Episode Transcript
Nina Huchthausen (00:12.27)
All right, welcome everybody to the Make His Business Tribe podcast. My name is Nina and I am joined today by the wonderful, amazing Tanai, our MBT partner, and she focuses on ads inside our tribe. So I would, and because she has done a really amazing training just a couple of days ago for our tribe members on
how to get ready for ads, what ads are, what they do, what jobs they fulfill, and as well, what you need to watch out for and create for yourself in order to make them work for you and drive more sales for your business or awareness or more understanding, knowledge, whatever that might be. I wanted to get Tanai onto this podcast today to...
for all of the knowledge about that she had shared with our tribe members and to give you guys a little bit of a snippet on advertising. So with that, who is Tanai? Tanai runs the Adz House. She is a multi -award winning marketing consultant and specifically what Adz House does as the name says is focusing on ads.
meta ads and Spotify advertising. So without further ado, Tena, welcome to the show. And I would love to hear from you. What got you into ads and advertising? Well, thanks for having me on here. It's something that I love talking about. As with most good stories from small businesses or solo printers, I
come from agency land. So I started off my career in an agency, quite a large agency, and I moved my way to heading up the Facebook ads team as a digital advertising director. Now, I love ads, absolutely think that they are fascinating. And I also understand that they are not everybody's cup of tea. I feel like you either love them or you hate them.
Nina Huchthausen (02:34.606)
Whilst I was in the agency, the direction of the agency moved very differently. And I felt like there was less connection between marketing services that were offered to smaller businesses and they were going after those that had the big budgets. So Ads House was sort of started to be able to offer small medium sized businesses the same.
strategies and same expertise that the big guys get, but geared towards those smaller budgets and cutting out a lot of the noise and focusing on what you actually need to know as a smaller business. And I can so second that because one of my first jobs when I got to Australia was in a digital agency. I really have to say the first
three months, I didn't know that what they were focused on was advertising because I thought it was different. And then I realized that really we were, there was always a team of three to five people working on a single account and you only needed to have these three to five people because that's how the advertising agency was structured. Like really, if someone wanted to get a
Whatever that little one, like a tiny little ad done, it had to go from account manager to producer to designer to copywriter back to producer to account manager. Like the costs were always so blown out of proportion because of this internal process that if you didn't have a budget, like under 10K, if you didn't have that cash, we couldn't do anything for you.
And even for that, there were maybe a couple ads that you could do, but not real good creative or anything like that. And I remember this because it put me off so much because all we were working with and supporting on what would go on radio, TV, on the internet, you name it, were just big brands. And they were there. But like,
Nina Huchthausen (04:58.286)
anybody else, smaller businesses who actually have really good and wholesome products that you might actually really need, they couldn't afford it. And they were not really welcome in that show of that happening, unfortunately. And I found it so refreshing when I found you because number one, I was like, oh my goodness, you...
You have played that game, I have played that game. We know that working with a big advertising agency is not really wholesome for anyone. Yeah. But number two, you are changing that because you are your consultancy. So you actually really guide and support your clients through with real life advice and knowledge and
not just doing crazy turn and winging it and squeezing humongous amounts of money out of someone for often very little result. I could not agree more and I've actually just done a bit of a brand refresh and launched a new website as well and the whole point of that was I do not want to be referred to as an agency. I think
they, the word has a negative connotation. There are too many people that have had bad experiences with agencies. Don't get me wrong, there are people that have had good experiences as well. But I have a lot of clients that have been with big agencies that have over promised and under delivered that have, you know, kept them in the dark and not educated them to the point where.
They didn't actually know what was happening in their account. And they're actually too afraid to ask the questions because they felt they were made to feel like they were dumped. So yeah, Ads Houses moved towards the term consultancy because we're a marketing partner. We're not an agency. Yeah. And I really, really appreciate it.
Nina Huchthausen (07:20.91)
because I have seen the shit that can go on when it's not well managed and that the connotation of agencies there. And I've also seen, I don't know if my eyes are just drawn to it, but I'm a member of a bunch of different business related Facebook groups. And I see time and time again where people say that they had saved up.
a lot of money to run ads, to throw some fuel onto the fire, to drive more leads to their website. They handed over all their money to an agency. The agency ran an ad for a couple of weeks. They didn't really know what they were doing or what the ad was even about or what it was all about. The money was all spent and there was no result. That's horrible. That's horrible.
It's shocking and I've had a number of discovery calls and I've actually turned clients away. Cause after you have the conversation in their mind, they're like, you know, I want to run ads. I want to improve my sales, blah, blah, blah. But you need to go past that. You need to look at what other marketing activities there are. And if they're ready for ads, and if I don't think that they're going to work for them, I'll turn them away. I'll say that.
you need to invest in email marketing or you need to optimize your website before you spend any money because it's just a waste and it's misplaced budget that could go somewhere else that could get you a better return as well. And that's, I think, really important because whenever you build and grow a business, there is a sequence to things, right? And to me, there are many, many people involved to
that need to support a business owner at some given point of time, right? Which is part of the philosophy of the tribe because we, you know, when we strategize with anyone from a business growth perspective, we are lining up what you need to build first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and so forth so that you can then grow and scale your business and...
Nina Huchthausen (09:44.974)
I think that just by you saying, hey, even though you are an ad sales consultancy, you are analyzing the business from a business perspective to see, OK, where you are in this journey. Because I'm step number five. If you're step number three, you got to go complete step number four before you can talk to me. And that's the...
That's freaking brilliant. Yeah. But can you maybe share a little bit more about what are sort of the prerequisites or the things that people need to have in place first before they should even entertain the idea of running ads? Sure. So I'm going to preface this with or caveat this with a statement that,
You can use ads before these steps. However, the ads are to collect data to help you. And what I mean by that is you can run ads to find out a particular message angle or a particular offer or anything like that. So you can utilise the data for that, but you're not going for direct sales. You're going for a particular purpose to submit
the ideal messaging that people are going to engage with to then help you on other marketing platforms. Now, what I mean by that is I had a nutritionist who focuses on
Nina Huchthausen (11:31.342)
reducing an environmental impact by eating less meat. And she hired me because she was working on her website and she was really struggling with the angle that people were connecting with the most. So we ran tests before she launched her website and we put out different benefits. So that might be, you don't have to be vegetarian, you just have to start with eating less meat. That might be,
reduce the environmental impact by eating less meat, could be it's better for your gut health. So looking at all the benefits of what she offered as a service and understanding what people were responding to the most. And then that helps you craft the copy that's going to attract your ideal client. So that's...
a caveat that I'm going to put on there. But if you're looking at running ads specifically to increase sales, whether that be service -based, product -based, growing leads, anything like that, there are things that you need to have down pat. Number one, you need to have a website. When you have that website, that's your own channel. You're looking to get people off a
channel, which are ads onto your own channel that if everything goes to poo and the internet stops internetting and you lose Instagram or Facebook, you still have access. Like if you have an email list, you still have access to those people. I've been blocked out of Facebook twice the past two years and I'm an ads manager. So it happens to even the best of us. I obviously got back in, but
For that time, I'd built all these conversations on Instagram. And then I was like, oh my God, like what is happening? So having a website and a place for them to go to, to learn more about your product or your service is number one. Number two, install a pixel today. If you haven't done it already, what it is, it's a little piece of code.
Nina Huchthausen (13:52.589)
It takes about five minutes to set up and it's a code snippet that sits on your website that starts tracking data and it starts forming an idea of who your ideal client is and it starts giving you insights as to different actions that people are taking on your website. If you're not even planning on running ads for the next 12 months, that's completely fine. But when you start running ads, you have
12 months worth of data that you can then leverage off, which means your ads are going to be performing so much better than if you just install a pixel before you're about to run ads. Just on this point, because I know there'll be a bunch of people confused, what's a pixel? Where do I get it from and what does it do? So in my layman's terms, and correct me if I'm wrong,
is literally, Facebook calls this little piece of code a pixel and you get it from Facebook, from your Facebook account when you log into your business suite. Yeah. And it's literally like, I almost see this little piece of code.
You just give that to your web developer or I will also put a YouTube video on this in the show notes because that explains it better. But literally Facebook gives you this little piece of code that's almost like a bookmark and it asks you to put that on your website. Yeah. And it kind of like hooks itself to the page and then it can start tracking where all of your people are, who those people are that are coming to your site.
And then it stores that data in the Facebook metadata database or something like that. So when you then want to run ads, and of course, when you set up ads, and some people might not connect that, you have to define who you want to target, who should see your ad. You can either start completely cold and...
Nina Huchthausen (16:10.893)
just select a bunch of random people or you could already allow Facebook to do its magic because this has seen a trend and gathered a whole bunch of knowledge and understanding over time based on your website traffic. Correct. That's exactly what happens. And the more interactions that people take, you can then later on say you have a product and you can go, all right,
I want to find people who are similar to those that have purchased from me before. Or I want to find people who are similar to those that have been to my website. So by having that pixel on there, it has gathered all of that data and then it will find you people who are similar based on interactions that they have on Facebook or based on interests that they have on Facebook.
that will align with people who are like those that have taken those actions, like going to your website or who have purchased as well. Yeah. And I think that that is so powerful to do. And it's a big investment. It's a very small investment, tech investment that you might need to do, especially for those who are like, oh, I'm not tech savvy. I can't do it.
to literally just watch this video that I'm going to link in the show notes. Find this code or find someone who can help you get this code, put it on your website and set and forget. And wait, and if at some point you are ready, your future self will thank you for that action that you have taken today, tomorrow, whenever this podcast airs. Because it sets you up.
for good because the worst thing is when you start running ads, Facebook needs to learn about who your audience is and you spend a bunch or waste a bunch of time and money on targeting people that is not your audience. So they won't click on the ad and then you wonder is the ad not working or what's going on? And I was going to tell you, no, Facebook just needs to learn. You need to give it time, but you need to feed it money in order for it to learn. Exactly. Exactly. You know, and that's stupid.
Nina Huchthausen (18:36.621)
And you can avoid it now. Exactly. And our emphasis is nobody tells you this. Yeah. Like, so this is, it might be very simple advice, but this is very powerful advice. Right now, do this if you haven't done it. And even if you're a service based business, do this. Set it up because your future self will thank you for it.
Because when you do spend money on something, and it could be both, you mentioned testing an angle, testing a benefit, testing a story, testing a value proposition or USP, or driving sales. Either way, if the art can target the right people from the start, your data and information will be more accurate. Correct. Awesome.
Cool, so you mentioned those two things. So I can be very early on in the journey and test my angle, test even my product, test a messaging or whatever that won't drive sales. But I can kind of see, OK, who engages with the topic that I'm putting out and who not, or is there any engagement? Or I can drive sales later down the track once I have my website. Correct.
So what else can what else can ads do for me?
Nina Huchthausen (20:14.669)
Look, ads can do so many different things. You can build your brand awareness through Facebook ads. Like we talked about before, you can test your messaging. You can test different offers. You can test different landing pages because all of these things have impact on the performance of your ads and the conversion rates as well. You can...
grow your email list, it is always easier or cheaper to convert somebody who's on your email list than it is from a cold Facebook ad. You could encourage people to go to your physical bricks and mortar store as well. There are so many different ways that ads can be used outside of direct selling.
that will get you to that conversion point in the end. It's just creating a customer journey and understanding a customer journey. If you have a higher priced item, people are going to take a longer time to convert. They might need to do some research. They might, I don't know if it's a bigger, bulky item, work out where it's going to go or all of these bits and pieces. Now,
If you understand that it takes a longer time for that person to convert, you could run ads for a longer period of time to ensure that you're staying or your brand is staying front of mind for them. You're reminding them about the benefits of your product. You're, you're getting them across the line with social proof, testimonials, all of those sorts of things. So it's a very easy decision for that person.
to then make that connection and make that conversion when they're ready. Awesome. And I think another thing, another use that you had pointed out in the training was also for private based businesses to connect with other sales partners, with stockists, retailers.
Nina Huchthausen (22:40.525)
Maybe you are selling shampoos and you want to connect with a hotel chain or you're creating beautiful oils and you want to reach specifically massage therapists that might want to stock your range for use in the clinic as well as reselling, right? Correct. But it all comes back to where are you sending them?
having that destination on your website. So when you are running ads, what is their customer journey going to be? They see this beautiful ad, you're showing them that you have this amazing product that can increase their sales, that can bring a new audience type to their business. So you're selling it to them, but where are you going to send them? Where are they going to learn more about that product?
in a way that relates to them, not as a direct consumer. And what action are you going to ask them to take? Are you asking them to apply to become a stockist? Are you asking them to log into a portal? So think about, all right, they're going to see this ad. If they like this ad and they click on it, what is the next step? How am I then going to get them across the line?
Because the job of the ads is to drive the traffic. It is not to get the conversion. The conversion is down to your website doing the heavy lifting and making sure that it has all its bits and pieces in place to make the most of that traffic that the ads have just driven. It's literally, if I think about the physical world, right? It's like, I'm thinking about
downtown Sydney and you still see sometimes these like sign flickers, you know, flipping the sign and pointing in, hey, you want some donuts over here, over here. That's what the ad does, right? It directs, it kind of like puts itself and someone is just casually walking down the street is almost like jumping into that person's lane and kind of like, you want some donuts over here? Hopefully the ad is not that cheesy and super direct, but.
Nina Huchthausen (25:00.845)
Yeah, it can work. If you're hungry for donuts, someone says donuts over here. It can work, but if I haven't built the donut shop, or number one, if there's no shop, well, then where's that person going to get the donuts? Number two, if the sales team is really shit unfriendly or doesn't have the knowledge in store,
or the store's dirty or confusing, or maybe they're selling like 150 donuts and I'm like analysis paralysis, I'm leaving. All these friction points, if they haven't been ironed out beforehand, the sign flipper can be so good. But if the store is not inviting and guiding me easily to buying the most delicious donut ever. Correct. Then.
then I'm sorry that it's not the sign flippers or the ads job to do that for you. And I think it's very important to remember because a lot of people that I see, and it happens to me all the time, when I click on an ad, I always wonder, well, is this actually taking me to where I'm supposed to go or do I then have to find my way? And then I get lost on the side and...
And what a waste, because I'm not going to stick around and find, say, the donut if they are sending me to a page full of other food items. If I'm here for the donuts, take me to the donut. I know it's a good example, but I think it's relatable. So which brings us back to what you need to have done before getting out south is.
the website in itself, but also having ironed out all the glitches on the side so that it just feels so easy and seamless. When I once say this cinnamon donut, I get taken to this cinnamon donut. And then my checkout experience is super fast and easy. Correct. Correct. Right. And I think a lot of people fall down there.
Nina Huchthausen (27:19.245)
in that process. Or what happens if I'm like, oh, OK, they asked me to pay now, but actually I'm busy. I want to do this later. What is your ability to pick up Nina, who is obviously wanting donuts, to remind her, hey, do you remember you wanted to buy donuts in her inbox?
or via text or in whatever shape or form that might be so that maybe at a later stage when she's not so busy that she can complete her purchase.
Nina Huchthausen (27:57.901)
Correct. And ads can be used for driving people to buy the donuts in the first place, or they could be used to retarget people who previously bought donuts and be like, remember how good those donuts were? Don't you wish you had some more right now? Or they could be reminding people that have left the donut in their car that it's hot, it's steamy.
It goes great with a cuppa. Isn't it time you check out that donut? So that's the job of the ads, but it's up to the website to get them over the line. If they go to a landing page, so I've created the ad. I've got somebody when, I don't know, it's a cold winter's day, they're on the couch in front of a fireplace and I hit them with an ad about
donuts and hot chocolate are like a match made in heaven. I'm thinking about the donut then. So I click on the ad and I go to the landing page. Facebook will actually look at the user experience from the ad to the landing page now. They never used to, but they do now. So it's important that when they get to that landing page, there's some resemblance of what you're talking about in the ad. It might be, you know, leaning into the perfect
partnership of hot chocolate and donuts. It might be cinnamon donuts are Australia's number one donut flavor. So you're thinking about all of these things to help get them to that checkout point after the ads have set that perfect there. And I think it's almost like a reverse engineering.
right, that you've got to need to do. And it really starts with when you are building your presence online to think about, because of course, initially, we got to need to build some type of presence online because otherwise where those ads going. Yeah. But an ad is there to throw fuel onto the fire and increase your lead generation or increase and grow or fast track your sales. But in order for that to happen,
Nina Huchthausen (30:21.773)
You need to have the, when you are building your website and this comes from really wise experience, don't just say, think about, oh, can I get away with a couple of grand and I'm just going to get some, some human to just like whack a page together and it's good enough, right? But actually really thinking through, okay, this is a destination and the website without any ads is like a sales, it's like a member.
a sales team member for me. Because when I'm not there in my physical presence to sell the donut, the website is there for me because I'm busy doing other things. So the key job of the website is take care of anyone who comes into the store in the best way possible, create a really great experience and making it simple and easy for people to choose what they want to get to.
and to buy and feel fully taken care of. So it's, you're gonna need to see your website as the first sales team member that you bring on. Now the website can't do everything, right? Because when people are starting to look at something, then they get busy or maybe, you know, they get a phone call, baby cries, back to work because they were just distracted and looking at stuff. Not everybody has the time to complete the checkout. And that's...
where in my mind emails can become a great tool to keep reconnecting with those people that might not have bought and gently guiding them back to either complete their purchase or keep engaging with people so at a later stage they will buy when they need to. So that's almost like an assistant. The email becomes an assistant to the website.
to support with the sales. And that's, as you were saying, the second part to really get right. So we are not just doing some email marketing, writing some random emails, hoping something happens, but actually understanding not everybody who comes to our site is going to purchase. Well, how can I make sure that because they showed interest to guide them to purchase? Right?
Nina Huchthausen (32:47.949)
And once I've done that. And I feel like this whole taking care of the human is ironed out. Is then the right time to maybe look at, can I throw some, but I call a few onto the fire and get more people to know about my brand and create some more leads? 100%. So if you already have a proven product,
and you're generating sales organically, the ads will amplify those results. Now, when you run ads, the best place to start is to look at what your best selling product is and focus on that for the ads. You don't have to sell every product under the sun. You need to sell what you already know works and then lean into your other marketing channels like email.
to cross sell or to upsell those other products. The job of the ads is just to bring people to your yard. So use them strategically with what you already know works. If you have a product that needs a little bit more explanation or if there are certain barriers to your product, think of how you could create a hook.
Skincare brands are a perfect example. There are so many different concerns with skincare. So creating a trio or a trial pack or the top two best sellers that complement each other. That's your hook. That's your in. So the most expensive cost is to bring a cold person into your audience. They're at the start of their customer lifetime cycle. So,
Their capacity for purchases is at its infancy. So once you get them in, then you've got them that you can try your product. You can email them. You can educate them via email. You can cross sell. You can upsell all of those bits and pieces. The job is just to get them in with what works, what is already selling or
Nina Huchthausen (35:15.597)
creating a product or an introductory offer that you know will tantalise them enough to get them to purchase and then you've got options to increase that average order value at multiple touch points after that. Awesome. I think that's a really great tip. I mean, it's actually the same path that you would take when you're trying to get
your products into retail or in any other stock is, you know, you don't just throw your whole range at someone, but you pick your best, the one that's the easiest to convert. Right. And then see, okay, well, how can I reduce friction even further? Right. So I kind of, I kind of always try to really test these types of things to see, is it a real like a no brainer thing? The more we can kind of like, like,
make that offer as a no -brainer offer to get people in and then we can always upsell them, sell them more, share with them other products over time. It is the same experience really as if you were to go into a physical store. What do they advertise in their shop windows? It's not the most obscure sort of wacko thing that you could think about, but it's the stuff that we want, you know, because...
I don't know when, especially when I was little, I loved to just looking at all of the window shops and kind of like see, oh, what do they have? And it's most of it's sparkly. It's kind of like a bit out there, but it's cool. It's something like, wow, it draws me in. And then it draws me in, right? And then we can offer more. And I think it's probably similar mindset you got to adopt with your ads. It's a draw inna. Right? Because.
How much time does people spend on ads? I think you mentioned it in the training. Is it a second or two?
Nina Huchthausen (37:25.517)
Really for you to stop when you scroll and. Yeah. 50 milliseconds to make an impact with, well, from your business point of view, whether that's a positive impact or a negative impact. Um, people are like goldfish. They have limited attention spans. So you need to create a hook within the first three seconds of them viewing your brand or.
viewing your ad, whatever that might be. I also spoke about in my training about the emotional connection and what are you selling? Are you selling?
They are a physical product, which you are, but let me rephrase that very late in the afternoon. So for example, I worked with a brand and they had an eye mask and their ideal target audience were mums.
Now, yes, they are selling an eye mask, but to connect with their ideal audience, the wording was around, look like you've had more sleep than you actually have. You know, it's sleep in a jar. So you're connecting with how that audience feels and what that product is offering rather than focusing on it's an eye mask.
That's where you're going to connect with people. And this was in a masterclass that I was talking over this and I just threw that idea out there and six of the people were like, I would buy that if somebody served me an ad that said, look like you've got more sleep than you actually have. Because it's got humor, it's got that connection, it's got that realness as well.
Nina Huchthausen (39:32.973)
If you have a brand and you're selling to moms, perfection will not work for you. Realness will work for you. So knowing your customer and knowing what they connect with will have a massive impact when you're creating your ads. And so I would assume, of course, let's say I got my website ready, I got my email sequencing ready, I feel like I have everything ironed out that I need to iron out and then.
and I pick up the phone and call you. Would you help me to draw out these emotional connections for me to then see, okay, yeah, I want to try this angle or that angle? I totally do. So I offer a couple of different options. I do a meta -mentoring session, which it's strategizing. It's
analyzing it's working out the best placement for your ads within your marketing channels. We can build out ads within that timeframe as well. I offer a three week coaching package which is done with you. So that's designed to...
take you through the platform and make sure that your backend is all set up correctly and giving you a bit of an overview of where to go, what to look for. We then work on pulling apart, all right, what is it? What are you selling? And it's usually those conversations that those golden nuggets will come out because they'll start talking because they're relaxed and, you know, they say things and...
I've been in marketing for a long time, so I'll be like, that right there, that's your hook, that right there, that wording, that testimonial. And sort of forming a bit of a structure around, okay, let's test these sorts of angles and let's look at these types of copy. Then the ads go live and we come back and then I teach you how to actually.
Nina Huchthausen (41:49.453)
look at the data and analyze the data and interpret that data and how you can make your ads better from that point of view too. Awesome. Which really means, and I think this, you know, a traditional agency have not seen that taking any client on that journey and doing it with them. And from my own experience running ads, you want to
do this with someone and learn it from beginning to end because only once you understand how it all works and fits together and what all the what are the variables are or like the little screws that you could tighten here or tighten here or shift and change because nobody has the magic formula to just being able to put out one out and know for certain it's going to work. We don't because
You know, there are billions of people on this planet and we all are there. Everybody like tastes changes, trends change, how the Facebook algorithm works, all sorts of so many different factors. And it's very easy if you don't go through this process to just see it from, oh, my ads are not working well, then Tana is a bad
person to work with. But you say, hold on. There are so many different factors. And when you learn it yourself, for a number one, you get to understand how much of a data game this is. And you get to understand what all the different variables really are and how you can one by one test them out and shift and refine them. And I think that it's a very powerful and empowering way.
for anyone to go through the process with you. And I would also assume it's probably the most enjoyable for you because you get to educate your clients and can kind of go on the journey with you. I've always loved it. And it's probably my most popular thing at the moment. There aren't many ads managers that offer one -on -one.
Nina Huchthausen (44:15.885)
And that's why I get a lot of clients from that because education is power. And a lot of agencies don't want to empower their clients because then they have a lot to answer for. I had a session today, a final session for my three -week coaching. And we did our testing last week and this week we're coming in and analyzing it and just going through and she's like, okay, so what do I do next?
and we chatted about what to do next. And then we're just sitting there having a conversation about the struggles that she has within her industry. And when she's talking, I just sat there and I went.
why do you not run this as an ad? And she said, you know, that sounds so simple now that you've pointed that out. And I said, well, if you're finding that this is an issue, you turn it around. So within her industry, there are gatekeepers effectively, and nobody understands exactly what her profession is. It's very,
from a general point of view, it's very generalized. However, within their profession, there are specialties. So if you have an issue with your, I don't know, if you're looking for pregnancy help, you can go to a GP, you can go to a gynecologist. There's a generalist and then there's a specialist. So she was saying that,
you know, people didn't understand that there were specialists in certain areas of what she did. And I said, well, why don't you educate people? Because if they don't know this, you can come in here, you're educating them, you're empowering them, you're not selling to them straight away, but you're opening the door for them to then contact you because they feel more comfortable. They feel like you've spent the time to give them the tools as well. Um,
Nina Huchthausen (46:28.621)
And just having those conversations, it's easier to bounce that off with somebody because she's sitting there, she's like, how did I not even think about this? I said, because you're so in your own bubble, it's sometimes hard to extract that. You need somebody else to have those conversations and to work out what is good content, what isn't good content. Yeah. And or just an external voice to listen to.
In my mind most of the time, like so many different thoughts and to kind of be like, OK, let's line this up and here's the clarity. Right. And I think that's super, super powerful, especially in the ads game, because if you just do this by yourself and the numbers are not where you want them to be, who are you going to call? You know, and your mom definitely won't be the person to answer that.
But let's say, cool, so I have been working with you, yeah, at this stage, and we figured out a bunch of different angles. We're testing them one by one. You're guiding me through what's working, what isn't working, we're refining it. But...
How long does it take from having a conversation with you to having my ads doing its thing? What's some type of time frame for me to get an understanding? So I try and break it up into bite -sized pieces, because if you're not a data person, it can be very overwhelming. And...
Meta is not a user -friendly platform. It does not make it easy. It does not play nice all the time. It's glitchy. It changes. Sometimes I question why I'm even doing this job, but hey, somebody's got to do it. So when I have a conversation, we have our first session relatively quickly, and then the second session based on
Nina Huchthausen (48:39.245)
if you have some homework to do or if you need some time to digest, then we have our next session. So the second session is generally when we build out the ads and the ads go live. Now, after that, I generally say, wait seven to 10 days before the next session to allow your Facebook ads to have some form of data.
I never turn off ads within the seven to 10 day period because you want to have credible data. There are ebbs and flows. So your ads will feed out more in one day. They might feed out less on the other day. People's buying behaviors change on different days as well. So you want to start forming a picture at least over a week. Now, the reason that I wait the 10 days as a minimum is
sometimes there can be a delay of up to three days for Facebook to receive that data. So if you turn an ad off too early and you're like, oh, this is all poo, it's not working, what have you, you turn the ad off, it's still collecting that data. It's not spending anymore, but it's waiting for that attribution window to close. And a sale might pop up after you've turned the ads off because it hadn't received all that information, which means you've then,
unknowingly stopped potentially a performing ad. So the longer you can give those ads to run, the more data you're collecting, the more insights and the more consistency you can sort of see or form a pattern as well from that data before making that decision. So that's the way that I generally plan out my sessions. Sometimes I have clients that
need a little bit more time to consume what they've learnt and that's completely fine as well. I have other clients that are like, we get it all done, let's smash them all out. But I want to make sure that you're getting the most out of the sessions and that we're able to take you through the journey in a realistic timeframe too. So if it takes, so if I'm...
Nina Huchthausen (51:01.005)
In my mind, I'm kind of feeling it's like a four to six week sort of journey because at some point, of course, once you once we've strategized on the angles. And where am I then going to to get these ads made?
Much so. My sessions usually go over a four week period so we can have the three sessions within a four week period because.
Setting up the backend and strategizing in the first session, that's the most important part. The build itself is the next important, and then coming back and looking at the data. Don't try and overwhelm yourself when you're doing the strategy. Limit the number of tests that you do.
wait until those ads have gone live, wait until you have some data and it gives you insights as to what the next test could potentially be. So coming up with smart goals that you can measure, that you can then validate and then reassessing at the end of it will then help you make the next decision on what to change, what part of the strategy or what angles that you could adapt to the next test.
Awesome. Now, what I was curious about, and I'm sure some people will think about that. So I strategized with you, and you told me to say, hot donuts over here. Let's say that's my angle. I mean, it's a bad angle, but for some reason, I'm still thinking donuts. Who is now going to make my ad? We do it together. OK.
Nina Huchthausen (52:55.469)
So the best way to learn is by doing it yourself, but I'm there to guide you through and to walk you through each step. So we're both sitting there in your account remotely, building out the ads, talking over the angles. And when you build out the ad, it will evolve whilst you're building it out because you can see what it looks like. You can see if...
you need to move some of the text so it makes more sense as well. So you're then using a tool like Canva or something, you're then deciding which type of assets you want to show in that ad and then you're using someone's brand's assets to build it together. Cool. Cause I think that's an important step because most people might be like, how do these things fall into place? You know, like,
Awesome. And I think that's a key important point, because if you can learn how to do it yourself, you can then execute against those different angles. And you've also learned a whole lot about tech. So the one thing that I think is really important for people to understand is
Because of course, they strategize with you. They build the arts with you. You put them live, and then you teach them how to analyze the data. Yeah. But as you said, there might be absent flows, and we need to give it 10 days. That could be a potentially very emotional journey, right? If you are not. It's totally emotional. For everybody involved, I get so many messages from clients that are just like,
It's been 24 hours. Can I look at the ads? And I feel like going through and just smacking them on the hand. I'm like, no, don't look at them. Just let them be, let them do their thing. And then we'll come back because it's like watching boiling water. The longer that you look at it, the longer it's going to take. It's going to do its thing. You've just got to trust the process and let it do it. Because I think that's a, that's a key mindset tip.
Nina Huchthausen (55:17.741)
Do like once you've set it up, you got to need to give it a bit of time to do its thing. And then at some point it's not about, okay, did I do a bad job? Did somebody else do a bad job? It's like, no, okay. Did the ad create the results based on the goals that you mentioned that you've said before? Yes, no. If yes, keep on going. If no, let's find it. Let's look at the different.
levers that we have to pull and see how can we change them. So I think just just from my rookie perspective is like, you got to need to remove yourself from the thing that you've created that you put the thing out there. But now you're almost like you have the remote control or you're focused on is on the remote control. And if the the ad is not flying where you want it to be,
then you pull some levers, right? You're not going to get frustrated. Important mindset, but to be like, cool, OK, I'm now the operator and I'm going to figure out a way with Tanai to move it left, right, up, down, whatever that is. If you're imagining a little remote control in your hand to make them work. Correct. And you don't know.
There's no such thing as a failed campaign because at the end of the day, if you didn't see the results that you wanted, you still have data that you can lean into. Why? Why didn't it work? Okay. Within that campaign, what did work? What lessons can you take away for your next campaign to make that even stronger? Exactly. And I think if for some reason, like you went out with the stupid slogan of like,
hot donuts over here and nobody clicks on it. All that means is that's not what people want to hear. That's not what your audience wants to hear. So you can be like, huh, they're not interested in hot donuts. So maybe I need to say delicious cinnamon donuts and I can see a guy. Is that what they want to hear? Or maybe they're not fans of cinnamon. How about chocolate?
Nina Huchthausen (57:38.637)
Yeah, exactly. So it gives you a lot of opportunities to test all of these things and to find that perfect combination that gets them into your shop and buys those donuts. Exactly. And then I think we can front engineer because if we are like, cool, okay, hot chocolate donuts is what everybody wants to see. Well, then I can really promote that on my website.
I can use that, drive that more on my email marketing and on my just regular social media and when I sell at the market so I can update my front, my shop sign, my physical shop sign, because we now know people want to hear it. So I think it then really long story short, short with ads. It, if you allow yourself to be taken on the journey and really learn it,
It can really help you to gather so much insight about your product, about your market, about who you're serving and ultimately how I see it really perfect that dance between what you've got to offer and what your people are looking for, your favorite humans, your customers that you're doing it for are looking for. Because if that becomes a real match made in heaven,
That's when your business really starts growing. And ads can be a great helper to show you this, of what they want at speed because of the ads. If the ads are a banger and everybody clicks on it, you know you got a banger when it comes to your messaging. If the ads can't pull anyone in, don't get mad at the ad. It's what the ad says is what the ad does.
that we need to change, you know, like the sign flipper is still flipping the sign. Just depends what's on the sign to get that right. And something to be mindful of is you don't have to run ads all the time. They don't have to be on constantly. You can pool your money and focus strategically on when you're relaunching or when you're launching a new product or when you're restocking your most popular product.
Nina Huchthausen (59:53.837)
So ads do not have to be a 24 -7 thing. They can be short, sharp bursts with a particular goal in mind. To get people to remember you, to get them to your side, remind them, oh my goodness, yeah, donuts. I should be thinking about that. Stupid example. I'm so sorry. I don't even like donuts, but hey, you know, just keep rolling with it.
Awesome. So the last question I have for you, let's say, okay, I'm like, I mean, you, you, you converted me even more about how ads can be really powerful for, for my business through the trainings. And I mean, I'm, I can see for myself, it's doing a great job. And some of our clients who are running ads, it's, it's really powerful, but what's the budget? What's realistically, I kind of need to set aside or budget range like.
just for anyone who's at this stage to get an understanding.
How long's a piece of string? So budgets are dependent upon a lot of things. I have some clients that I'm running ads for $2 per day and they're super successful, which I showed an example in the training. I have clients that I'm running ads for up to a thousand dollars a day. So what it comes down to is what is your goal?
What is the price of your product and who are you targeting as well? If you're in an extremely competitive market, it is going to cost you more to find those people because the market's saturated. You're bidding against a lot of people. If you have a truly unique product and a very niche market, you will find that it doesn't cost you as much. The price of your product will come into play as well.
Nina Huchthausen (01:01:59.341)
Um, if you have a thousand dollar product, you are going to pay more to get that person to purchase. If you have a $10 product, that's not a very tough decision making process there. So it's going to be easier to make that sale. So it won't cost you as much as well. Um, my general rule of thumb is an achievable budget to get enough data in a
relatively short timeframe for you not to feel like you're sitting there watching the grass grow is $10 per audience per day. And that then gives you an insight, all right, I want to test five different audiences. I want to test 10 different audiences, or I want to test one different audience. It gives you a baseline to sort of work out what's achievable effectively.
But it doesn't give you insight as to what to expect from that ad spend. That takes a little bit more analysis. So, if let's say, if I put aside my business, say, a grand or two grand, would that last me to engage with you and run some ads and get some insights? 100%. It's...
As I said, it's about being strategic with your ad spend and investing in somebody like myself, like a marketing specialist to help you work that out will save you a lot in the long run. Um, they could say, all right, this is your buyer's journey. You're getting a lot of conversions on emails. It's going to be too expensive to go direct for conversions on ads.
let's focus your budget on just getting people to your email list and then lean heavier into your emails. They can sort of take a step back and go, all right, we need to, you know, create more brand awareness and more hype around your product before we then go into retargeting those people and pushing them for conversions. So be smart about where you invest.
Nina Huchthausen (01:04:25.901)
your money and seek advice. Do courses, do join into different master classes or training sessions and educate yourself so you can make smarter decisions. Awesome. Thank you so much for your time, Tanaya. I think this was really brilliant and I hope we've been able to break down the...
the power of ads, how much it can support your business, and also for you to get a really good understanding of what are the key things that you need to put in place first, which is predominantly really get your website ironed out, your email sequencing sorted, right? Put that pixel, take it from Facebook, put it onto your website as early as possible. And once you really feel like you've built out your ecosystem in a way so that you can...
throw more fuel onto the fire and you want to get strategic about it, that's very important, then it's probably the right time for you to reach out to someone like Tanai and get that journey started for you. But most importantly, whoever you engage with, make sure they teach you, they empower you.
so that you can make informed decisions versus sticking in the dark because it's easy to say, oh, this is too complicated, oh, this tech stuff, I don't want to get involved. No, you have to. Your business owner is your money. And if you want to drive sales, you have to be a front line and then sell your product. And even though the ad does it for you, you need to be able to understand it to be able to make changes. And I think that that's really important.
So yeah, thank you so much, Tana, for your time. And we've mentioned the master class a couple of times, which I would like to give people access to, we're listening to it at the end of the show. So there'll be a link in the show notes because it was fantastic, really in -depth training that I think everybody will get a lot of value out of. So jump into the show notes, click on the link. That's where you get, you just give us a couple of details. Then we send you.
Nina Huchthausen (01:06:47.085)
Of course, that really amazing master class. And if you want to reach out to Tanai, all the details are in the show notes as well. Because she's a really amazing human. I can promise you she's going to do an excellent job to guide you from where you are today to where you want to get to with your ads. Goal and outcome focused. And she's not just going to throw some shit against the wall. I can guarantee you this, because I've seen her work. And.
can fully watch for her. So yeah. Thank you so much, Tanay. Thank you, everybody, for listening. And I wish you guys, when you start your ad journey, that you're going to get a lot out of it and really can guide your business to the growth that it deserves. Perfect. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Wait, I'm just going to stop.
