Running Social Media Ads on a Budget That Grow Your Business

Everyone knows that running social media ads can be a game-changer for any online business. The possibilities are endless, but it’s more complicated than just hitting publish and watching the money roll in. (Wouldn’t that be nice?!)

As an online business owner, you may have wondered if running social media ads is worth the extra money or if you should play it safe and stick to organic marketing. My goal today isn’t to influence you one way or another but instead to offer some actionable advice that you can use to run social media ads on a budget that will grow your business and increase your sales. Let’s get into it. 

Content Overview

🔹 Is Your Business Ready for Ads?
🔹 Set the Budget
🔹 Operate in Strategy
🔹 Stop the Scroll
🔹 Analyze and Adjust
🔹 Steal My Ads Strategy

Is Your Business Ready for Ads?

This might be unpopular, but I don’t believe all businesses are ready to run social media ads. Why? Because a lot of psychology goes into running a social media ad, many online businesses don’t have a good enough handle on their ideal client avatar (ICA) to have the foundation for successful ad campaigns. 

You’re ready for social media ads if:

• You have developed your ideal client avatar(s), thoroughly understand their pain points and desires, and confirmed this information through market research and speaking with people who fit your ICA. 
• You have the business infrastructure to start leading the leads you would acquire from social media ads through some sort of funnel (this doesn’t have to be overcomplicated, just intentional). 
• You are prepared to invest in your marketing and see social media ads as an investment, NOT an expense. 
• You are prepared to take on more workload and have a plan to nurture these new leads until they’re ready to become paying customers. 

If you just read that list and got discouraged, please don’t! The great thing about these steps is that they are all things you can work toward. Trust me, you’ll thank me later for waiting until your business is ready for social media ads. I have several blogs about ICAs and funnels, and you’re welcome to check those out and return to this one when you’re ready. 

On the other hand, if you read that list and feel like you checked all the boxes, let’s talk more about how you can run social media ads on a budget. 

Set the Budget

Step one is setting your advertising budget. This can be daunting, especially if you lack confidence in running social media ads. While you can honestly start with any budget, a realistic daily budget that I typically recommend to my clients is around $10. 

Another formula I suggest for ad budgets is to allot 10% of your total profits from the prior year and divide that into a monthly and daily budget. 

Whatever your budget, creating a strategy for those ads to run on is essential to generating a return on investment. 

FREE RESOURCE: The $10/Day AD Strategy

Operate in Strategy

All ads are not created nor run equally. Setting clear objectives, knowing your audience, and choosing the right platforms to run these ads on are the first steps to a successful social media ads strategy. 

• Facebook: Great for a diverse audience; ideal for brand awareness and lead generation.
• Instagram: Visual platform perfect for brands with strong visual content; effective for lifestyle and fashion businesses.
• LinkedIn: Best for B2B marketing; useful for professional services and recruitment.
• TikTok: Exploding in popularity among younger demographics; excellent for creative and fun content.

As I mentioned initially, there’s more to social media ads than hitting publish and watching the money roll in. You’ll need a strategy to help you keep your ads on budget while still achieving results. 

I was talking to my top social media ads strategist, and we worked together to create a FREE $10 per day ad strategy guide and workbook that helps online business owners like you attract qualified leads and drive sales while staying on budget! 

Stop the Scroll

The currency of social media is no longer likes or views… but ATTENTION. The main objective of your advertisements is to stop your ideal client avatar from scrolling through their endless newsfeeds to learn about your product. 

This means your graphics must stand out from the page, represent your brand, and speak directly to your customers’ pain points and problems. 

Your copy should be targeted for your ideal client avatar so that they feel like your advertisement is speaking directly to them and that you understand their problem so well that you must know the solution they’re seeking. 

This sounds like a lot, but in that free strategy guide I was telling you about, we’ve included several examples of real ads we’ve run for our clients and broken down how to create a stand-out advertisement. 

Analyze and Adjust

Running social media advertisements as an online business is all a game of trial and error. While strategy and experience can help you avoid unnecessary mistakes, the fact is that there isn’t a single multi-million dollar business running ads on social media that isn’t evaluating their ads and adjusting them regularly to get a better return on investment. 

That means you should also analyze your results and adjust your ads based on your objectives and results. Sometimes, the magic touch is changing a headline or simplifying some wording—but you won’t know until you try. 

These are the metrics you’ll specifically want to keep an eye on:

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Indicates how effectively your ad prompts users to take action.
• Conversion Rate: Measure how many clicks lead to desired actions, such as purchases or sign-ups.
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Evaluate how much revenue your ads generate relative to their cost.

For my clients, I always suggest checking these weekly and adjusting accordingly. 

Steal My Ads Strategy

As you can see, a lot goes into running social media ads for an online business. However, you could probably do this all yourself and figure it out. 

But why spend the extra ads budget trying to learn for yourself when you can just steal my $10/Day Ads Strategy Guide and Workbook? 

Amplify your marketing and smash your sales targets with smart, simple, affordable ads- and learn how to do that for FREE!

FREE RESOURCE: The $10/Day AD Strategy Workbook

This 18-page guide includes:

• Expert tips and advice from my top social media ads strategists
• Simple templates and to-do lists to eliminate your guesswork
• Real-life examples of ads (from our clients) that have generated nearly $71,000 in sales
• Easy-to-follow exercises and action steps to take you from planning to publishing
• And more! 

Links for This Episode:

– The $10 Day/Day AD Strategy
– Marketing Office Hours
– Discover Your Digital Marketing Success Path
– How to Use Our Digital Marketing Team
– Schedule a free call with Jennie today

Get in touch with Jennie:
-Free Consultation: https://jennielyon.com/chatwithjennie
-Website: jennielyon.com
-Social Media: @jennielyonmarketing

Rate, review, and subscribe to Apple Podcasts. If you like what you hear on the podcast, please consider rating and reviewing my show! Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” I would love to hear what episodes you enjoy the most!

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the podcast. I’ll add new content weekly; you might miss out if you’re not subscribed. Subscribe now!