About a month ago, I decided to start running ads for a new offer: done-for-you thought leadership content that pays for itself in 90 days, or we work for free until it does. In 10 years of marketing, I've probably seen thousands of offers. And this one is good.

It got results right away. For about $20 a pop, I started getting one or two leads a day, which was exciting. With some back-of-the-napkin math using industry benchmarks, it was easy to assume the ads would be profitable.

For the first time, it felt like generating leads was as simple as turning on a faucet. As someone who had tried organic social media in the past, I could see the appeal of paid ads.

And yet, looking back, I can plainly see that the experiment failed. There were subtle problems with the offer, the market, and even the channel. While I wouldn't call it a total failure—I learned a lot—it did not produce the results I wanted beyond generating cheap leads.

What I wanted was for the right types of clients to show up, become long-term clients, and put money in the bank. That didn't happen. So, to help you avoid the mistakes I made, I'm sharing my lessons in a three-part series.

When you're doing any kind of marketing, there are three main variables: the channel, the market, and the message.

This experiment drove home how each one affects the overall success of your marketing. In this first post, we'll start with the channel—and when not to use paid ads.

  1. The channel needs to fit the offer and your budget. While the experiment proved that paid ads could generate leads and calls for this kind of offer, continuing to test the channel required more money than I was willing to risk. The same offer, geared toward a more specific niche, could work through in-person meetings, social media outreach, or cold email. Paid ads are still on the table for the future, but my recommendation would be to hold off until you're generating at least $20,000 per month.
  2. Infrastructure is key, no matter which channel you choose. Unless you have a follow-up system in place with email and SMS automations, you're going to watch leads fall through your fingers like sand. You need a proper funnel regardless of your acquisition channel, but this is even more important with paid ads. Don't pour water into a leaky bucket. Automated follow-up helps remove the chaos of chasing down leads.
  3. Your niche and your channel are closely connected. We'll discuss niche selection in the next post, but it's worth touching on here because it affects your choice of channel. Paid ads can make it harder to reach a narrowly defined group of prospects than carefully chosen events, social media outreach, or cold email. For a high-ticket offer like mine, tighter targeting is essential.

Next time, we'll explore why a tightly defined niche is so important when marketing online.

Until then, I wish you the best.

-Gerald