Side hustle starting Facebook ads agency for small business?

looking to diversify my career. anybody started a side hustle FB ads agency (contacting small business like dentists, chiropractors, lawyers, etc..and pitching them your service of coming up with FB ads and running them on the business behalf)?

How do you go about it? I've been researching Facebook ad strategy, and have a decent understanding on how to create ads and target audiences...but i'm not sure how to go about getting clients for this, and how to convince them to pay me to run Facebook ad campaigns on their behalf (this is basically what digital marketing agencies do). This would be the first time i've ever done this kind of work for somebody else...and its new territory, but everybody has to start somewhere, right?

What kind of businesses would be a good client for a new ad agency?

 
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Not sure what your long term goals are but...

It's not easy to be good but there is still a ton of easy money in the space managing ads for people who have no idea what it entails. IE increase attribution window wildly and then show them all the sales you're getting them. I would never do that, but I've had people try it on me. A "lazy" guy that's mediocre can probably pull $80,000 - $160,000 a year if you find the right clients.

FWIW, pay can get really good if you treat it like a real career. We pay our programmatic advertising head ~$300,000 - $350,000 USD a year. The reason good people get paid well in the industry is because good people know they can just run affiliate or their own business (to an extent) and get paid ~$100,000/$200,000 a year.

The real problem you run into with marketing specifically, especially digital, is that it changes dramatically every 8 - 12 months. Your strategic value vanishes VERY fast if you don't keep your tactical skill set polished. This is part of what makes hiring an excellent CMO-type really hard because when they're managing people all day they tend to lose the tactical touch and end up kind of useless.

 

this sounds interesting...could you go a little deeper?

"increase attribution window" to increase sales?

"The reason good people get paid well in the industry is because good people know they can just run affiliate or their own business (to an extent) and get paid ~$100,000/$200,000 a year."

100k/200k is less than 300k-350k...so i'm confused...

also...i suspect the process of getting small business clients is different from large corporate clients (tho i could be wrong...and would love to hear your thoughts).

just google it...you're welcome
 

Attribution modeling/attribution in general is how certain marketing channels are weighted and given credit for a sale.

For example, if a user joins WSO after an internet search via Google (organic SEO), then signs up for an account, posts for 2 weeks, clicks on an IG ad and buys some of the great educational material...which platform deserves credit?

Patrick and his team run a pretty complex operation from the attribution side because it's hard to really figure out how to attribute the sale and where to increase marketing budget/spend in that scenario.

A less-than-moral FB ad manager might "cheat" by increasing the attribution window FB so the platform and his work gets more credit than it should.

Regarding pay, I meant that the reason we have to pay $300,000+ for a GOOD CMO/programmatic advertising type despite our companies being relatively small is because they know they can work like...30 hours a week and make $200k a year fairly easily.

FWIW, small clients can be hard to really justify. There's very little money in it unless you're OK with literally ripping your clients off since their ad spend and ROAS will never justify your fee as a consultant.

 
faceslappingcompilation:
"The reason good people get paid well in the industry is because good people know they can just run affiliate or their own business (to an extent) and get paid ~$100,000/$200,000 a year.". 100k/200k is less than 300k-350k...so i'm confused...
I think what he means by that is good CMO types know that they can make 200k or so on their own, so in order to have one of them work for you, you have to pay them well...like 350k well.

EDIT: did not realize we posted at the exact same time. What are the odds of that happening. My post is officially irrelevant. Figured to leave it this way than to leave "deleted"

thots & prayers
 

I'm curious to why you're looking for other means of income? Honestly man, I'm getting bored with trading... buy, sell, come up with ideas, finding value, looking at numbers, heart racing... I'm just getting fed up it lol. You know youngsters dream of living that "billions" life and at no means am I living that lifestyle... not complaining about the hopeful lifestyle but the job overall is boring. No?

 

Considering the fact that half (if not more) of all FB profiles are fake, advertising on that platform is going to be a hard sell to anyone with more than 2 brain cells. Couple that with an increasing cynicism towards overt advertisement from the younger generation (roughly 35 and under) and you've got a hell of a challenge ahead of you.

The most successful online marketing strategies I have seen are endorsements by "influencers" who have 10's if not 100's of thousands of followers. This is the current model. Not stupid, spammy FB ads with long copy and cringe-worthy attempts at cleverness and humor.

 

You'd be surprised how well some of those stupid spammy videos convert. But I mostly agree with your sentiment.

I don't think we even mentioned the cost of original content creation. It'll eat into margins rrrreaaaal quick.

It's an influencer's world and we're all just living in it.

"Out the garage is how you end up in charge It's how you end up in penthouses, end up in cars, it's how you Start off a curb servin', end up a boss"
 

I would, instead of focusing strictly on Facebook, pitch yourself as a "social media marketer". Actually, my firm hired someone to do exactly that. They created both an instagram page as well as running Facebook ads. The key is to figure out demographic information and what would be applicable to the business. Say, for example, you are working with a bank or a law office, tailor your pitch directly for them. Depending on the type of law maybe say Facebook ads for divorce attorneys or criminal attorneys a combination of both. (based on age demographics) Since older people tend to stay on Facebook while the younger use mainly instagram. Figure out the age demographic of potential clients and pitch accordingly. Draw up some charts of potential outreach/views. Focus on a community approach and share things that are entertaining not strictly professional. Wish you the best, it can definitely be lucrative in terms of a side hustle.

 

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