I uploaded a 20-minute training video on how to optimize ad campaigns, step-by-step. No need to go to a landing page, enter an email address, or anything. Zero teasing, as you typically see— going straight to the techniques. And zero sales pitch at the end. I targeted people who are interested in digital marketing. It started out at a 6-cent cost per 10-second view and is now down to 2 cents per view, with a lifetime average of 4 cents. Zero tracking codes and zero selling, so I can’t measure a direct ROI. But I have had a few people come up to me, telling me they’ve seen it and loved it. These people then bought out memberships to get more training and some became clients for $20,000. So I’d say that the $200 I’ve spent on this over the last 4 months has been worthwhile. And so I extended this another few months. Why not just put your best stuff out there for free? Don’t worry about competitors “stealing” your best tips or people taking your advice instead of hiring you. What actually ends up happening is that people realize this stuff is harder than they thought. And then they reach out to hire you.

I got this message from Facebook just now, recommending that I boost my posts. I test their recommendations to find out for myself what works and what doesn’t. Instead of going off what other people are saying, no matter how good it may sound or how confident they are of their opinion– find out for yourself.

Surprising. I’ve fought this for a couple of years now, but now I finally understand why Facebook is not recommending us to choose “website traffic” (clicks) as a bidding objective when we can choose conversions or brand awareness. We used to bid for clicks because we didn’t have enough conversions for the system to optimize. Plus, PPC folks like me have been bidding on clicks since the entire system started. But if you bid on clicks, that’s exactly what the system will give you. Don’t get mad if you don’t get conversions. Logan and I have learned this one the hard way– don’t make our mistakes.

Here are the reasons why:– Text- heavy posts, especially memes, violate the 20% text rule, so you get disapproved or penalized.– Some organic posts cannot be boosted– they have profanity, use Facebook’s brand the wrong way, or violate the ads TOS (like having a gun pointed towards you).– You’ve exhausted the original audience, so your frequency is high when you a boost.– You’re targeting the wrong audience– this is hard to diagnose.– Your organic post wasn’t evergreen– perhaps for an event that expired. You can see that the boosted part of this post got north of 10% engagement, which is excellent. But we’re paying a $50 CPM– meaning $50 to reach just 1,000 people. (Yes, the experts here will point out that impressions and reach aren’t exactly the same, but for the purposes of simple analysis, it’s good enough). Even with a high base cost of traffic (CPM), the cost per engagement is good enough that I’m willing to let the boost live for a few months longer.