Hello lovers! Excited to share my most recent income report with you from August. I’ve got some good tips about Facebook ads and launch preparation in here, so I hope it helps you out. 🙂
I started doing income reports as a way to be more transparent about my business and shed some light on ways that you can grow your own online business, too.I want to show you both what worked for me and what didn’tso that you can apply those lessons to your own dreams. My overall hope is thatmy income reportsinspire or informyou to create and grow your own onlinebiz.
Let’s do this!
- E-CourseSales: $53,365
- Affiliate Income: $8,799
Total Income: $62,164
- PayPal + Stripe Fees: $1,663
- Gusto Payroll Software: $28
- Facebook Ads: $14,681
- Independent Contractors: $10,626
- Bookkeepers: $529
- MotionMail: $10
- Deadline Funnel: $37
- Zapier: $20
- Infusionsoft*: $428
- Affiliates: $1,567
- Office rent, utilities, + insurance: $1,187
- Google Apps*: $17
- Olark: $17
- Teachable*: $598
- Stocksy: $15
- Meals + Entertainment: $57
- GoDaddy: $20
- Wistia: $225
Total Expenses: $31,725
(Anything with an * next to it is an affiliate link)
Payroll to Melyssa: $8,611
So what worked? And how was August? Let’s chat.
Now, $15,000 on Facebook ads is probably small potatoes to what some people spend per month, but compared to last month where we spent about $3,500 on FB ads, this is a big ol’ leap! So, what’s the deal with the huge spike in fees?
Well, in early September, I held a special promotion for one of my courses, Pinfinite Growth. Leading up to that launch, we ran a lot of Facebook ads to get people into my Triple Your Traffic Challenge, which is a free 7-day challenge that shares strategies to help you grow your traffic with Pinterest.
I always prefer to begin promotions by sharing a lot of value for free. Both because I want people to gain something, whether or not they buy my product, and because it’s a great segueinto my paid course where they can skyrocket their results even more.
Altogether, we had nearly 10,000 people join the challenge! Many of those people came directly from my email list, but running Facebook ads also got MORE people from my list to opt-in to the challenge (by reminding them to sign up) and it also got some new subscribers to join as well.
I’ll share more in September’s income report about how the launch did overall, but for the $15,000 we spent on ads for the launch, we earned about $75,000 in return. Money well spent, eh?
Should YOU start running Facebook ads? Here’s what I suggest…
Before dumping a ton of money into ads, you should have a few things in place, like:
1. A sales funnel that you know will convert. If you’re running ads to an evergreen funnel, I would try getting your own audience into the funnel first to see if people are buying your product.
So, test the funnel to make sure it works before investing in ads. The last thing you want is to put a bunch of money into your ads when they lead to a funnel that isn’t set up to convert.
2. A retargeting plan! One of the coolest things about Facebook ads is that you can RETARGET people.
This means that if you run an ad to your sales page and someone visits your sales page but doesn’t buy your product, you can set up ads that ONLY go to those people, which can share more info about your product, remind them to buy, etc.
This is a stellar way to increase conversions, but you should have a plan for how you’ll retarget people before beginning FB ads.
3. Some data.Once you get better at Facebook ads (or hire someone to do them for you), you’ll start to notice a few important numbers, like the average cost per lead and the average conversion rate of your sales funnel. Those are major because they will help you develop a budget for your ads.
For example, if you know that it costs $3 for every new lead (new person who opts in to your funnel), your funnel converts at 4%, and your product is $500, then here’s what would happen if you paid for 100 new leads to enter your funnel:
100 leads x $3 = $300 spent on FB ads
100 x .04 = 4 people who will end up buying your product
4 x $500 = $2,000 (the amount of money you’d earn from your funnel)
$2,000 – $300 = $1,700 in profit earned from the new leads you acquired through Facebook ads.
Do you see how this can be wildly successful if done correctly? This is why it’s important to have some data about your sales funnel so that you know how much you can spend on each new lead.
August was a busy “behind the scenes” month. It started with me in Japan for the first week or so of the month, but as soon as I got back, it was time to dive back into preparations for a launch we did in September.
This launch was the first one where I decided to hire a Project Manager (GREAT decision!). I basically dumped the entire launch plan and strategy onto my project manager, who then created the daily schedule, shared it in Asana with me and my team, facilitated weekly team meetings,then followed up with my team each day to make sure things were moving along.
Having this level of accountability and organization meant that we were able to exceed our goals and produce a launch that had more finishing touches.
Our previous launches have done well, too, but there were a lot of things that I’d end up doing at the last minute or that just never got done, so it was great to see pretty much everything I envisioned actually come to life.
It’s also the first launch where I really had a “team” — a Facebook ads manager, designer, copywriter, project manager, and VA/Jack of All Trades. I love having a team of people now — it’s so much more fun to run a business when other people are part of it. 🙂
And in case you’re new around here and feeling like you need to pay for Facebook ads and a team of people to succeed…well, you 100% do NOT.
Here’s a report from my very first launch (I don’t think I even had a VA at this point).
And here are the stats from my second launch (I had someone help me with emails for this one, but that was it).
I am ALL about getting started NOW with what you have and where you are. Save the bells and whistles for the future.
Overall, August was one of my smaller months profit-wise this year, but it was awesome to take an international trip in August and to spend a lot of time behind-the-scenes perfecting the upcoming launch we did in September (more on that in September’s income report!).
It was very cool to take almost three weeks off from my business and still have a very profitable month. Something I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing a year ago!
I have a mini to do list for you, with some things I think will help. Pick and choose what sounds like it might serve you!
- Decide if Facebook ads will be beneficial for you at this stage in your business.How do you gauge that? Well, I would start using ads when a) you have the budget, b) you have a product that people have been buying/enjoying, c) you have a sales funnel that has been converting at at least 1-2%.
- Before your next launch, create a plan 2-3 months in advance. List out EVERY task that needs to get done, and then divvy up those tasks in a program like Asana, spread out over the next couple months. This will help big time when preparing for a big launch and staying on schedule. 🙂
Got any questions? Comments? Insights? I’m all ears! Let’s chat down below.
p.s. I also have a private Facebook group where I’d love to chat with you and answer your Qs! Click here to join.
