Creating a Facebook Ad Strategy To Grow Your Podcast and Scale Your Business with Stacy Reed – Episode 4

Are you considering using Facebook ads to grow your podcast or business? Or have you ruled out Facebook and Instagram ads because your previous campaigns flopped? This podcast episode outlines the Facebook ad strategy and system used by Stacy Reed, a fractional Chief Marketing Officer and Facebook Ads expert who has generated over $150 Million leading paid social campaigns at Zappos, Steve Madden, Adidas, Crocs, and many more. She uses her eleven years of digital marketing experience to consult online product brands on how to scale their marketing. Discover the basics of setting up a Facebook ads campaign, the types of campaigns that podcasters should focus on, and how to know when you’re ready to invest in a Facebook ads strategy.

Listen to the podcast episode here.

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In this podcast episode, we cover:

• How do Facebook ads work?
• How to use Facebook and Instagram ads to amplify your business
• Types of campaigns to create ads for
• A good starter budget for campaigns
• Misconceptions creators and podcasters have about using Facebook ads to grow and scale
• Common mistakes creators make when creating a Facebook advertising strategy
• Should podcasters run Facebook ads for podcasts? 

A special thank you to our partners and supporters. 

• Capsho – AI copywriting tool for podcasters. 
• Podbean – For podcast hosting, distribution, and more. 
• Join our WOC Podcasters Community!

What is a Facebook ad?

In 2008, you could post something on Facebook and have thousands of people see it. Now you barely get 10-15 views. While a lot of creators and business owners rely on organic reach, it drops every year, so if you want more people to see your content, running Facebook ads is a route to amplify your message.

You might have heard the phrase, “pay to play.” This is especially true today.

As of 2023, Facebook has 2.9 billion monthly active users and Instagram has 2.3 billion. Since Meta owns Facebook and Instagram, you can run ads from the same budget and the same campaign on both platforms.

Overall, Facebook and Instagram ads, give you the ability to put your message in front of lots of people.

Stacy Reed says to think of Facebook ads like gasoline. If you have something working in your business, like pouring gasoline onto a fire, it will amplify.

One thing to keep in mind — when it comes to running Facebook and Instagram ads, you have to make sure your operations are ready to handle the influx of customers that will come with a successful campaign. This means having the right infrastructure in place like the personnel for customer support.

Optimize Facebook Ad Strategy For Better Results

Creators often struggle with marketing their businesses or products on social media, particularly on Facebook. However, depending on your goals, by optimizing your Facebook or Instagram ads, you can increase your visibility and create brand awareness.

Ads allow you to reach more people who may be interested in your products or services and helps you build relationships with potential customers or clients.

If you are interested in increasing sales and attracting more business opportunities, follow the steps outlined in this episode.

1. Understand who your customers are and what messages resonate with them.
2. Develop a customer journey that converts.
3. Set up a lead generation or sales campaign.
4. Analyze the performance of the campaign and improve as you go.

Step 1. Understand who your customers are.

The first step in getting started with Facebook ads is to have a clear understanding of who your customers are. Know their pain points, what messages resonate with them, and what makes them interested in your products or services.

Stacy Reed: “I don’t mean do you think you know who they are, I mean, do you really know what they care about, what their pain points are? Do you know the messages that pull them in?”

Understanding who your customers are and what messages resonate with them is an essential step before investing in a Facebook ad strategy. To do so, you need to have an intimate understanding of who your customers are.

Research and ask questions to learn their pain points, understand what motivates them, and identify the messages that will reach them. Once you have a good grasp of who your customers are, create a customer journey for them.

Step 2. Develop a customer journey that converts.

Some people call it a funnel, but a customer journey outlines the touch points people have in order for them to take the desired action, such as signing up for a workshop or purchasing a course.

Warming people up to your brand can include a quiz, blog posts, podcasts, or a webinar. Once you have identified the customer journey, you can decide where you want to direct your Facebook ads traffic.

Stacy says, “Do they have to take your quiz first, then do they have to get on a workshop and then they convert? Do they have to sit on your email list for 30 days before they actually buy something from you? What is that kind of journey that people have to go on before they buy from you?”

Remember, the majority of your traffic on Facebook is going to be cold, it’s going to be people who don’t know you, who have very rarely engaged with you. And so, if you have a course that costs $2,000 and someone doesn’t know you, they more than likely are not going to buy it from a Facebook ad.

But if you understand that when people take the quiz, they read some blog posts, they listen to my podcast, they do all of these different things then they become that $2,000 customer, that really helps you to understand where you need to send your Facebook traffic.”

Make sure your organic marketing is working.

Stacy believes that before running Facebook ads, your organic marketing should be working first. This will not only help build the know, like, and trust factor with potential customers but also increase the chances of conversion with ads.

Once you have these elements in place, track your results so that you can see what is working and what isn’t. Measure data like engagement, website visits, and other key performance indicators. With this data, you can analyze what content is working best and make adjustments accordingly.

With the right organic marketing strategy when you capture leads that come from your ads, your funnel will help you nurture them and not lose them right away.

Types of Facebook Ad Campaigns

Lead generation vs sales campaigns

Lead generation campaigns should be used when you’re looking to capture leads and add them to your list, while sales campaigns should be used when you’re looking to directly sell something.

When setting up your lead generation or sales campaign, it’s important to think about the creative content you’ll be using. You’ll need to create images, videos, or other content that will capture people’s attention and encourage them to take action. Consider the types of visuals and messaging that will appeal to your target customers and test different content to see what works best.

Also, consider how you’ll track the success of your campaign.

Facebook’s Business Manager provides powerful analytics that allows you to track how well your campaigns are performing, helping you make data-driven decisions about which campaigns are successful and which need to be tweaked.

Finally, it’s important to set a budget for your campaign. Decide how much you’re willing to spend on a lead or sale and adjust your budget accordingly.

Listen to this podcast episode on Spotify.

Budgeting For Facebook Ad Campaigns

Stacy Reed recommends budgeting between $10 to $15 a day for starter campaigns, giving it at least three or four days so the algorithm can find your people. Or set a budget between $500 to $1,000 a month and test to see how things are going.

Make sure to track your campaigns, so you can make changes and optimize your budget as needed.

Because there is that testing phase that you have to go through in the beginning, because as much as you think something’s going to work, there have been many times when I worked at Zappos that I built a campaign was like, oh, this is going to hit it out the park. This is going to be amazing. And it tanked.

It’s a balance of having enough budget, but also making sure you’re giving the algorithm enough time to really show it to enough people to get some significance.

Facebook ads are a combination of ongoing testing, learning, iterating, and scaling. When you think about how to efficiently use your ad budget, make sure you’re actually learning something from the campaign.

Stacy Reed: “A lot of times when people set Facebook ads up, they set them up in a way that doesn’t teach them anything. You just kind of throw everything into the ad and hope something works. When I teach launch planning, we start with our strategy. And in that strategy, we’re trying to figure out, okay, what messages resonate with what audiences. That’s what you definitely want to focus on for that first $500 or $1,000 test.”

Should Podcasters Run Facebook Ads?

Are podcast Facebook ads worth it?

Investing in Facebook ads for podcasts may be a good use of your funds.

Stacy recommends investing in Facebook and Instagram ads to get your podcast in front of more people, especially if you want to stop hustling.

I have written Facebook ads for my podcast because of the hustle factor. I have committed to myself and to my team that we are not going to have a year like we had last year. We are not going to be doing all the things and hustling as much as we did. People love the podcast. People love to hear what I’m talking about. And so for me, it’s like, yes.

Here’s how to create Facebook ads for podcasts.

Take your top two to three podcast episodes that are really popular. Run some ads to them, and watch your downloads over time. Make sure you close the loop by having a pop-up that says, join my newsletter or download this freebie that goes along with the episode.

Use your podcast as the introduction then guide them through your customer journey to close the sale.

Stacy Reed: “Podcasters, run ads to a landing page on your website because then you can make sure that they’re actually going to your ecosystem. So you’re not sending them to Apple, you’re not sending them to Spotify, you’re sending them to something you own.

For example, if you have an affiliate that pays really well. Run some ads to it, get some more people to that blog post because obviously, it’s telling you it’s a great piece of content that actually people are enjoying.”

Memorial Quotes by Stacy Reed

• “Make sure you have your Facebook Pixel installed whether you’re running ads or not.”
• “Facebook ads are like pouring gasoline onto a fire – they are an amplifier to get millions of more people to see your message.” 
• “Facebook ads are definitely a combination of an ongoing testing, learning, iterating, scaling kind of system.”
• “Facebook ads are like pouring gasoline onto a fire.”
• “Just because you pay for more visibility doesn’t mean that the success isn’t as good.”
• “Making sure that you’re actually learning something is the most important thing when it comes to Facebook ads.”
• “I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that if you do it with Facebook ads or it doesn’t count.”

About Stacy Reed

Stacy Reed is an experienced digital marketer who has generated millions in revenue through paid social campaigns at some of the world’s most recognizable brands. She now consults online product brands on how to scale their marketing and hosts the podcast “The Roadmap to 1 Million,” which reveals the strategies, stories, and secrets behind building a seven-figure e-commerce brand. Stacy’s passion is helping e-commerce brands use strategic marketing to elevate their businesses and make a lasting impact.

Website: https://stacyzeal.co

LinkedIn: @stacyreed

Instagram: @stacyzeal.co

Facebook: Stacy Zeal & Co.

Twitter: @stacyzeel

We’d love to hear how you plan on applying Stacy’s Facebook ads strategy to scale your podcast marketing efforts.

Leave us a comment with your thoughts below.