running ads and what you need to have in place first.

The key takeaway is that ads amplify.

It amplifies what's already working.

If your business fundamentals are not solid, advertising is just going to amplify your problems, really.

So don't feel pressured to start advertising just because everyone else seems to be doing it.

Focus on building a solid foundation first.

You need to have a compelling offer. You need to have a clear customer journey, proper systems, and ideally consistent organic sales.

Once you have those pieces in place, advertising can become a really powerful tool for growth.

So tune back into this episode.

Go through everything that I've mentioned in terms of getting ready and getting, you know, clear on what to focus first.

Then determine whether or not you're ready for ads.

And speaking of getting clear on what to focus first, if you're feeling overwhelmed by all the marketing options out there and you're not sure where to start,

I've got something coming up. I'm running a free masterclass called the Marketing Priority Matrix: how to Stop Doing Everything and Start Getting Results.

Here's the thing. The reason your marketing feels chaotic isn't because you're not doing enough.

It's because you're doing too much of the wrong things.

And in this masterclass, I'm going to teach you a simple tool that helps you categorise every marketing activity into what you should do first, what you should schedule strategically, and what you should batch or delegate and what you should stop doing immediately.

Whether you're just starting out or you've been in business for years but feel scattered across too many platforms, this matrix will give you the clarity to focus your efforts where they'll really make a difference.

The masterclass is on Wednesday, October 15 at 11am AEST, Melbourne time and it's completely free.

You can register at biancamckenzie.com/matrix and I'll also be answering questions live and have a little surprise in mind for everyone who joins me live. So bring your questions, bring your challenges. Let's sort them out together.

Remember, there's no shame in not being ready for ads yet.

Some of the most successful businesses I know have never run a single ad because they've built amazing word of mouth referral systems. Instead, the key is knowing what to focus on first. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with another business owner who might be wondering about advertising.

Sometimes the most valuable advice is knowing when not to do something.

Alright, see you next time.