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Mastering Facebook Ads for Digital Products

ByJillian Leslie

In my newest episode of The Blogger Genius Podcast, I welcome back Tammy Overhoff, food blogger turned digital product entrepreneur at Reset and Flourish.

This episode is the third installment in our series (listen to the first and second episodes here) where Tammy shares her journey and insights into leveraging Facebook ads to enhance her sales funnel for digital products. If you’re looking to dive deep into the nuances of using Facebook ads effectively, this episode is a goldmine of actionable advice and expert strategies.

Mastering Facebook Ads for Digital Products | The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree

Understanding Facebook Ads: A Continuous Process

Tammy emphasizes that running Facebook ads is not a “set it and forget it” endeavor. Many people mistakenly believe that once they set up their ads, they will automatically generate sales without further intervention.

In reality, successful ad campaigns require ongoing monitoring and adjustments. I liken the process to gambling in Las Vegas, where one must be vigilant and ready to make changes based on performance.

Show Notes:

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Daily Monitoring and Adjustments

Tammy shares her routine of checking her ads every day or every couple of days. She looks for patterns in sales, noting which times of day and days of the week yield the best results.

For instance, she has observed that Sundays may not be the most profitable days for her ads. If she doesn’t see a return on her ad spend by a certain time, she is quick to reassess and potentially turn off underperforming ads.

Freebies to Tripwire Strategy: Building a Sales Funnel

One of Tammy’s key strategies is using freebies to lead into tripwire offers. This approach allows her to build her email list while also generating sales.

She finds that this method is less risky compared to direct sales offers, as it helps her capture leads and nurture them through her sales funnel. Tammy encourages those new to Facebook ads to consider starting with a freebie to tripwire strategy, as it has proven effective for her.

Building a Solid Foundation

Tammy and I discuss the importance of having a solid foundation before diving into Facebook ads. Tammy likens ads to gasoline on a fire; if there’s no fire (i.e., a solid product or funnel), pouring money into ads can lead to significant losses. Therefore, it’s crucial to have a well-structured funnel and a clear understanding of the audience before investing in ads.

The Importance of Email Lists

Once potential customers are on Tammy’s email list, she can engage them through launches, flash sales, and other marketing strategies. Her email list becomes a valuable asset, allowing her to maintain a relationship with her audience and drive future sales.

Continuous Learning and Testing

Tammy emphasizes that mastering Facebook ads is a journey that requires time and experimentation. She has spent two years refining her approach, testing various offers, and tweaking her sales pages and email funnels. This ongoing process of learning and adapting is essential for success in digital marketing.

Creating Engaging Content

I highlight the importance of creating compelling content for ads. I suggest that new entrepreneurs start small, perhaps by developing a freebie that addresses a specific problem for their audience. This initial step can lead to greater insights and help in building a more comprehensive sales funnel.

Connecting Products and Freebies

Tammy advises that when creating freebies, it’s important to pay attention to the audience’s response. If a freebie is well-received, it can provide valuable insights into what the audience is interested in, guiding the development of future products.

Balancing Organic and Paid Strategies

Both Tammy and I agree on the importance of having a balanced approach that includes both organic and paid strategies. This balance provides more control over your business and helps mitigate the uncertainties of relying solely on algorithms or organic reach.

Encouragement for New Entrepreneurs

I wrap up the episode by encouraging listeners to take the plunge into setting up your digital product sales funnel, emphasizing that while the process may be challenging, it is entirely doable. With persistence and the right strategies, entrepreneurs can achieve significant success.

Conclusion

Tammy’s journey illustrates that while the path to mastering Facebook ads and building a successful sales funnel may be filled with challenges, it is also rewarding. By focusing on building a solid foundation, continuously learning, and strategically using ads, entrepreneurs can effectively grow their businesses. For those interested in starting their journey, I offer resources and support to help you get started.

This episode is for anyone looking to navigate the complexities of Facebook ads and digital marketing, Tammy provides actionable insights and encouragement to take the next steps in your entrepreneurial journey.

Other Related Blogger Genius Podcast episodes You’ll Enjoy:

MiloTree, the Best Tool for Non-Techies to Sell Digital Products and Grow Your Audience

I also want to introduce you to the MiloTree, a tool designed for non-techies to sell digital products easily. It comes with features like AI-generated sales pages, check-out pages, a sales dashboard, upsells, and customer support.

Mastering Facebook Ads for Digital Products | The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree

#350 Transcript: Mastering Facebook Ads for Digital Products

Jillian Leslie 00:00:04 Welcome back to the Blogger Genius podcast. I’m your host, Gillian Leslie, and I’m so happy you’re here. I am excited to share that Milo Tree is now your all in one solution for bloggers and creators. With Milo Tree, you get the best tools to sell digital products, offer unlimited freebies to grow your email list, and effortlessly grow your social media followers. With our powerful pop ups, it has never been easier to both grow your audience and sell to them. We offer a 14 day free trial to use all our tools. So now that we are in Q4, one of the best times for bloggers to make money, I recommend you give it a try. Go to Milo tree.com for today’s episode. I have my friend Tammy Overholt back on the show. This is part three. Tammy started as a food blogger at Organize Yourself Skinny, and then realized that she could make even more money selling digital products, rather than just creating recipe posts. In the first episode, she talked about her journey.

Jillian Leslie 00:01:17 In the second episode, she talks about her sales funnels. In today’s episode, she talks about how she uses Facebook ads to throw lighter fluid on her sales process. So Tammy is spending about $100 a day, and she’s figured out how she can make $200 from that $100. Now, Tammy is a very advanced digital product entrepreneur, but I want you to see what is possible. This is how you build your digital product empire. So without further delay, here is my interview with Tammy. Over half. Tammy. Welcome back to the Blogger Genius podcast.

Tammy Overhoff 00:02:04 Thank you so much for having me back. I’m very excited.

Jillian Leslie 00:02:08 As promised, after our last episode, I said, would you come back for another time where we can discuss and dig in to your Facebook ad strategy? So here you are, and I love that you come prepared with, you know, all of your numbers and how it’s been working for you. But before we launch it, just briefly explain your funnel and what you’re trying to achieve with your Facebook ads and where you’re making money in this funnel.

Tammy Overhoff 00:02:45 Okay. So real quickly. So my so there’s many different strategies that a person can use with Facebook ads. The one that I have landed on that works the best for me in my business. So reset and flourish. So the business to consumer side of things, my strategy that I love to use is the freebie to tripwire. And so what that means is I have my Facebook ads are about promoting my freebie. So the freebie that I’m running this week that I paid very close attention to, so I have all the numbers that I could share is my weekend Reset guide. So my plan in the future is to make that into a challenge, which I talked about in the last episode, but I really wanted to get going on it so I can really start seeing the results and the numbers immediately. So I already have a weekend reset guide and clean eating meal plan that go together. So okay, so wait, I.

Jillian Leslie 00:03:42 Decided to interrupt you for one second. Your target is probably my hunch. A woman who wants to get healthy and lose weight.

Jillian Leslie 00:03:51 Yes, they see this Facebook ad and what are you promising with this freebie? What’s going to happen if I sign up for it?

Tammy Overhoff 00:03:59 Okay, so when I was putting this freebie together, the goal of this freebie is always to be in general, is the baby step to what I want to sell. So this freebie is my weekend reset guide and this promises. The positioning I take with this is I teach the women who download this guide the three or the six steps that you can take over a weekend, so over three days to get you prepared by Monday to start your weight loss journey. And so so yeah. So it’s like this is what you need to do. It’s kind of like my phase one, a part of my phase one in my Reset and Flourish weight loss program. So they get this and then when they purchase or I’m sorry when they download the opt in. So the weekend reset guide they are then giving given the opportunity to purchase my 30 day Reset and Flourish bundle. And there is really magic to be had when you can connect your freebie to your tripwire, which was like, wait.

Jillian Leslie 00:05:12 I’m going to stop you there. Which is when after somebody signs up, boom! On the thank you page shows a product they can purchase right then and there, usually with a countdown timer, there’s a sense of urgency. Maybe it’s at a discounted price, but it says, hey, thanks for signing up. You personally Tammy, you know they want this. So you know what their goal is. So it’s very easy then for you to go, hey, if I put this product in front of them, they’re more apt to purchase it because I know they’re they’re trying to solve a problem.

Tammy Overhoff 00:05:50 So they sign up. It says your guide is on its way to your email. That’s a great first step you just took. Here’s the next step if you’re ready. So that’s kind of how I position that. So then they purchase. So if they purchase that then they are given an upsell. So then they can purchase my Reset and Flourish Ultimate bundle which is a collection of my best ebooks and guides.

Tammy Overhoff 00:06:19 Okay. So if they purchase that the 30 day workbook is included in that. So that will cancel out their first their first offer and then so now. So that $19 purchase turns into a $47 purchase. So now if they purchase that that’s that. But then they get a one time offer as well, which is my reset and flourish weight loss program. And so and a lot of people take it. I mean, I put that funnel together with all those upsells. And so a $19 like purchase turns into $110 purchase with the upsells.

Jillian Leslie 00:07:01 Wow. That is a very robust funnel. If you are listening to this with like, oh my God, overwhelm that idea of I’m never going to be able to create this. Do not be scared. Start easily. For example, with Milo Tree we enable you to offer unlimited freebies, which is again that first step to get somebody on your list. And we enable you to offer tripwires where you can then sell something on the thank you page. So start there, get that to work, then put them through an email sequence and upsell them on a variety of other products and services.

Jillian Leslie 00:07:42 But start small, start Easy. Remember, building a sales funnel is piece by piece, and then once you’ve got a couple pieces in place that are working, that’s when you explore Facebook ads.

Tammy Overhoff 00:07:59 And what I have learned with Facebook ads is especially tripwire or freebie to tripwire, is that you’re not going to make money off or off a $19 purchase. Your money will be made through all the upsells and one time offers, and then getting them into your email funnel, where you will continue to nurture and sell and offer. And then once they purchase something, then like we’ve talked about before. Then there’s the back end offer of a membership. So there’s lots going on behind the scenes. And so so that’s how my funnel works. So it’s freebie to tripwire. I have done direct to sale Before you can do direct to sale. What do you mean by direct yourself?

Jillian Leslie 00:08:48 What do you mean?

Tammy Overhoff 00:08:48 So? Direct to sale means that you are running a Facebook ad to bring them directly to your sales page.

Tammy Overhoff 00:08:55 Got it. To purchase a purchase. However, I will say this with my freebie to tripwire. I still have those set as the conversion on that is still a purchase, so I never do leads. I don’t do traffic or anything like that because when you set Facebook Facebook conversions up as a purchase, then Facebook is looking for people who are going to buy. They’re just not looking for cheap leads. So that’s why doing it that way is a little bit more. Well, sometimes it can be a lot more expensive, but that’s why it’s more expensive.

Jillian Leslie 00:09:29 Okay, so I want to stop you there for a second just to get everybody up to speed. When you set up a Facebook ad, Facebook says, what’s your goal? And it could be exposure. I’m Coca-Cola or I’m paramount and I just want people to see Coke or see this new movie. That’s one example. Another could be just leads. I want email addresses. What you are saying is, even though your initial step is getting somebody to give you their email address, their name and email address, you’re not optimizing.

Jillian Leslie 00:10:02 You’re not telling Facebook optimize just for the email address. You’re saying optimize this for the purchase. And what that means is you just said Facebook sees audiences differently. They know somebody who’s going to sign up and give you their email address, but that person might never buy, whereas the buyers are more valuable to you as a business. Will you pay more for those conversions? Yes, because Facebook knows this is a way for you to make money. So that’s what you were talking about when you’re setting the target. Hey, Facebook, go after people who will buy. You’re going to pay more for that audience. Yes, absolutely. Continue.

Tammy Overhoff 00:10:50 So okay, so that’s my strategy. So like I said, I will at times do direct to sale. I find those to be more difficult. I much prefer to get people on my email list, because then I can really nurture them and they can get to know me and I can take them through all my funnels. So that’s my strategy. Now, the way that I think about Facebook ads, and I think that this is really important for people to understand is, you know, first and foremost, the job of the Facebook ad is not necessarily to make you money.

Tammy Overhoff 00:11:22 The job of the Facebook ad is to get you in front of your targeted audience, and to get your targeted audience to click over to your opt in page or your sales page. And then that’s it’s kind of like handing the baton over. So you got the Facebook ad. They attracted the right people. Those people clicked on the Facebook ad. Now it’s your sales pages job or your opt in pages job to make sure to convert the people that Facebook just got for you over to them to opt in to your freebie, and then ultimately, you know, either purchase the tripwire or as they go through your email funnel to purchase whatever it is you’re offering to them. So I find that a lot of people think the opposite, that, oh, I’m going to make money with Facebook ads, and Facebook ad itself is making the money. And so I think when you start to think about it differently, where this part of the funnel, the Facebook ad is only there to help me target the right people, to get them to the page I need them to.

Tammy Overhoff 00:12:30 And then that’s where you start going through the whole sales process and whatever that looks like.

Jillian Leslie 00:12:36 And and in fact, just to to add this, this is why you need your funnel to work before running ads to it. Facebook’s not going to fix your funnel. And remember, at every step of your funnel, people are going to drop out. And the goal for you is to be experimenting. So think of your funnel as a leaky bucket and you want to plug those leaks. So for example, what you’re saying is you pay Facebook to bring people to your opt in page. And if in fact you notice you get 100 people from Facebook, but no, people are putting in their name and email address that’s on you.

Tammy Overhoff 00:13:20 Yeah, exactly.

Jillian Leslie 00:13:21 Communicating well on that page. And then let’s say of those 100 people, 90 people now put their name and email address in, you’re then going to show them your tripwire. and nobody purchases. That’s again on you. Where you go. Okay, this page is working.

Jillian Leslie 00:13:40 But somehow the offer I’m presenting, maybe it’s my language. Maybe it doesn’t make sense to the person, whatever it is. And so one thing that I’m sure Tammy, you do this is you go step by step by step and try to make each transition a little tighter so you lose fewer people 100%.

Tammy Overhoff 00:14:05 I am always watching things and checking things and looking at conversion rates. And, you know, if I need to move something around, or maybe I need to use a different hook or I mean, it’s amazing sometimes how just the wording of something can make such a difference. So yeah, absolutely. And when it comes to my Facebook ads, what I’m really focusing on is making sure that my creative, which is That means your, like the picture, the image or the video and the copy, which is the words that I’m using in the description and the headline that all of those are attracting the person. That is my ideal person, the person that I know is going to want that. They will want this opt in that I’m leading them to.

Tammy Overhoff 00:14:56 And so for me, and again, as far as like testing, I’m always testing. So I’m always like every week I well how I usually do creatives and even copies, I almost do it the same way that I do all kinds, all of my content development. I will just take a day, take a few days, create as much video as possible, you know, brainstorm different hooks, content, all of that. And then I just get it all into this Airtable thing that I use, or in Google Drive or Trello, whatever you want to use. But I just organize that and then I will just have different, different creatives and copies scheduled to go once a week to test and then and if it’s working, I leave it. If it’s not work, if it’s not, I typically don’t go over 24 hours. If it doesn’t have a sale within 24 hours, I will typically turn it off. I don’t like to go too long with losing money, but most of the time because I’ve dialed it in so much, I usually am at least breaking even with my ads.

Tammy Overhoff 00:16:06 And I don’t mind that because my goal is to bring in as many the email leads. Because I know the money will be made on the back end. So what I have found works as far as creative goes in the B2C space, we’re actually really looking again.

Jillian Leslie 00:16:23 B2C business to consumer. So Tammy, you are helping women lose weight. You’re helping? Yes. Moms, middle aged women, maybe young women. But that is what you are doing. You’re helping just random people.

Tammy Overhoff 00:16:37 Yeah. So anytime you have something that is not serving the business community. So homeschool moms, craft all of that, what’s great about that space is that the creatives do not have to be complicated. My my creative that I’m using this week is literally me holding up a copy of the, opt in and pointing to it. So I’m just pointing to it, smiling. And that has been doing great.

Jillian Leslie 00:17:09 I have literally holding like a PDF.

Tammy Overhoff 00:17:11 I’m literally I’m literally holding it and smiling like this in the in just a selfie.

Tammy Overhoff 00:17:17 And I didn’t have image.

Jillian Leslie 00:17:19 Is it a video?

Tammy Overhoff 00:17:21 That’s an image. And I also have a video where I have the same thing and I’m just kind of, you know, going like, you know, just rocking it back and forth or I’ll just do B-roll video. I’ve been taking a lot of b roll video of just me sitting there typing, or me in my kitchen and then just having a message. So I’m, I have actually those scheduled out to go this weekend. I have a couple b roll. I do find the the picture one that I used this week. I was actually very pleasantly surprised by how well that worked. So this week and I’ve only been spending about 100 to $125 a day, which isn’t a lot compared to what some people spend. But it is still I mean, that’s like $3,000 a month, I would think. Right. So that has been like doing really well. So I’ve been running that one since Saturday, and I have over 300 leads that I got with that.

Jillian Leslie 00:18:18 Today is Thursday. So Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday five days.

Tammy Overhoff 00:18:25 Yes. And so I just want to look at my stuff. So and you’ve.

Jillian Leslie 00:18:29 Gotten 300 people to join your list.

Tammy Overhoff 00:18:34 Oh I’m sorry. No, 513 leads, 513 leads since. So August 10th to August 15th, 513 leads. And my return on ad spend is 1.57. So that means okay, so 1.57 means that I made my ad cost like and then half of that. So I spent. And how much.

Jillian Leslie 00:19:02 Did you spend.

Tammy Overhoff 00:19:04 Let’s see I spent $714. And then here it’s saying the purchase value is $1,120. So what is that like $600 in 5 or $600 in Profit, but so that’s awesome. Like I will take that anytime you can make profit. It’s a good thing. But the other, the real money that will be made is when, they go through my funnel because not all of them purchase I only made. Let me go back to that really quickly. I only made out of.

Tammy Overhoff 00:19:44 So out of those four 513 leads, shoot, I made 33 sales. And.

Jillian Leslie 00:19:53 Wait, so is this just your first tripwire, or does this also count the upsells?

Tammy Overhoff 00:20:00 These are the upsells and the one time offer. So 33 purchases were made. So 513 leads 33 purchases. And I will say a lot of them I was looking the upsell conversion was 25% the first upsell, which is really good. And then the I have a one time offer into my, into my weight loss program, and that is, that was 8%. So I’m not sure if a third of a one time offer that seems kind of low, but still, I mean, that turned a $19 tripwire sale into $110 sale. So if I was just having the $19 sale, I probably wouldn’t have even made money on that ad. So it is really important when you are ready to run ads and even though you’re using them to build your leads, if you have those upsells and those one time offers and you have them very strategically put together, so you have, like I’ve said, you have your opt in, which will be your baby step to that first step, the first sale to the for the for sale.

Tammy Overhoff 00:21:17 So they and if they want to purchase that then the upsell also needs to relate. And then the one time offer. So people who are downloading the opt in, the weekend reset, they’re already in the mindset of wanting to get healthy, wanting to lose weight. So now they go through my whole funnel. They see that they get this really great deal for a one time offer on my weight loss program, and I was able to really discount it because I made it self led. So there’s no support. It’s just the videos and all the documents. And so they get that for $67. But if they and when they purchased the bundle prior to that, that’s 44, 97 both of them together. It’s like $110 or whatever that it’s over $100. I mean, like I said, 8% of those people purchase that. So when you’re running ads, you want to get that order value up. And, you know, and I’m always big on repurposing, I’m always moving stuff around to see how it better sells certain ways.

Tammy Overhoff 00:22:22 And I just found that the people who are coming in for the reset and flourish, or I’m sorry for the weekend reset guide, were already primed and ready for the rest of these things, and it just made it definitely makes a difference. And now once they purchase the bundle or the weight loss program, I have an onboarding sequence for that. And at the back end of that onboarding sequence is getting into my membership. So when you’re running ads, you want to get that order value up. And, you know, and I’m always big on repurposing, I’m always moving stuff around to see how it better sells certain ways. And I just found that the people who are coming in for the reset and flourish, or I’m sorry for the weekend reset guide, were already primed and ready for the rest of these things and it just made it definitely makes a difference. And now once they purchase the bundle or the weight loss program, I have an onboarding sequence for that. And at the back end of that onboarding sequence is getting into my membership.

Jillian Leslie 00:23:37 Given that we are talking all about getting people on your list and selling to them on the thank you page after they sign up, aka a tripwire, I have two resources to help you build this out easily and you might want to grab them. The first one is three I prompts that you can use to create a freebie in about ten minutes, and you can grab that at Milo tree.com/freebie prompts. And I have another resource with 13 AI prompts you can use to write an entire book in under three hours that you can then sell, and you can grab that at Milo Tree comic book prompts. So it’s Milo Tree comic freebie prompts and military comic book prompts. These are the first two steps to building your digital product empire. And now back to the show. What I love is you’re solving one problem.

Tammy Overhoff 00:24:47 Yes, yes. And that’s huge.

Jillian Leslie 00:24:49 And you’ve gotten people at the place where they are ready to take action to solve it, which is, you know what? I need a reset. Yep. And you go, I want like, I want to reset that.

Jillian Leslie 00:25:03 Like, that sounds so reasonable. And so if you can just like if you can sell me on here’s the deal. It’s not going to be hard. Just first start with the reset. You already know what my goal is. So all you have to do is say, hey, I’m Tammy. I’m here to help you on this journey. I’ve got all the materials, everything you need, all the support. You know, and I love that you’re using a video in one of your sales pages to be like, I’m human. Like, I get you, I’m here for you. So that if you give me those warm feelings, if you tell me this is doable and that all you’re going to, like, feed me the next step and the next step and the next step, I’m willing to purchase from you. So out there, when you are thinking about your own business, please don’t try and solve 30 problems for your audience. Get to the one that is the largest, where you can break it down into multiple steps where you can be selling them solutions at every step.

Jillian Leslie 00:26:04 Make sure it’s a hokey pokey enough problem that they’re willing to put out $100, let’s say, to solve it. So, you know, small problems that are $5 problems. That’s not what you want to go after. So it’s almost like taking the time to go, what is this larger problem? How can I break it down into multiple steps different price points. But did it all is leading to the same goal.

Tammy Overhoff 00:26:33 Yes. Yeah. And I think that that’s that all is I 100% agree with you. And another thing is not everyone as far as Facebook ads go in my freebie to tripwire, as we know, not everybody is purchasing right at the tripwire. So once they get into my funnel. So now I’m like, so this is I, I’ve been working on this funnel a little bit more this week, making sure it’s doing exactly what you said, you know, poking, getting at those pain points, really looking at what people are opening. You know, if they’re buying, once they get in the funnel.

Tammy Overhoff 00:27:09 What email was that? Like, I’m always thinking about, you know, I start with like positioning. How do I want to position this product? Like, what pain point am I, am I talking about how what what am I like? What? How am I going to talk about this with this person where they will want to put their their email address in? Like how how are they going to feel like this is for them. And so and I do and so I start with that. And that is not easy. Like I have been through many different versions of sales page language, positioning and everything. And so when I finally landed on this, it’s not just overall weight loss. Like, here are the six things you can do this weekend to get started on your journey on Monday. So here’s what you do before you even are thinking about making any changes to your life. So that seems to be working a lot better than just having it be an overall, weight loss type of, you know, message.

Tammy Overhoff 00:28:21 So and so from there, I’m just making sure that the language and how I speak is very well. It’s the same in both the ad and my landing page. So a lot of that has to do with colors as well. Language your hook. So the hook that you put right at the top, it should you’re always using the same type of language, because when someone clicks on your ad and they land on your sales page or your opt in page, like you said, you don’t want them to be like, okay, what? Just like, this doesn’t even seem like the same person or anything. So and that’s also why I tend to use a lot of pictures and videos of myself, because people want to. They want to trust you. They want to see that there’s a real person behind this business. And, you know, I like that, too. I want people to see like, I care about you. I’m a real person. I’m here to help you. I’ve created these things for you.

Tammy Overhoff 00:29:22 So. So yeah. So it definitely comes down to positioning and messaging. A lot of times you have to just play around with it. I do think that you have to be niche down. You can’t really say things very general because there’s there’s just too much noise right now in all markets. So you have to think about what is your special twist on things like how do you talk about what is yours?

Jillian Leslie 00:29:48 What is yours. Yes. So what is yours?

Tammy Overhoff 00:29:50 What is your vibe like you always say.

Jillian Leslie 00:29:53 But like if I were to say Tammy. What? Like, what is it about you? Are you, for example, a cheerleader? Are you realistic? Are you? Hey, I’ve been through this. Like, what do you do that breaks through the noise?

Tammy Overhoff 00:30:08 Well, I feel what I do that breaks through the noise is I really spend a lot of time in my messaging relating to who I’m talking to. So I want so I share my story. I want to say to them, I understand that it’s very difficult to even get started on a weight loss program.

Tammy Overhoff 00:30:30 So this what I’m going to teach you in this opt in is going to help you just get started. I’m not saying you don’t need to change your life overnight. You don’t need to make any, because that’s the thing. Like the women that I talk to, we’re stressed out. We have a lot going on. We’re older, you know, our kids are older, we’re tired, but we still want to take care of ourselves. And we’ve probably tried it all. So now it’s like, okay, well, let me just let let me get you to this spot. Like, let’s just get started before you even make any changes. And so I do talk a lot more about that. And I do talk a lot about being in the messy middle of weight loss. And that is another positioning that I’ve taken that people have really related to. And that is actually on my opt in page, and it’s in my emails. And so I’ll say, are you stuck in the messy middle of weight loss? So you want to lose weight, but you don’t want to use weight loss drugs, and you don’t want all this restriction in your life.

Tammy Overhoff 00:31:37 You just want to have healthy habits that you can just move forward and feel good about yourself, lose some weight. So really focusing on that messy middle, I get people who respond back to me all the time. I put together after I put that on my sales or on my opt in page, and it might even be on my sales page too, because that’s a message I’ve carried, like throughout all of it. But in the email I put together, I really got raw and real and talked about my stance on being in the messy middle where, you know, I don’t want to be on this restriction diet with zero carbs every day, but I don’t want to take weight loss drugs either. And I’m never judgmental. I’m just this is what I, I I’m stuck in this messy middle, like, where is my space place in all of this? And I get responses back all the time on a daily basis. Like, you nailed it. This email was so good. Thank you so much.

Tammy Overhoff 00:32:39 And so that’s when I started to realize that was the messaging my people really needed to hear. You know, these are the the people who need my services because I am about, you know, figuring it out while we’re in the messy middle and making it work for us without these other things. So that’s my stance on things. Okay. and but it’s taking me so I’m sure.

Jillian Leslie 00:33:05 But it’s so but what is interesting is how clear you are, how much you know yourself, how you know your brand, how you know how to talk to your people. So let’s just do some basics. I’m going to ask you some basic questions about how you think about your Facebook ads. You’re going to run this campaign. You’re going to start it. How many creatives are you going to test? So we know your your your goal that you’re going to tell Facebook is you want convergence. You want them to target people who will purchase. You’re setting up your ad. How many creatives do you test at one time?

Tammy Overhoff 00:33:38 I don’t I test about two at a time.

Tammy Overhoff 00:33:41 So I yes, I don’t have I typically don’t run more than $200 a day in ads because it’s just me. And even though I feel pretty experienced in ads, you still have to babysit them. You still have to make sure you’re not losing money, I do. I have recently started setting up rules where you can turn them off, turn them on, adjust them based on what’s happening every day with your ads. But I just started doing that so I don’t really feel comfortable like talking necessarily or teaching that, but I would say so I never. So when I’m testing, I test two at a time and I start them out at $25 each and then a like.

Jillian Leslie 00:34:26 So a day. So you’re setting up two like ad sets or one ad set with two creatives.

Tammy Overhoff 00:34:33 Two ad sets, different creatives and copy in each one.

Jillian Leslie 00:34:38 And how many different creatives in each one?

Tammy Overhoff 00:34:41 One what? And then. Yes. And then if that. Because I want to be able to see because if I what I noticed is when I set up one ad set with like three creatives in it.

Tammy Overhoff 00:34:55 One creative will get all the ad spend or it’s like very unbalanced. So I. How I have learned to do them is I test it with one ad set, one creative copy headline. If that starts making money, I will double like I’ll duplicate it and then add more budget to it. And then from there I will, you know, maybe if I, if I sometimes I’ll add another creative if I feel like the audience is still good, it just needs to be like shaken up a little bit. So to give you an example of that, I use ad or advantage plus creative a lot and that is one you can add. You can switch out creatives quite a bit and you’ll see it kind of like get a kick in the pants and start working again. So I had advantage. Plus going and the ad spending that was $100. So I was able to scale it up to $100, $100 a day for just that one ad. Well, it started dying off and I didn’t touch it for like a month or so.

Tammy Overhoff 00:36:06 So when I started that back up on Saturday, I kept the whole ad set as is, but I changed out the entire creative. Okay, I’m going to stop you.

Jillian Leslie 00:36:16 For one second. Advantage plus is. So it used to be that you’d hire somebody to run your Facebook ads because there were all these little optimizations that they knew that you wouldn’t know. Oh, you want to target this audience? Oh, you want to do this? And now, because of I, Facebook has gotten very smart. And there is something called Advantage Plus, which I recommend. If you’re going to run ads, you use it because it is literally Facebook using their AI to optimize your ad. So all these people who would previously be running your Facebook ads, they’re out of a job because they’re not. You’re not, you know, it’s like they knew so much more than you knew. And now with advantage plus, I recommend at least starting there before you start to kind of tweak stuff. So when you’re saying you’re running two ad sets, how are they different.

Jillian Leslie 00:37:09 So like an ad set would be let’s say I’m going to target women in one ad, an ad set, and maybe in the second one I’m going to target a different audience, like, what are you doing? How are those ad sets different?

Tammy Overhoff 00:37:26 Well, I do a couple things. So and I and I, I definitely have a strategy, but I’m flexible. So if I want to test say a different. So I have two ads, two creatives and two copy, I’ll do a couple of things. I mean, I will set them both up separately in an ad, Add, advantage plus. So they’ll both be advantage plus ad sets, but they’ll have different copy creative in it. I’ll also do very wide open audiences, so I’ll do all women over 30 years old. And those do pretty good too, because like you said now with Facebook having that, I they want more room to figure out what your ad should be about. However, sometimes you can still find those audiences that will work really well.

Tammy Overhoff 00:38:19 So I have a few audiences that I use for for my specific, you know, for Reset and Flourish that I know I could run ads to. And they typically will bring in leads. And, you know, there’s, you know, just targeting like moms and stuff.

Jillian Leslie 00:38:33 So for example, one thing you can do with Facebook is upload your email list and then target those people, target a lookalike audience. So there are ways of building different Audiences and therefore you end up with again different what are called ad sets. Think of them as like different targeting for different audiences.

Tammy Overhoff 00:38:57 Yes, I know, and it is confusing when you try to like like until you get into it. It’s hard to get used to, but I will. So the ad. So those are my cold audiences. The advantage plus and like women but I do for warm audiences. So I have uploaded all of my purchasers, which is always a great one. And I do a 10% lookalike. I never do less than 10%.

Tammy Overhoff 00:39:22 I upload all my emails. So the people who have downloaded that opt in, once you hit like a few thousand people, I take them, put them into, put them into my ad account, create a lookalike audience. I will say I don’t have a lot of luck with, like, my Facebook, people or my Instagram people. Which is so weird because I am always like posting and sharing. You would think those would do better, but every time I run, to like my website traffic or like I said, Facebook, Instagram, I have a lot better luck with cold audiences. Which is a good thing because you’re reaching people much bigger. Yeah, yeah, it’s much bigger.

Jillian Leslie 00:40:08 And so do you. So then. Okay. And I know for a lot of people this seems super confusing, as you say, like one thing to do is kind of get in there and just look, because what I like that you’re saying to me is you set it up pretty simply, you know, like two ad sets, even one, one creative in each ad set, running to different audiences.

Jillian Leslie 00:40:31 Because then there is what’s called retargeting.

Tammy Overhoff 00:40:37 Yeah.

Jillian Leslie 00:40:37 Are you so, so cold audiences, let’s just go through this cold audience. They don’t know who you are. It is that random ad you are seeing on Instagram or Facebook where you don’t know this brand is like whoa, that you are a cold audience to them. Then though, let’s say you then click on the ad or you do something, you interact with it. Facebook knows this and Facebook goes, hey, wait a second. Chilly and kind of likes this, right? So I was like recently. It was funny. I’m like shopping. I was like shopping for bras and going to all these sites that I’d never been to and boom, all of a sudden, like, I’m on scrolling on Facebook and all those ads are showing up because now I am considered a warm audience. I’ve been to their website and they go, hey, Jillian is looking at these bras. We’re going to now show her an ad. So a lot of times.

Jillian Leslie 00:41:32 So that’s like an example where I was on their website, but I might interact Tammy, with your ad. I don’t know who you are. I see this, they’re going to go, hey, Jillian, now is a warm audience. We’re going to retarget her and show her a new ad or show her this ad again. Are you retargeting people?

Tammy Overhoff 00:41:52 I, you know, believe it or not, I have not done any retargeting ads yet, and that is definitely on my to do list for sure. Because, you know, I’ve been very focused on getting in that audience and really focused on my email funnels. But as I start to get more people that are going to, the the sales pages for the bundle or the weight loss program, I mean, I probably could retarget, you know, for a direct to sale, I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about retargeting the opt in page, but I guess I probably could. I’ll have to. Yeah, I’ll have to think about that.

Tammy Overhoff 00:42:30 The the best luck that I’ve had has definitely been with using cold audiences for sure. And also, my look alike audiences for my plays. Kind of like my tried and true. Whenever I’m testing anything out, I’m testing it out to things that I know. those odd, you know, that those audiences are pretty active for me.

Jillian Leslie 00:42:54 Here’s a question. And you talked about this a little bit. You say, I’m spending $100 a day, and that’s not a lot. But for most of us, that’s a lot. And if you’re watching $100 every day, getting flushed down the toilet, that is a very painful place to be. So I liked when you said, because what they’ll say is, well, takes a while. And so you need to let your ads run for like five days. Seven days. Well, we’re talking 500 to $700, so I like that you go, hey, I’m in there because I’m spending real money. And so if I’m not seeing any traction, I’m turning it off.

Tammy Overhoff 00:43:36 Yeah. So. Absolutely. So.

Jillian Leslie 00:43:38 So I think that there’s this sense of like, I’m going to start running Facebook ads. I’m going to set it up, it’s going to start working, I’m going to leave it. And it’s just money. It’s just going to again fly through the windows because I’m just like awesome. And it’s not like that. So you are in there every day, every couple of days tweaking things like what are you looking at? When do you know this isn’t working? I’m turning this off. Like how risk. It’s a little bit. Feels a little bit like you’re going to Vegas.

Tammy Overhoff 00:44:10 Yes. However, once you start running ads and you’ll start to get a sense of your best times of day where a lot of sales coming in, you’ll start to sense like there’s certain days of the week where, you know, like Sundays sometimes are just not good days for me, or even like today. I usually, if I don’t make my ad spend back by like 2:00, it’s like, I don’t know, you know, like it’s risky and where I haven’t made my ad spend back yet where yesterday I over doubled my ad spend yesterday.

Tammy Overhoff 00:44:44 So right now I’m like kind of letting it run because my emails are coming in and it’s still kind of early. And because I, you know, I have been making money off of them. So sometimes I do let them go a little bit like right now. But yeah, I’m in it every single day. And I would never, ever run Facebook ads for longer. I would say two days max if I was losing money. I mean, if I’m like losing losing money after 24 hours. And I know that, like, you just kind of once you start doing them for a while, you know, but after two days, if you’re not making at least a sale, I definitely would turn them off. for sure. I would never advise anyone to run them for 5 to 7 days. And when you’re doing a freebie to tripwire, it’s different than doing a direct to sale offer. You know, a freebie to tripwire. You’re still getting in those emails. You’re still making, you know, planning on making those sales in your funnel.

Tammy Overhoff 00:45:47 So yeah. So I feel like those are a lot less risk averse. And I tend I tend to see more sales with a tripwire than I do with a direct to sale offer. So yeah, I don’t know, like I definitely think like that’s a good a freebie to tripwire is for sure a good ad strategy for someone who’s just starting with ads. And that’s something that I started with. And actually, it’s what I continue to do, because I find it to be one of the easiest ways to build your email list with the right people.

Jillian Leslie 00:46:21 And then think of Facebook ads as like gasoline, that the fire is already there. It’s just that you’re going to that Facebook ads is throwing gasoline on the fire. But if you do not have a fire, this is not going to work and you could lose a lot of money.

Tammy Overhoff 00:46:39 Yes, yes. And then once they’re on your email list, I mean, you can then they’re there for launches, flash sales, all of that stuff. So exactly.

Tammy Overhoff 00:46:50 You know, you you need to have all that setup on the back end. Remember your Facebook ad is there to attract the right people into your funnel. Think of it. That’s your invitation. That’s the party invitation. They go to the party invitation. They decide they like it, they RSVP, they opt in, and now they’re a part of your world. And now you can just take them on that journey. So, I mean, I love Facebook ads. I definitely think it’s one of the best things that I’ve learned in my business for sure. it does take time, just like anything else, you know, just like anything else. With blogging in business, you have to kind of dive in and learn it. And the more you do it, the more you become comfortable with it. You become an expert in it, and you just kind of learn what’s going to work, what’s not going to work. And it’s always about testing. It’s definitely not set it and forget it. I mean, if it was that way, everyone would be doing it.

Tammy Overhoff 00:47:44 So yeah, you definitely I would plan to create content maybe once a month, you know, maybe 6 to 8 different ads every week. Schedule a couple, keep an eye on them. but yeah, that’s how I do things. I do keep it simple.

Jillian Leslie 00:47:59 As we wrap up, I have one last question. Sure. How long has it taken you to set up this entire funnel and have it work?

Tammy Overhoff 00:48:10 Oh my gosh. I mean, it’s embarrassing. Well, let’s just say I am definitely prone to learning things the hard way and taking the lot and taking the long way around. So I have been working on my Facebook ads, probably for, well, I’ve been doing them for two years. But this particular funnel, I would say I’ve really perfected it in the last six months. I feel really good about how my funnel is running right now, but it’s taken me two years to really learn the ins and outs. I’ve tested many different offers, I’ve tested many different opt ins, I’ve tweaked sales pages, I’ve tweaked my email funnels over, and I’m constantly looking at statistics, conversion rates.

Tammy Overhoff 00:48:57 I would say what I talked about today is definitely what I’ve landed on, what I feel comfortable with, and what I would recommend to anyone who is looking to start Facebook ads, or really get into the whole freebie to tripwire. I think that’s a great way for your audience to really think about how they would use Facebook ads in their business.

Jillian Leslie 00:49:21 And I’m going to say, like, if you’re just starting and you’re you’re listening to Tammy and you’re like, that’s the goal. I just we just rolled out a, a freebie where you we give you three AI prompts to create a freebie cheat sheet based on your niche. And in fact, I know you talk about start with your product and then figure out your opt in. I’m going to say start with your opt in and then see if that can lead you to your product. So just to get it just this is so we’re going to start like small. But to get these three AI prompts just go to military.com/freebie prompts. And then you can get these three prompts.

Jillian Leslie 00:50:12 And what this will do is it will start to create a like what I like to call a Hershey’s Kiss. Kind of opt in like one where you got to eat it right away. That’s got some juice to it. That’s got some excitement around it. Because and it will give you some ideas, but this might be the way to jump off to like, starting to think about building out this funnel, which I can tell took you a lot of trial and error. Yes. So start somewhere and start with like this freebie off, you know, creating your freebie just to get you thinking in terms of solving problems for your people that are pokey, that then hopefully you can build off of to create all of what Tammy you have built.

Tammy Overhoff 00:51:03 Yeah that’s a really good point. And I think if you know you just gotta pay attention. I mean if, if you put together a freebie and people are downloading it like hotcakes. Pay attention to those cues. Don’t go off. And now create a whole other product that’s completely separate.

Tammy Overhoff 00:51:19 Like really think about These people who just purchased this opt in, what is their next step? What can I what can I lead them towards? so yeah, I, I think whether you create the product or a freebie first, it probably doesn’t matter as long as you’re just paying attention to what that next step is or what that first step should be. Because that that connection there, that’s where the gold is. Like that’s where you’re that’s where the gold is. Like that’s exactly it’s going to be so much easier to sell, get your positioning correct and all of that when you can really connect those two things together.

Jillian Leslie 00:51:57 Awesome. Well, I just have to say I love having you on the show. I love how honest you are. You know that you’re not saying everything is puppies and rainbows, but that it’s a long slog. But if you can do it, if you can stick in there and you can start kind of putting the pieces together, testing them, you can find tremendous success. So I want to say congrats on your success with your Facebook ads, because not only are you breaking even growing your list, you’re making money.

Tammy Overhoff 00:52:25 Yeah, yeah. That’s huge.

Jillian Leslie 00:52:26 Part one of your entire business.

Tammy Overhoff 00:52:30 Yep, yep. I think it’s important to have an organic strategy and a paid strategy and kind of bringing those together. So you just have more control over your business. And that’s one of the things that I love about Facebook ads is it just gives me more control over my business. Instead of just worrying about what the Google gods or the algorithm gods are going to do. So I really encourage people that just to think about it, you know, really think about taking Facebook ads seriously and what that can do for your business.

Jillian Leslie 00:53:01 Okay. If people want to reach out to you with their questions, learn more about you. Where should they go?

Tammy Overhoff 00:53:08 Well, they can definitely reach me at Tasty Digital eats.com, especially if they’re looking to if they’re a food blogger and they’re looking for help with their digital product strategy on that level. and of course, reset and flourish. They can find me there on Instagram, but tasty digital eats.

Tammy Overhoff 00:53:24 You can find me on my website. I’m tasty digital eat on Instagram. and I run ad. So you if you’re a food blogger, you might see some tasty digital eat ads going through. but yeah, that’s the best way to contact me. for just help, as a food blogger with digital products.

Jillian Leslie 00:53:44 Well, I have to say, Tammy, thank you again for coming on the show and sharing your knowledge.

Tammy Overhoff 00:53:51 No problem. It’s. I’m so happy to be here. Thanks for always having me back, I love it.

Jillian Leslie 00:53:55 I hope you guys like this episode. My biggest takeaway is that this is doable. It might take some time to figure out your sales funnel, but once you do, you can then run Facebook ads to get people to join your list. And you could start minting money. If you are ready to try this and you want to use that simplest tech to set it up, go to Military.com. You can offer unlimited freebies that we deliver to your new subscribers, and you can sell on the Thank you page as your tripwire.

Jillian Leslie 00:54:31 We offer a 14 day free trial, so take my AI resources and get started. If you have any questions, email me at Jillian at military.com or DM me on Instagram at military. If you thought this episode was useful, please share it with a friend. And if you haven’t yet subscribed to the podcast, please do, because I’ve got some other great episodes in the queue. And if you’re liking the show, please review it wherever you’re listening to it and I will see you here again next week.

Mastering Facebook Ads for Digital Products | The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree