Endless Experimenting
Is this an entrepreneur’s journey ?
Yesterday ( on 27th ) during an event at SCGT1, the trainer shared that there’s something called as an entrepreneurial bug. It separates his spirit from the job-seeker. Though he might make lesser money than the job-doers. But there is a special bug present.
While creating fresh ad campaign on meta ( new all-in-one platform for facebook, insta & whatsapp ) I am going through this. Actually, last year, after spending a good amount of money on this, I really got fed-up with facebook’s ad policies. Everytime there was some error & the ad was disapproved. Not just money, it costed me time as well. Hence I decided to not to go with this lead generation method. Later this year, in May 23, I have a fresh thought to it & experimented with 1 fresh campaign.
Campaign 1 : May ‘23 Good results. No hassles. No disapprovals. As I did not publish any “marketing type” content which usually has the scarcity factor or has the outcome oriented ( away from product features ). Out of 68-odd leads I received, I got 15 paid buyers for my Level-1 course, which is an entry level low-cost course and 1 subscription for a SAAS product. I ended up spending just a little more than what I earned.
Campaign 2 : June ‘23 I went ahead with campaign no.2 in June ‘23. This time better results, better conversions, as I implemented the “call each prospect” approach. Out of 125 total leads, I got 40 paid buyers for my Level-1 course, which is an entry level low-cost course. This time, instead of introducing the SAAS product straight away; I used an other methodology, explained below in this image2 :-
Campaign 3 : July ‘23 going further with some changes like Carousel Ads in place of the Single Image3 ad. 1 more change is that I went-in for the “Instand forms and messenger” for where the conversion will take place. The very 1st result is that it didn’t get any single form filled-in. It never happens. I start getting my privyr4 popping right from the moment ads are up. This made me little anxious and I have made immediate changes with suggestions meta gave :
Converted the Carousel Ad into Video Ads ( meta’s suggestions )
Removed some additional questions in the form ( my thought : people might not opt-in for long form )
Added headlines to each carousel card ( my thought : call to action below each image )
I shall still wait for sometime & later ( might be next day morning ) I shall decide what to do next. Mostly, I shall switch back to the Single-Image format which has worked in past for me, maybe with an altogether different image. Let’s see.
An update ( 28-6-23 night 10-26 PM ) :- The ad is running. Leads are lesser compared to my last campaign run. Might be happening due to the new ad image format ( campaign learning ). Current stand : wait & continue till there is not much drop. Let’s see at least for 2 more days.
An update ( 10-7-23 night 11-14 AM ) :- I switched over from Carousel ad format to single image format. Was very much satisfied as I started getting almost 2-3 times leads than normal. And was concluding that the new script is making the difference. Until I found out that it was the added budget enhancement meta offers. It’s nothing but spending our money more. This I noticed as I got a message of “ account error”. This is usually when your account is out of funds. Lesson learnt :- no additional things which meta suggests & sticking back to our common sense. Back to my old method.
The campaign result :- It was not great at all, as I deliberately had dropped personal calling out of it.
One more experiment I did : Stop admissions 2 days prior to the training, and started building interest of participants from this day. This improved the attendance during the training.
Next Campaign : Now, I am experimenting with building engagement through Whatsapp Button clicks. With budget reduction from Rs. 500 p day to 200 per day. This is a 2-steged campaign :- 1st to get whatsapp engagement, then the usual Lead-Gen campaign.
An update ( 20-7-23 Morning 7.00 AM ) :- I started with the “ whatsapp button clicks” campaign with budget of Rs.200 per day. The purpose was to drive traffic through auto-whatsapp channel. It has an FAQ feature, in which the visitors are presented some typical questions. And the answers were kept ready by me through Quick Replies5. however, I didn’t find it interesting, hence stopped it after 4-5 days, and switched over to the lead campaign once again, with 1 major difference : Doubled the course price. I have decided to remain steady on the price, as slowly people will start accepting the price, though I may struggle some quick joinings. However, in the facebook ad, I started with the same campaign, just with a few changes like :-
Little change in the image ( the placement, colours etc )
Little changes in the script ( nothing major )
And I began with the typical standard set of actions like starting 10 days in advance with a budget of Rs. 500 per day with the same audience again ( proven tact ). But, to my surprise, my ads were rejected thrice. 👇 I was trying repeatedly.
I was frustrated and did start thinking about other lead generating ways for my whole business as such. But I resumed experimenting again ( 4th occasion ) , without knowing what may come out of it. Meanwhile, I also went with another “Awareness” ad campaign for an other activity where I am doing. It was immediately approved and the ad started running. But here, I am not very keen still, so it was just an assurance that my facebook ad account was intact, that’s it. And, thanks to my wife who commented on my distracted business focus : it’s just because your ad is not approved, though she never said I was wrong. Before going further, I want to make a point here :-
I have a trend : When things do not go as I want them to, instead of improving the ongoing effort; I have changed the model and this has delayed the further success. Instead if I wait & dig there and there itself, And I will surely reach my goal.
Of course this learning happened in the morning, when I did see my ad finally getting approved, and you wouldn’t know how happy was I. Now, technically what was wrong. It was not the script, nor the call to action; it was the Image which was making the scene. What was wrong with the image ? ===> The dominant Yellow Colour ( might be ). Here’s the earlier ( approved ) ad ( ignore my local language & look at the colour part )
Frankly, I do not really know, what went right in the whole case. But whatever worked is what really matters. And the ad is running now.
An Update : 20th August 2023
So the yellow colour was making all the fuss as per my latest update. After this, I created 2 campaigns, both ran seamlessly. No setback from FB side. Hence I can safely say that it’s okay.
However, it the second campaign, I did another experiment : Tried with the “Lookalike” audiences.6 The campaign as mentioned went seamless. But the results were not promising. There were just 4 paid joinees. No-one from the Facebook Ad campaign. All were from my Network. However, here are my learnings :-
There were just 4 persons, but all were active and attentive. Also enjoyed a good profile.
One of them showed immediate interest in joining my mentoring program, which has never happened in earlier. Let’s see what happens next.
Conclusion : Network works better above all. I’ll focus on networking & doing 1-2-1s. And nurturing with proper follow-ups.
Yes, there are leads generated, but with just a single follow-up, they don’t convert. Hence there is no point in sending them prompt, immediate messages. Hence I have dropped the idea of Privyr7
I also tried one more paid app, which can be great to engage persons through whatsapp messaging. However, this can be easily done with a Whatsapp Business App, FREE.
Stay in this experiment if you wish to …..
SCGT stands for Saturday Club Global Trust, a trust working for the benefit of Marathi business community
If you wish to discuss, please comment or email me at contact@joywebservices.com.
Different ad formats by meta.
Lead notification service for FB ads. Write to me for more information.
A Feature by whatsapp, which helps you with canned responses
Lookalike is a type of audience we can create on facebook, which are similar ( but not the same ) to your earlier audiences.
Privyr is a paid app which gives you all leads at 1 place immediately once you receive on FB & shoot them messages.