As with everything, the answer to “Should I run ads?” is “It depends”.
It all comes down to your current situation and what you’re trying to achieve.
For one, if you don’t have anything to sell yet, it wouldn’t make sense to run any ads. Sure, some people argue running ads can be beneficial to grow your list—which it is. But simply having a list filled with people without having anything to sell to them is a recipe for disaster—let alone the fact that you can’t possibly target your ad towards qualified buyers if you don’t even have anything to sell.
See, business has to be done in the right order.
First, you look at the market you want to sell to. Next, you discover the problems that plague that market. After you made a list of problems, it’s time to pick one or more (preferably one) and build a solution for that problem.
Then, and only then, can it be beneficial to run ads.
A specialized ad speaking to people in your market who struggle with your chosen problem AND want to solve said problem.
Notice how I explicitly mentioned people who want to solve that problem. There’s no point selling people something they don’t want. You won’t convince people that they have a problem. You can only make them aware of just how big a problem is if they’ve already experienced minor issues relating to that problem.
In this short amount of time I’ve already covered multiple mistakes many people make when it comes to running ads—major problems as well, the kind that could cost you thousands every single month if you’re not careful.
And this is sadly just the beginning.
I’ll dive deeper into the many, many mistakes people tend to make over and over again in my upcoming paid ads course for independent creatives.
More information about the course and its release coming soon.
In the meantime, reply back to me with any and all advertising-related questions you’d like me to cover in the course and I’ll make sure to include them as best as I can.