Do I have to run ads?
Is this something I HAVE to do?
Isn’t it a dreadful question?
The level of stress going up, the heart beating faster with the thought of losing money online.
The anxiety level rises on the thought of having something else to learn and understand.
There are two sides you can take: one side where you are scared of losing money online and one side where you want to do everything to make money online.
Before you disagree, let’s dive into these two sides.
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Scared of Losing Money?
So you are in a tight place right now. You bought a program that was supposed to teach you how to make money online.
So after trying your best not to spend any more money on tools you could need, like an autoresponder for your email marketing campaigns or a more affordable alternative to ClickFunnels, you are told to run ads.
Oh don’t get me wrong, you did learn useful things but you mostly learned that you need to run ads. Frankly, the money isn’t there to invest in ads.
So the thought of having to spend even more money is haunting you. Your head is spinning and you don’t know what to do anymore.
You didn’t have a budget for ads. Now you are stuck.
It was supposed to be easy and yet, there is so much to do!
By the way, not telling you about all the extra expenses that you will have to do is part of their marketing strategy.
And then they wonder why only 3% of people finish their courses….
So if you don’t have much money to spend, of course you want to hold on to that money and buy food with it instead of running ads. It’s NORMAL, even if they try to convince you that you should starve for a few days so you can run ads.
The second scenario that comes into play here is when you do have some savings and some money that you can use to run ads.
BUT
You’ve already spent a few thousands on training and on different tools that you have to buy and use to be successful.
So now you get that bitter taste about the training you bought because in the end, you will be running ads.
It’s a common scenario where you end up saying: Are you serious right now? I have to spend even more money than what I’ve already spent?
In both cases, you end up not wanting to run ads at all.
Let’s take a look on the other side…
You Will Do Everything To Make Money Online
There is a small percentage of people who are ready to do anything to make money online. They will have 10 business managers on Facebook and they will endlessly run ads and start earning some money from it.
Whether they have the budget or not, they will do whatever it takes.
They will buy the upsell (the coaching or the mentoring) to make sure they learn everything they need to know.
They will read all the motivational books about running a business and being a successful entrepreneur.
They are super hyped.
Once they get one sale and get their commission, they increase their ads budget.
They binge watch all the training and they do everything they are being told.
They are super good prospects for any fake gurus since they are super coachable.
The thing is, they may not be earning as much as what they should be.
- They do everything right, and yet, they get their ads rejected.
- They do everything right and yet, their ads accounts get closed.
- They do everything right and yet, they are not as successful as they should be by now.
Then, their coach/mentor will tell them, wait for it… that their mindset is the problem.
I wrote an article on mindset. You can read it here.
I feel like people selling courses on how to make money online want you to spend as much money as possible so you can get as much result as possible in a short period of time.
Money loves speed they say.
It’s easy for them. Many are multimillionaires running multi million businesses. Of course they get results from ads.
Let’s go back to the basics: Do you HAVE TO run ads?
The simple answer is no. You don’t HAVE TO run ads. It’s optional.
It also depends on the kind of results you are expecting in a certain time frame.
The faster you want to see some results, the more likely you are to invest in ads.
Keep in mind that a realistic time frame is about 3 months.
You need time to learn how to do ads, to test them and get results.
If you are not using ads, you may be in for a long journey that can take a year to give you results. And it’s OK to take the longest path to success.
We live in a society that craves instant gratification. If you are not getting rewarded fast enough, you quit.
Well, I feel like it’s a good thing that it can take some time before you get any kind of results.
It gives you the opportunity to develop and improve your skills. You can dedicate all of your time to doing ONE thing.
I wrote an article on doing one thing. You can read it here.
Let me ask you a question: Do you think successful YouTubers ever ran ads for their YouTube channel?
Of course not.
And hey, they are earning some money from their channel because they share content. Maybe not super useful content, but hey, as long as you have subscribers and views on your videos…
Same goes with blogging.
You don’t have to run ads to bring people to your blog. It can help you get known, but Google is doing a good job ranking all the websites out there in the search results.
So the organic way, the way where you don’t spend any money on ads and you focus on doing one thing is also a good way to earn money long term.
Think of it that way. Organic traffic could be like investing in the stock market. You only get positive results after decades.
Don’t worry, it doesn’t take decades to get results with free traffic.
Paid traffic, using ads could be like trading crypto or stocks. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. In the long run, nothing beats the long term investors.
In Conclusion
The type of business you are building and the time you want to invest in the make money online industry will help you determine if you should use ads.
Ads are always optional.
There are always other ways you can use, like creating a podcast, a YouTube channel or a blog.
Word of mouth is a great way to grow your audience.
It may not be enough when you are promoting other people’s products in the make money online industry.
Then you have ads.
It may feel like gambling. If you are not a gambler, you don’t have to use ads.
And by the way, since most people always talk about Facebook ads, know that there are so many other places you can put ads.
Some places for ads are less risky.
Keep in mind that:
Free traffic is good.
Paid traffic is good.
Choose what’s best for yourself and your business.
I feel like doing organic then paid is a good way to go.
If anyone tells you that you have to run ads, run away from them. It’s always an option.
Cynthia