Ep 21 -Facebook Ads Novice to Ninja with Ashleigh Bezzina

Have you tried Facebook Ads and got either overwhelmed, or not got the results you wanted? Today's Podcast guest Ashleigh Bezzina from Ignition Performance Academy was having those exact same issues.

On today's Podcast, Ashleigh lets us know how she learnt how to master Facebook Ads, starting from spending a couple of hundred dollars on a messages campaign to 'learn the ropes'. And how after a few of those campaigns she had the confidence to invest big $$$ in a campaign...and get AMAZING results!

www.danceprincipalsunited.com/21

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Show Transcription: 

Well, hi, friends happy Monday! Bec and I were just having a boogie to our music at the beginning. It's all happening for us. Hey, Bec, how are you? I'm absolutely amazing. And so excited to be here. Yeah, how are you going? cannot complain back in the studio back for term two. So many new inquiries and lots of trials coming through, which is so so good. It's good to be back into normal life, but back into craziest Eisteddfod season and all of that coming up as well. Yeah, I think everyone's feeling the same. I've been talking to a lot of studio owners and they're like, it's just so nice to actually be back. Most definitely, and not feel like oh my gosh, this is gonna happen again. What's gonna happen? I feel like we've all just gone. Yeah, it's alright. This is our life. Now. It's okay. But we're not here to talk about the dreaded C word. We are going to talk about benefit driven marketing today, and how to make sure that your socials betray benefit driven marketing. Yeah, totally. And so I wanted to ask you, all you guys all a question today, who are you actually marketing to? Because I, I say this a lot of the time when Amanda and I talk, are you marketing to your peers? Or are you actually marketing to your ideal client, because a lot of us like to market things to the people that we know, like other teachers or studio owners, when we really should be marketing to parents? For sure. I think it's such a common thing. And I think sometimes, you know, taking a look pulling out your phone, opening your Instagram, and looking at it and going, are you marketing to your peers? Or perhaps you by meeting that as well? Like, what do you like to see? Or are you marketing to the parents who are going to be putting their children into your classes? I think it's such a big thing. So what do you often see when you see people that are marketing to their peers? What kind of stuff do you see on their socials and stuff back? Yeah, well, I used to do this myself, so I totally get work. Yeah. So you know, they'll not let

Nathan Barr
Well, hello, podcast. I hope everybody is having an amazing Monday. If you can't tell it's not back or Amanda. It's Nathan today, and I am joined on today's podcast by the amazing Ashley Bezzina. From Ignition PA in Condell. Park, how are you?

Ashleigh Bezzina
I'm good. Thanks. How are you?

Nathan Barr
Fantastic. Well, we had look, it was a little bit of a rough night, we had a youngest with an asthma episode during the night. But we're all settled down now. And excited to jump on this podcast with you. What we are talking about today is Facebook ads, obviously one of my favorite topics. But generally, we're looking at the fact that we know or I know especially talking to so many density owners that Facebook ads can be scary. And it can be a lot to navigate that ads manager and to jump in and start spending money. And then even once you're spending money to start spending big money on it, because we know that we need to invest money in advertising to get results. But the whole process of Facebook ads can be a little bit overwhelming. But that's why I've asked ash on today to go through her Facebook ads journey over the last 12 months. But before we get into that, we'd love you to tell us a little bit about yourself and your studio ash.

Ashleigh Bezzina
Awesome. So as Nathan mentioned, I own ignition Performance Academy in Condor Park. I've had the studio, this is our fourth year now. So we're still in baby years. And I actually started the studio when I was 19. So we have quite a few different streams in our studio, we have a highly competitive stream. But you know, our main streams that are studio, we have a lot of preschoolers, that makes up for about a third of our studio, and a lot of recreational. So although we do have the highly competitive stream that really does make up a small amount of our studio.

Nathan Barr
Yeah, amazing, amazing. And like I said, the reason that I got ash on is because she has been a member of the tribe for about 10 months now and is an absolute star student, in terms of she turns up to all the trainings, she takes everything on board, and she gets in and she executes. And she's always trying to upskill herself, which is super important. We know as a business owner, we know that you know, as as dancers, and the dance studio owners that are still teaching, it's important and lots of people upskill themselves in that area for their teaching and choreography. But it's just as important to make sure the upskilling yourself in all areas of business as well, because they're entirely different skill sets. So with the because we're focusing on the Facebook and Instagram ads today, I just wanted you to maybe give us a bit of background ash on your Facebook and Instagram, your social media advertising, basically before you joined the tribe.

Ashleigh Bezzina
Yeah. So it was now I look back, it was pretty poor in that I didn't know anything about ads manager, I had no idea what that was. Basically, I would just upload posts to Facebook or Instagram, and then I'll just boost them. So I'd only spend probably $100 on the ads. And I think I remember mentioning to you, Nathan. You know, right before I joined the tribe, I was like they're very hit and miss. But really never really amounted to many enrollments. As I said, it was quite random. Sometimes I'd do something booster posts and it would get no, no, you know, messages or no enrollments out of it. And then other times, I would probably get maybe one or two, but no real results. But that's because I didn't really know what I was doing. I just thought boosting posts is what everyone did. I had no sort of audiences or anything like that, I don't think.

Nathan Barr
Yeah, absolutely. And look, it is. It's one of my massive pet peeves with Facebook ads in general is that the Boost Post Button takes you to a section in the Facebook manager called ads. And then there's a separate section called ads manager. And they sound like the same thing, right? But they couldn't be more different. In terms of that Boost Post that takes you to the ads in inverted commas is for that sort of Facebook doesn't reward you for it. And they almost penalize you. I was on a at an online conference ad world online, which has been fantastic over the last couple of days. And one of the big speakers there who's a Facebook ads guru was talking about that the Boost Post Facebook sees is a little bit of a sucker in a way. But look at the end of the day full of small local businesses even if you hit that Boost Post. It's better than doing that. I think, and you're still getting your message out there a little bit. But like you said, using that ads manager is so much more powerful. And, and so much you can track your results, like we'll talk about a bit later. But it's just so much more powerful and leads to so much better results. But with your, like we talked keep talking about it is, it can be a little bit scary, but you started out small with your advertising and you didn't like go straight into spending, you know, 1500 $2,000, um, you started out small while you were learning while you were upskilling yourself and started with where I always get our tribe members and private clients to start just with some basic messages campaigns. So how did you find I guess, that first time you dived into the ads manager side of it, and setting up that first messages campaign? How did you find going about that?

Ashleigh Bezzina
Yeah. So I learnt properly about the the audiences and setting up the campaign through the tribe. So some of the cause I had joined the tribe, I think a bit later. So I watched back the replays, which was awesome. So basically, Nathan kind of walked us through how to set up a Facebook ad. So basically, I was watching the video, pausing and then replicating it on my own. And then once I did it once, I found it very easy. And I actually found it quite fast, not as a not a process that took me hours a whole day to do. So, you know, once I got the hang of it that first time, I was able to then replicate it quite easily. I make some tweaks and changes, but the messages are a good place to start. And you can really see the results because you depends on how much you spend. But you do get quite a few messages. But the I think the key to that is that if you are using your messages, messages ad, make sure you're around to respond to the messages. Yeah,

Nathan Barr
absolutely. All have that process in place, that you know how you're going to take them from that message to getting them booked in for that trial class, which is super duper important. Because you know, we have talked to people before that go to all the effort and spend all the money of getting that messages campaign set up. And they get a whole bunch of messages. But then they don't reply properly. And so they don't get any any of the conversions into enrollments, which is what, which is what it's all about. Do you remember how much on that first campaign when you're dipping your toe in the water? Do you remember sort of like how much you spent? Or how that how that campaign went? Yeah.

Ashleigh Bezzina
So I have a few that I think I did at the start. I did do a message as one. But I remember talking about another one that I did, which was a campaign for my mommy and me classes. I believe that was I let it I took them to a lead page. And that was crazy, because I spent $10 a day on that. And I think I had about 11 people come to the trial. So we were I remember us talking about and going whoa, that was insane in terms of how many people came to the trial from the little money that I spent. But yeah, from from memory from the messages, one, the messages were flowing through. I don't exactly remember how many of them turned to enrollments. But it was definitely a lot more than what I was doing boosting a post. So doing it in ads manager as opposed to boosting a post is so much better, even if you are spending that same amount, because I used to spend $100, probably on the Boost Post. And I still, in the early days of doing the Facebook ads through ad manager. I was spending roughly that $10 A day I'll probably spend no more than $100. So yeah, I did start in baby steps at the start. And I think it was to actually you to get proof that you're actually getting results. Yes. So when I was like, Okay, this is working, and I'm only spending a little amount it was then how much can I get when I spend a lot?

Nathan Barr
Exactly. And that's what it's all about. Like he said, just growing and testing. Everything about Facebook ads is about testing. And and just seeing how you go because that's what I say anybody that sort of comes to you saying, I know exactly how your Facebook ads are gonna work is probably full of it basically. Because even we see like what works for me in my location in Shellharbour. And the messaging and the ad copy and the images might not work for you in your area and vice versa. And so it's just about like we have general ideas of what works but we just got to make sure that we test things as we go like you said, and you don't have to throw 1000s of dollars behind these things to start you can just be throwing like $10 a day is a great place to start. And we always talk about in the tribe, you know how much for those of us that are old enough how much we used to spend on newspaper advertising. So being only sort of four years old, we your studio as you probably haven't taken How many newspaper heads but like we found when man does mom yeah, when when your parents always throw give you a bunch of stuff that they've been keeping in the back of a cupboard. We found like stuff from when manda first opened the studio, back in 2001. And back in 2001, we found like a advertising proof for the local newspaper. And it was a $1,500. AD, way back then. And we, we've had it so good for so long with like free organic Facebook reach and marketing that we've forgotten how much we used to spend, for things that we had no idea how to track, we had no idea how much that $1,500 in the newspaper ad translated or is very difficult to record how that translated to actual enrollments in our studio. And that's one of the amazing things when you use the ads manager properly, we can see exactly how many people are converting into paying clients, and we can track it really easily. And really well. Just before just a little interjection, I just want to go to in between, because we'll get back to the Facebook ads. But as that, as you've mentioned that you're a high level competitive studio, with amazing routines and results all around the place. How do you balance your social media posts and the ads between showcasing that elite high level student and marketing to your new rec and preschool students?

Ashleigh Bezzina
Yeah. So you know, basically, at this time of the year, but I think, in general as well, the people, if you're having, if you're wanting to market to that elite level, you're probably not going to market that through our Facebook ad, because they're going to find like we've if we've had people move over from another studio, they've found us on Instagram, or they've seen us at a calm. So in terms of Facebook ads, I don't mark it towards that genre, or that that audience, I guess, at all. So basically, what I do is, and we've spoken about it in tribe is the happy smiley photo. So basically what we did at the end of last year, we got a photographer to come in and take some really candid shots. We planned it all out beforehand. But we even had our preschoolers come in, we ran a class and we got some really awesome shots. And it showed what a class looks like, it wasn't very posed, we did get some pictures of our competitive kids doing, you know, the tricks and things like that, but they're not what goes on our Facebook ads. We just show you know, fun, friendship, that type of thing. So I think that's helped a lot getting those photos and having them in my little photo bank now that I can just pull up and use for the Facebook ads. And you know, the last campaign I did, which will I think we're speaking about later anyway, we I took 10 of those images, and then just whatever ones got more airtime. Were the ones that got more airtime and got more results, I guess. But in terms of just normal post, I do plan them out beforehand. So that it doesn't show just calm, calm, calm. And that's and that's hard, because we do get very good pictures and footage of the course. So I do plan that plan it out and in advance. And then also having those photos there of the recreational classes. So then if I'm like, Oh, I don't see a lot preschoolers, I don't see a lot of Preschools on my posts. I've got those photos there. But also by planning in advance. I can say to that teacher, hey, could you get a nice group shot of your team class? Because I want to make sure their district distributed evenly. Especially with we're very bottom heavy with meaning that we have a lot of little ones. So you know, even though we have like our team classes, that's while I don't get many photos of them. So I will ask the teacher saying hey, can you get a photo of them? So then I can put it into my schedule? And even like, that's the thing when I have a comp coming up, I'll know okay, well, I'll probably post results from that comp. So that will go there. So I plan it all out. But also having that photo bank helps a lot because when we do you know we have bands. So basically when the the footage we're getting in class is class videos, so we don't really get many photos. Exactly. So that's why having that schedule and having that photo bank so if I don't have any photos, I do have the photos from our photo shoot, which are very candid and very happy and smiley, Yeah, amazing.

Nathan Barr
Because it is important to we know we want to showcase our high level product and you want to be showing those kids and they want to feel the love as well. But those those like you said those the images and videos you get of those high level kids aren't often what translates to bringing new students in, I think, I think Becca, Amanda talked about that on last week's podcast a bit as well. But that's super interesting. Lee said, it's always hard to find that balance. So it was really interesting.

Ashleigh Bezzina
I think that, um, it's also the rec student, like the rec parents also want to see that we do have quality training, if that makes sense at all, though, that they don't want to be that type of parent, that's a competitive parent. They're very supportive of our competitive kids. And go Oh, like, you know, we had an inquiry today. And they're asking about, you know, what kind of studio facilities we have? Are our teachers qualified and things like that. So you know, it's very nice guy, have a look at our Instagram, you know, have a look at our website, because then they can see that you know what, even though my kid is not a competitive dancer, they are getting the quality training. So he's having that balance, I think.

Nathan Barr
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All right. So back to some ads. We wanted to talk about the recent campaign that you've literally just finished running. Because when you shared the results, I was like, holy moly, I think this is something we need to talk about on the podcast. So we talked about, you've upskilled yourself, and you've invested the time in learning those skills, going back and watching those tried videos that are in the portal. And because of that you're comfortable enough to go the next level and run your Openweight campaign, which you moved on, you know, like we said, messages campaign is where I recommend everybody starts, you've mastered that. So you moved on to the next level, which is running ads to a landing page to a little website where you capture people's information. And you want them to register for your open week. So tell us a little bit about open week and what the setup was.

Ashleigh Bezzina
Yeah. So yeah, so we did a traffic campaign. So we sent it to a lead page. And look, to be honest, the the one of the main motivators for that as well was during the school holidays, I actually went on holiday, so I knew I wasn't in a position to answer them, the messages, and things like that. So that's why I did a traffic campaign. But I also found it highly successful. I guess, on the last two weeks of term, I set it up. So I set up the Facebook ads, I set up a landing page, which the landing page was is very simple, just had, I made a few photos in Canva, a few graphics. And we put a job form in there. So basically just had, you know, join us to open week the job form and then just the, the timetables of our classes. I think another thing which was good, we do Ready Set dance. And instead of calling it Ready Set dance, we did jazz Hip Hop tap combo, because I remember Amanda saying to me, well, people might not know what Ready Set dance is, they're going to be confused. So that helped as well. So we just made it very simple in the timetables. So basically, from the ad, they just clicked the link, and it took them to this page where they could fill out a very simple form, which literally just had the student's name, the parents name, the year that they were in the classes and the mobile number and email. So yeah, so then from there, when we got the job form filled out, I got an email, we then put it into Pipedrive. And I've set it up automate automation. So when I drag them into a specific deal with Elaine it sent them an email,

Nathan Barr
send them all the stuff automatically. Amazing. So yeah, so the basic setup, we've all gone through this process on Facebook, somebody else's ads we've clicked on, we want them to stop the scroll on the ad. And then they click on the Learn More button or something like that. It takes them to ashes, amazing little website, is that website still up somewhere in the background? Yes, it may be if you're comfortable me if I can grab it at the end. And we might even pop it in the show notes for people to have a quick look at as well. And then yeah, they just get the information in their ashes away up in Queensland. And these forms are just populating while she is there relaxing and comes back. And they've already got an email set up because like I said, this is because she's gone to that next level and upskill yourself. But what I really wanted to talk about was the fact that you decided to go big on this because you're comfortable in where you're at with it. You decided to spend $100 a day and spend $1,700 on this campaign over about two weeks 12 months ago, would you ever have thought about dropping $1,700 over two weeks on a Facebook campaign?

Ashleigh Bezzina
No way that is something that I would have had not the comp, not only the cost, no competence to do, but it's quite daunting. And that's, you know, that's a big cost. But I remember when we were at the tribe intensive. Some people have worked out they've done their Facebook ads and they've worked out there, They've analyzed their results and gone okay, well, it's about $50 to get a trial. And so if you think of it like that, if you're spending say $100 in total that you can expect to trial so I knew that I wanted a lot more than that. And that's why I spent that amount. But yeah, it comes with confidence. And as I said, Before, when I started a little I was, I knew that the ads were working. And I knew that I was getting results. So then I was more daring to, to spend more. And knowing that I, it's the knowing that you're you are going to get those trials in.

Nathan Barr
Perfect. And that's exactly like and because we, we broke down your numbers before the podcast and looked at the fact that, you know, you've now got a baseline because this was your first big jump into these type of ads, we've now got a baseline of a bunch of like, fun data points that not everybody thinks as fun as me I know. But to compare your next your next ad campaigns on, which is amazing. And you saw that I think we got for you that it cost $63 For every registration in open week, and it cost $130 In total, you've ended up so far with 13 enrollments. And that could be more, because you're still in contact with a few people because you've literally only just finished this. But those are great numbers. Because when we look at it, you're $1,700 spend, if the students just stay for one term, we calculated that you've got basically $2,400 in revenue, just from this term. So you've already made your money back and more just by doing this campaign.

Ashleigh Bezzina
Yeah. And I think that's when you look at the results like that, you know, then it's worth spending that amount, because without that Facebook ad, you might not have targeted that person that has now spent that amount at your studio. And that, as you said, that's just for one term.

Nathan Barr
Amazing, because then I because like, yeah, I've got the spreadsheet in front of me, I don't think I've even told you this, I sort of just put it out over the next terms, three and four as well. And if these if those 13 students stay, they'll generate at least $7,000 in revenue. So seven $800 invested in the ads to $7,000 in revenue, which is like a 320% return on investment, which is just absolutely crazy. And that doesn't factor in things like uniform concert tickets. And then Amanda always talks about and Becker was talking about the value of that lifetime client. So as this sort of experience looking at these numbers and doing that first big spend, and I guess probably the last sort of 10 months that you've been doing this as well, I always want to talk about always try and talk about changing people's perception of advertising spend as being an investment rather than expense. Is that sort of helped change your perception of that a little bit?

Ashleigh Bezzina
Yeah, definitely. It is when you see the results. You know, I know you guys talk about it a lot in your personal experiences of you know, your ads, but when you've done it for yourself as well. When you see that return on investment number or percentage, I guess, you can see that the spend is an investment because I feel like some of these people wouldn't have targeted without the spend on the Facebook ad and you know, it's capturing that person at that time. So, you know, definitely, I guess, yeah, what we've said before is start small, and you can gradually go up in your ad spend. But when you get up to these numbers, and that's what I've said before, you know, expecting see it took me it took me $6 To spend to get a trial in then you can use that, that information to then go okay, well, my target is to get 40 enrollments. And so that's what I'm going to have to spend to get that amount having that rough guide. But yeah, I definitely see it as an investment. I don't look at it now like oh my god, that's a massive cost. Like when I talk to some of the staff in my studio, they're like, Oh, my God, but when you come back, and you see the results of it. It's so beneficial. And yeah, exactly what you said it's an investment for sure.

Nathan Barr
And being able to share with your staff as well, you know, the fact that, you know, I think sometimes as amazing as our staff are, especially our admin team, and our teachers, sometimes they don't realize that, you know, these students don't just magically turn up for a trial class, they turn up because of the name that we've built up in our studios, but generally from our advertising and marketing, and to know that that student has cost $63 Just to get in front of them, makes them think oh, okay, I better make sure I'm on my game here as well.

Ashleigh Bezzina
Yeah, definitely. I feel like I've only started sharing that with them at the start of this year. And yeah, it puts more importance on it. They actually realize because they Yeah, exactly what you've said they think that you don't spend that much money or any money on it. But when you say hey, it's costed $63 It's yeah, we've got to bring out a game, you know, and it's like, they my start I've got a very good team of staff but they want to do it for me in a way in that you know, you've spent At least much money. Yeah, we want to do the best to deliver for you as well.

Nathan Barr
Exactly. And that's like, Yeah, our stuff is the same as yours. They're amazing. But so like, if you share that with them, I think sometimes it's dance studios, we can be a little bit too guarded around those things. But like you said, like, they're incredible. And they want to do this to help us like they're there because they believe in what we're doing. And they want to help us. If you ship the more you can share with them around these things, the more invested they're going to be, and want to help even more, which is absolutely right. But yeah, that's absolutely amazing. That sort of pretty much gets us to the end of what we want to talk about with the Facebook ads. Thank you so much for joining us today. Ash, where can people find ignition on Facebook and Instagram?

Ashleigh Bezzina
Yeah, so our Instagram is ignition PA. And our Facebook page is ignition Performance Academy. And thank you so much for having me. Oh,

Nathan Barr
absolute pleasure. Like we said, I will share in the show notes, which you'll see at the bottom of this episode. I will share Asher's landing page to have a look at as well. And if you enjoyed this podcast, you're enjoying the death principles United podcast, we'd absolutely love for you to jump on and subscribe or follow on Spotify and Apple podcast. That would be so it's so appreciated. Thanks so much ash and we will see everybody next Monday on the podcast. See you later. Bye