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Facebook Ads Review

As a new small-business owner, it is a struggle to get off the ground. Every bit of promotion helps, no matter how small. Advertising myself is an essential obligation to promote myself and create awareness. So, with Facebook Ads, it's an obvious service to use. I have limited funds. There has been a long backlog of expenses building up before I started getting more income (thanks the the Coronavirus increase in JobSeeker allowance). So, I had one shot to spend about $100 on advertising. I won't have this opportunity again for a while yet I suspect (at least for 2+ months).

Response

I spent $105 on Facebook Ads, spread over a week. It's now over, so how did it go? Terribly. A pretty weak response.

  • I think just one new page like?
  • Only 5-10 or so promoted post likes (but thousands of views)
  • Dozens of likes on Instagram. This isn't very helpful as it isn't really made for advertising services. Also most likes were from kids and teenagers (not likely paying customers).
  • No one has reached out to me to start a conversation about my services

For $105, I'd expect some meaningful response. Like a new customer, a good number of page likes, etc. But nope.

What I need/want from Facebook Ads

  • Business page likes - keep people reminded of me (A lot of my friends have, thanks!) I need as many people in the loop as I can get
  • People to connect with me - start a conversation, even if it stalls for a while
  • More awareness beyond just the promoted ads - Can you get people to share my page a bit more? Encourage them to tell people about me.
  • Build better connections with other businesses - Like a central business connection network - how can we help each other, who makes the first move

Other thoughts

Maybe my ad picture wasn't good enough? It does use the Ubuntu colours and font, which is kind of unoriginal. Unique branding is difficult and expensive. As I'm working with extremely limited funds, paying for branding is out of the question.
Maybe I could add a photo of myself? Or my Android persona which I use on some business cards.
Maybe I could also improve my SEO. What can I do to reach out to more potential customers? How can I get people to recognise me and think of me more. Maybe more effective ads targeted at each of my services.

Maybe I'm offering too many services, which is confusing some people? But then if I scale back, I miss out on some job opportunities and helping people with my acquired skills.

What Next

Well, I'm not super enthusiastic to spend a lot more money on Facebook Ads. I'll have to ask some people what their experience is with it. Maybe I just need to spend a lot more? But of course I can't really afford it.

Little bits of ads spending here and there only seem to get post likes, and hardly ever lead to useful connections. What can Facebook do to help me here? I might need to do some research on strategies (that Facebook fail to inform me of, thanks Facebook).

For now, I am solely reliant on word of mouth and people sharing on social media. Fortunately, I have some good connections already. But what I need is a steady stream of work, to pay the bills. I'm just not quite getting that yet. So far, I haven't had much assistance in helping me spread my awareness. I'd greatly appreciate any tips on how to create more awareness and engage customers. Any assistance can be sent to: leofebey@gmail.com

Just a reminder, I'm working for myself as it's the only remaining way to financially support myself. Working full-time is out of the question for now. Also, part-time IT positions are extremely rare in Hobart. So, I pretty much have to make this work, otherwise I would not be working in my field of great experience, which would be extremely wasteful of my skills, and I'd be pretty unsatisfied in life.

On the bright side, I'm currently locked down into some jobs, I'll be working hard over the next few weeks/months on a particular project and some other bits and pieces. But, this project is very on and off - it's not a consistent source of income to support myself. I need a more reliable stream still. Saying that I'm too busy to clients is a good thing!

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