When it comes to running a paid advertising campaign it is important that a few key pillars are established.

 

These pillars and principles will set the foundations for your success with paid advertising from a strategic and mental point of view.

 

By implementing these three strategies, You will be fully prepared to begin running paid advertising.

 

Have you validated the product or service you sell? (organic sales)

 

Validating your product or service simply means “has it made a sale before?”

If you have a pool of 100, 50, 20, even 5 people that have purchased your product before, and know who you are, this helps you validate that the products you are selling contain some element of demand that will be reciprocated through paid advertising. The more organic sales, the more of a good sign this will be for scaling with paid advertising.

 

A caveat

 

If you do not have this proven demand already, that is not to say that you can’t start paid advertising. Especially if the product or service you are selling is closely aligned to ones that already exist and thrive in the paid advertising environment. However, without that first-hand proof, your risk for an ad campaign that flops has probably just increased tenfold. In addition, by having proven organic sales, you will have had the opportunity to make iterations and improvements based on the suggestions and feedback from your existing and previous customers.

 

Confidence

 

Not only will you have analytical proof i.e. money in your bank account, you will have the confidence that you need to run an ad campaign, knowing that this product is in demand. And when it comes to running paid advertising, especially for people that have never done it before, confidence is a huge factor for success.

 

Are you posting organic content frequently and have an organic audience?

 

Another key pillar for determining whether or not you are ready to run paid advertising is whether or not you have a catalogue of organic content, and more importantly, a consistency of posting online across various social media platforms.

 

Build trust

 

In 2023, your potential customers are more intelligent than they were 5-10 years ago. It is more common for your potential customers to perform their due diligence before they entertain purchasing your product. One of the ways in which they do this is by going to your social media pages. If they see a page with three or four posts and three months of an activity, your chances of making a sale just decrease heavily. Now, if your page has consistent, valuable content produced every single week, not only will the engagement and interaction between yourself and your followers increase trust with the prospects, but it also approves your dedication to the writing value to not only your customers, but those that come across your page.

 

Be valuable

 

An important note here is that the consistent content you post must be mostly valuable and not simply calls to action for people to buy your products or services. Generally speaking, you should give a disproportionate level that you ask in return. A solid framework to follow is for every four value post, you can include one call to action post. If you want to go even further with this, simply give until they ask.

 

Are you willing to spend 30 days without turning a campaign off?

 

Far too many paid advertisers are reactionary with their paid advertising habits. They launch a campaign, wake up the next day, see 0 sales, turn it off, and immediately say that paid advertising does not work. It is important that when you decide to begin paid advertising, that you are willing and able to spend a given daily amount every single day for 30 days, without turning this campaign off, regardless of the results.

What this does is removes the emotion and eliminates irrational behaviour and decision making from your advertising.

 

How much should I spend?

 

The amount that you spend for this 30 day period should be an amount that you are able to afford to lose without stressing yourself out or putting your business in danger, but it is also an amount that is big enough for it to matter to you.

 

Why 30 days?

 

30 days is enough time for you to run your campaigns, gather some important data, make adjustments based on the data, and see the overall big picture results for this product with paid advertising. It’s important to note that 30 days is the general time, and depending on your budget, will be higher or lower. For example, if you are spending $1000 per day, you will certainly not need more than a few days to be able to collect this data.

 

Conclusion

 

In conclusion, building an organic presence, and having consistent content available to your prospects, being able and willing to spend a predefined amount of money for a certain period of time, and having your product or service be validated through organic sales are all crucial. They are the 3 most important pillars to consider when deciding to run paid advertising, and if you can’t feel comfortable answering YES to these questions, it may be worth resisting the urge to try to scale with paid ads.