Mastering Facebook Ads: Unleashing the Power of 'Ads That Don't Suck' with Jennifer Neal

Catharine O'Leary: 00:00:00

Hey, everyone, and welcome back to kickstart the conversation. I am thrilled to have Jen Neal from Formula done here with me today. And she is going to share all of her expertise about something that I have. I know enough, just enough to be dangerous on which is everything Facebook. So whether it's Facebook, organic, or Facebook, paid ads, or so on, it can be a little bit of a challenge for a lot of people. And it can be a rabbit hole of time and money and resources if you don't have the right strategies. So Jen is here to talk about how to, you know, build your leads, build your list and leverage this amazing, you know, technology and the social media aspect. But do it in a way that it's actually going to be building your business. So Jen, welcome to kickstart the conversation.

Jennifer Neal: 00:00:55

Hey, happy to be here. Thank you.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:00:59

So tell us a little bit more about you know, kind of who you serve and what you do. And and then we can dive in?

Jennifer Neal: 00:01:07

Absolutely. So as an agency, I've owned my agency formula done for about 15 years. And in the last five years, we shifted from building automation systems and all the like super non sexy things to now we focus on lead generation. And so I love to specifically talk about Facebook. And you know, we we do I say I like to say ads that don't suck, and we

Catharine O'Leary: 00:01:38

employ five don't suck. I like this ads that don't suck. How does

Jennifer Neal: 00:01:43

that does that and we focus on working with heart centered coaches. And you know, what are done for you services? It's it's a whole different level, like those are the businesses that are that are like have things converting indebted Edyta, right, but not everybody's there. And so the very, very cool thing is that the exact same premise that we use is like a backstory here. How much backstory do I tell. But basically, the premise that we use is called the traffic Trifecta and all that to say that anything that you're doing paid ads wise, is going to be better utilized, and promoted and cost less, if you follow some other basic rules about how you're posting on Facebook specifically, and how you're creating your content so that you still have stuff that's searchable. So when you combine all these things together, it makes for much, much better leads, results, cost, all those things, it's just good.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:02:48

trifecta. I like that. And, and I like I liked the fact that, you know, your, your system, actually, it doesn't have like Facebook paid ads, like sitting on his own. Like, I mean, like all these strategies that kind of sit in their own little silo that that always bothers me. Because if they if it doesn't go with everything else that you're doing, then it's probably a make work project. So can you tell us a little bit more about like, you know, how the ads are supported with the other content and, and how that kind of works all together? If, if you can?

Jennifer Neal: 00:03:22

Yeah, absolutely. So I will give you a little bit of backstory just because it's like this. It's the thing that kind of like got me inspired. Because the same framework that works should work for anybody, no matter where you're at in business. And this actually does, but I didn't start here. So about eight years ago, I think, or probably anyway, about six years ago. I was talking with a friend who owned a Facebook ad agency, and she's like, Okay, if all you need is leads, I can totally get you leads. So she did, she got me leads. A lot of them were not qualified. A lot of them did not convert. And after about four months I had lost. Well, I had spent over $44,000, I had recouped about 12. So we're in like, 32,000 that I had paid to Facebook without any other return. And that's X and unfortunately, it's like it's so, so common. And I was like I hate ad agencies. I'm not going to do this anymore. But the fact of the matter is that like our people are on Facebook and some people like ads can work in terms of getting people's attention. So I made it my mission to say like, how can we make this better? Like how does this work in a better way? And I have a bunch of friends who are bloggers now don't worry for a little word. I know for marketers, you don't have to write a blog, I promise. But you know, my blogging friends. They're like you guys talk about getting a lead on Facebook. Look for $1. And that's like, amazing. And you know, my friend, my friend, Holly, she was like, I can get 100 visits I can get 100 leads to my website for $1. And I'm like, Whoa.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:05:14

Tell me, what's the bus up back? Wait, what?

Jennifer Neal: 00:05:20

Like, that's, that's amazing. How do we use that? And you know what it really comes down to? Like, honestly, what it comes down to is content. Because people who are interested people who have a problem to solve or a desire they want or something like that, like we're gonna look for information. Now, bloggers get it, because most people go to Google to search, right? And so that's why bloggers get and they build up all this traffic and that kind of stuff. So I'm like, Cool. How do we take advantage of that same thing, that same human habit that people do, but use it to our advantage as as marketers without having to become bloggers. And so that's the key in what the traffic trifecta is about. So we'll start with search stuff. So people can see you on stage on a summit on a podcast and be like, Oh, this sounds interesting. But I know, if I click on an ad, or I click on a funnel, or whatever, like, they're gonna get followed around, they're gonna get sold to, quote, unquote, on like, the marketers terms. And people are smart enough now to know like, Okay, I'm interested in that. But like, I want to go look it up on my own terms, in my own way. So that's why a lot of people, even if you're running ads, if you if you do not have information that shows up when people go search for you, your business name, your program name, and even getting into solving the benefits or solving the problems and some of the benefits. Like if you don't have content that shows up in there, if you're paying for ads, you're literally sending competition, you're sending your prospects to your competition.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:07:12

Wow, that's a Yeah, that's something hopefully everybody was listening to that. Because if you don't have the content out there, to search that supports your paid advertising, you're sending people to your competition, because that's who they'll find when they go to search.

Jennifer Neal: 00:07:30

Okay, totally. And the good news is about search volume, or things that are searched a bowl is that it doesn't have to be a blog, what it what it needs to be stuff that's going to contain the words that your prospects are looking for. That's where keyword stuff comes from, but really, like, just know how your people are talking. So YouTube videos, YouTube videos are searchable. They come up in Google search results. YouTube is also its own search engine. What else comes up our social media profiles, like your LinkedIn account, your Facebook about account, your Twitter account, like your different social media profiles that you're posting on the About section of that comes up when people search? So those are things that we can very easily optimize? And just say, yeah, just include some of the words that people are talking about, like just start there doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:08:33

You're not You're forcing yourself into like a daily blog.

Jennifer Neal: 00:08:37

Yes. Yeah. And as an FYI, if the idea of blogging or leads for a penny sounds intriguing to you. Blogs, I don't even have the definition in front of me but what Google considers a good quality blog either comes from that place of authority complete reference backed up all that stuff. These are the like 3000 word blogs that you you know, go to and then they have like, millions of ads all over and all that kind of stuff, right? Super annoying.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:09:14

Know, I agree.

Jennifer Neal: 00:09:17

What else Google considers a blog is also your own personal story, your own personal account of something. And hey, as marketers, we can tell stories. So what I love to do is say, record yourself telling a story that is engaging and interested and then bridge that over to this is why I do this in business or this is how I help people. So you're starting from a story. If you do that, and you record it on video, it gives you twofold one, it gives you searchability on YouTube, to put it through a text translator and use chat GPT to say Hey, now make this turn this video transcript into a written blog. And then you have a blog and you didn't have to write it. So that's a great place to start. Okay, that's too much. Don't worry about it. Just.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:10:15

Yeah, you're about profiles. Like start there. Yeah, just start there. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So. So as you're, as you're thinking of your Facebook strategy, if that is, if that's, you know, something that you want to explore and or that lights you up, and this is how you do it better. Having that content, maybe on YouTube, on the blogs on, you know, somewhere out there that's searchable, is going to help you when people go to look for you, because they're going to try and and backup what you're saying that they're going to try to find some some, you know, evidence of what you're, you know, what you're talking about?

Jennifer Neal: 00:10:56

Great. Yeah, exactly. Yep. They want to, they want to see what other people think about you. Can they actually, like they're actually searching going, hmm, can I actually trust this person to deliver results that I'm looking for? Right, so they're gonna look in different places that they're hanging out. So you know, and the the best thing like, all of this super nerd talk is called Search Engine Optimization. All that means is, and that's what SEO for any of you guys like thinking about it. All that means is that you are thinking about the ways that people are going to type in to ask about you about your business, or about the things that they're having problems with. So the terms that they're looking for, chat GPT, and all these AI tools are actually leveling the playing field on this whole thing, okay? Because because it's making information much more accessible to everybody. So like, that's good news. But it's also bad news, because it makes it where you have to try to stand out even more. Okay, right. So, so what we, we want to take this content, and depending on how deep you want to go, literally, you can just scratch the surface. If you start now, most of your competition is probably not even thinking about this. And it is this whole search engine optimization, SEO thing. It has a cumulative effect that does not ever go away. It's not like stories. It's not like anything else, you're creating content, you're putting it out there, it continues to build and build and build and build. And so if you start this process, now, you're starting to grow online authority, through searchable content, that the more you have, the more Google or whatever search engine goes, Oh, yeah, this person has all this content around it, they must actually be an authority. Right? So it's never like just start now, even if it's not perfect, just start.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:12:56

Well, and even if it sounds super nerdy, or you've heard SEO before and been scared away by it, I know I have. Like, don't try to be the SEO expert overnight. Like these are not overnight conversations. But you can start like you got to start everyone starts somewhere, right, you got to start at least and you can start with your profiles, you can think about you know, taking, you know, the, the 20 or 30 minute, you know your story, putting on YouTube, getting that transcript, putting that on a blog and so on, you need to start somewhere to actually start to layer on top of that. And you can get more advanced as you want or you don't like but at least have something out there, I think is what

Jennifer Neal: 00:13:46

you're absolutely, yeah. And the beautiful thing is none of these things are written in stone. So, I mean, you can go back and edit web pages later. And you can edit descriptions on your videos, and it's not hard written. So have fun with it. Right? So where this starts to play into Facebook, because I know we're talking about Facebook, right is so we're going to shift to talking about like, how to use Facebook. And we're gonna like talk for a minute about the Facebook algorithms, which is another big scary word that a lot of people have probably heard. And really what I like to think of it as is like the Facebook traffic cops, okay, so, they're on they're going, huh? Are we going to show your posts to a whole bunch of people or not? And the way that they base that is by going okay, are people looking at your posts? Are they watching your videos? are they liking your posts? Are they commenting, and if you're getting just a whole bunch of stuff that scroll by scroll by scroll by then the Facebook traffic cops are like, huh, nobody's engaging with your stuff. It might be spam. So we're just not going to show your posts to very many people. Have you ever seen? Yeah, yeah. Have you seen how your reach just like tanks? Like totally drops down? Yeah. So that comes from engaging content and total pro tip here. The reason like this is what we have to think about Facebook is a business, just like we're a business. Facebook makes money from people who stay on the platform, following along ads that other people are paying for, right? So they want as many people on their platform and to stay on their platform and to engage on their platform. People, all of our prospects are generally on Facebook, because we're connecting with people. We're looking for entertainment. Or we're looking for funny cat videos, whatever it is, but like, we're, we're like, we're not there to be. We're not there as a business tool, or going there to say like, oh, I want to learn this. Right. Like, we're generally there to just screw around. I just filtered myself. So.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:16:11

But, but it's true. I mean, it's not it's not where you go to to get, you know, like the best medical advice. Yeah, that's that's not the purpose. I mean, that's not, that's not what it's meant to do. FYI, that's what you're doing that, that? That's a whole different conversation. But But yeah, it's, it's, you know, remember what people are using the platform for whatever platform you're, you're talking about, like, remember what people use LinkedIn for remember what people use tick tock for. Right? Because, you know, like that, that matters to the content that you're trying to put out there. Right.

Jennifer Neal: 00:16:49

Yep. It totally does. Yeah. And so the, the type of content that people are going to engage with, is the type where you're being human, you're being you, you're being a person that they can talk to. It doesn't have to be this professional thing. It's not always TGT G. It's not always like, Oh, go here and opt in for my thing, right? Like, just talking to people like people. So keep that always in mind. That the content that speaks to humans and showcases your screw ups, your authenticity, the struggles that you're having, that the things that like the big breakthroughs that you have, like the celebrations Those are, those are things people want to be part of, yep. That's what makes content more engaging. The other flip side of that is that the traffic cops also know like, when you include a link on your post, they know where those links are going. And if you're including a link, I see people do this all the time, to like, you created a YouTube video that's optimized, and you're like, I want to share this awesome. So you go put the YouTube link on Facebook, YouTube and Facebook are not the same thing. Facebook sees that as the same as, oh, you're taking traffic away from our platform and sending over here. So instead, publish it twice, publish it on YouTube, and also publish the video natively straight on your Facebook page. Because a native content that people are gonna sit there and watch keeps people on the platform, it increases their view time they're engaging with your staff, you're building an audience, like it's a total win. Most people don't do it.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:18:32

So the other Oh, go ahead. No, I was just gonna say So helping Facebook, keep people on the platform is going to let the traffic cops know that you understand how traffic flows, and they're going to give you more traffic. Yep.

Jennifer Neal: 00:18:47

Yep, your reach will go up. And it's, you'll get more people watching it. Yeah. Oh, totally help. And then if you have, if you have a link, like if you have a call to action, or something, put it on your video at the end, so it's not actually written in your post. Again, you don't want to be sending people to your opt in page or to your whatever. Unless here's the big unless, unless there's money behind it. This is where the ads part comes in. Okay. So if you have a video, like really, you're like, Man, I did a killer job on that video. Like it's, and I'm talking about my program, and people are gonna want to join this right? If you have that, then hook up this is you don't even have to have all Ads account or anything. But you know how Facebook is like, Hey, would you like to boost this post to this post? Yes, yes, I would. And when you boost the post, then you can include a link to your thing. Because you're paying to play. So the traffic cops are like, Okay, you're getting people watching this cool and you want to go monetize, alright, you paid us we're good with that. You picked the tall you can go. Yeah.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:20:03

Yeah. And I mean, there are I've seen strategies out there that are like the dollar a day. Yeah, strategy was just it's boosting your posts for a buck a day. And that needs Yeah, that that can totally work. But again, it's still within a bigger strategy of having something to say. Yep, you know, way, that is a human conversation, because I'm all about, you know, having the conversations through questions, and so on. And quizzes, but it's like, you're, you're still, like, it's still a conversation that you're trying to have. Not a hey, do you have this problem? Great. Where's your credit card? Yeah, cuz that's just a little bit too much like proposing marriage on the first date. Right? Everyone knows, I do not like, so. Yeah.

Jennifer Neal: 00:20:54

I mean, in total hacks that you can use, like, I love to take that core video, and repurpose that like crazy, right? So you can create those little short clips, to give you you know, 32nd video clips that people are gonna watch. You can turn it into graphics, ask questions, any of those things. And when you're doing those, you don't include a link to your opt in or your program or whatever. And instead, you're like, hey, if you want to hear more information, watch my full video here. And then you're going to link them to your Facebook post that has your full length video. So again, your keep keeping people like here's one post, and I'm linking them to keep them on Facebook, right? So like, the traffic cops are like, Ooh, look at you go, we're gonna build you

Catharine O'Leary: 00:21:42

double dipping. And this is great.

Jennifer Neal: 00:21:45

And you can still you can boost those other posts up for $1 day. So you know, spend like 10 bucks a day. And you'll have all these people investing in watching your little short clips and stuff like that. And then the other thing that you could do is inside of your video, or the copy or anything that you're doing there. Just do like, hey, DM me or like, comment more please below? And I'll get a hold of you and answer whatever questions you know, offline. So if you have those posts, where people ended up, commenting, commenting, commenting, I'm sure I'm sure if you guys ever had those comments, usually the ones that it's like, well, this is this was from my nephew's birthday party wasn't meant to be. But it happens, right? Yeah. So when people are commenting like that, it keeps bringing the feedback up. And it, it makes the traffic cops happy because people are engaging with your content, right. So encourage those conversations, and then encourage people to watch your full length video on there. And then basically have like, it's sort of an online funnel, you have like one place, where you're then saying, okay, to learn more, or to get access to my opt in or to join my challenge, or whatever you're doing, then you go here that has boosted post money behind it. So you're good to take traffic off the platform, then they've already seen your stuff, they've already searched for you, they already acknowledge the euro, human, so they've started to build in this trust factor, and they're way more likely to convert.

Catharine O'Leary: 00:23:26

I love this. Okay, so just to recap, one, the people that you're talking to are human. So speak to them in human terms. Please do you and I talked about this all the time. Guys, you got to know the 3am question that you're trying to understand from people then that they are waking up at 3am with a question that you have the answer or the solution for or an answer and a solution for what are they saying though, in their terms, like no one ever wakes up thinking, I really wish I could have a better client attraction strategy. Right? That is not a 3am question. I got news, like no one in the history of ever has anyone ever said that? Right? They wake up thinking I wish I had more clients. You know, I wish I had more sales. I wonder how I'm going to pay for this mastermind that I want to take. Right. That's what they they wake up, you know, like, and that's also what they search for. In Google in on YouTube. They're like, you know, like that. Those are the phrasings that they're using. That's probably what they're, you know, going to use on Facebook, too. So that's where the key word comes in. It doesn't have to be like a whole, you know, scientific experiment, right? Like let's let's kind of take it take it down to the fifth grader level. And talk to people in their language, meet them where they're at, and then offer solutions that are a give first, not a sale. was the ask first. And, and then you can that you can create that that ecosystem, right of you know, like your your long form video that you then Boost Post, which means that you paid to play, which means that you can have a link and then you can start, you know, referencing back to that as you go forward. I love that.

Jennifer Neal: 00:25:22

Yep. I mean, it's really not complicated. It's just thinking about who's gonna be seeing your content, what kind of mindset that they're in? But also like, how do I support? How do I play by the rules, follow the traffic rules,

Catharine O'Leary: 00:25:39

follow the traffic rules. And with Facebook, at least, there are other you know, fairly significant rules like around things like weight loss, or, you know, claiming monetary, you know, like, you can make a million dollars or whatever, that Facebook will not let you, you know, talk about so, you know, be mindful that, like, this is not, Facebook is a privilege, in a sense, like this. It's not, it's not something that's just going to be there forever, just because they have rules. And it's a business and you know, like, they get to put you in Facebook Jail, and they do a lot, I'm still in Facebook Jail. So I've been in Facebook Jail for years, I'm probably going to stay there forever, because I can't get anyone on the phone. But that's, you know, that's, I broke through it. I broke some I don't know what rules but I broke some rules, apparently. But like, be mindful of that. Because if also remember that Facebook still is rented land. Right, and it can be taken away at any time. Right? They can shut you down. We've all had, we've all heard the stories, right? So so making sure that you've got that dollar a day or whatever it is boosted posts, that you are getting people on your email list, and you're building your email list in a manner that is, you know, conducive to both your business growth and Facebook's, you know, like being mindful of, you know, what Facebook needs that like create a win win, so that you are not, you know, hostage to, to another business? Because you wouldn't want to build a business that that is like that either. I would Yeah,

Jennifer Neal: 00:27:20

absolutely. And the super nerd talk care. But basically, the more people that are watching, you're, like watching videos, or reading your content and stuff on Facebook, just like organic, or even with your boosted posts, the more people that are doing that, while it's not an audience that we own, it is an audience that the traffic cops know, oh, these people have actually engaged with your stuff, right? So in the future, as your business continues to grow, and if you're like, Okay, I'm ready to take, like, I'm seeing results from these boosted posts, I'm ready to kind of up level this into the ads game. That is an audience that you can tap into. Right? So these are already people who have seen your information. So you're already like, setting yourself up. And you guys, I will tell you any ad agency, including myself, like when I start from somebody who has a, this happens all so often, I'm doing an event, I don't have a Facebook page, I've never installed my Pixel, I've never done like any of this stuff. You have to like warm up an audience to that in order for it to be more effective. If you're doing the warming up, then by the time you're ready. You don't have to pay an agency to do that. You're literally going to save yourself 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of dollars,

Catharine O'Leary: 00:28:53

right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and Facebook is layers, right? Like I mean, there's, there's ways to do it that odd like don't like you don't have to do dollar day, you don't have to do ads, but you can get your content out there. You can do you know, the native ads or not ad ads, videos, and so on. You can build up to, you know, the dollar a day or the boosted posts or the paid ads. I would suggest that if you're new and that you're just building paid ads is never the first thing to do. Yep. Because you haven't built up that pixel, your pixels, you haven't build up, you know, your audience. There are things to put in place before paid ads can really start returning on investment. And there's also honestly like there's some budget and some time needed to really make paid ads work.

Jennifer Neal: 00:29:51

For sure. And I know we mentioned that in the beginning I didn't even go there but the the biggest things that I look for when I'm saying are You even ready for my services is? First of all, like, has your message been tested? So with your late with your list with speaking gigs with those kinds of things? Do you consistently get conversions? From your message, whether you're selling from the stage, whether you're selling from a funnel, whatever that may be? does it actually work? I'm for a large. And by work, I mean, you should have had at least 100 people through there. And know that out of every 100 people who hear this message or see this message that I'm getting 20 that are coming through as leads, and ultimately you have

Catharine O'Leary: 00:30:46

your numbers. Yeah, conversion percentages, you'd like you're not scared of those numbers, you actually know them. And you know that now it's time you're up your game or so on. Yep.

Jennifer Neal: 00:30:56

Yeah. And then secondly, is the the follow up system. So a lead is a lead a lead is a prospect, a lead is not really anybody, until we know that they're going to show up to your event, they're going to open your email, they're going to actually respond to some of your stuff. If if all they get is an ad, and a landing page, and then you just expect them to show up and buy from there. It's still the whole like, I'm sure you've heard the 12 touch points. Yep. That it used to be, it's actually more like in the 30s. Now that people need to have all these consistent touch points. And so that comes into that automated follow up system. And do you have a sales team? And do you have, like, wherever your business is at, you don't have to have all of these things. But do you have a way consistently of turning a prospect into a customer? Right?

Catharine O'Leary: 00:31:53

In a systemized scalable way? Yes. Because once you putting paid ads B, or once you putting money into paid ads, you're you're, you're wanting a 300 or 400% return on it, that's hopefully, you know, like, you're, you're hoping for that kind of return, which means you're going to have a lot of people coming through hopefully, and you have to have, you have to have the backup otherwise you're not, you're not going to be able to close. So you've just wasted a whole bunch of time and money. So that's, that's why I I tell people all the time, like paid ads, you know, like that is a, you know, expert level conversation. There's, there's a lot of things that you can do before that, but I think we've we've talked about that enough. But that's that's awesome, Jen, because I again, like Facebook Jail. But again, I know enough about Facebook to be dangerous, which is why I bring people like you on because you are my go to, for all things around Facebook. But I also love this, this idea of the content and how it gets searched so that you're not giving, you know, your competitors, that spotlight, right. So just make sure that you're getting out there. At the very least update your about pages on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on you know, on all the things. That's great, Jen, I'm well thank you so much for being here. How do people get to get in touch with you? Or what's the best way to connect with you if people want to learn more about working with you? Well, it's great

Jennifer Neal: 00:33:22

question. Um, so I actually if you go to my website is formula done.com. If you go to form lynda.com/apply, there is an option be able to book some time with me and we'll ask you know, some fun questions and kind of see where you need it out.