5 common myths about paid ads (that hold creators back)

Happy Wednesday! Welcome back to Persuasive Alchemy.

I’m Jim Hamilton. My writing has contributed to $30,000,000+ in client sales across health, biz opp, and B2B.

I share actionable tips to help you get clients with content & copywriting.

Most people are confused about paid ads.

- Are they a waste of money?
- Should I be running them?
- How much do I need to spend?

And whether you decide to run ads or not…

Understanding the truth about paid ads and how they work is crucial to crafting a winning strategy for your creator business in 2024.

Knowledge is power.

So today, I’m revealing 5 common myths about paid ads that hold creators back.

Let’s dive in.

Reading time: 2 minute and 57 seconds

MYTH #1: Paid ads are a license to print money

Some people think paid ads are a surefire way to make money.

They’re not.

Putting an ad in front of someone doesn’t guarantee results.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re doing it on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or whatever ad platform is hottest at the moment.

I’ve lost thousands of dollars advertising everything from jewelry to supplements.

Usually, it’s because I was missing:

• The ability to reach my ideal customer on the platform

• Something they actually wanted to buy

• And compelling ads to promote it

If you don’t have all three, you won’t make money.

With that said, let’s discuss…

MYTH #2: Paid ads are a waste of money

Despite the risk, not all paid ads lose money.

Especially if you start with low-hanging fruit.

For example:

• Retargeting people who hit your landing page but don’t sign up. 

• Branded search ads for people Googling your name or your brand name.

Start by targeting warm traffic before you move to cold traffic.

This is a much safer way to experiment with paid ads.

Which brings us to…

MYTH #3: Any offer can work on cold traffic

Cracking cold traffic is the holy grail.

But getting attention from total strangers is hard.

Cold traffic is unforgiving.

It’s a totally different animal vs marketing to your warm audience, such as your social media followers or email subscribers.

It requires a much higher level of marketing skill.

And some offers just don’t work on cold traffic.

That’s because you need strong:

• Positioning

• Promises

• Creatives

• Pricing

• Copy

• Etc

Make sure you’ve validated your offer with warm traffic first before you go to cold traffic.

To learn more about how to write ads that convert, read this.

MYTH #4: You have to spend a lot

You don’t need a massive budget to get results with paid ads.

I’m currently running several lead gen campaigns on Meta at anywhere from $10-$50 per day.

These campaigns are consistently producing sub-$4 leads for me.

Another reason to start small:

Performance can vary widely depending on the day of the week.

And campaigns need time to optimize. 

So it’s totally fine to run at a lower spend, then ramp up once you’ve got a better idea of how the leading metrics like cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM), cost-per-click (CPC), clickthrough rate (CTR) are looking.

But make sure you don’t fall into the trap of thinking…

MYTH #5: Cheaper traffic is better

If you’re afraid of losing money on paid ads…

It’s easy to obsess over the cost-per-click (CPC) and ignore the cost-per action (CPA).

This is a big mistake.

That’s because ad platforms know which users are buyers. And they know to charge more for those clicks vs those who are less likely to convert.

So cheaper traffic isn’t always better.

I’m guessing you’d rather spend $10 a click to make $20 back over spending $1 a click to make $0.50 back?

I know I would.

Focus on return over cost.

Putting It All Together

5 common myths about paid ads:

1) Paid ads are a license to print money
2) Paid ads are a waste of money
3) Any offer can work on cold traffic
4) You have to spend a lot
5) Cheaper traffic is better

Don’t let these hold you back from winning with paid ads.

That’s it.

Thanks for reading!

See you next time.

Jim Hamilton

P.S:

I’m launching a paid community next week.

Inside, I’ll be helping a small group of ambitious creators build their client businesses with content & copywriting.

There will only be a few slots available.

So if you’d like a chance to grab one…

Then reply “COMMUNITY” to this email and I’ll add you to the wait list :)