Ep. 149/ How to Optimize Meta Ads and Boost Business Success with Kwadwo Sampany-Kessie
SHOW NOTES:
Please leave a rating and review for the show!
++++++++++++++++++
Interested in buying ads for your business but don’t know the ins and outs? I had an inspiring conversation with Kwadwo, pronounced QUĀ.jo, an expert in Facebook and Instagram ads, and host of the Art of Online Business podcast. We talked about the world of Meta ads and discussed the perfect timing for businesses to bring on an ads manager versus handling it themselves. Kwadwo shared his journey from teaching in China to thriving in Mexico, illustrating a remarkable pivot in his career due to the pandemic. His insights into the nuances of ad management, and when it makes sense to invest in professional help, provided listeners with tangible takeaways to streamline their own business strategies.
What truly stood out was our discussion on the importance of crafting compelling ad content and making sure you get a good return on investment. Kwadwo emphasized the significance of effective messaging and how testing frameworks can dramatically lower lead costs. By sharing his Olympic gold medal testing framework, he illustrated a systematic approach to ad optimization, which has proven successful for many online entrepreneurs. Our conversation not only highlighted the potential of Facebook and Instagram ads but also encouraged listeners to place emphasis on the power of organic reach and engaging, authentic content as they scale their businesses.
In this episode you will learn:
Ad management mistakes & misconceptions - 7:40
How to optimize email lead conversion - 11:44
How to expand reach with Meta targeting - 15:16
How to test Ad’s using the Olympic Gold Medal Method - 21:22
LISTEN BELOW! And don’t forget to ‘follow’ and leave a rating & review!
Click below to Follow, Review & Give a 5-star rating to Mom’s Exit Interview Podcast.
Kwadwo – sounds like [QUĀY.jo] – is a Facebook ads strategist for established online course creators and coaches. But unlike most ads managers, in addition to bringing in quality leads, he specializes in fixing funnels and giving business strategy so his clients can work less, make more and enjoy the life they were meant to live.
Since January 2020 Kwadwo has resided in Mexico with his wife and two kids after an ill timed vacation ended his 12 years of living in China. He speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, decent Spanish and believes everyone should experience traveling abroad and engaging with other cultures.
You will learn:
Ad management mistakes & misconceptions - 7:40
How to optimize email lead conversion - 11:44
How to expand reach with Meta targeting - 15:16
How to test Ad’s using the Olympic Gold Medal Method - 21:22
Quotes from our guest:
"If you spend time in your zone of genius, those tasks, those responsibilities that only you can do as a business owner, then your business will grow faster." - 6:39
"Unfortunately, Meta Ad Manager is just a minefield of mistakes waiting to happen." - 9:19
“Well, I think they should listen to you [KIM], and once they have good organic content content, then they can just reverse engineer what is good about that content of the posts, of the reels that are performing really well.” - 17:13
"The Olympic gold medal testing framework... is what I do for every client, which is why I'm so confident it works, because my business depends on it to get quick results." - 21:09
"You were meant to serve the people who you serve with the gifts and talents and passion that you have, and you've gotten good at that." - 24:20
Get On Camera with Kim’s brand new 7-Day On-Camera Challenge
FREE DOWNLOAD: 10 Tips to Make Better Video In Less Time (To Grow Your Revenue) click here
Follow host Kim Rittberg on Instagram & Subscribe to Kim's YouTube Channel to Make Better Videos that Convert
KWADWO’S LINKS:
The Art of Online Business Podcast
Discounted $1 Ad Testing Cheat Code: Learn & implement the repeatable system that can Cut Your Facebook & Instagram Lead Gen Costs In HALF & start getting leads that convert! Normally $37. Only $1 for the Exit Interview audience using the coupon KIMR.
Kim (00:02):
If you've been wanting to learn about ads, specifically Facebook and Instagram ads, meta ads, Kwadwo is here to teach you all about it. Welcome to the Exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Do you work for yourself and want to supercharge your business while still having fun? Well, this is your go-to podcast, part MBA Part Cheer Squad. Every week I'll be joined by top business owners who share the secrets to their success. After I found myself working during childbirth true story, I quit my executive media job to bet on myself fighting the fear and imposter syndrome to eventually earn six awards, an in-demand speaking career and features in Fast Company and Business Insider. Now I'm here to celebrate all you rock stars betting on yourself, and I want to help you win. Tune in every Wednesday to hear from remarkable founders and don't miss our Solo Friday episodes, a treasure trove of video and podcasting mini masterclasses with me. Exit the Grind, enter success on your own terms. Don't forget to subscribe today and grab my free video tips at my website, kimrittberg.com.
(01:13):
Our guest is Kwadwo. He is the host of the Art of Online Business Podcast with 926 episodes and 5 million downloads. He's a meta ads manager and an online business strategist. He specializes in serving established online course creators with annual earnings ranging between 250 K to 1.2 million. What unlike most ads managers, Kwadwo doesn't just bring in quality leads with over three years of experience, he excels in optimizing funnels, providing marketing, sales, operations, and hiring guidance, all of which enable his clients to work less, earn more, and serve with the purpose they were meant for. Since January, 2020, Kwadwo has resided in Central Mexico with his wife and two kids after an ill time vacation right before the pandemic started. And in his 12 years of living in China, he speaks fluent Mandarin, Chinese, decent in Spanish, and firmly believes that everyone should experience international travel and engage with different cultures. I can't wait for you to hear his tips on how to run successful ad campaigns, mistakes people make, and how to make sure your copy is translating to sales and how to get the best return on an investment that you can get. Cujo, I am very excited to hear from you. I've been wanting to learn about ads so much for a while, so it was like the perfect timing when I got your email. Before we jump right into the ads, I need to hear about your exit from 12 years in China. Covid killed your business and now you're in Mexico. So just tell me briefly about that exit.
Kwadwo (02:30):
Imagine me teaching Chinese in China specifically to expatriates who live there and wanted to learn and because things are going well and my wife can speak Spanish, we decide, which seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, right, to go to Mexico and do a Spanish immersion program. And we flew on January 13th, 2020. So we land and I start Spanish school and two weeks later the of Covid starts coming out. People start looking at us sideways and avoiding us. Did you say you came from China? And we're like, yeah, but we've been out two weeks. And so it was still kind of happy times in Mexico, and then the orders came from the Mexican government to quarantine, but we were still happy because we could walk to the street corner, we could get tacos with guac and fresh squeezed juice. Well, that turned into three months of quarantine and then China out of nowhere, shuts down their borders with about a week notice for folks who want to fly back.
(03:31):
And we thought, why don't we wait it out? Well, that was a two year border shutdown, and so early on in 2020 or I guess July, 2020, we had to go ahead and make the decision to shut down my business, which was all about teaching Chinese. I couldn't pivot it. We couldn't return to China to renew our apartment lease. So imagine having to get on FaceTime with your friends on your cell phone and have them go through all the things in your apartment and pick and choose what you could keep. And so we were reunited with six luggages about a year and a half later. And now our kids who are six years old, my son and my daughter who's about to be nine, identify as Latino and no longer Chinese. They forgot all their Mandarin Chinese, but they do speak fluent Spanish and we're still here in Mexico enjoying life. But it was a lot of tears, a lot of discovering a new identity. Obviously there was a huge business pivot in there since I no longer teach Chinese, a lot of praying. And here we are.
Kim (04:40):
Here we are. And so you are working on teaching people how to leverage ads for their business. So I want to jump into that. You host the Art of Online Business podcast and you're a meta ads manager and online business strategist. I come from the content side, so I really encourage people to come up with really great organic content and really push and engage and try to get a lot of visibility. But I do think the reality is sometimes you have to buy ads. So I guess my question is when do you bring on a manager versus do it yourself? I understand all this stuff, but I'm like, Ugh, do I have to get in a spreadsheet? It feels like it's a lot. I understand it, but it's not my zone of genius and I think it takes me away from what I'm actually really good at. So when does it make sense?
Kwadwo (05:19):
Perfect. I love how you said you think it takes you away from what you're actually good at. And so this is the journey that we both have traveled and the listener, you're probably traveling it too, where you start out, when I said from zero, I just meant we all start with a business that might not have any sales and we build it until it does, but we wear all the hats and we're trading our time for the money. There comes a point when, because our business is growing profitably, it doesn't make sense for us to spend time outside of our zone of genius or let's speak specifically to certain tasks. There are certain tasks, right, Kim, that you and I can do in our business that one else can do. We can't outsource those and they tend to be high ROI return on investment tasks or responsibilities, maybe like developing strategic partnerships, tweaking our funnel, coming up with an offer, planning out a webinar and practicing it.
(06:14):
These things that we can't really outsource. And so usually for clients that I've worked with the revenue point or the revenue, let's say goal or the period where you can hire out ads management somewhere around like $125,000 a year in gross revenue, maybe as high as $150,000. But the point here is that the business is growing and you realize that if you spend time in your zone of genius, those tasks, those responsibilities that only you can do as a business owner, then your business will grow faster. And that's when you can hand off ads management to an ads manager because of course there's profit to cover ads, management fees, and then you're spending time in the right place in your business and your growth will accelerate.
Kim (07:01):
What are the biggest mistakes people find when they're running their own ads? Actually, I have two questions, but I'm going to hold my next question. Okay, wait, Joe, I'm going to hold my next question. The first question, what are the biggest mistakes people make with their ads?
Kwadwo (07:14):
Or now, can I ask you to tell me the second question and maybe that can help me give a better first response, see where we're going here?
Kim (07:20):
So I hear sometimes and more specifically with YouTube, but I hear sometimes that when you start buying ads that it actually ends up hurting your organic reach. And I don't know, maybe that's a myth, but what is the relationship between buying ads and organic reach and is that different on different platforms?
Kwadwo (07:40):
So I actually do not have any evidence that when you start paying for ads, your organic reach goes down. And since I'm a Facebook and Instagram ad specialist, I can't speak to the YouTube world, but that's been my experience being in different ads manager Facebook groups and having worked with a myriad of clients since 2019. That being said, some of the biggest mistakes are going into ad manager, having taken a course that teaches you how to set up your ad, but then we don't know the science of managing ads. If the ads is performing well, what do we do if the ads are not performing well? What metrics do we look at to decide that they're not performing well? And then what do we do? How do we respond accordingly? Like course correcting another big mistake I've seen making ad changes too quickly. A lot of courses out there, they don't teach you.
(08:43):
I call this a dance, right? I live in Mexico, so I think of Latin dance like ADA or Salsa partner dances and plenty of courses don't teach you how to do the dance. You might learn to set up your ad, but you don't know how long you should let your ads run before you start making tweaks. And then with each change that you make to your ad, how long do you just wait because you changing your ads, you're one dance partner, but the algorithm, the meta algorithm is your dance partner and you want to make sure just like you would in real life to let your dance partner shine. I see that mistake often. Also, unfortunately, meta ad Manager is just a minefield of mistakes waiting to happen, and they make suggestions like, oh, you could expand the age range of people that you're targeting, or, oh, we recommend you use this kind of, there's something called Advantage plus Creative, which modifies the way your ad looks to each individual person that you show it to, and Meta will make these recommendations, but I've seen one-on-one coaching clients accept the recommendation, then their ad performance goes south and they're like, Quaia, what happened?
(09:55):
I'm like, did you happen to see a meta recommendation and take it? And they're like, yeah. And so these are some of the mistakes. There's more, but I'll stop there. You might have some further questions.
Kim (10:06):
Well, it's great. No, I actually think I've been thinking about ads specifically recently, so I'm like, I'm going to ask you questions specifically that I've been thinking about. Okay. So many, many coaches like me use as you mentioned before, a free lead magnet. So I have a new quiz which says, what should you make? What social media content should you make come take this free quiz? Is something like that, the right thing to buy ads on Facebook and Instagram against
Kwadwo (10:31):
Quizzes still work right now, so that would be a great thing to run ads with. But I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. Okay. Since you want to know about ads, my first question, Kim, is can you describe the funnel to me that's attached to the back of that quiz?
Kim (10:47):
Yes.
Kwadwo (10:47):
What's the journey and what is the offer that's being offered down the funnel?
Kim (10:51):
So the quiz is a short quiz. I believe it's five questions, maybe six. And it analyzes what type of social media user are you? And then it recommends custom what you should make. So there's three types of people. You get bucketed into who you are, and then it serves you into a newsletter segment, and then there is a sequence of emails, and then eventually you'll end up getting my newsletter. There's obviously always an optout, all of that, but that is the process of that quiz.
Kwadwo (11:18):
At what point during the email nurture sequence does a new lead have an option to work with you? With you?
Kim (11:25):
There are several points at which I am already serving them up. Hey, if you are shy, here's a free this you can do with me. If you are here is a paid low ticket offer, you can do with me and the next email, Hey, want more? Here's how to hop on a call. So there's different places at which you can actually just connect with me.
Kwadwo (11:44):
Okay, cool. Because I would always recommend, and it sounds like you already have it set up wonderfully well, there's multiple ways to work with you. And if you were to look into your stats, you could probably say over the past three months, you've had X number of organic leads come into your email list. And of those leads, another number, we'll call it y, have exchanged money with you. And so where I'm getting at is how we started this conversation. We want to try to establish a value of a lead that comes onto your email list. And from there, yeah, you turn on ads, we do the due diligence to lower lead costs and make sure that we're bringing in the highest quality lead at the lowest cost possible, and that lead cost is here and how much those leads are worth to you is up here. And we kind of play in that profit gap, if you will.
Kim (12:37):
So in your mind, so quizzes, free downloads, all of those things are good things to run ads. And you're talking about specifically Facebook and Instagram Meta. You're not talking about YouTube, you're not talking about Google. So talk to me about the benefit of leaning into meta buying ads for Facebook and Instagram versus Google versus YouTube. Let's take for example, my quiz, right? I basically, I think I am similar to a lot of people. I have a quiz as my new one, but I generally before been using a lead magnet, five tricks to make better video, grab my free download. So talk to me about Facebook or Instagram ads versus Google ads versus YouTube ads.
Kwadwo (13:16):
Okay? Disclaimer, I'm not an expert when it comes to YouTube or Google ads at all. In fact, I've never run YouTube or Google Ads. However, the difference between Facebook and Instagram ads, meta ads if you will, and Google ads is Google. There's something nice about that because you can run ads against a keyword search phrase, if you will. So somebody could look for how do I make an Instagram video or how do I make a good video? And then your ad could show up to them. And so there's a bit of, let's say intent there. They're looking for a solution and your ad shows up with a solution that could be your lead magnet tracking with me so far.
Kim (13:59):
Yep.
Kwadwo (14:00):
All right. So YouTube can be the same. I mean, YouTube is owned by Google, so you can do search based ads on YouTube too, but then you can also go and put ads on certain channels with certain themes, understanding that your person who is interested in producing content might go to, I don't know, the Think media channel about growing YouTube. I just picked out a random name and then they would see your ad before the video. Now, meta is a bit different with meta, what I like, what I really like for clients and what we start with is targeting based on a custom group of people that's worth a certain amount. Your email list is full of people who have already opted in and chosen to get on your newsletter. So then when we upload kind of list to Meta and say, Hey, these are my email list, can you look at all their attributes? Did you know that meta tracks like 52,000, 52,000 data points on every user? Wow, a lot. And so when we say, Hey, this is my email list,
Kim (15:06):
Wait, why would we be putting in if email, I own my email list, right? Facebook, meta Instagram, they don't own my email list. Why would I be uploading my email list into meta?
Kwadwo (15:16):
Because your email list might be a thousand people strong, but if you want to find, say, 2 million people who share a lot of the similar attributes to folks who are already on your email list, and thus those 2 million folks are likely to have the same issues and want to opt in, then that's the name of the game. That's why you would upload your email list to Meta. When you upload to Meta, they don't actually keep the email list. All they're doing is looking at the name and the email of everyone on that list and matching it to user accounts that are already existing on Meta. And then they look at those user accounts and say, we have this truckload of data. Let's go ahead and build this big old audience then for people like you who are similar to your email list folks, and then you can target.
(16:04):
That's what I like about meta ads, and it's worked since I started. I didn't share here, but my exit from teaching Chinese in China before I started managing Facebook and Instagram ads included a three-year pit stop where one of my jobs at the time surviving the pandemic was coaching inside of a high level group coaching program for online course creators. We're talking like 300,000 in gross annual revenue on the low end and anywhere between 1.5, 1.7 million of gross revenue on the high end. And what I learned from all those amazing folks were that they ran ads and they knew their data, but I also got to look at their funnels too and learn tons. And so from that experience, I can confidently say, yeah, ads worked then they're still working now. And that's why I like meta ads.
Kim (16:59):
Okay, great. And then talk to me about what should people know about successful messaging in your ads? It doesn't matter how much money you put behind something, if your ad copy, if your video content isn't good, talk to me about what people should consider in their ad.
Kwadwo (17:13):
Well, I think they should listen to you, and once they have good organic content content, then they can just reverse engineer what is good about that content of the posts, of the reels that are performing really well. Are there common traits? Is there common messaging? Is it a shorter or longer caption? What pain points were those reels speaking to? Because that kind of messaging research shows you what's working or gives you a hint of what's working, and it translates to a good performing ad, which again is why I would say that you want to make sure you have an offer that's selling because an offer that's selling is one that has good messaging. What you can do to improve your messaging is specifically look at the, let's say we're running a lead magnet. What's your lead magnet called? The quiz name?
Kim (18:02):
I should check like what is it called? It's, hold on, let me, I'm literally looking it up because it's brand new. What should you make for social media?
Kwadwo (18:10):
So what should you make for social media?
Kim (18:13):
Your social media and video content? Problem solved is the subhead.
Kwadwo (18:16):
Okay. And what is the biggest pain point that that quiz solves that is also linked to the pain point that your program solves?
Kim (18:26):
Two biggest problems for my people is one, they don't feel confident on camera or usually it's an and or they don't know what to make.
Kwadwo (18:34):
Okay, so lack of camera confidence and then not knowing what to make. And so listener, what I'm doing is walking Kim through the same steps that you want to go through yourself, which is of the two biggest pain points that your free lead magnet might solve that are also connected to what your paid offer solves. That way we're bringing people in with those pain points, and then the offer solves that too. We want to now speak to the frustrations in our ad copy that stem from those two problems. So can you give me three frustrations that stem from lack of camera confidence?
Kim (19:09):
So the frustrations when you mean leading up to it, so people feel frustrated that they don't feel good on camera, and that blocks them from actually making videos. And the frustrations are they don't like their voice or they think they look weird on camera. So that's kind of a struggle. That's a struggle that they have.
Kwadwo (19:25):
And I would add maybe one very real frustration is if I don't have the camera confidence, then when I do actually make my video content on Instagram, it doesn't perform well or you don't even post it or I don't post it. Or when I do post it, and let's say I hook up mini chat to it, I don't get many leads because people can detect that I am just awkward and uncomfortable. Alright, so then the name of the ad copy game is we make ad copy, but the hook of the ad copy speaks to, we have different versions that speak to different frustrations because here's what I've learned, not every frustration is created equal. And if you test different hooks that speak to different frustrations, you will find that some of those hooks attract more leads than others, and that's reflected in your cost per lead.
Kim (20:20):
And talk to me about hooks because I think that there's two questions that I have. So when I teach video, there's the hook, the visual hook in the video, but there's also the hook in the text caption. Are you talking about the hook on the video or the hook in the text caption?
Kwadwo (20:33):
I'm talking about the hook in the text caption, the top two lines of your ad copy, if you will.
Kim (20:39):
Yep.
Kwadwo (20:39):
Yeah, and so testing those, we always start out with three different hooks or three different versions of ad copy. We run those with one piece of visual creative, and then we just wait a handful of days and the data will show us which one is performing the best, and then we take that best performing ad copy and start to pair it with different visuals, and that's how we just systematically go about testing individual components to find the ads that work the best.
Kim (21:09):
Great. And talk to me about, you have Olympic gold medal testing framework. Talk to me about how it works. Break it down for me step by step so listeners can apply it to lower their lead costs.
Kwadwo (21:22):
Okay, this is a good one. It's just what I started talking to you about, but I'll go in further detail and the concept is, if you can remember back last year, I think the Olympics were in Paris, and I'm specifically thinking about the men's 100 meter sprint, which determines the fastest man in the world and it's super exciting, but there's this expectation there that the finalists are indeed the fastest runners, and we have that expectation because in the Olympics you have the qualifying heats and the fastest folks progress to the next round, and eventually you have the semifinals and then the finals. And so this testing framework, which is what I do for every client, which is why I'm so confident it works because my business depends on it to get quick results, is put your ads through the same type of, let's say competition that Olympians go through.
(22:17):
And all that means is what are the components of an ad that I can test? They are the written part, the text, the ad copy, they are the different visuals. This could be graphics or video, and then they're the headline. And the headline doesn't mean the top of the copy. It means the bold text that shows up below an ad just to the left of that blue call to action button. And then of course, there's the audiences we can target. And so I just start out with three different pieces of ad copy and I put those with the same visual test those for a number of days, and then the best ad copy is chosen. Next step, add in some new visuals with that ad copy, run those for another handful of days, and now I have the best ad copy plus one or two winning visuals.
(23:06):
Then I go and I pair up some headlines until I have the best ad copy, the best visuals combined with the best headlines, and then I can choose to do some different audience targeting if I want, and I say if, because quite frequently just going through, I'm thinking of a quote here, it's a Thomas Edison quote, and it goes like this. We miss out on opportunity because it's dressed up in overalls and it looks like work. And just by putting in the work of testing rigorously through ad copy visuals and headlines, you usually can, at least my students who take this mini course can cut your lead costs up to 60%. As in, I've seen students cut their lead costs by up to 60% on the low end. Usually people can cut their lead costs by 25%, but that is a great return on your time and investment for what is just what, two weeks of testing, and that's the Olympic Gold medal testing framework.
Kim (24:08):
I love that. The Olympic gold medal. I want to be the Olympic gold medal video making. I'm going to test that. Awesome. This has been so great. Is there anything I didn't ask you that you'd like to share with our audience that you think that they should know?
Kwadwo (24:20):
You asked everything. I would just encourage you who's listening right now. You were meant to serve the people who you serve with the gifts and talents and passion that you have, and you've gotten good at that, so look at how well your offer is selling, because if you're making profit, ads is the next step, you can continue to make good organic content and you will get more reach. But yeah, it's like I said earlier in this podcast, the folks that are playing at the million dollar revenue level, $600,000 in revenue, they're very deliberate about putting ads fuel on that organically burning course fire, if you will, or offer fire. As in if your offer is doing quite well and you want to serve more people, they're waiting for you,
Kim (25:09):
Get
Kwadwo (25:09):
This ads thing and go for it.
Kim (25:13):
I love the idea though. I think it is one of those things you just have to believe investing in your business. You have to say, I have this thing. If more people knew about it, they would get it. Whether you're looking to sell your course or bring more people into your newsletter via a lead magnet or a quiz, but you're right. I mean, I think it aligns with all the other things like when you need to be investing in your business, that is how it goes, and you have to be doing it. Alright, this is so great. How can people connect with you? What are the best ways for them to connect with you and follow you?
Kwadwo (25:40):
Well, I'm the host of the Art of Online Business podcast, so especially if you're like a course creator and you're interested in scaling up from mid four figure months to high six figure years, then every week I'm sharing tips and tricks and strategies, and of course, Facebook ads, tips and goodness to help you do that. Another specific way is the Olympic Gold Medal testing framework. That's inside of a mini course that I have called the Ad Testing Cheat code, and it's normally $37 for you because you follow Kim online and you listen to her podcast. It's $1 with the coupon, and I'm guessing you have that link and it'll be linked up somewhere.
Kim (26:23):
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining me.
Kwadwo (26:25):
Thank you. It's been an honor.
Kim (26:30):
Thank you for joining us. Don't forget to exit the grind and enter success on your own terms. This is the exit interview with Kim Rittberg. Don't forget to grab my free download, how to Grow Your Business with Amazing video at kimrittberg.com and linked out in the show notes. I'd love to hear your feedback. Make sure to submit to me what you learned from the show and how you are crushing it on your own terms. Connect with me on Instagram or LinkedIn at Kim Rittberg, R-I-T-T-B-E-R-G. And this show is edited by Jillian Grover and produced by Henry Street Media. I'm your host and executive producer Kim Rittberg.