Do I bootstrap my first facebook ads or pay someone so I prove the idea?
We just launched our MVP of https://motivation.fund/. I need to reach people thinking about New Years resolutions around weight loss, exercise, etc. I feel like facebook ads would be a great way to validate the idea and help us experiment with messaging that attracts people. Plus, we have a credit for $250 in FB ads for December. My question is, should I pay a top quality free lancer (like this https://www.fiverr.com/cubellc) for $350 or bootstrap? The key benefit of paying top quality is that if it fails, I will have eliminated several variables that might cause failure, like the quality of the ads. It also may help me move faster. Or do I could stick with our bootstrapping, which has been our model so far. Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Tough call. I've opted to do this myself, since I see online advertising/testing as being something that we will need plenty of and I want to understand it better. That said, $350 isn't a lot of money and having someone who knows what to do could get you your answer faster and/or with better confidence. If it frees up a lot of your time, then it could be money well spent. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to this. My gut says that if this is a one-time test, then pay to have it done. If you are going to have ongoing needs for testing and online advertising, then start by doing it yourself. Once you know the contours and feel like you could manage someone else that is doing the tasks, revisit your decision to delegate the task.
Really helpful perspective. I think we will need them ongoing. I think I may try to put some together, show them to others for feedback and if the feedback is good, keep bootstrapping. In parallel, I may also pay for this one time to see how much better/different it is. $350 is probably worth my "education" on this.
New year will be great time for you, and if you don't have previous FB advertising experience, then you won't have enough time left to learn and iterate to get optimal results if you do the ads by yourself.
Beyond that, without knowing your long term goals and marketing budget etc, it's impossible to give 'yes' or 'no'.
That is a really good point. Marketing budget is $250/month and trying to grow to 10,000 goals/users by June 1, 2020.
Just a quick reality check: you won't achieve anywhere near 10k users from paid advertising with $1250. Your cost per visit will be $0.5-$4, and conversion rate from visit to signup 2-30%. Even in best case scenario that gives you only 7.5% of your goal.
Agreed. Planning to do a lot of hustling as well trying to get PR, endorsements, etc. We have one person with a large social media following who has done the program whom I am hoping will put a plug in for us. Trying a little bit of everything.
Justin, who is your ideal customer? I saw the site, it looks nice, but don't understand your business model or who is likely to fork over cash?
Thanks Brian. Perhaps too much, but I pasted a write up I did a few weeks back to try to visualize one persona who is our ideal customer. It was based on several of the early adopter interviews and how they explained why they like the program. Let me know what you think.
The business model uses reciprocity. Meaning, the service is free, but in the signup process we ask the question, "If we are successful in helping you achieve your goal, would you be willing to support our efforts at Motivation Fund by making a donation?" So far, we have had 100% say yes with the average donation exceeding $10. That is better than I expected, even with the high % of family and friends in the beta group. I am sure that will go down as we scale, but my theory is that 1) motivation is hard for people to come by and 2) phrasing it as "if we help you succeed" both pushes it into the future for them (making it easier to commit) and is contingent on success (e.g. "wow, if you can help me lose the 10lbs I have been trying to lose for the last 3 years, heck ya, I will pay you something"). We will see how this theory plays out. Thoughts on this approach?
Ideal Customer Persona #1
Our ideal customer’s name is Julie. Julie is a mom of 4 and has a busy, crazy life. She is involved in many activities and feels spread thin with the way life pulls her in different directions. She often feels that life is out of control, especially when it comes to her personal goals and aspirations. She has several goals where she is falling short including: losing weight by eating healthier and exercising, sleeping better by having more discipline in her bedtime routine, breaking her bad habit of doubting herself by having 15 minutes of positive meditation each day, getting better at showing more gratitude to those in her life, and carving out a few minutes each to to make progress on a book she is writing.
Julie finds herself in a cycle of committing herself to these goals, only to find her motivation lacking a few days later as the craziness of life happens. She has tried several group goal programs such as Game On, Dietbet, and a competition with her husband on going to bed. These have all helped, but she is looking for something that is easy to use, does not compare her to others (she ends up comparing her failures to others successes and feels worse about herself), and can work with the variety of goal types she has (e.g. building habits, breaking bad habits, learning new skills, etc.). Overall, she wants to be sure that once she commits, she finds it easy to keep that commitment to herself.
This comment was deleted 6 years ago
Makes sense, thanks!
This comment was deleted 5 years ago
Super helpful feedback! When you say "give some free knowledge" are you saying find a group FB related to our space (e.g. weight loss, exercise, motivation, etc.) and posting as motivation fund, contribute meaningfully?
This comment was deleted 5 years ago
Thanks!