#026: Better Results From Facebook Ads With Less Time
Jul 01, 2023Read Time: 3 Minutes
If you had told me a couple of years ago that spending less time on Facebook Ads would mean better results, I'd have thought you were talking nonsense.
But the fact is that doing less in your Ads account does in fact create bigger and better results (i.e. more book sales, more page reads, higher royalties, and the ability to scale your Ads).
Actions That Destroy Your Results
If you can relate to any of the below (all of which I’m guilty of) in the hopes that these actions will improve your Facebook Ads results, then, unfortunately, you’re actually having the opposite effect:
- Testing audiences each week
- Not giving your Ads time to optimize
- Reorganizing your Ad Account structure
- Consistently researching and testing lots of different strategies
- Ramping up your budgets before you know if the Ads are actually working
All of these actions are going to cause your results to plummet.
How To Improve Your Results
If you really want to see better results from your Facebook Ads (which I’m sure you do otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this email), the answer is to focus on what actually matters:
The Ad creative (i.e. the Ads people are seeing on their Facebook Feed)
Aside from that though, ask questions such as:
- How can I reduce the cost of my Ads (i.e. CPCs - Cost Per Clicks)?
- How can I improve the CTR (Click-Through-Rate) of my Ads?
- How can I improve my overall business to be less reliant on Facebook Ads and improve the lifetime value of a reader?
This last question is possibly the most important of them all.
Facebook Ads is simply an amplification tool to position your books in front of readers.
Your books need to sell your books.
And if you can bring down the cost of acquiring a new reader from Facebook Ads by improving readthrough to your other books, adding readers to your email list, and ultimately, moving readers through your books without Ads, that’s going to have a huge impact on the revenue, profitability, and sustainability of your author business.
Too many authors I see are so hung up on which audiences to show their Ads to, that they neglect the most critical part of Facebook Ads – the Ads themselves!
How I Spend Less Than 2 Hours Per Week On Facebook Ads
I'm working on the Facebook Ads for my wife's books for just 60-90 minutes per week. That’s it.
And I’m currently spending around $300 per day on them (this daily spend will soon be increasing when we launch a new series in August).
And I don’t spend a single second thinking about the targeting, as you may have seen in Jumpstart Facebook Ads For Authors, or the Facebook Ads For Authors Masterclass.
The only tasks I work on in these 60-90 minute blocks each week are:
- Tracking the results
- Analyzing performance
- Scaling (i.e. increase budgets)
- Creating and launching new Ads
- Optimization (turning Ads and Ad Sets off)
That’s it. And that’s all it needs to be.
When I first started running Facebook Ads back in 2020, I would be in the Ad Account for 2-4+ hours per day, sometimes longer, even with a daily budget of $10 - $20.
We all have to start somewhere, of course, but if I could go back and give my past self one piece of advice, it would be to get in and get out of the Facebook Ads dashboard!
Less is more.
The Facebook algorithm doesn’t respond well to frequent changes, such as switching up strategies, changing your account structure, turning Ads, Ad Sets, and Campaigns on and off each day, tweaking settings on a daily basis, etc.
It works best when you launch once, and let it do its thing.
Wrapping Up
I can tell you from first-hand experience that consistent meddling with your Facebook Ads is going to destroy your performance.
Yes, you need to do something with your Facebook Ads each week; it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it platform.
But, if you’re spending more than a couple of hours a week on them, (like I once was), you’re probably doing too much.
If you're constantly testing different strategies and tactics, looking for that “magic bullet”, and spending hours in your Ad Account every day like a day trader, I recommend you take a step back.
Keep everything as simple as possible:
- Simple account structure
- Analyze what worked and what didn’t
- Creating new Ads based on your data
- Scale up your winning Ads by increasing budgets
- One 1-2 hour session per week working on your Facebook Ads
You’re substantially hurting your potential performance if you are doing any more than this.
When I stopped taking the easy actions (such as targeting), and instead, started doing the hard stuff (planning, researching, and creating Ads), that's when I saw our results skyrocket.
Finding more Ads to spend more money on is what will grow your business.
Less time. Better results.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and see you again next Saturday.
To Your Success
– Matt
