Did you learn how to use paid traffic on your own or through an expensive course of some sort?

48 replies
Hey, I've been really nervous to try using paid traffic.

I've been having success with YouTube traffic bringing people to my site via links in the description of my videos. I have just under 30K subscribers. March has been my best month yet at just over $3500 .

So I have a product that sells reasonably well, but I have been scared to try paying for advertising.

I know there's $3000 courses out there that teach you how to effectively use Facebook ads.

I've looked around in the Facebook ads manager, and it looks super intimidating. I know that you can easily blow a ton of money by doing it incorrectly.

So I'm wondering, how would you suggest that I get started in paid traffic?

Thanks!
#expensive #learn #paid #sort #traffic
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  • Profile picture of the author jmosticc22
    Check out the digitalmarketer lab, lots of resources here that can help you in different areas.
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  • Profile picture of the author naviown
    I am also want to start using paid advertising and like OP I am afraid to blow tons of money without getting any results. Maybe you guys can recommend good product/source to learn facebook ads?
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  • Profile picture of the author SiteNameSales
    You get started by putting your toe in the water. All the insight you can gain from a course will help you immeasurably and no doubt save you some money. But even if you can avoid a lot mistakes so much depends on the appeal of the product you are promoting and the quality of your ads.

    Many marketers I know are constantly testing and tweaking and much will depend on how much you are will to risk and the resources you have. And, by the way, not everyone is cut out to do their own advertising. There are plenty of companies who would be only too happy to do it for you. Some rates are quite reasonable and you can learn even more by observing the strategies that they employ.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
      Originally Posted by SiteNameSales View Post

      But even if you can avoid a lot mistakes so much depends on the appeal of the product you are promoting and the quality of your ads.
      This is the part I'm nervous about. I believe that I have a good product. I sold over 500 copies of it, and I have almost 200 very positive reviews on it. But all of my sales come from "warm traffic" who already know me from YouTube.

      I know that these courses have methods that teach you how to "test the waters" by tweaking and split testing things, while risking minimal money in the process.

      You're right though. Gotta play the game to learn the game.
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve L
        Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

        This is the part I'm nervous about. I believe that I have a good product. I sold over 500 copies of it, and I have almost 200 very positive reviews on it. But all of my sales come from "warm traffic" who already know me from YouTube.

        I know that these courses have methods that teach you how to "test the waters" by tweaking and split testing things, while risking minimal money in the process.

        You're right though. Gotta play the game to learn the game.
        Yea, you're going to want to send your paid traffic to a free offer first since they are so cold and have never heard of you before. You warm them up with your email sequence and helping them achieve some wins early on to earn their trust.

        To answer your original question though, I just learned from trial and error for the most part. DM if you have any specific questions.
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      • Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

        This is the part I'm nervous about. I believe that I have a good product. I sold over 500 copies of it, and I have almost 200 very positive reviews on it. But all of my sales come from "warm traffic" who already know me from YouTube.

        I know that these courses have methods that teach you how to "test the waters" by tweaking and split testing things, while risking minimal money in the process.

        You're right though. Gotta play the game to learn the game.
        But then you simply do the same thing with paid traffic.....do not try and sell right away...warm them up.

        Just make a start $100 Adwords....go slow...
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  • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
    If you are using Adwords or Bing they both have resources to help you set up your first campaign. At least of them will actually have someone help you the first time. I want say that is google if you provided them the correct business information. Also Bing runs webinars every few weeks to help their advertisers. Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author chuckholmes
    I learned it on my own, over a period of about five years. Looking back, I wish I would have bought a quality course and just followed their teaching. It would have saved me a lot of time and money. Food for thought.
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  • Profile picture of the author zimadev
    If you don't want to pay for a course (and I think $3000 is way too much) then I would suggest searching on YouTube for tutorials and opinions from experienced digital marketers.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
      Originally Posted by zimadev View Post

      If you don't want to pay for a course (and I think $3000 is way too much) then I would suggest searching on YouTube for tutorials and opinions from experienced digital marketers.
      What is your experience with using paid advertising?
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    Success in anything requires an abundance of study, hustle, grit, determinism, passion, and inspiration!

    These days there are so many free (or low cost) resources for learning advertising.

    If you want to learn more about the art and science of advertising, then my advice, is to read "Scientific Advertising", and also have a look at some of the top performing creatives in myriad marketplaces.

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  • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
    Hi,.

    Here is a little advice about starting with paid traffic to test how it works for you at some of the lowest cost

    First make sure you have got both FB pixel and Google Analytics set up.

    Open Google adwords account ( Now Google Ads) and link to the Analytics.

    You are already getting traffic from Youtube so you can easily do a bit of Youtube advertising from the google adwords account. The cost will be quite low because youtube is still pretty economical to advertise on because there is an abundance of placements.

    It would pay you to make a good 15-40 second video ad with a compelling hook in the first 5 seconds.

    You can always send this traffic to your best converting youtube video rather than your website. This will be cheap to do.

    With Facebook make sure you can track the conversions of people purchasing via the website.

    Then you could use a similar short video or a good newsfeed type ad that again has a powerful hook or headline and a great image.

    The key to using this first ad set up on facebook is to set up a campaign for "Existing website visitors" AND "lookalike audience"

    So you will do a retargeting type campaign with also new lookalike prospects also.

    This way you are already going to people who have seen you before or who have similar interests.

    Let Facebook AI work out the audience don't over think it in the early stages.

    Set a budget in both Adwords and Facebook that you are comfortable with.

    You can always edit budgets later either down or upwards.

    Don't set a total campaign budget but rather set daily budgets and it would probably be good to start with between $10 - $20 per day.

    On Facebook let it run for a few days before modifying budgets or pausing etc so it has time to get some data.

    You may find you can get the Youtube traffic for low cost and you can have several video ads running on low daily budgets even like $1-$2 a day - you'l still get traffic.

    I would go that way because you will be hitting a warmer audience and once you are a little comfortable then try some of the other options.

    See if you can find some of the stuff Mike Rhodes does. His paid forum has a full adwords and facebook course and is frequented by a lot of agency owners who have great discussions regarding so many helpful things. Mikes business is websavvy and the paid forum is agency savvy.

    Someone earlier mentioned digital marketer nd they have paid courses but honestly you can get a tone of free info from their blog. (They tend to favour Facebook over Google at least that is what it appears) Here are a couple of links to their blog where you can read a few tips from people that run a lot of paid content.
    https://www.digitalmarketer.com/blog/best-facebook-ads/
    https://www.digitalmarketer.com/blog...ertising-plan/

    Start small and don't be afraid to test.

    The best way to learn is to read some of the ideas and try the two suggestions I made above. Then spend only what you can afford and you will learn more by doing and seeing how it works than by taking a big course.

    Also understand both facebook and Google will have your prospects and they have AI that improves everyday so don't be afraid to leave some of the set up to what is recommended when you are starting out.

    Both Facebook and Google can get on the phone with you and guide you step by step via screensharing so again don't be scared to contact them and ask for help.

    Best regards,

    Ozi
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    • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
      Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

      i
      This is really great stuff. Thank you!

      I'm definitely going to have to bookmark this!
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  • Profile picture of the author Rory Singh
    I bought a course to learn 1 paid ad strategy. And then I spent $11,000 over a 1.5 year term just to learn it. Took me $11K to break even. But then got the hang of it.

    I suggest taking a course but don't pay more than $200 - $300 for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author vedicastrologym
    Nice Topic for discussion.
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  • Profile picture of the author clairedivas056
    With paid advertising, you get the opportunity to reach parts of your target audience that were previously unreachable.
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  • Profile picture of the author bionictortoise
    I bought a Udemy course on Facebook ads for under $15. There are lots of vendors selling their courses. I looked for the most comprehensive one with the most good reviews. I settled on a course titled: Facebook Ads & Facebook Marketing MASTERY by Coursenvy. It has over 15,000 ratings. (They always have cheap offers. Great for buyers. But no good for affiliates!)

    The course teaches how to set up Facebook ads the right way for marketers. We need to do it via the Business Manager. Only offline businesses should have one ad account. We need lots, and in setting up Business Manager, we get to add our own ad account that we can practice on too. This is also handy if we want to have an ad agency. It's a lot more hassle changing from a solo account to Business Manager.

    I also since bought Dan Henry's 30 Day Agency, which is very comprehensive and shows you how to structure winning ad copy, if you have $997 to spend. If not, start with the cheap Udemy course.
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  • Profile picture of the author Edlund88
    Paying for a course is like taking a short cut. Sure you can learn it on your own, but you will blow lots of money before you even break even.

    If you buy a good course and follow it, you will reduce the amount you need to spend before you will break even and start profiting.
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  • Scared?

    WHY?

    Start with $20....then $50. Test. track. Then scale up.

    No need to buy courses. Changes too fast anyway.
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  • I learned on my own the hard way, it took me almost one year. You have to invest time and patients .
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  • Profile picture of the author LucasLT
    Start slow. Start with a retargeting campaign (ads to people that visited your website/order form but then didn't purchase). This will prevent you from wasting a lot of money quickly, if your product is already validated.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stephannie Baker
    I have been following baclinko since starting and trust me it's helped me alot with every part.
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  • Profile picture of the author spartan14
    If you are afraid of risking you will not do nothing .If you expect to succed first time with paid traffic then you are wrong . Paid traffic its a game of testing failing failing error etc acumulating experience and then succed
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  • Profile picture of the author brucey666
    Paid traffic? You need to learn from the experts, there are many gurus out there just look at their free information on youtube and if you want advanced one you can always purchase their courses but i would say it would be worth it if it is going to help you become a six figures online entrepreneur.

    If you try to learn everything yourself, you would certainly waste a lot of time and money just from figuring everything on your own.
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  • Profile picture of the author luciesmazanska
    Bkelly301 Even If Im a traffic provider I would suggest you to focus on youtube amd connect those videos outside of the youtube on social networks and forums so you get even more traffic and better rankings
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  • Profile picture of the author Monica8297
    You need check out the digitalmarketer lab, lots of resources here that can help you in different areas.
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  • Profile picture of the author Monica8297
    If you don't wish to pay for a course (and I think $3000 is way too much) then I would suggest searching on YouTube for tutorials and opinions from experienced digital marketers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
    Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

    I've looked around in the Facebook ads manager, and it looks super intimidating.
    Thanks!

    It's always going to change too, so you'll have to roll with the times.

    This gives light to the fact that any course you buy might be outdated too.

    You've got effective income from your efforts, so you can test the waters and spend only a portion of funds in the initial stages whilst you learn, then 'scale it up'.

    Then you, may be the one teaching it...
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    There are lots of free tutorials out there - just use youtube and start EXPERIMENTING

    Much of the well-written sales COPY out there trying to separate you from your $87 or $997 for 'courses' simply resell REPACKAGED free information

    Just go straight to the source https://www.facebook.com/business/learn and LEARN by TRIAL AND ERROR

    The secret? Focus on PRE-QUALIFICATION!!!

    This is the kind of result I'm getting with FB paid ads - very little money for high value clicks

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  • Profile picture of the author Mabu Map
    Hey. I think that in this case

    Buy a $300 training course and spend 2700$ for practice is better

    There is a lot of good course out there with that price
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  • Profile picture of the author luciesmazanska
    @Bkelly301 Its funny but as a traffic provider I first learned how to do it bymyself so I learned many NON-PAID ways how to do it
    Then I learned Adwords and now I do more adwords but also ways which are free but keeping me active and force me to learn new and new ways how to do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author alordincans1
    I think classics direct copywriting books + experience are the best way to learn
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    There are so many places to market online that most people will never know about.

    You just have to search on Google, try these places, and then figure out what works for you and what doesn't.

    If you don't want to risk any money, you will never be able to grow your business.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    Originally Posted by Bkelly301 View Post

    Hey, I've been really nervous to try using paid traffic.

    I've been having success with YouTube traffic bringing people to my site via links in the description of my videos. I have just under 30K subscribers. March has been my best month yet at just over $3500 .

    So I have a product that sells reasonably well, but I have been scared to try paying for advertising.

    I know there's $3000 courses out there that teach you how to effectively use Facebook ads.

    I've looked around in the Facebook ads manager, and it looks super intimidating. I know that you can easily blow a ton of money by doing it incorrectly.

    So I'm wondering, how would you suggest that I get started in paid traffic?

    Thanks!
    When I started, I had someone helping and giving advice. It wasn't a full training or mentoring. Eventually I did make money.

    I eventually did get myself more help and made more money.

    At this point I typically recommend people getting training from a reputable source. This will normally help people find success much faster and with less mistakes and less cost.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kratika Agrawal
    I think you should run more Facebook campaigns and Youtube ads for videos.
    For your new product, you should try Google Ads and again Facebook ads.
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  • Profile picture of the author Reiters N
    This is a tough question to answer because it depends on so many factors.
    The truth is there isn't a single traffic source out there that is the best for everyone.Some people will have success with a source while others will fail.

    If you believe paid search is the way to go for your business then I would definitely test out Bing ads. Your chances of finding a winner are much higher and will cost you much less.
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  • Profile picture of the author filiks
    Facebook ads or any other types of paid ads can cause a deep hole in your advertisement budget if not done correctly. In fact some will vouch that facebook ads is dead just because their ads did not convert the way they envisiaged.

    However, using paid ads can really boost your conversion if done correctly and there is no better way to start getting better result but to take action right away.

    There are countless ecourses on paid ads but im guessing most of them are written by people that never actually did any sort of paid ads in their lifetime (just guessing) because the courses all seem alike.

    So, there is no big deal in getting nervous with your paid traffic attempt, everybody gets nervous especially when venturing into something they have not attempted before. Besides i will rather watch some free youtube videos showing how to use paid ads to boost conversion (literally there are thousands of such videos...just filter it to recent uploads and you should see some good videos to pattern)

    Above all, i wish you all the best and im sure you will hit a home run with your paid ads (probably not on your first attempt as you need to test and tweak until you get the right spot)
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  • Profile picture of the author kyurin
    I blew a few thousand dollars of my own money to learn how the ads are working as well as watching countless of YouTube videos and finding the right people who knows what they are doing.

    I would suggest that you just dive into it. It might look scary and intimidating at first but what doesn't? Spend time on it and always analyze the data to understand why something isn't working.
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  • Profile picture of the author codyhay
    Well, I learn it by own, taking time & learning a few tricks. Although taking help from online resources too from time to time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Maca56
    I have used it on my own really. So you really need to let us know which product you really promote on Youtube and then go right from there anyway. I do not understand it yet, but you may want to try Bing and Adwords as well depending on what you are selling.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adrianne_
    First of all, congrats on your success with YouTube marketing Bkelly. Kudos to you, man! Keep in mind there is no 1 course that is a magic bullet for paid advertising. Dropping a couple grand on a course doesn't mean it's a quality course.

    I suggest you research a course and then check the reviews about it to weigh the pros and cons of that course. If it doesn't measure up, then move on to another course. Some people swear by hiring a coach. However, coaches ain't cheap, but if you can find one who is making the kind of money you want to make, then it may be worth it to pay the fee to help you reach your goals.

    Make sure to ask them about their choice of marketing/paid advertising. For example, if they've mastered calling leads, and have a great way to qualify and close them, but you absolutely do NOT want to grow your business this way, it's good to know this upfront so you can move on to another coach.

    Be selective and find a course or coach that fits your style of marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Denhei
    How do you know FB is the place to start?
    It sounds like you are succeeding on youtube - I'd expand and really try to master that venue before moving to another.
    Also, clearly define who your target audience is - where they are - and what their pain points are. The platform is not as important as your understanding of who they are/what they want/and their journey towards deciding to buy.
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  • Profile picture of the author nelson cortel
    I just keep on trying and testing everything that I've seen in youtube then scale those what works for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrewsfm
    Pick one and learn it yourself, you can find many videos on youtube. Bing is a great one to start with, simple platform, just make sure you use a tracking software.

    Here's a simple plan, register to bing, create campaign, use google keyword planner and search your main keyword term, export and upload all 500-1000 of them to bing campaign. Let it run for a few weeks on a $5-$10 budget, see which keywords create leads, which created sales etc and optimize a new campaign with winning keywords and scale.

    Easy tracking is Clickmagick or maybe Funnel Flux, depends on what your budget is.
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  • Profile picture of the author dougp
    I've learned it on my own through trial and error. Treat it like gambling, seriously. Never invest in paid advertising what you can't afford to lose.

    Always closely monitor your campaigns, and understand how to do A/B split testing. The thing that's tricky with online ads is that it's difficult to tell what is leading to poor conversions. Is it your ad? Is it the landing page? Is it that the network you're advertising on have poor quality traffic?

    These things can't be answered by an expensive course, only through trials and tribulations. However, the new data you'll generate will be valuable to your future marketing campaigns.
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  • Profile picture of the author tyronne78
    I build my online business using mainly free organic methods (blogging/SEO),forum marketing,etc.

    When I want to learn paid advertising I usually read the AdEspresso blog. They have tons of free training related to paid advertising.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Targeting is the main thing in my opinion. It may take you a few months of trial and error before you get the numbers to work for you. Also it depends on what you're selling, what your break even number is (if you do break even on the first sale), and your plan for getting more income from your customers that you advertised to get.
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  • Profile picture of the author Imguru1
    Yes I have although there are many resources for free through google search or youtube videos. the main thing you want to do is test them and see which one works for you. it takes time and practice to master traffic. although if you are looking for in depth teaching of lets say fb ads or something then yes a course would be great start.
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