Facebook Ads on a Shoestring Budget – Azriel Ratz

Azriel is the CEO of Ratz Pack Media, a Facebook Ads agency.

As a Facebook Ads speaker and influencer, Azriel has consulted dozens of fast moving startups and handled 5 figure monthly budgets.

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Show Notes

Hello and welcome to another episode. Today I am with the CEO of Ratz Pack Media. What is Ratz Pack? What are you working on?

So I focus on facebook ads for businesses and I work with businesses all over the world getting their warm audiences to buy, creating new cold audiences to warm up and just really teaching them about what the business does, getting them excited and getting them, you know, commenting and engaging and then hopefully converting on offers that my clients have to sell.

And Azriel is a rock-star entrepreneur and a facebook ads expert, can you, uh, give us a little bit of context about some of the clients you’ve worked on in terms of revenue or customer base or a big clients you’ve worked on to give us context about your career?
Azriel: 01:39 Yeah, so my, my biggest client in as far as row, like return on ad spend A. I have a client based in Bali whose a business coach and she’s like really amazing. She’s already booked solid for private coaching. She wanted to add a group coaching option and we spent $13,000 to get 25 people to sign up for a $20,000 a year package. So it returned $500,000 in ads on less than $15,000 ad spend and we did that by talking to her already existing already existing incredibly loyal fan base on facebook groups targeting them with ads through a lot of very interesting strategies and then getting them to be excited about the offer. Getting them to the landing page. We actually used the chatbot in that one to get them like commenting on a post to the chatbot and then getting into a landing page with a type form.
Azriel: 02:41 Ever see the typeforms, right? Yeah. So a type form that then had ended with them giving their phone number, scheduling a phone call and then the the business coach actually getting on the phone and calling them for the sale.

That is amazing.

And then to go the complete opposite direction. I’m working with an amusement park base in New Jersey that lets you ride trucks is the coolest thing ever and they haven’t done it yet, but I’m excited to do it next time. I’m in Virginia Berlin, New Jersey, and over the two weekends, black Friday and the week before Christmas we spent $3,000 in ad spend targeting the, their existing audience or email subscribers, facebook likes, whatever, and anyone in the area who was a parent. We spent in with those $3,000 meat over $40,000 in sales of their season passes.

That’s amazing. And so really it’s just about understanding who they already are talking to, the offer that makes the most sense for those people and then making sure that we get in front of them first. So that’s really, uh, the, uh, the real strategy there.

I love that.
Speaker 3: 03:46 Azriel, in your experience, what is the best fit for startups? What, what kinds of startups this facebook ads, work for and who is it not for?

So facebook ads. I see facebook ads in the startup world in two different places. One is where you already know what you’re trying to do. You already have a product, you already have an audience that exists and you understand how they think. So I had a client a few months ago that I asked them what, how do their current buyers purchased their product? And they explained that as a product that’s a little bit more expensive, it was $300. So people didn’t just see it online and want to buy it. They needed a little bit of warming up. So I asked him how the normal process goes and they said that they had an article in TechCrunch and people read that article and then they get excited about the product. They watch some videos and then they go to the website and then from there they kind of look for reviews.

Azriel: 04:44 Maybe a friend of theirs has it already or whatever that might be. And so what I say to them is let’s recreate the process of the organic lead through ads. So what we did was we took that same techcrunch article and we use the video that they had already, that a lot of people had already seen and what we did was we layered this, this tool called Snipley, which allows you to not only tag it with a facebook pixel but also have a call to action button in the bottom left corner of the screen. So we were able to send people to the Techcrunch article on Techcrunch. And on the bottom left it said, come check out this product, come to our website, check out the product. And what we did was we were running ads both to their existing audience but meaning people that visit our website and the facebook lives, but also to people that didn’t know who they were.

Azriel: 05:33 We were recreating the organic process. So they saw the video, they got excited, they came to the Techcrunch article, they saw, wow, this is such an amazing product. And then from there they ended up clicking and going to the homepage. And what we saw was that for less than $3, like $2, fifty cents we were getting from someone who had never heard of us before, to go through all these steps the same way the organic person did that they went from the video to the Lens, to the Techcrunch article, to the homepage, to the add to cart for $2 and fifty cents. But what was crazier was exactly what what the CEO explained to me is what ended up happening. He said a lot of times the person gets really excited, but they need to talk to their spouse about it so they’ll go back and they’ll share the post and tag their spouse.

Azriel: 06:11 So I went in to the shares of the original ad that we’re running and I saw that about eighty percent of them tagged their spouse in the ads were literally recreating the exact organic process that was happening when someone’s going just find it on Amazon. And we were creating that within a facebook ad process. And so it was very, very exciting.

The other way I see startups using facebook ads is when you have no audience, you don’t even have a product, you just know you have an idea, you have a problem to solve, right? So you know there exists a group of people that have an issue. You might even be one of those people that have the issue and you want to figure out the best solution for those people. So facebook allows you to spend really small amounts of money. We’re talking about like, you know, $2 or $3 a day to an audience and just to see how they engage or react to a certain idea.

Azriel: 07:03 So if you, you know, had an idea for a or whatever it might be, a solution to the problem, you could actually reach highly interested people using facebook ads through just interest targeting, behavioral targeting, whatever that might be based on the problem you’re solving. And then get in front of them and see how they react. So, you know, let’s say I have solution a, b, and c, I don’t know which one the best one is. So I run ads to the same audience, one with solution A one way solution B and one was lucency spend, let’s say $5 a day on each of them and then just see which one of those three solutions that are the people engaged with the most. So I could actually build my startup and build my products, even my suite of products just by seeing how the highly engaged and interested audience that I’ve already targeted a bunch of times with different ideas, react to it and I can actually tweak, add additional features, you know, create additional content based on how they engaged in what they’re interested in and you know, read their comments.

Azriel: 08:01 Then kind of like have a conversation with them within the post and say, is this what you’re interested in? What do you think? Like what about something else? Tried this thing?
And you could actually build an entire platform based on just the responses that the people you’re reaching. Right?

So that’s really the two ways I see. Either you already have it built funnel, you know what you want to reach and you can recreate the organic process or you don’t know what you, what exactly you want us, what you, what the solution will be, but you know there’s a problem that needs to be solved and you can have this discussion with people for a very low price and you could figure out how, what’s the best solution that will, that people will enjoy. And then if you build that audience up already, when you do come out with a product, they’ll be super excited to get it because it literally the thing that you built for them to buy, right?

Juan: 08:56 That’s, that’s genius. Um, what, how much money are we looking at spend here for, for these kinds of tests were at what threshold would you say? Like you’re actually getting enough input or enough money in the system that you’re actually going to see results.

Azriel: 09:01 Honestly, you could do this for under $500.

$500 a month?

No, I’m talking about you could run this test to figure out, you know, we have three different additional features you want to add. We don’t know which one to focus on, so you could run total of $500 for this whole project, however long that takes just to figure out which one of these features I should push based on the responses.

Juan: 09:25 Right. That’s amazing. But let’s go back a second. I’m, I’m wondering if um, so especially our startups that are on a shoestring budget and you’re trying to figure out a facebook ads is for them and they don’t want to just dump money into a black hole of like, you know, just giving money to facebook. How much money in your experience do startup seemed to be investing in facebook ads to actually be getting sales?

Azriel: 09:45 I would actually see this a completely different way. Let’s say. Look at your existing audience/ So a lot of start ups they have, you know, they get, a lot of times it’s very easy to get into like a Techcrunch or imaginable. You already have people that are the buzz around your business, right? So if you already have an existing audience, maybe you have a bunch of emails that you have some people that like your facebook page or even a video that went viral or something. So you can target those people on facebook for pennies. Meaning we’re talking about $5 between five and $8 to reach a thousand people. Right? So if you have an email list of 10,000 people were talking about spending $50 to reach all of those people. So when, when I, whenever I talk to people that are on a shoestring budget, the first thing I say is you only focus on the people that know you already because if eighty percent of them hadn’t bought yet, don’t talk to your lookalike audience.

Azriel: 10:36 Look, don’t talk to interest based targeting. If you want to make sure that the passionate people who know who you are, that Simon’s your email list, if you can get most of them to buy, you need to keep running ads to them because if you can’t convince them, you’re not going to give it to someone else. Yeah, right? So I would say, look at your audience and say I have 2000 people on an email list. These are people that clearly show they were interested. They know, they understand my idea, I’m going to reach out to them, run ads to them. If I can make a profit targeting them on $10 a day, right then it doesn’t make sense for me to start targeting lookalike audiences. It means I need to continue working on my funnels. I need to continue working on what my ad looked like. Maybe the strategy that I’m reaching them, maybe the platform. I’m reaching them on, all those things. Because until you can convert the people that know who you are and you’re for sure not going to convert the people that have no idea who you are.

Juan: 11:26 No, that makes a lot of sense. And okay, so if we’re, if we’re retargeting the people that already know who we are, how much money are we looking to spend their w? What’d you say?

Really just five to $10 per day. That’s it. OK, so five to $10. So we’re talking about a $300 a month.

Starting at $300 so you can already be driving results to your company and as long as it’s people that have already heard of you, then you’re going to be some conversions. Have you noticed that there’s some business models for some kind of companies that are spending money on facebook ads, doesn’t actually make sense for?

Azriel: 12:02 There exists people that like businesses that they have an idea and they’re not really ready. They have a product, they kind of took, they start with the product instead of the solution. And that’s a really big problem because. Right, right. If you have a product you don’t really have a passion. Like you know there’s a lot of these businesses that just, they, like drop ship products because they hear that other businesses shot, drop ship these products. But they do it also so they can just come with, there’s a big, a lot of money to be made in selling t shirts or something. So I’m going to also sell t shirts, but they don’t go into the process of like designing nice tee shirts or getting good quality. They just like find them on some other website and try to arbitrage the sale.

Azriel: 12:42 So if you don’t come in with I, I’m coming in with, there’s a problem there. I’m creating a solution for that problem and I’m going to reach the people that have that problem and I’m going to give them the solution. That’s really how I look at facebook ads. Any business I look at it, that’s all that’s, you know, my, my, the first people I want to talk to are people that know, that know they have a problem and I want to tell them I have a solution because if you talk to someone that has a problem and you tell them that you understand that problem, they will immediately be absorbed into the content that you’re creating. Like the, like, I don’t know if right before the summer you’re talking to someone that wants to lose 10 pounds and you tell them like, isn’t it so frustrating that you can’t, you know, fit into your bathing suit like they, they, they want, they immediately engage with that content and that’s true for anyone with any problem.

Azriel: 13:31 So if you first think about the people that have the problem and how they would want a solution, you know, given to them, then that’s how I would write my facebook ads, the entire content, the videos, everything that I create on my ed is solving the solution to the problem that they have. That’s the first thing I’m doing. If the, if the way I’m coming into facebook is I have a product I want to sell, I’m going to trick them because I bought it for $4. I’m going to sell it for 10. Look at me, I’m gonna. Make all this money. Then it’s a lot harder to present that whole offer. So if that’s how you’re starting the business, then it’s a very, it’s a much harder way to build up a, you know, beloved community on facebook.

Juan: 14:09 Yeah. I love that. That, that makes so much sense. I’ve actually worked with a lot of startups that may not think that they’re doing that. Like even now hearing how you positioned that startups address it of like “Oh look at me! I’m going to flip this money.” And people are like “Oh, that’s not me.” No, chances are that it seems like there’s a lot. There’s a lot of people that even if that’s not how you say it, and that’s not your intention. Just audit your actions and anybody that’s listening to this, if you’ve already built a product and now you’re looking at facebook ads to then make that product, I’m like either go viral or get traction. You’re going to have a really hard time. You’re going to have an easier time if you already know that there is an audience that’s looking for it and then you’re looking at facebook ads to make sure that you’re reaching enough of these people, that’s totally different.

Juan: 15:04 Okay, Manos Nation! Do not forget your chance to win digital goods and resources on every episode right here on the podcast. It’s very simple. You just subscribed to the show on itunes in. Once you’ve done that, message the word “Manos” to m.me/ManosAccelerator. Subscribe on itunes and then message Manos to the website, m.me/ManosAccelerator. See you on the next one.

Azriel: 15:25 There you have it. What’s the best way to get in touch with you on Social Media, Azriel?

Surprisingly facebook, my facebook page, Ratz Pack Media, that’s the best place I try to post between four and five videos every week on my page. Keep them short under about two minutes; I’ve got almost 1000 videos on there now. So that’s really the place.

Juan: 15:46 Wow. There you have it.

Azriel is getting $2 to $3 conversions for clients, helping them grow to $40,000 on a project. CEO of Ratz Pack Media, crushing it with facebook ads. Tons and tons of good advice. Thank you so much for coming on the show.