I have a small startup… basically a board game that I created. It's a unique idea and its got a catchy hook to it that sells. I have THE WORST ads. I don't really know much about what I'm doing in that realm and I'm willing to admit it.
Here's a quick breakdown of where I'm at:
- I use Facebook ads exclusively because its complicated and I don't have the energy to learn an equally complicated platform for google and then again tiktok etc.
- Facebook had flagged my "commerce" account because it had no items in it and that was apparently suspicious.
- Because the account was flagged I couldn't link my pixel to my Shopify account and therefor never had any data/metrics on what was or wasn't working.
- Facebook FINALLY fixed this after 2 years of harassing them off and on. (thank god).
- I'm now running ads for the business again and getting back into taking this seriously.
- I have some still pictures, a commercial I had made a long time ago, and one "influencer" board game reviewer video that I cropped.
- The ads are an absolute disaster. The commercial is great, the influencer video and still images are not great.
If I can run god-awful ads and still sell product I feel like better ad content would drastically improve my return on investment. My issues:
- I still barely understand what's going on with the ads. I tried doing AB tests but Facebook seems to randomly decide not to run one or more of the ads making it impossible to know if they are even effective.
- I wish I had a partner who knew how to sell product because this product sells. But since I don't I need help with the ads.
- I don't know where to go to get simple "organic" feeling video content of my product.
- I don't want/need a full on commercial grade production I just want quality organic ad content in the format and length requirements I need to run them on Facebook and Insta etc.
Where do you guys go when you have issues like this? I feel like going to a professional marketing agency is how you get fleeced, but I don't know where else to turn for help aside from forums like this.
I'm generating about $1,500 on $500 in ads and I know my ads suck. Where do you get help making better ads?
byu/Leigero inEntrepreneur
Posted by Leigero
4 Comments
3x your money is better then most people… but like other post said a marketing mentor or read alex hormozis books on ads …. the ab test function on facebook is wierd in my opinion its easier to just start diffeernt campaigns and test the ads that way and see which convert… the only problem with that is that it might show some of the ads to the same people
That’s a really good ROAS. Depending on the niche you’re in, you are likely outpacing others by 3x’ing your money like that.
Your best bet would be to do some a/b testing. Take your top performing ad and split into a few different groups. I personally would start with age groups, which facebook lets you do. Use the same high-performing ad and copy it like 5 times. Ad #1 targets 18-25 year olds, ad #2 targets 25-34, etc.. until ad 5 targets people 65+
Once you see which age group performs the best, you can put more money into that specific group which should raise your ROAS a little bit more.
Once you have the age group narrowed down, split that into 3 different ads and target by men/women/all.
You can do this with location as well. I won’t touch on this as I’m not sure if you’re local/nationwide/international. But this is the route my husband took with our pet supplies business. We learned that we get a much better ROAS by targeting women who are 25-34 years old who live in cities with populations greater than 100k but under 500k.
Tell me more about your company let’s talk maybe I can help you map this out and give you a strategy
You need that authentic excitement to come through.
The founders who nail it usually go one of two routes: they either find micro-influencers on TikTok/Instagram who already create board game content (search hashtags like #boardgamegeek or #tabletopgaming and DM creators directly – offer them free product plus a small fee), or they use platforms like Billo or Insense where creators make UGC-style videos for you.
For the Facebook ads confusion, I’d honestly just hire a freelancer from Upwork or Marketer Hire for a few hours to audit your setup and teach you the basics – way cheaper than an agency and they’ll show you exactly what buttons to push. The fact that you’re getting 3x return with bad ads means you’ve got something special. Fix the creative and you could be looking at 5-10x returns.
Also consider joining communities like GrowthMentor or Reforge where you can get direct mentorship on this stuff without the agency markup.