A business isn’t a business if you don’t have any clients or customers. So the natural inclination is to start advertising your company in the hopes of “getting some.”
You might be tempted to start running Facebook Ads, pay for a sponsored spot on your favorite blog, or maybe even… put up a billboard?!
So the question is: How Much Should You Invest on Advertising?
But that begs the question: how much should you invest to advertise your business, and what are the best forms of advertising?
The answer is that it depends on your business, budget, and what types of products and services you offer.
For some business owners, it might make sense to invest your ad budget on creating high quality content that will bring people in the door organically over time.
The good and bad of running advertisements is that you control the flow. When you’re paying for ads, you get website traffic and potential clients. But when you stop paying, this flow stops.
That’s the beauty of investing in long term strategies like search engine optimization, guest posting, and content marketing.
But there is a time and a place for ads too! And I’m not talking about spending a few million dollars for a 30 second commercial during the Superbowl either.
Smart Ads For Small Businesses
Running ads on Facebook or Google Adwords is smart for small businesses because you can control your budget and see if your ads are working before you invest more money.
Back in the day you’d spend a few thousand dollars on an ad in a magazine or newspaper, then wait a few months for it to run.
Today with the web, you can have a new ad up on Facebook within minutes and see if it’s converting to sales or not within hours.
Start With A Business Funnel
My advice for you if you want to start experiment with ads online is to build a business funnel that ensures you’re never paying out of pocket for your ads.
How? By having a really small and easy to invest in offer, you can start to break even or even profit on your ads.
If you spend $.50 cents to get someone to click and join your email list, and you have 5% of people buying a $25 ebook, then you’re making $75 in profit for every 100 people who join your email list from this ad.
You can think of this as ads that pay for themselves. This is your ideal type of ad, but not all of your tests will work out this way.
That’s where the age old power of iteration comes into play. Find out more about building this type of business funnel in my other video about funnels and blocking the flow.
Your turn…
Now, I’d love to know whether you’ve dipped your toe in the world of running ads yet or not. Leave a comment below and let me know!
Have you had great results? Is it touch and go?
