[Case Study] The Facebook Ad Strategy For Growing Your Facebook Group Fast And Getting Paying Clients Within 9 Weeks
By DAWN-MARIE NESBITT
Maybe you’ve been told that the best way to attract clients is to have a Facebook Group.
Facebook Groups are where you can connect with a group of people who have similar interests. You can share exclusive content with that group, build a community and get clients as a service business if you want to.
The thing that I don’t like about Facebook groups however is that it’s visibility is subject to the algorithm. So if you’re someone who is a silent lurker and you don’t often engage in the group but you consume its content, the Facebook group can become less visible in your newsfeed.
You have to be an active Facebook group participant, for Facebook to identify the group as relevant to you, and show it more often to you in your newsfeed.
There have been times when I joined a Facebook group but forgot I joined and don’t see any content from it. That’s because I didn’t interact in anyway with it or did so for a short period of time.
So if you want to use Facebook groups as a strategy to get clients, keep this in mind that engaging content is what you will need to keep it relevant to your members so that it can show up in their newsfeed all the time.
Let’s talk about this strategy that I used to build a brand new Facebook group to over 500 members and get clients within 9 weeks.
A Sneak Peak into the Results
I spent £793.15 and used Facebook ads as my traffic source.
I added over 400 members into my group, grew my email list by 336 subscribers and converted four people into coaching clients.
My ROI was 4.9x with two high-ticket coaching clients and two beta students giving a revenue of $5258.
My Role
I’m a Facebook Ads Strategist and I help service-based business owners and entrepreneurs get more leads and sales into their business using digital marketing strategies.
Depending on my client’s goal, I develop a digital marketing strategy to help them generate an ROI within three to six months.
The ultimate goal is to help my clients increase their online visibility, build a sustainable brand, get qualified leads into their business and use sales funnels to convert those leads into paying clients.
When my clients work with me, I hold weekly consultation calls and email consultations to share my ideas and to discuss what’s working and not working.
Most of the time I am given the freedom to develop a strategy or come up with new ideas for growth. Sometimes a strategy may not work as expected and so I pivot so that I can maximise use of the budget and ensure that they do get a return on their money.
In this blog post I am sharing a strategy that I developed to grow my Facebook group.
I spent my own money testing this strategy.
You will get insight into what I did, the lessons I learnt and some really useful things you should know about lead generation campaigns so if you want to create one yourself you will know what to look out for.
The Goal
I started my coaching business to teach marketing strategies to service businesses. I knew from the start that I wanted to use Facebook ads to find clients, since it was an automated process and it was quicker to put myself in front of people who may be looking for marketing help, rather than doing it the organic way.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with building your Facebook group the organic way – whether that is through blogging, LinkedIn, Instagram or YouTube – these ways are all good but it will take time and effort to get people into the group.
My goal for this coaching program is to help as many coaching students learn the skills to build and grow a sustainable business online.
I will be doing that through offering 1:1 coaching services and digital products for sale.
The Strategy
When I developed this strategy I wanted a way to get people into my Facebook group without the traditional lead magnet through a landing page.
Typically you can build your email list as well as your Facebook group at the same time by positioning your lead magnet as the first offer and then guiding people to your Facebook group as the second step.
I didn’t take this step in this case. Instead the Facebook group was the first step and the lead magnet the second step.
So I created an ad that took people to a landing page with a button that connected to my Facebook group.
It was a simple strategy that delivered simple and cheap results with leads being generated at about £0.83 per lead. Keep reading for my final synopsis on this campaign and what I learned from having managed my Facebook group for just about 7 months at the time of writing this post.
The Lead Magnet
As I mentioned before, a typical Facebook ad strategy will involve the use of a landing page to give away a lead magnet.
The Facebook user will typically sign up on the landing page by providing their name and email address in exchange for the lead magnet and if the business owner is smart, they will maximise the thank you page of the funnel by asking the lead to join their Facebook group.
For this strategy, I did not build my lead generation funnel in this way. Instead my lead magnet was my Facebook group and I marketed the value of that Facebook group by advising people that they will learn business growth tips.
Key Takeaway
If your lead magnet is your Facebook group, always promote the benefit of joining the group. What will the user get from being a member of the group?
Some benefits of a Facebook group can include:
- Exclusive content to information that is not shared elsewhere
- Community of other like-minded people who are open to sharing their experiences and insights
- Freedom to connect with like-minded people
- Free training or support
Make sure to spell this out in your ad copy when promoting your group.
Targeting
Targeting is one of the most important things you can research before creating your Facebook ad campaign.
If you get your targeting wrong, it can mean that your ad is put in front of people that are not relevant and who are likely to be uninterested in your ad.
When I create targeting groups for mine and my clients’ campaigns I start with Audience Insights.
With this free tool, you can research the interests of your audience based on a seed word.
In my case I wanted to target predominantly black and brown entrepreneurs, so I found interests that were based on the magazines that my target audience read, the influencers or public figures they followed, the business tools they used and also interests that targeted black and brown people for example Essence Magazine, Black History or Black Enterprise.
In the campaigns I created I targeted the US, UK and CA and made sure that my audience size was about 2.3 million.
Whenever I create an ad campaign I like creating audiences that are more than 500k to ensure that there is enough people in the audience to target. I also try to keep my audiences lower than 3 million so that it isn’t too broad and Facebook has a difficult time finding people who are important to me achieving my goal.
Ad Copy And Images
Before I found a winning campaign I tested three or four other campaigns and used images as my creative.
Whilst I started getting leads with these campaigns, the cost per lead was more than £5 which was a little expensive for growing this group.
I set a cost per lead of £2 or lower and knew I had to test other copy and creatives to try and get my cost down.
I swapped the image for a custom video I created. Reworded my ad copy where I spoke directly to my audience and called them out and that was the winning formula that helped me start getting leads for less than £2 and eventually less than £1.
Here is what my initial results looked like after I tested audiences.
Day 1 results
Day 7 results
Continue reading where I talk about the lessons learnt from this campaign and how your cost per lead can affect the quality of your lead.
Landing Page
When I create landing pages for my campaigns, I like keeping them very simple.
After creating landing pages for the past 4 years, I have learnt that the less information you provide, the higher converting it can be.
Now I’m not saying to provide only as little information as you can. The key is to provide only the most relevant and benefit-rich content that you can on your landing page.
Here is a copy of the landing page.
As you will see, the benefit I outlined to attract the user to take the next step was they will learn business growth strategies in the Digital Age.
When designing your landing page, make sure that it has the following elements:
- Benefit-rich content to include your headline, subheadline and bullet points
- An image showing the product that you are giving away or the outcome that the user will experience
- A form that asks for only the necessary information you need to complete the transaction
- A strong call to action
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Retargeting
After filling the Facebook group I continued to retarget the users who engaged with my ad and my Facebook business page and Instagram account.
Many people skip this step and try to sell to their leads outright without nurturing them and building a relationship with them.
In my case, I kept a retargeting campaign running so that my leads would continue to see my face which builds familiarity and trust over time.
With my campaigns, I continue to educate my audience delivering short video content on marketing, blog posts and social media posts.
I also use these campaigns to promote my coaching program and other products.
Facebook Ad Results In 9 Weeks
In the first 7 weeks of running my ad campaign I spent £793.15.
I added over 400 members into my group, grew my email list by 336 subscribers and converted four people into coaching clients.
My group eventually grew to over 500 members.
My ROI was 4.9x with two high-ticket coaching clients and two beta students giving a revenue of $5258.
Lessons Learnt From This Campaign
7 months along from running this strategy there were a few important lessons I learnt here that has contributed to my overall skillset and strategy implementation.
There are many strategies that a business can use but your strategy should be in keeping with your overall goal.
My goal was to sell a high-ticket coaching program that cost no less than $2900. Initially my coaching program started from $247 but overtime that price increased to $2900 and goes as high as $5400.
This specific strategy I used is perfect for selling high-ticket programs but is a long term strategy.
Building a Facebook group is a long term strategy and you may not land your first high-ticket client for a long time. It however is perfect for selling low-ticket offers once you have nurtured your audience and can convince them on the value of your offer.
I also spoke about getting leads for as low as £0.83 per lead. What I quickly realised is that cheaper leads meant that the quality of the lead was low.
For me, that meant that they required a lot of nurturing and were not at the position of scaling their business since they were start-ups. It also meant that many of them had little to no revenue in their business to invest in a high-value offer.
The lesson learnt here is that the cheapest lead isn’t always the most profitable lead for high-ticket sales. So if your program costs $1k or more you can always aim to spend a little bit more to attract a higher-quality prospect who has the potential to become your client.
Another problem that I found was that I attracted a lot of people who were product owners and not service providers.
This was inevitable since my original message was not very specific to the type of person that I wanted in my group. When I started this campaign the goal was to attract any business owner but that goal shifted when I decided I wanted to solely work with service providers.
Key Takeaway
Always ensure that your message is specific to attract a specific type of person.
What's Next?
When I decided to increase my price for my coaching services, I knew that there would be the problem of affordability.
I was still able to convert at least 2 of those group members into high ticket coaching clients but to monetise the group and knowing who my audience is, I know that I have to start at the lowest level of my value ladder and then move my prospects up higher or I could continue to deliver content over a longer period of time and convert them through consistency for my coaching program.
I am currently working on a smaller product to serve my audience.
What I Will Do Differently?
For my high-ticket coaching program I have started testing another strategy and will write more about it once I have enough data to provide a case study.
Want Similar Results in Your Business?
Do you want to quickly grow a Facebook group of your ideal clients using Facebook ads?
When creating a Facebook ad campaign it requires a lot of testing, seeing what’s working and looking at the data to decide if you should change strategy.
When you work with me, I consider your offer, your business goals and what outcomes you are looking to achieve.
Let’s work together over 90 days where I will build out a solid campaign and implement everything for you, whilst you focus on doing what you love.
Who Is This For?
I work with service providers, coaches and consultants who are already successful and are ready to attract new and ideal clients through Facebook Ads.
You should already have an offer and you’re ready to invest in your business. Please budget from $997 per month for Facebook Ads coaching if you have not yet reached at least $3000 per month in revenue in your business.
If you are making more than $3k per month and would like to scale please budget from $2500 per month for Facebook Ads management.
Book your free 30-minute Facebook Ads Breakthrough Call here.
Who Is This Not For?
If you are not ready to invest in yourself, you don’t know who you want to serve, you don’t have an offer and you’re not coachable.
Book your free 30-minute Facebook Ads Breakthrough Call here.
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