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Welcome to the Marketing Matters podcast for small business owners and entrepreneurs. How would you feel about trashing your marketing funnel by building something way better instead? In these episodes, you'll learn how you can build a marketing machine in your business so that you can become findable for the people who are already searching for what you and your business have to offer. Because the best Realtor, the best interior designer, the best boutique owner, influencer, or local service provider does not win. The best marketer wins. So if you're ready for more of the right people to find you and your business, it's time you become findable. Let's get started. Let's talk about what makes a good ad. There are so many elements to this and there are so many different types of ads. One of my friends yesterday, she sent me a text message and she said, ashley, yesterday alone, I saw you on Facebook, on Instagram, on YouTube and on TikTok and I got an email from you and I was like, yes, it's all working. I'm like evil laughing. But that's the goal and that's what I want for you. I want you to be the one that once someone finds you, they can't stop seeing the value that you can bring to their life. That is the goal. Because you being the best kept secret, as we talked about, helps absolutely no one. Whereas you being the one that not only can people easily find, but you're the one that is constantly, constantly there. And consistently they are reminding matters so much. So we're actually going to talk about all of that at the Power of Paid Ad Summit. So if you haven't gotten your ticket, click the link below this podcast episode or this YouTube video and get your ticket to be in the room. Because this is the room that could change everything for you. And whether you are just getting started in your business or you have an eight figure business, you belong in the room. It's like the analogy that I've given so often is like with a football game, if someone wanted to play in the super bowl, there's some like foundational elements they have to have, right? They have to be able to throw and catch and tackle and run plays. There's a foundational element and then once you have that, you can start running a game, you can run a play, you can score. And some of you already have those foundations. Some of you already have the 6, 7 or 8 fill your business and you can get to your, your revenue goals 10 times quicker. Others of you, you're just getting started. So, so the way that we will work together is you learning how to throw and tackle and catch and get those foundational ele. The end of the day, it's the same recipes. It's just like it's, it's the same ingredient, the same recipe. It's just where are you at in that process? So you will learn for sure, no matter what, the power of paid ads and how you can hit your goals sooner and actually maybe enjoy the ride a bit longer by actually learning how you can use paid ads to get the right people to find you so that you can be the most known for what you do when. If you haven't heard the episode two episodes ago with Jill, Jill was constantly posting 24, 7, 365 for people to find her and now she gets sales while she is doing surgery on brains. So you do not have to live a life where you wake up and you're stressed about what you have to post. You can actually just be found automatically with ads. Okay, so speaking of ads, what makes a good ad? There are different types of ads. So there are Google Ads, which is mainly text. That's someone actually searching with words and they're seeing a text ad. It's called a text ad. There is YouTube ads, which is obviously a video ad. There are shopping ads which are at the top of the Google search results. It's where you can see products. Okay, those are typically if you own a product based business. There are Instagram and social media ads. So that's going to include Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. And so with those ads one is more visual with video or static. So when I say static I just mean like it doesn't move. Like it's like an image, not a video. So when I say static ad, I mean a single image ad. When I say carousel ad, I mean a static ad that you can swipe through. Right. So when we say what are the best ads? Well Michael, my first question is what platform are we talking about? Are we talking about Google, YouTube, social media, etc? I recently for the summit put some ads in the Avalon. The Avalon is a very bougie nice area that is walking distance to the event venue and it's where many of the attendees are staying. And if you're listening to this and you're coming, I would book your hotel there before it's sold out because it almost is. And I know that because I was booking more hotels for the team and the rooms that we wanted with the corner view are gone because they're booked anyway. It's a great area and it's very local to where the event is going to be. Great shops, great restaurants, just a great place to be. And so I wanted to also have an ad in that area, like on a kiosk, on a pole, band on a pole. There's all these different places where we have ads. And the way that I approach the ad copy for that or the ad creative. And when I say ad copy, what I typically mean when I say ad copy, I mean the actual words of your ad. When I say ad creative, what I mean is the videos, the pictures. The actual like creative asset is what we would call it. So there's ad copy, which is words. There's ad creative, which is the image or the video. Okay. Or the text if it was doing a search ad. So before I can even answer the. So let me tell you what I am going to answer today. I'm going to answer what ads? What are the best type of ads you should run for a product business, for a service based business? And how much does the creative really matter? And how do you speak to a warm audience versus a cold audience? Those are all really good questions. And these were actually submitted questions from someone who listens to the podcast. So if you have questions that you would like answered on the podcast, please do send me a direct message on Instagram. I would love to hear your questions and answer those live here on the podcast. So that's what we're going to talk about today and I'm going to answer those questions for you. And actually this shouldn't be too long of an episode because I'm just going to rapid fire into these answers and my perspective so that you can think about what matters for you and your business. All right, so for a product based ad, what's the best type of ad? So the actual. I'm talking about the ad copy and ad creative itself today. Okay. So do you. I've used this reference before. You know how there's different love languages? Well, there's different buying styles as well. And it's just everybody cares about something different. Some of you, maybe you're listening and you care about data. Maybe some of you, you care about the emotion side. It's like the five languages. Some of us love hugs or gifts or acts of service. And it's actually the same thing with your advertising. You need multiple messages. And at the end of the day, what's the best thing that you could do? What's the best type of ad? You. The best thing you could do is have multiple variations of ads. I'm going to give you some examples of that one could be a testimonial of your clients. Like saying, I love this product so much. Look, watch me put it on my hand. Do you see what it did to my skin? It's like so moist. So you can, you can do testimonials that are statics or carousels. You can create a video, you can ask them to send you a video. But testimonials should be a piece. And those work for both product based and service based businesses. In fact, although you think that there's a drastic contrast between a service based business and a product based business, at the end of the day you have something you want people to find. And getting third party validation, which is getting other people to advocate for you that your product or service is good. It's the same no matter your business type. Someone is searching for your product or service regardless of the fact that it's a product or service. So I think we often like, think that it's very different and it's not. And it's the same reason that when I make biscuits, I actually made homemade biscuits yesterday. My husband was so happy. He put, he put, he came back from hunting because he went out to hunt. Because it's rut. Rut is where for those of you that are not hunting enthusiasts, I'm pretty sure rut is when, when they make babies. No. God, I need to look up what the definition of rut is. Crap. I think it's when they, when they are all fired up because they're trying to have some fun in the woods, if you know what I'm saying. And so that's apparently like a really good time to go hunting. And in Georgia we have an overpopulation of deer. So deer cause so many accidents. There's like so many. So it's actually a good thing too. And we eat the meat too. We don't just like get the deer anyway. I could go off on a whole section of that. So I won't. But what matters is the way that you communicate what you have to offer does not matter necessarily with the difference between a product based business and a service based business. At the end of the day, someone's looking for exactly what you have to offer. So how can you be findable for them? So the thing that I want you to think about is what are you putting in their mind? Because you think that it's common knowledge that people know that this product or service can help them with this specific thing. For example, one of my clients, they are, they own the Business, Darlie and company. And they have this cream and honestly it's, it's like a wonder cream. Like this cream can be used for 24 different skin reasons and it's very safe, it's tested, it's all these things. It's actually really, really cool. And it can be used for scars, it can be used for stretch marks, it can be used for a million different things. She didn't ask me to share this with you. I'm just sharing it with you because it's incredible. And this one product, she thinks that everybody knows obviously the benefits of this cream. And I want you to remember that the people you're serving your ads to, they don't know. Trust me, they don't know. I think that every single person in the world knows that if less people know about them, that their business will not grow as quickly as, as if more people knew about them, especially the right people that they could specifically target. I think that everybody knows that. And I think that everybody knows, no matter type of business, that you can run ads and it can change your life because your business can actually grow anyway. Everybody doesn't know that. So you, it is on you to communicate specifically the specific value that your product or service has. For the people listening, you think they know that if they can use it for a scar, they can use it for a breath, for breast stretch marks, which I have. And they don't know. So you have to communicate. You have to put that thought in their brain. On here is the specific use case and value for them. You think it's common knowledge. I promise you it is not. So that's what you can communicate in your ads too is here's exactly the ways that this can be used and the ways that this can benefit your life. So the other thing that's really great, I talked about testimonials and you have not, because you asked, not go ask for testimonials right now. You can always have more and you can never have enough. So it is the gift that keeps giving. The more testimonials you get, the more sales you will make. The more sales you will make, the more testimonials you get. Like it's like a feeding process. But people want to know for sure that other people had paid for your thing and it was valuable. And if you try to launch something that has no third party validation or trust, you're going to struggle at the beginning. Now we all have to start somewhere. What I'm saying is go serve some people for free, get some testimonials or do it at a very low cost. But you, you cannot run ads to something that doesn't have third party validation and reviews because people will be scared to buy it. And then you'll think your ads aren't working. But really they got to an offer that they didn't want to buy because the value wasn't clear enough. So a lot of times people, it can be a hard thing to decide, is this a sales problem or an advertising problem? And Alex Hormozi explains it very well in his book. If you are getting people to you who are a lead, a lead means they're contactable. Like you could actually get in touch with them. If someone is a lead and they have the problem that your business solves and the money to pay for it, you don't have an advertising problem. If you can't get them to buy, you have a sales problem. Now, a sales, an advertising problem is when there's no one on the sales call. Like, there's no one, there's nobody finding you. You don't have any of the right people. But if you get the right person to your door and they send you a message and they have the problem and they have the money, then you have a sales problem. And great news. Y'all know I know the best people for that. But this is, this is not that for now. This is an advertising program, the advertising podcast. And so what I want to share with you is sometimes people will say, some of you, I'm good. This is kind of off a tangent, but some of you will say, no, they told me they don't have the money. Just because someone says they doesn't have they don't have the money doesn't mean they don't have the money. Sometimes they're just slowing things down. So I really want you to think about, let's get some third party validation and trust so that you don't get people to the door that are not more likely to actually go through the door. Because sales gets people through the door, marketing gets people to the door, and advertising gets people to the door. So ads you can make, we talked about, put it in their mind, the specific use cases. Like for example, one of my clients, she owns Shortcake Album. She, her name is Coralie and she went to the retreat that I hosted. She did the challenge, the program, and then she did the retreat as well. And she's just continued to win. And one of the things that she's doing in her ads is saying, hey, this could be for a birthday. Hey, this could be for a wedding. Hey, this could be for a gift for grandma. She's actually putting in your brain the different use cases of her custom photo albums so that you're like, oh, I, I, I wasn't doing a photo album because I wasn't getting married. I didn't think about using it as a gift for grandma. How sweet. So it's just one of those things. You are responsible for planning that idea in their mind with advertising and with your organic post as well. Another ad I think is really cool is I read a stat a study that said that I feel like I forget the exact number but it was basically saying that small business owners are 70% more likely to support another small business owner because we know the heart, soul and life that goes into growing a business and so we love supporting other business owners. And so you should use one ad just to tell your story or at least a little bit of why did you start this business? Like I want to see you. They're going to buy because it's you. If they can get your product anywhere else, the reason they will buy from you is because of the unique value that you bring to it. And so it's on you to share your story and what's in it for them when they purchase your business so that they can understand a little bit of buy in a little bit of that emotional connection of why did you start your business? So that they can just understand you more, trust you more. So why you created your product or service, others using your product or service that's different. Like there's UTC content which is user generated content which is people actually just like for, for example for Darlie and company if they had an influencer using their product that would just be user generated content where they're like hey, just send me it. I'm using Darling co on the scar. Look, it's been great. That's awesome. A testimonial is someone specifically like advocating on your behalf saying this program or this product was so amazing. You want both. You want user generated content and testimonial content. In fact my nutrition coach Jill, who y'all know was on two podcasts ago ever since I started talking about faster way people come to her and they're like hey, I want to work with you for passed away. And so that is, that is referral business. But here's what we did, here's how we made that happen. When she came to the retreat, we were sitting there and I was like jill, I'm just going to record right now. The most honest, candid thing about how you changed my life. And so I made a little video and I was like, listen, I have struggled to lose this weight. I finally understood things about food that I was too stubborn. I was like, no, I know if I eat better and exercise more, I will lose the weight. While I was eating better and exercising more and I still had this little pouch. It's like, it was like, like a little pocket, little baby pocket pouch, like a little kangaroo between my belly button and my downstairs. And I was like, I don't like this. Why can't it be flat? Am I doomed for life? And working with Jill, she helped me. So I made a video and it was like. And I like, at the retreat was me and Jill was sitting behind me and I was like, this is what she's done. So that was, that was almost a marriage between testimonial and user generated content, honestly. So it was kind of a testimonial because I guess I was saying specifically about the program user generated content. The difference would be me just talking about faster way in general and then linking so they can sign up with my link and obviously it feeds back to Jill. But there's. The whole point of this is like, we used to do this with nut pods. I actually did all of nutpods advertising for a while. So we would have people saying nutpods was so great, I love all this. And then other people would be them actually using the content. So almost like, I guess the best, better way for me to explain this and I apologize, it took me a minute to get here. It's like user generated content is someone using your product or service testimonial is someone advocating for your product or service. So me actually doing my faster way workout, that is user generated content. It's like, oh, look, there they go. Doing it. Doing the whole. It would be like, hey, I'm getting ready to do my faster weight workout today. I'm gonna go drink my electrolytes, my faster way electrolytes and do that. That is user generated content. Also, I'll link to my faster way stuff below. But the whole point is that is user generated content. Someone's doing it versus someone's advocating for it. The video that I did with Jill at the retreat was a testimonial. That's what that was. That's the difference. I hope that's clear. So those are both ads that you should run is having other people loving your product or service and using it and then others specifically advocating for it. So we've talked about what is in their mind? Bring it to life. Others using your product or service, getting testimonials. Why did you create your business? What is your story? What's the payoff like? What do they really get when they have this product or service? That's something you can incorporate into your advertising. What makes you and your business different? Like give them some facts, give them some stats. Some people are the data people. That's why we talked about those different love languages. So be able to tap in to that side of people, you know, that side of things is for the people that love the data. And at the end of the day, the most important piece is multiple exposures with multiple messages and consistency. It is so important that if you are going to launch ads that you know you're going to leave those ads on, let's just say for a minimum of 90 days, because if you have the intention of, I'm going to turn these ads on, I'm instantly getting rich. My life is changing. This is magic. Why are, why is everybody who clicked on my ad not immediately converting? You are going to set yourself up for so much frustration and you will never actually get the payoff that you know you're capable of because you have to have the mindset that says, okay, I need to be consistent for a long time and refine over time so that my income can climb. And I need it to work on me before it works for me and I'm willing to be there. And do you know what, what is her name? It is. Hold on, I've got it right here. Professor Angela Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania. She did a TED talk and I watched it and they did a study where they found the number one trait that was the highest indicator of success. Do you know what it was? Grit. Here's how she defines it. She says grit and passion or. Sorry, let me start over. Grit is passion and perseverance for long term goals. One way to think about grit is to consider what grit isn't. Grit isn't talent. Grit isn't luck. Grit. Grit is how intensely for the moment that you want something. Grit is about having what researchers call the ultimate concern. A goal you care about so much that it organizes and gives meaning to almost everything that you do. And grit is holding steadfast to that goal even when you fall down, even when you screw up, even when progress towards that goal is halting or slow. That is what grit is. And I'm going to tell you right now, if you don't have grit, you will not win with Paid advertising. You have to have grit, period. The end. If you launch something in the first month, second month, third month, sixth month, ninth month, you're still trying to figure things out. You are in the exact right place and you will figure it out and you will get the payoff. And if you will do all of that relentlessly and you have this, what they call ultimate concern for your goal, you will learn what doesn't work for so long, you eventually learn what does. I mean it, I'm serious. That is the difference between the, the, the people that I work with get that get the most results versus the least results. A lot of people start wearing down. You get to about six months and you've had some leads, you've had some sales, you've had some progress, you've had some email list growth, you've had more traffic, you've learned more things, and all of those are wins. But you don't see it. Everything's hazy. You're like, I am breaking even. Why am I breaking even? I really want to be profitable. And you're just learning and learning and learning. And what you may learn is we got to work on your offer. You may learn. We got to work on your pricing. You may learn, hey, I'm getting a bunch of right people, but they're not buying. What is it? Is it the experience? Like, there's so many other elements to it, but eventually ads will speed. Up. You actually learning something about your business, you may not have ever realized. You may have gone on and on and on. And grit is super important when you, when it comes to your ads. So when you talk about what type of ads, I can give you the playbook right now. But what I can't do is give you grit, because it's going to take that to refine over time and to win with these ads that we've talked about. So the reason I said, well, how do you create a good ad? Well, you can launch it, but you need to have perseverance with ad testing because you're going to test. This video didn't work. Ooh, this one did. This one didn't. This one did. So that perseverance and resilience to actually testing the ads and actually leaving your ads up long enough for you to figure it out is what matters. I really want you to think about what is the absolute, positively worst case scenario that can happen if you learn about advertising. What's the worst thing? Well, the worst thing, if you run a bunch of ads and you don't get a bunch of Sales. Maybe you've learned to pivot and maybe you pivot and you create a completely new offer that sells like crazy. Maybe ads led you to realizing that there was something about your business you want to change. Maybe you had to pay money and so you paid attention and now you have this skill that can help you with that other business. Like I'm trying to think of, worst case scenario, is there really a negative to having new software installed in your brain that can help you advertise? I, I guess the worst thing that can happen is you lose some money. And now listen, every education costs something, right? It's either going to cost time or money. But now you don't have to wonder what to do with advertising. Like I'm going worst of the worst, you've actually spent money and you learned what doesn't work. And good news is you can always make more money. So temporary frustration for long term elevation in how you think, how you behave, how you advertise. I really want you to think, what is the absolute worst, negative, worst thing? And is it worth, is it worth the worst case scenario of getting new information that could change your life? I mean, I would say so. So these ads, the, the multiple exposures, the messaging, the consistency, the repetition, the perseverance, it all matters. Does the creative matter? Yes, that was one of the questions. It says how much does the creative matter? And how do you talk to a warm audience versus a cold audience? The creative matters because that's really the messaging. Okay, so we talked about the ingredients of successful ads. Well, the messaging is one of those ingredients. And so that, that comes through and is communicated through your creative. So if you have the right targeting but the wrong message, then your ads won't perform. So your creative matters a good deal. And so the only way for you to get good at running ads is to create ads that are bad initially that you refine over time. So you will eventually get good at creating ads or your team will eventually get good at creating ads. But it is going to take you just getting it out there, getting some data. Now don't put anything ratchet up. We won't do that. But. And go listen to episode number 36 of Don't Record an ad until you listen to this. So go, go listen to that episode. But you getting better at getting on camera and on your, on your ad will make you better and your creative will improve over time and so will your ad performance. Your creative will improve as your ad creative does too, truly. So you're just going to keep refining with Your ads. The last thing about the creative that I wanted to share is you have to disrupt. You can have the best, most high quality produced ad and if you don't disrupt, which really means to interrupt someone's attention or activity, if you don't interrupt what they're doing well enough, then they won't see the rest of the ad. So you really have to be willing to be a disruptor, someone who can interrupt, get attention because you know that what you have to offer is so powerful and so good for the people who are searching for it. And so the creative matters. And the last thing I'll say about the, you know, the kind of the messaging and the creative is how do you, how do you talk to a warm audience versus a cold audience differently? I want you to think about how you speak to people when you're on a date with them. Now it's been a minute since I've been on a date, thank the Lord and, or like a new date. And a cold audience is like your first date and a warm audience is like your recurring dates. On your first date, you're not going to say, hey, buy this right now, marry me today. That's going to scare them. And they're not, they're going to be turned off to that, honestly. And so you really want to think about how can you warm, warm them up to you and just be a little bit detached, like, hey, I hope to see you again. Hey. If you want to learn more about our product or service, click the link below. Like that, that, learn more. You know, try it out that, that type of messaging. I like to be a little bit more, less direct with like buy right now versus over time, then once they've like, like for example, the, with the summit, as it gets closer, as we have the Black Friday sale, whatever it is, we're gonna say, hey, there's a deadline, there's urgency and scarcity here. Buy the ticket. Like if you've been on the fence, now is the time. That's when we're gonna say buy tickets. Buy tickets. Whereas throughout the advertising journey, when people are just discovering the event, learn more, you know, view the speakers, see the website, your call to action and your messaging is going to be different. You'll actually notice. I do a bunch of retargeting ads where I'm like, hey, it's me again. I know you've been thinking about going to the summit. Like I, I like kind of play on the fact that like I know that you're thinking about it. I know that you know about the summit. And so you customize your message for the person just based on their relationship with you exactly like you do on multiple dates. So that's how I want you to think about it. And is, is this someone who doesn't know about you? You're gonna have to talk in a certain way. They're gonna have to. You're gonna have to explain a little bit more so that they understand who you are and what you have to offer versus when they're familiar with you. You can be like, yeah, get the. Like, like Jeanette, Dr. Jeanette Vimonti is in my mastermind. And it's like, for her retargeting ads, of course we're gonna say, hey, I know you've been thinking about getting this relief guide. If you're a travel veterinarian. If you are now at the time before the price goes up, click the link below to buy. Like, her messaging is gonna be more refined and precise because she, she knows the relief gu means you wouldn't say, get the relief guide. If initially it's like, hey, this relief guide, what this really is is, it's this. Like, that's how you would talk to a audience that's new and cold versus someone that's warm. So at the end of the day, just think about how you're communicating a little bit differently based on do they know you or do they not? I hope this was really helpful for you to think through. How can you communicate for a service base versus product base? And it comes down to being clear, being simple, being consistent, multiple messages, why you created this, who this foreign isn't for testimonials, reviews, and actually saying explicitly and specifically how your product or service can benefit them because you think that they know, but they don't. And it's on you to communicate that in your advertising. I hope this was helpful. I cannot wait to see you on the next episode where we're going to talk about 10 tips for black Friday. So can't wait to see you on the next episode. And don't forget, if you have not gotten your ticket to the Power of Paid Ad summit, just click the link below or go to ashleybrock.com summit and we cannot wait to see you in the room with hundreds of entrepreneurs just like you who are ready to speed things up and hit their best revenue ever for 2025. I'll see you soon.