#108: Strategic Laziness Pays Off

Monday morning, 3:47am.

I'm staring at my computer like a man possessed.

Facebook Ads dashboard. Amazon KDP reports. Email analytics.

My wife's still asleep. The kids won't be up for another 4 hours.

But here I am, refreshing metrics that haven't changed since I checked them 30 minutes earlier.

This was my life for months back in 2020 - 2021.

Up at 3am > "work" till 9am > Look after the kids all day whilst my wife gets some sleep after breastfeeding twins all night then writes her book.

A digital hamster wheel of endless optimisation, constant tweaking, and obsessive monitoring.

I told myself it was "being strategic."

Really, I was just scared and doing "busy work".

The Breaking Point

Fast forward a few months...

Our royalties, sales, page reads... it had all been dropping off a cliff.

I'd been testing everything:

→ New audiences

→ Different campaign structures

→ New images and ad copy

→ Simplified account setups

I'd burned through months of over-complication and constant tweaking to no avail.

Nothing had worked.

Then a humbling thought crept in...

What if I'm the problem?

The Accidental Experiment

I ran a radical test.

What if I only touched the Facebook Ads once per week?

The first week was torture.

Every instinct screamed at me to "just check" the performance. To make a quick tweak. To "optimise" something.

But I held firm.

Monday only.

No exceptions.

Then the results came in...

→ Lower costs

→ Higher sales

→ Better ranks

→ More read-through

The ads had been running themselves while I was busy resisting the urge to interfere.

And they'd done a better job than months of my "expert" management. 

The Uncomfortable Truth

Here's what nobody tells you about Facebook Ads:

The algorithm is smarter than you.

I know, I know. Your ego doesn't want to hear it. Mine certainly didn't.

We think we're optimising.

Really, we're interfering.

Every time you change targeting, you reset the machine's learning.

Every placement adjustment forces it to start over.

Every campaign structure reshuffle sends it back to square one.

It's like hiring the world's best chef, then barging into the kitchen every 10 minutes to "help" with the seasoning. 

My New Routine

Since this realization a few years back, I've become a devout follower of strategic laziness with Facebook Ads.

Though in every other part of life I'm the complete opposite - some might call me OCD as my feet rarely touch the ground when I'm not working because I'm busy cleaning and tidying up after 3 kids.

Alas, I digress...

Monday mornings only. 1-2 hours max.

Here's my weekly Facebook Ads routine:

9:00am - Quick scan of what worked and what didn't. No emotions. Just data.

9:15am - Turn off the losing ads. Scale the winning ads. Be ruthless.

9:30am - Create new ads. Fresh copy. Different angles. This is where the magic happens.

That's it.

The rest of the week?

The ads run themselves while I focus on things that actually matter.

Like writing, marketing, providing value to my audience, coaching calls with clients, spending time with family, having a life.

Less Work, Better Results

Old way: Hours every single day, constantly checking and tweaking

New way: 1-2 hours weekly, then complete freedom

That's a massive chunk of my life I got back.

Every. Single. Week.

Hours I can spend doing work in the business that actually moves the needle instead of worrying.

Creating instead of consuming.

Living instead of monitoring.

But here's the best part:

The ads work better.

Because I stopped fighting the machine and started feeding it.

Letting it get on with the job it was designed for in the first place.

Why Less Is More

Facebook's algorithm processes billions of data points every second. It knows things about your readers that you'll never figure out.

When you step back and let it work, magic happens:

• Costs drop as the system finds efficient placements
• Targeting improves as it learns from real behaviour
• Winning ads rise to the top and bad ads get forgotten
• Your sanity returns (priceless)

The authors getting the best results from Facebook Ads aren't the ones optimising constantly.

They're the ones who learned to get out of their own way.

The Bigger Picture

This isn't really about Facebook Ads. 

It's about trust. 

Trusting systems instead of fighting them.

Trusting data instead of emotions.

Trusting yourself enough to step back when you need to.

Most entrepreneurs are control freaks (guilty as charged). We think more management equals better results.

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is nothing at all.

Your Next Move

This hands-off approach is exactly what's helped thousands of authors inside Facebook Ads Mastery For Authors build profitable campaigns without losing their minds in the process.

I've built the course around this whole philosophy of working smarter, not harder.

→ Learn More And Sign Up Here ←

Because life's too short to spend it refreshing dashboards.

And your readers are waiting for your next book, not your next campaign structure adjustment.

That's a wrap for this week.

Thank you so much for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

See you again next Saturday.

To Your Success
- Matt