#130 How We Use Paid Ads to Hire (Meet Head Coach Marianne)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Win With Paid Ads - Episode #130

Title: How We Use Paid Ads to Hire (Meet Head Coach Marianne)
Host: Ashley Brock
Guest: Marianne Iwanowski (Head Paid Ads Coach, Paid Ads Academy)
Date: August 6, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of Win With Paid Ads centers on leveraging paid advertising not just for customer acquisition, but also as a powerful tool in hiring and growing a high-quality team. Host Ashley Brock welcomes the debut of Marianne Iwanowski, the new Head Paid Ads Coach at Paid Ads Academy. Together, they cover Marianne’s unique journey into digital advertising, the nuts and bolts of running hiring ads across multiple platforms, and actionable tips for both hiring and general paid ad strategy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

[00:34] Meet Marianne Iwanowski & Her Background

• Marianne's Journey:
  • Grew up near Boston, parents were professors (“professor Nepo baby”).
  • Studied advertising at BU; initially envisioned traditional Madison Avenue agency work but pivoted to digital paid search and social at agencies in Boston and later in-house for a travel company.
  • Broadly skilled across Google, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and more. Experience ranged from small accounts to large-scale agency and in-house roles.
  • Hired into Paid Ads Academy after responding to a well-targeted Instagram Story ad.
• Marianne’s Perspective:
  • “I fell in love with it. Everything about [paid search and paid social] was so cool…if you don't know, you don't know.” (Marianne, [03:41])
  • The flexibility and depth in learning multiple ad platforms built confidence: “Having that foundation, I had the confidence that I could just figure it out…through research or just running campaigns and testing.” (Marianne, [05:50])

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[06:29] How Paid Ads Academy Hired Marianne with Ads

• The actual ad that attracted Marianne: Static pink Instagram Story ad reading “Are you a digital marketing manager?”
• Application journey: Saw the ad, saved it to complete on desktop, applied within 24 hours.
• Hiring process insights:
  • Video applications are instrumental: Ashley only looks at the candidate’s video first to assess professionalism, presence, and personality before checking their credentials.
  • Memorable quote:
    • “I was getting my eyebrows done and I was just sitting there thinking, like, if they would just advertise, they would get more business. It makes me want to run their ads for free…I just know that it could help.” (Ashley recounting Marianne’s application video, [08:30])
  • Importance of caring about small businesses, not just big clients.
• The "on the fly" test: Marianne was given live account audits to perform during interviews, showing her adaptability and coaching aptitude.

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[13:51] Using Paid Ads for Hiring: Strategy & Platforms

Google Ads

• Geo-targeting Approach:
  • Two campaigns: one geo-focused (e.g., Georgia-only, 50 mile radius) and another national/remote.
  • Local keywords (e.g., “social media manager jobs near me”) and broader keywords for remote roles.
  • “Google does geo targeting at the campaign level…so we have two campaigns, one for local positions and [one for remote].” (Ashley, [14:48])
• Flexibility: Can target both local and national candidates based on position needs.

LinkedIn Ads

• Primarily used for professional, higher quality pools (“You only have a LinkedIn if you are interested in your career in any way…great growth and involvement.” Marianne, [18:00])
• Functions mostly as “boosting” job listings, with AI-driven targeting based on the posting content.

TikTok & Facebook/Instagram Ads

• TikTok: Used for roles suited to social media savvy applicants.
  • Limitation noted: Audience may not have the high-level experience needed (e.g., “Just because you are on TikTok…does not mean you can post with strategy.” Ashley, [17:37])
• Facebook/Instagram:
  • Structured by ad set per position for budget control and segmented targeting.
  • Use of qualifying/disqualifying language to screen applicants even before clicking: “You do not qualify if…” (Ashley, [20:11])
  • Static and video ads; plan to use more video for higher engagement in the future.
• Testing & Tracking:
  • Multiple creative types, traffic campaigns, and a focus on refining tracking (using signals like application completions and UTM parameters on forms).

Hiring Landing Page

• All ads direct to a central, updated careers page showcasing:
  • Core company values (recently made non-generic and highly specific).
  • Team and open roles.
  • Embedded videos per application so communication skills are screened early.
  • Commitment to stellar communication for all hires.

Organizational Growth

• Significant Insight: "We were able to get to an eight figure company without ever hiring a recruiter and only growing the team through paid advertising." (Ashley, [23:22])
• 15+ positions filled almost exclusively via paid ads; only recent shift to in-house HR as team size/need grew.

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Actionable Hiring Ad Tips & Platform Nuances

[23:47] Top Paid Ad Mistakes & Coaching Takeaways

1. Launching with Upper Funnel Keywords

   • Avoid broad, low-intent keywords (e.g., “how to lose weight” instead of “nutrition coach near me”).
   • “We could spend money all day on those people…Meanwhile, there are people looking for a nutrition coach in Atlanta…Let’s spend our money on them.” (Marianne, [24:19])

2. Not Bragging Enough / Under-using Social Proof

   • Don’t be afraid to lead with credibility: “It feels awkward to be like, ‘This is me, this is what I’ve done,’ but your competitors are doing that, and you have to…to get people to trust you.” (Marianne, [25:19])
   • There is no such thing as too much relevant credibility or too many testimonials on your site or ad.

3. Qualifying/Disqualifying in Ad Copy

   • Use copy to pre-screen applicants (“You do not qualify if…”) to save on wasted ad spend and boost overall applicant quality.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “If you don't know, you don't know.” – Marianne, on public awareness of paid search ([03:41])
• “I felt like a connection very quickly. And…I hadn't felt that with the other people we'd spoken to.” – Ashley, on hiring Marianne ([10:03])
• “Anyone can have a TikTok…but you only have a LinkedIn if you’re interested in your career in any way.” – Marianne ([18:00])
• “Credibility does not negate humility.” – Ashley ([25:44])
• “We were able to get to an eight figure company without ever hiring a recruiter and only growing the team through paid advertising.” – Ashley ([23:22])

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Important Timestamps

• [00:34] – Introduction to Marianne & her experience
• [06:29] – How the Instagram ad attracted Marianne
• [08:30] – The power of personality and caring for small businesses in hiring
• [13:51] – Deep dive into hiring ads strategy across Google, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Meta
• [21:49] – The role and structure of the central hiring page
• [23:47] – Marianne’s top mistakes to avoid with paid ads

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Tone & Language

Conversational, relatable, generous in sharing step-by-step strategy, with a focus on practicality and warmth. Both Ashley and Marianne exude a confidence born from hands-on experience, stressing transparency, experimentation, and deep care for the people (both customers and team) behind every business decision.

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Final Takeaway

Paid ads aren’t just about getting new customers—they’re a scalable, effective way to find talent that truly matches your company’s values and needs. With the right platforms, tracking, and copy (focused on both attracting and filtering), you can build an elite team with the same strategic mindset you use to find clients.

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Curious to see these strategies in action or meet Marianne?
Join the Win With Paid Ads Challenge—details and sign-up link mentioned throughout the episode!

Transcript

[Host]

Welcome to the Win with Paid Ads podcast for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and really anyone who has anything you want more people to find. Whether you're starting from ground zero or scaling an eight figure business, you are exactly who this podcast was created for. Because you being the best kept secret helps no one. Right? That's why in every episode, I'll show you how you can use paid ads to hit your goals 10 times sooner. It's time you finally learn how to win with paid ads. You or someone on your team can do this. I'll show you how to score and be known by more. Let's get started.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Welcome back to the Win with Paid Ads podcast. I cannot wait to, number one, introduce you to our special guest and number two, we're actually going to talk about hiring ads. So there's so many different ways that you can advertise your business with ads. You can also advertise your business to people who want to work and be a part of the mission and the vision that you're creating too. So people ask us very often, what is the scoop on hiring ads and how can you use it? So we're going to tell you all about that today. But first I'm going to introduce to you our head paid ads coach at the Paid Ads Academy. It's her debut episode. Marianne, you're here.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

I'm so happy to be here.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

I know. So you, you flew from Boston?

[Marianne Iwanowski]

I flew from Boston. Not a bad trip.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yep. It's a little different down here in the country, would you agree?

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Just a little bit. Just a little bit. The houses are a little farther apart than I'm used to, but it's beautiful.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yep. There's no one near us, basically.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

No.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Except for some turkeys and some deer. We went on a great walk this morning.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

We did. No bear sightings yet.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yep. There was a bear in the field. So I was like, we're going to be prepared and we're going to be safe out here, Marianne. So we were, we were walking and making sure we weren't getting eaten by a bear.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yep.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

But, okay, so I want everybody to know who you are and how we met and what your experience is. And then the reason Marianne's here, for those of you that don't know, is Marianne actually does all of our ads at Paid Ads Academy. So as it stands right now, she sets up the ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, ChatGPT. Yep. New Chat GPT ads. So all the ones that apply to our business, like, she actually sets them up which is really cool. That was something I was able to, like, so confidently delegate to her because she's great. So I would love for you to tell everybody, like, your career experience, and then we'll talk about, you know, the hiring ads. And then I actually had a trick up my sleeve. Not really. But I did want you to share by the end of the episode, like, some of the, like, top two or three mistakes that you see people make in their ads.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

On some of the coaching that you do. Because Marianne, just for everybody's context, and I'll let her kind of take it away, is Marianne not only runs our ads, but she also is our head paid ads coach, which means she is coaching all three of our tiers of programs. So she teaches our first tier, second tier, and third tier all at different revenues. So from people starting out at zero revenue who have never run ads before to people who have six, seven, or eight figure businesses. Because she, like me, has experience with some big companies. So tell us all about your history, Marianne.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

I would love to. So I grew up just outside of Boston in Wellesley, Mass. And both of my parents are professors, so I went to BU because my dad was a professor at bu, so I'm a professor Nepo, baby.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

I don't even know what that means.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

But I. After I graduated college, so I studied advertising, which is pretty spot on. But when I was going through school, I imagined myself working at kind of like a Mad Men type of ad agency. You know, like running print ads and buying billboards and stuff like that.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Oh, yeah.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

But then after I graduated, those jobs were a little hard to come by. And Boston has some big ad agencies, but they're really all in New York, and I didn't want to live in New York, so I found myself learning paid search. So I taught. I was taught paid search. I honestly did not know what it was like. I hadn't. I. I guess I'd seen the ads before, but I had no idea how it was run. And I remember my first day at that internship. I was like, oh, my God. I was texting someone. I was like, I'm bidding on keywords live on Google, who gave me the. Who gave me the authority to do this? But I just quickly fell in love with it. I thought everything about it was so cool. And again, I feel like a lot of people don't know what it is. You know, if you don't know, you don't know. So after that position, I ended up at an agency where I started learning paid social. So Facebook. And before I Knew it. I was doing both like 50, 50. And then I moved to a larger agency where I started working for larger clients, larger accounts, bigger budgets, all that fun stuff. And. And then after, I think, let's see, must have been about six or seven years at the agency, I moved in house. So I was doing paid search and paid social for a travel company.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah. And you. One of the unique things. Cause our story is similar where you start out on one thing. I started out doing Google Ads and then it was social media ads. And then it was like, can you do YouTube? I'm like, yeah, it's right here. Yeah, for sure. And then I was like, oh, can you do Zillow ads? Oh, could you do Spotify ads? I'm like, yeah, we, we could set up all this and next thing you know, you realize how transferable the skill is. But there's still these like nitty gritty pieces to each of them too.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

It's so true. Yeah, so true.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Okay, so you had your evolution and your growth from small agency. What made you kind of like me, want to like figure out all the things? Like you love dabbling in new things. Like what is it about you that's like, I'm not afraid of like the new things doing.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

I think it was easy to jump into because with my Google and Facebook background that I really felt like I knew so well. I was like, what? What could be so hard about these platforms? What could I not figure out? And sure enough, they all have their own intricacies and complications. But having that foundation, I had the confidence that I could just figure it out. Whether that was through research or just running campaigns and testing and figuring it out for myself.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah. So you get in there, you've been doing it for a while and then you see an ad.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

I sure do.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

About an ads company that's not an agency. So is it a Facebook or Instagram or a TikTok ad?

[Marianne Iwanowski]

It was an Instagram story ad, perfectly formatted for the mobile placement.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

She remembers this.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yep. I remember exactly where I was. I was at my parents house. I was like, oh my gosh. Cause it was so simple. It was like, are you a digital marketing manager? I think that's actually all that it said. Yeah, I could pro. I think I have found the ad in our ad account. Static is a static pink background. And I was like, yes, I sure am. So I clicked and it was our hiring page and I immediately saved it and. And I was like, okay, I need to. I'm of the age where like important stuff has to happen on a, you know, a computer. You can't do it on your phone.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Agree.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

So I was like, I've got to circle back to this. And then I think I applied within 24 hours. I was just like, I, I can't. This job might disappear. I don't know what this company is. I've never heard of it. I've never been to Atlanta, but I need to apply to this job.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

It was crazy because I, I was more involved with the hiring process then than I am now. And in the sense that I would get notifications when people applied.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Oh yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

I no longer get those notifications because there are thousands. And I'm so grateful for the team. We actually, for those of you that don't know, we have a new in house full time HR and recruiting director who is running the show for the hiring, which is so helpful. So anyway, I would. One of the pieces of our application process is that there is a video.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yes.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

And so I do, I do not look at the responses. I only look at the video. And I look at the video first because if I, yeah, if I like the person and, and how they communicate, the executive presence, they have the professionalism. If they have maybe some personality and confidence, like they're all things I'm looking for. And so if that checks out, then I'm like, okay, let me look at their qualifications. And I will never forget. You're wearing a white shirt.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yep.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

You're sitting at a table.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yep. My kitchen table.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

That was the one.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

My desk.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yep. It was a little dark in that room, but it was, it was the circumstances. Okay. But no, it was, it was lit enough. And I remember watching it, I'm like, she's pulling polished, she's professional. And then the line that got me, cuz I'm like, if you make me laugh, it's like, oh yeah. And if it's like real, like, did you really make me laugh? And she did. Marianne was like something along the lines of, I know I butchered the story, but it was like I was getting my eyebrows done and I was just sitting there thinking like if they would just advertise, they would get more business. It makes me want to run their ads for free because I just want to help them because I just know that it could help. And I'm like, she cares about the small business owner.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

We were talking about that on our walk this morning. Is we're actually currently depending on when this episode actually releases, we may already have found the person. But we're hiring for someone who Actually works at Google and is in the Google and YouTube department. And Marianne and I were talking. It's like someone at Google likely has this prestige, they have this experience. They're climbing the corporate ladder. And we want someone who sees the value in helping not just the Fortune 500 companies, but. But the everyday business owner.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Exactly.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

And you did, like, you. You literally thought about running ads for them for free because of how much you cared. And I'm like, that. And she meant it too. Like, I could see it. And she was smiling about it like, okay.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

That's when you know you really love paid ads. I also am remembering now that I think I was getting married next week. Yeah, that next weekend.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yes.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

So we moved very quickly.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yes.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

And boom.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

It was. It was. I felt like a connection very quickly. And I hadn't felt that with the other people we'd spoken to. And not that those other people were not great people. They just were. What we needed was Marianne. It was just the right fit. And so it was. My favorite thing is in our interview process, we didn't tell Marianne this. And I want to see, like, how people respond to, like, being on the fly. But I was like, hey, you know, Marianne does another interview with this woman named Melissa. And Melissa gets off the call and she's like, hello, today we'll be auditing two different accounts. Google and Facebook and Instagram. You ready?

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Y.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

And Maryanne was like, okay. And they were completely different businesses. One was a cat business. One was a professional luxury executive styling business. Yes. And I watched the replay. Marianne doesn't know the full thing, but I watched the replay. And after I heard Melissa's feedback and she was like, she gave me some ideas that were actually really helpful. And Melissa already knows ads.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Cause she learned from our program. So for her to be able to see that you even gave her new ideas, I was like, yeah.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

That also showed me how much I loved coaching because that was my first, like, one on one coaching experience with someone I'd never met before. Business I'd never met before. I was like, I think I did pretty well. I can do this. You did like, it was fun.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Because that really is what you're doing for our clients, is you are very quickly saying who you are. What is the context?

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Boom.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Here's the ad account. Did I do this right?

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Exactly.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah. And you handled it so well. And you navigated between platforms very well. And our experience, what you and I have is just rare because most people are specialized and they only know one lane.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah. This is really Cool. So it's just worked out ever since.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

It sure did.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Okay, so now what happened was Marianne started with. She started with onboarding, and then over time, like she went through our program because I was like, one of the other things I was concerned about was can I get someone with experience that will be able to be on board with our method? Because everybody in every ad agency teaches different things. And I was like, what we're doing is actually a modification and a curation of everything I learned at all these places. And I was like, will she be on board? And I feel like you, you were like, this makes complete sense.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yes. Yeah, Yeah. I had never done it before, but I totally stand by that. Absolutely.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah. It's like you'd never done this method but once explained, you were like, this makes complete sense.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Totally. Yeah, totally.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

And. And you've seen it work.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yes. I would say looking back on it, I feel like at agencies, I wouldn't say set up campaigns in our method because I didn't need to, like, I didn't need to have, or I guess I didn't want to have that level of control. It was kind of like, let's get this campaign live and, you know, test a few things here and there. But we have our goals. I bet that we can accomplish them with like a simpler setup and everything will be fine. So our method is way more detailed and intricate.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

It is. And I actually think that's the selling point for why what we do is special is because not the ad agencies are bad. You and I learned our foundation. You learned every piece of it. Everything that we learned, we could not be able to deliver had we not had those experiences. And you're exactly right. The level of detail and control and segmentation and testing and all the stuff that we do is like way more work than what an agency can scalably do. Because they're like, no, I need this person to be on seven other accounts. And I need this to be efficient and easy, not manual and segmented and controlled.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

That's a great point. That's probably the biggest reason.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah, yeah. So, okay, let's talk about hiring ads. Let's talk about kind of some. Where we set them up, some nuances behind like our approach. And then we can wrap it up with your, like, two or three things that you see often that could help somebody with their ads.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Let's start with Google, because I feel like we have a interesting kind of setup there.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

So we, because for some of our positions, we hire local, Georgia based or Georgia preferred, and then some Positions are just completely remote, right?

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Correct.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

So we have our Georgia based or Georgia prefer preferred campaign, which is targeting, I think a 50 mile radius. Yeah. Is that what we decided?

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

So those keywords are all just people not looking for jobs like in specific places. It's just like this position near me. Near me.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Right.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

And we'll catch them because they're in our radius. But then we also have a campaign targeting the entire US sometimes with keywords that have Atlanta specifically for those people and then also ones for our remote positions where it doesn't matter where they are.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Exactly.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

So we've got two campaigns running.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Exactly. And the reason for that, for those of you listening, is Google does geo targeting at the campaign level. So what that means if you're new, is every single ad platform lets you put like, where do you want this ad to serve? And so on Facebook and Instagram you can set that at the ad set level. So the whole summary is there's a more granular way that you can do it in meta, whereas with Google it has to be more segmented because of how the campaigns are set up. So we have two campaigns, one for local positions and it's really just people like searching for the position. It's like social media manager jobs. VP of operations jobs.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Exactly right. And some people search for remote specifically in it, some people don't. So we can be really specific on if we want remote to be in the keywords based on that position, which is great.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So good. So we run ads on Google and so one of our clients, Kelly, she has a life insurance agency, so she runs ads just on Google for people searching for, you know, licensed life insurance sales jobs. So whatever it is, Google is like one of the pieces. And then we have, let's say LinkedIn. So we have LinkedIn ads. And those are, those are like, honestly, just like it's almost like a boosted post on Instagram. But it's like, here's the LinkedIn job posting. We're just like putting money behind it.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Exactly.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So that one's more straightforward.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Lots of AI targeting going on there.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

There is because they're scanning the job description, the title, and they're trying to match it to the best person. We're just putting money behind, saying, get this one in front of more people.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Exactly.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

That was a little less strategic, I agree.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

But more like, like our director of clients like this found us through our LinkedIn.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Absolutely.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

I didn't know that.

[Host]

Yep.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So yeah, LinkedIn, LinkedIn, straightforward. But what, like what we teach in our programs and our paid programs. And we touch on this in the challenge. And by the way, if you have not registered for the challenge, click the link below this video and we kind of talk about the different, like we, we will go in more depth than what we're talking about in this episode because it's like more visual and I do a lot of whiteboard stuff. So if you haven't been in the challenge, click link. We'll talk about like the differences and nuances between all these to join the Win with Paid Ads challenge. And Marianne's in there now? Yeah, yeah, you get to meet her live too.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

She's so fun.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

She might audit your ads and give you some targeting ideas. Yeah, she said I just might. So we do LinkedIn. I also did Tick Tock. So that same video ad that I posted for social media, I actually put that on Tick Tock last time.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

See, that makes sense to me for social media, for some of our positions, I feel like I wouldn't run to Tick Tock first.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Right, I agree. For a social media. Yes, exactly that one. I was trying to do it. Then we found that just because you are

[Marianne Iwanowski]

on Tick Tock and interested in social media interests, behaviors, that you can

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

run a 50 million dollar business's Instagram account.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Exactly.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Do we have that yet? No. We're like on track for a 15 to 20 million, let's say 15 million dollar year. However, we need someone who can say, no, I can confidently run the Instagram account of a $50 million business. And so that's not just, just because you can post on Instagram and TikTok does not mean you can post with strategy. So you're right, like you have to think about like who you're getting in front of. Yeah.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Also, even though LinkedIn the targeting is so simple, I would argue it has a higher quality pool because like anyone can have a TikTok, everyone does. And it's just for fun. But you Only have a LinkedIn if you are interested in your career in any way and great growth and involvement for the most. So it's like just a smaller pool to begin with.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

True, that's a good point. So we do TikTok, we do Google, we do LinkedIn. And then lastly, one of the bigger ones that we advertise on for ads is also Facebook and Instagram. So what do you want to tell the world about our like Facebook and Instagram ad situation?

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Let's see. So we, we have just one hiring and then because we can do location and budget and all that good stuff at the ad set level. We have it broken out by position at the ad set level.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Exactly.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

I feel like I've seen kind of mixed results for the types of targeting you can do. Yeah. Like for social media, it was tough. Like social media is something like that we use and that are a lot of our clients use. But it doesn't mean you're a social media manager with this level of expertise. Right. And like everyone's interested in social media now.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So I think like our. What the change we need to make is we need to make an ad that's even more specific to like who we're looking for. Like a brand content manager experience working with 1 million or you know, 100,000 and above accounts. You know what I mean?

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Like add some or maybe even like ask a question. Like, are you doing this right now? Like, are you currently managing the social media for a hundred thousand plus account? Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

That's growing an online business.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Why didn't we think of that?

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

I don't know. But thank God we had this podcast.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

That's what we need to do. Like, are you currently doing this? Yeah, if so we want to meet you.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

And we usually do just static ads. I wonder if social media. We could do a video.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

I'll do a video.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Like a B roll video.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

No, I want to talk to them.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Okay.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

I like, I want to be like, hey, here's who we are and are not looking for here. And that's one of the things, the tips I want y' all to hear is we do a lot of qualifying and disqualifying. Like our caption will be like, see if you qualify. And we'll be like, you do not

[Marianne Iwanowski]

qualify if we have that in the caption. So like, hopefully people aren't even clicking if they see. I think we have like five things. Like you're a great fit if and then you're not a fit if. And so hopefully we're not paying for some of those lower quality clicks by having that. Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

And that's an ad thing in general is just qualifying disqualifying.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So we have statics. It really some of them, like Marianne said, we're trying to basically have dedicated budget per position.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Exactly.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So that's why we break them out. Like we do. And we have different location targeting based on where we're willing to accept that role.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

So.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah. And just testing multiple ads to see what gets people to engage.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Exactly. And we also do a traffic campaign. We do.

[Host]

Yep.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Because our. We don't have like a. You know what we could do? We. We could have a page that people go to before they go to the form that we can track as like a. Almost like a lead because they made it to the second stage. So what we're talking. So for everybody listening, basically, with your ads, one of the things that you're trying to do is you're trying to give Google a signal that this is a great person. And so someone actually completing the application is a great signal to Google. And so what I want to do is even with our traffic ads, figure out or even with our ads for hiring, how can we give it a signal that's like this person applied.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So we can track more people that apply. So that's something Marianne and I will.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Hmm. We'll have to think about that.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Think about. All right, so last few things before we wrap up is I just want to tell everybody where we're sending people to for our ads and having one hub. And then I want you to wrap up with your, like, two or three ad learnings.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Okay.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So Marianne, tell everybody, for every single ad, no matter where we post it, where are we sending them to and why?

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Straight to our hiring page.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yep.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

All of our careers on one page.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Exactly. And so on that careers page, for all of you listening, you need your core values.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yep.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

And if you don't have core values, you need to establish them. And you don't need to establish something generic. You need it to be specific. So we actually changed our core values as a company about six months ago because I no longer felt aligned with how generic they were. So we updated that on the page. We show our team, we show what we value, and then we have the different positions. And so there's like four positions open right now. They can click apply and it takes them to a Google form or they apply. Eventually we're going to have that on. Go high level.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yes.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

And so that I think that would allow us to make our form.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

And then we can also have UTMs so we know what platform they came from.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Oh, stop it right now. So UTMS are universal tracking metrics, and it's basically a way, if you have go high level or other platforms, to say, where did this person come from? As the last thing they clicked before they arrived. And so go out. Yeah, we need to. Yeah, that's good. Okay, so summary is you need a hub of a hiring page that has a process that collects the questions, analyzes their core value responses, and has a video, because that video has been crucial to seeing, like, who is the person? Because we are not hiring anyone. Who's not a stellar communicator. Nobody's behind the scenes hiding behind a computer. We're, we're all client facing in. In my opinion. So we've got all these different ads rolling. That's why we've been able to not have to have recruiting for so long. But as we're growing, we're like, okay, now there's so much that we need. Needed someone to be able to own and manage that. But like for all of you listening, we were able to get to an eight figure company without ever hiring a recruiter and only growing the team through paid advertising.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

So that's like 15 positions.

[Host]

Yes.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

That's crazy.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Crazy. Or at least a couple people like we knew were clients. But the rest. Yes. Were all ads.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Wow.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So cool. All right, Marianne, let's wrap it up with what are like a few just really quick mistakes, even if it's a one liner. But if you want to explain it, like I'm here for. I just want to know what are the things that you're seeing on your coaching calls that you feel like are common mistakes you could help people with today.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Okay.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

And maybe not like a, like the most nitty gritty that, like, what's something that everybody could listen to? Like. Ah, that's a good one.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Okay. First one that comes to mind is launching with upper funnel keywords.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Oh yeah.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Low intent keywords.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Yeah.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

So not bidding on like your specific type of business. For example, um, let's see if you have some kind of nutrition coaching program but you're bidding on how to lose weight.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Terrible idea.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

We could spend money all day on those people there probs. There might be some good people in there. You never know. But we are just going to spend so much money on that and not get results. Meanwhile, there are people who are looking for a nutrition coach in Atlanta or near me or online. Let's spend our money on them. I agree.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

I have a coaching call today and the person's does body sculpting for female entrepreneurs that are very successful and just need help with their body. And the keyword that we are showing up for right now are sculpting workouts.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So that is like someone looking for DIY not looking to pay. They're looking to diy not p. You know what I'm saying? Freele of freele people.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

There's free people cheaple people and prele people. Free people want the free thing. So that is. She's like, I don't know why my ads aren't working. I'M like, I know exactly why they're not working.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

So that's a great one. What's your next one?

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Let's see. What else? Oh, not bragging enough. Not leading with credibility. I feel like I see that all the time. I understand it. It definitely feels awkward to be like, this is me. This is what I've done. This is why you should trust me. But your competitors are doing that, and you have to do that to get people to trust you. That's right. Absolutely.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Credibility does not negate humility.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Exactly. Exactly. I feel like it's either not present or it's at the bottom of the page or it's only in one of the 10 ads. It should be all over the place.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

I agree.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

I actually don't think I've ever seen a client's page where I'm like, there are too many testimonials and too much credibility. Like, we have.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

I trust them too much.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

I've actually never said that ever. Have you?

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

No.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

That's crazy.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Well, you heard it here first, guys. Let's not pay for ads that are not the right intent person. And let's make sure we say why we are the person that they can trust. And that's with Marianne Iwanowski, who is our head paid ads coach. Marianne, I'm so grateful that we get to do this VIP day tomorrow together and that you have helped so many of our clients win with ads. And so if you want to meet Marianne and get inside of her brilliant brain, you can click the link below this video and join the Win with Paid Ads challenge, where for five days, she and I are going to obsess over your business, maybe give you some ideas and some strategies on how you can use all of these different platforms

[Host]

in the way that we do.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

That's led us to some eight figure grows. Cool. All right, y'.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

All.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

Marianne, you're amazing.

[Marianne Iwanowski]

Thank you.

[Podcast Host / Company Leader]

All right, y' all have a great day. And everyone else, I will see you on the next episode. Go advertise your name, make it rain, and let's win the paid ads game.