279: Organic vs Paid Marketing | Ashley Boston   

What is happening with Meta?? What will running ads look like in this AI led world. 

We are talking about it. Ads strategist Ashley Boston is here to shed light on the changes and what small business owners should be looking out for! 

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah and @ashleybostonhq.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LEARN THE DETAILS OF A CONTENT STRATEGY WITH MY FREE AUDIO GUIDE⁠⁠⁠

KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨ What is happening in the world of Meta

✨ What content performs well on Meta

✨ What will AI do to Meta ads

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

  • PROMPT ASH MENTIONED (tailor it to what you need):

    Create image pretend you're a TikTok beauty influencer with over 1 million followers. You are in your luxurious bathroom doing your skincare routine. Take a photo of this using an iPhone. Quality should be of an iPhone 14 or lower, it should not feel like a professional photoshoot. Pretend like you are posting this picture on your Instagram Stories. Use text overlay that says: the only product that actually makes my skin feeling fresh.

  • Listen to ep 147 with Ash for FB ads 101 - ⁠⁠https://www.contentqueenmariah.com/podcast/147⁠⁠

  • Check out Ash on Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashleybostonhq/⁠⁠

  • Find out how Ash can help you - ⁠https://www.ashleybostonhq.com/⁠

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

ABOUT THE GUEST

Ashley Boston is a Best Selling Amazon Author of How to Use the Power of Social Media, a Facebook Ad & Digital Marketing strategist for the past 10 years. Ash has worked with product-based business owners and course creators in helping them to get in front of their dream clients and scale their business to 6 & 7 figures using paid Facebook & Instagram Ads.

Ash lives in Sydney with her husband, her daughter and her fur dog Bentley.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Mariah MacInnes: Welcome, Ashley, to the podcast again. This is your second time on. Um, for anyone new that doesn't know who you are, can you please tell everyone a little bit more about who you are and what you do?
Ashley Boston: Yeah, thanks for having me back. Um, so I am a well I'm a mom of Abigail. We live in Sydney. Um, and we also have a fur dog called Bentley. I can't forget him. Um, and I am a meta ad and funnel strategist.

 
Ashley Boston: So work over the years have worked with a lot of e-commerce brands um and also course creators, digital product um coaches, membership owners and supporting them
Mariah MacInnes: Amazing.
Ashley Boston: in really being able to grow their business and amplify by using paid meta ads.
Mariah MacInnes: And yes, you've helped me so much with ads and you know, obviously being an organic marketer and doing organic things. Um, and it's good to amplify our reach, right, with ads. Now, we we had a conversation very briefly on Instagram because obviously Meta have come out and they've now decided that AI bots are going to run everyone's ads and this was like such a red flag to me when I heard that and I would love to have a conversation about this because I'm sure you have so many things to share and I mean we tal Mitch and I talked about it briefly about you know like we're just going to be filled with AI bots and all sorts of things but I'd love to know your take on yeah your thoughts on what's happening in the world of Meta and paid ads and what it means for small business owners.
 
Ashley Boston: Yeah. So maybe let's like go back a little bit to where things are at the moment and what is about to change and what is happening. Um basically come June. I mean they say June all these rollouts are going to happen and these updates are going to happen but um I don't know sometimes it takes a little bit longer for some people to gain access to those updates. But where we're at at the moment is I guess currently the way that your campaigns are set up, you have control over what you choose. Whether that is a manual campaign set up where you get to still choose the type of audiences that you want to add into your campaign, you have control over that. And that could be detailed interest through to demographics. Um, and being able to really know who you're potentially targeting. for example, um if we wanted to target women that were in, you know, business owners then female entrepreneurs, you know, um or maybe they're business owners or uh maybe um you know, they follow the likes of Amy Porterfield.
 
  
Ashley Boston: And if you are, you know, someone like us who potentially is wanting to target other women um who have a business and they may follow Amy Porterfield. And so being able to utilize those detailed interests has been a real key component into a lot of um ad campaign success. And what has potentially started to roll out is that you know they've started to bring out what is called advantage plus shopping. And this is really I mean e-commerce and product based businesses have been able to use this for probably a little while now. Um probably over 12 months. And basically you're you're not choosing any detailed interest. you're using Facebook's AI to go out and find those audiences for you. Um, so they're using their advantage audiences, which is basically they're going out and finding hopefully the right type of person to buy from you. And what I've seen in accounts that have had great success with that is accounts that have history data. They've got proven sales. They've got a lot of history in that ad account.
 

 
Ashley Boston: And I have found that that's where that has best worked so far is in those accounts that have that long history. They've been running successful campaigns for, you know, many years. And I remember when it first rolled out, it actually might be almost two years ago, a client got first access to it. And so I did a test and she was doing really well in terms of detailed interest targeting. And so I set up an advantage plus shopping campaign and what I saw was very similar results. Um, one might have had more sales but you over over like that month period. um but the results were very much similar. So, but then you take another account who might be brand new and doesn't have the same success. And that's where I've seen the difference is one that does have all the data, the history, those campaigns have performed really well versus an account that is brand new essentially and has no data. Um, and I think it's very tricky to say that, you know, AI is going to work for, you know, advantage plus this is the way it's going to happen.
 

 
Ashley Boston: It's it's all going to be great. Essentially, they want to make running ads easier um for everyone. So then agencies, you know, you don't have to have an agency manage your campaigns because you we can do it, you know, you can do it yourself. um you go in and what's happening is they're rolling out these advantage campaigns. So, you no longer have access to manual. Um and I think until that that kind of really rolls out, it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Um, and I I still am frustrated by it because there are some clients at the moment who are in that course creators, have courses, want evergreen funnels, and those campaigns just aren't performing for them using advantage um, audiences. So, it's yeah, it's sort of a bit of a challenge. Um, and it's something that I've been testing cuz I know it's coming and I really want to build that history in those accounts and that data in those accounts. But it will be interesting to see what happens there and basically having less control over your campaigns essentially.

 
Mariah MacInnes: It's very interesting. And so, um, I guess there's like we've done an episode on ads, so if anyone's like, "Oh, I'm not at this stage." Just go back and listen to that episode with Ash. I'll put it in the show notes so that you can check it out. But it's sort of this interesting thing, too, because what where do they draw the line? So, are will Meta be creating our creative our our messaging? like will it become because obviously now you can select and they'll like AB test different messages etc. So like what's that? And then and then does everyone's feed just look like AI generated content of ads? And is more people going to create ads? So there's just going to be so many ads on this platform that we're like we need to get out of here because all I see is ads. Like what what are you
Ashley Boston: Yeah.
Mariah MacInnes: predicting happen?
Ashley Boston: I so there's someone that I follow and I will send you her um Instagram profile because she's very she's in the US and she's very much moving into this space of being a creative agency.

 
Ashley Boston: So I think there's going to be a big shift with agencies, you know, not just running campaigns but becoming creative agencies. Uh because I mean creative's always been important, but now it's like really going to be the key thing that we need to be focusing on. Um and back to your you were talking about AI and creatives and Facebook creating, it is interesting. There's they roll out all these updates and then you just find out when you log in one day and like everything's changed and you're like that looks really bad. Why did they do this? Um and it is interesting. Um D she talks about using the enhancements that Facebook have rolled out in their AI. So essentially you upload an image and you go through the enhancements and there will be a section where it will basically go and create AI images that look similar to the image that you have put in. Um, some look really bad. Some, uh, I've done it with a product based business to see what it would create.

 
Ashley Boston: And those brands that are really particular about their branding and their creatives don't love it. Um, they really want that authentic, you know, they they don't want it to look like that AI. Um, and I totally get that. I think it's just interesting to play with. Um, and and then yeah, you can turn that off obviously, but that's just with images. Um, and you can create lots of different ones. The people, I've done one with um people to see what it looks like and they just look very airbrushed and really perfect. Um, so that's the component that they have rolled out to use. But Darra does talk about utilizing that and how they're utilizing it um with creative. So, it's really interesting to see the US is so far ahead of us. Um, and just taking note of what is happening over there and what what they're starting to implement. Um, I think it's really important for us and not just, you know, businesses who are running ads, but even those of us that are running agencies or our ad strategists to make sure that we're ahead of that game.

 
Ashley Boston: Um, for me, I still really like using and having control of my creatives. Video is definitely a big one that I've seen performing really well. Um, recently a client has just is going through a launch and her video testimonials are outperforming anything else. And and also video has been really great for free optin to upsell because they're getting to know that person and they're connecting with that person. And there's something that AI can't do and that's evoke emotion. And I think video can do that. you can speak to your ideal customer with emotion and and tap into those pain points and the struggles that they're feeling that AI can't do.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah. Yeah,
Ashley Boston: So
Mariah MacInnes: I agree.
Ashley Boston: yeah, there's still I mean it comes down to obviously testing things, but I yeah, I think it will be interesting definitely with like you know a lot of agencies talk about not using retargeting and just doing wide um campaigns, but when you're doing live launches, it's very different. you know, you're not wanting cold people um because it takes longer for them to warm up.

 
Ashley Boston: So, I think it'll be interesting to see how it all rolls out and how it plays out. Something though um there is a prompt which um may I can send and you could put in the show notes. And uh Dar shared this and it it blew my mind the prompt that she took and put into chat GPT uh to create an image. So, you put in either like a product that you obviously want this person to be showcasing and then it was something along the lines like, you know, take this photo of, you know, a girl who is well-dressed. Um, she's in her bedroom, but you take take the create the photos if you're using an iPhone, whatever we're up to now. Um, I'm Samsung users, so I don't know what number we're up to. Um, and it was crazy. Like, it didn't look like AI. It just looked like a really nice photo. Um, one that she had was in a bathroom using a product. It was like she was cleansing her face.
  
Ashley Boston: And that was crazy. And so, I run campaigns for a company who does 2 and 1/2 day um, workshops essentially. I guess they're quite high-end. And we always struggle to get people in photos. So
Mariah MacInnes: Hey,
Ashley Boston: I went into chat GPT and I said create this family standing in front of their cattle on a farm, you know, and like the image is so spot on. And anyway, I'm testing it in ads because at least I have free reign to do that. Um to
Mariah MacInnes: What?
Ashley Boston: test to see, you know, like so I think yeah, it's it's an interesting it's an interesting time where again we were here what 20 21 maybe when a whole heap of changes happened and um now we're here again and we just have to roll with it and navigate it.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah. Yeah. And I think like the same rules kind of apply in the organic space, right? like video is always um going to perform well especially on platforms like Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube like video since 2020 has been something that well even before that 2019 really like this short form video and that's where I guess we want to make sure that when we are running these ads it's like okay what would someone organically want to see in their feed and that was obviously something that you taught me very early on when I

 
Mariah MacInnes: started learning ads from you. So, I I took that kind of advice and I did this video. It's an ad that I still run at the moment. I get like numerous follows a day, which is not what it's for. It's a lead generation campaign, but um my cost per lead, I think, is at about $3 something. Um so, I feel like that's quite good, right? I feel like cost per leads
Ashley Boston: But,
Mariah MacInnes: can
Ashley Boston: you
Mariah MacInnes: be
Ashley Boston: know, just on that where you're getting followers, this is the great thing about having quality content that resonates with your audience that if you have a great ad, they will click on your profile and go and check you out. Like, they want to see what else you have and they probably will follow you. And a lot
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: of people get sucked into like running like campaigns or running ads to my profile. Well, that's all well and good, but if you have no other strategy to, you know, are they then engaging on your content or are they just following you and like not engaging again?
  
Ashley Boston: Cuz I know that I've I've had I mean I've done that before. I've gone and followed a brand and went, "Oh, I love this." But then I've never seen their content, so I haven't engaged again. Um, so when you have quality ad campaigns and you have quality ads and you have quality content going out there, you will naturally also attract those people and build up your following too.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah, that's very interesting because obviously, you know, we talked about this in the last episode. People are just like, "Oh, I'll put a couple of dollars a day on this post that I've posted to my feed, which is called boosting on Meta, and like try and get some followers." But like why wouldn't you want to get them to your mailing list? So I've had like it's a really good lead magnet for me at the moment because it's generating a lot of leads to my and a lot of these people have listened to my podcast cuz I had someone reach out to me. So, it's like it's very interesting because what I had done is in the past I had test tested different creatives and one of them was a graphic and I just turned it off within the first few weeks because it was always the video that just performed the best and I had just nailed that painoint nailed like my opening line was like you didn't start your business to become a content creator and yet here you are like

 
Ashley Boston: All right.
Mariah MacInnes: creating content has always been a hook I think that's worked quite well because it is a pain point of a lot of people listening a lot of people in business like I'm why am I now this influencer like I should be you know showing up and trying to sell my products and services or you know at least build build some brand right build some brand awareness to what I'm doing and that was a video that I had already posted organically so I guess it's like for people that are like oh well what do I if AI is going to run my ads for me like where's that human element I think it really does come from your organic content right Like if you are creating organic content and there's stuff that is working like
Ashley Boston: repurpose
Mariah MacInnes: that's the stuff.
Ashley Boston: it.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: Yeah. You know, like it's not that just do that post and it's done. Like it's about um repurposing it and then using it in ads. And you can I think um Brennan Brashard's call calls it viral velocity and like taking that one piece of content and distributing it multiple times, you know, not just once.
 

 
Ashley Boston: And if you have a piece of content that's done really well organically, um I've got a client at the moment and she did a real and she doesn't really promote any of her courses. You know, my courses sit there, no one buys them. Well, because we're not promoting them because we're busy doing one-on-one stuff. Um, and she did a video and yeah, and like she started to get some leads from that for her of her free opt-in. I was like, perfect. We'll just repurpose that, you know, like people have seen that like what you've said, like we'll just reuse that in a in an ad campaign. So, yeah. I I think the other thing is that with what's changing, lots of creatives are going to have to be created. You know, it's not just a couple of creatives. Um there, you know, depending on budget obviously, but you might we we are probably going to be creating more creatives in a month than we usually would. Um, which I still think is a tricky thing because when one piece of creative starts performing like you said, the other one tends to start losing budget.

 
Ashley Boston: So, I think it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. I've seen a brand um that Dar just recently shared, they do 25 creatives a month. They obviously have a big ad budget, but that's just for one campaign. Um,
Mariah MacInnes: Wow.
Ashley Boston: yeah. So, I I think we will be, you know, needing to create more creative. I notice creative fatigue tends to be happening quicker at the moment. Um,
Mariah MacInnes: Mhm.
Ashley Boston: and that's just really, you know, where you you either need to probably increase your ad budget or you need to look at adding in other types of creatives. Um, and Facebook, I think when you're in there, I'm noticing a lot of popups and a lot of like just switch this and you'll see an increase of 80% or like just do this. But, uh, just ignore those if you see them. Um, because a lot of the time it's not going to be relevant to what you're doing and Facebook doesn't know the strategy that you have in play.

 
Ashley Boston: Um, and I think that's really important. Like my campaigns at the moment that are for a membership that are doors open, they want me to do an advantage plus campaign. I'm like, "No, I need really want the warm audience. Like, stop telling me these things." So,
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: yeah, there's always going to be um those little things. There's also like what is called the opportunity score that has also it used to be in the platform. It's now been bought back. like the same thing like take it with a grain of salt. Um
Mariah MacInnes: Where?
Ashley Boston: if campaigns are performing and meeting your goals and your return on ad spend. Um like just stick with that that strategy. Um and there's been actually a lot of meta reps in my emails recently. I've I don't know I think I'm receiving at least three a week at the moment from reps. Um, and a lot of business owners say, "Oh, well, I am I'm working with a Facebook rep."
 
 
Ashley Boston: But just be very conscious of that. I think it's already it's always good to have someone in your pocket to give you updates and what's happening and the changes, but just be mindful that they don't know your numbers. They don't ask the right questions about your business and and where you need to be in terms of like your ad spend. they'll tell you to spend more, maybe you can't spend more, you know. Um, so just be very mindful of that. But it is handy to have someone, especially when these updates roll out, just to ask a few questions and and and hear what's happening like internally as well. Um, that's generally where I get a lot of my my sort of know what's coming is from from a rep.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's good to know. There's always those things that come up and yeah, you're not, you know, I I do ignore them because I've obviously done work with you before, but um it it can be like shiny object. So from what Meta have come out and said, what is their So obviously they're now going, "Oh, you don't need an ads manager."
 
 
Mariah MacInnes: So what what is the vibe like with these reps then? Like are they trying to like because obviously that's not going to create a very good relationship with a lot of these ads agencies cuz they're like well that's my that's what I do and you're now trying to take that away or does it just create opportunity for these ads managers and ads agencies to like learn like upskill and then provide more like I'm curious to know what's the kind of general sense at the moment because
Ashley Boston: I think
Mariah MacInnes: the
Ashley Boston: that
Mariah MacInnes: way they're marketing
Ashley Boston: I think
Mariah MacInnes: it like we could all do ads we could we don't need anyone one, we can just throw it into the platform and hit okay.
Ashley Boston: Here's well I mean here's the thing like you can you can run your ads you have a strategy right you know your strategy I think that leading people into thinking there's I won't name names but there's a few people in a specific industry that say you should be able to run your ad campaigns you don't need to hire anyone you know, you can just go to Google or YouTube and figure out how to do it.
 

 
Ashley Boston: That's all well and good, but what they are not learning is building a strategy that is evergreen and that especially for product based businesses like what happens if my campaign's not working. I don't know what to look at if my campaign's not working. I'm spending all this money but I'm not seeing sales. I watched someone on TikTok yesterday who said that they were with a very well-known business coach and they spent $80,000 on ads and didn't get a return. And I think like that's that's the the trap that we are falling into is that it's made out. Okay. Yeah, it's all easy. you just go you go set up a campaign and and put in some creatives and put your lead magnet in there or put put your link to your e-commerce website, but then it's not working. So, what do we do? So, it's you still need to have a sound strategy. You still need to understand what are the metrics, what what are my ads saying to me and and what do I go and fix?
 
 
Ashley Boston: That's not what is taught. And if you don't know what your numbers are, or even if you know what your conversion rate of your website is, like if you're a product based business and your website's not even converting at 1%, then you shouldn't be running ads because something's not right. sending more traffic there isn't going to you know fix maybe you know like your your creative your images or your product don't have enough images of them or people in them or you know so there's all these things that I think you still need to not necessarily have an agency for but at least have someone to get you on the right track so that you understand the foundations of meta ads. Um, and it's still not it's just not as simple as just throwing money in there and you're going to put five grand in and get 20 grand out like this. You're not on a poker machine. Um, and yeah, it's just it's it's still a gamble. Unless you have a strategy, you know, you're ready for ads.
 

 
Ashley Boston: Uh, I don't think any AI is going to make magic happen.
Mariah MacInnes: No.
Ashley Boston: essentially. So I think like it is a chance for people to definitely upskill and I mean we all should be upskilling as meta ad strategists or agency owners. We still need to be upskilling and I think you know like being inside ad accounts running campaigns every single day um seeing what's working. That's where, you know, our expertise comes in and we can say, okay, well, this is what's working, you know, like maybe we do something similar to that. There's no cookie cutter approach really, um, that you can do with meta ads. Um, and yeah, I think, you know, it's just it's just going to be one of those times where we have to roll with it and and and maybe we have to go back to testing things. Um, I think it just will be interesting to see how it plays out. That's for sure.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah. And it's so hard in in those instances because I think what I've struggled with the most because obviously I it's not my expertise and I think someone else would have the same thing with organic.
 
 
Mariah MacInnes: It's like because say for example, yeah, meta roll out like oh we're going to roll out this and I've already got an ad running or whatever. Like I'm not the expert. So I've just kind of like done what I've learned and then if something changes I'm kind of like oh okay what you know as a business owner what do I have to do now? And that's what having
Ashley Boston: Yeah.
Mariah MacInnes: someone that is in it knows it. It's just so much harder that way just to go like oh well I don't know and I've got no like say for example you've just reeled off like five stories of clients of things that you've like I do the same thing when I talk to a client okay this isn't working oh with this client this is what we did and we tried this so like you don't get meta's AI bot is not going to say that like we we had a call with a client in this industry and this is what worked and this is what we did that just doesn't Then
 

 
Ashley Boston: No. And also like meta reps are the exactly the same. You know, they might have other clients, but they they just don't know your brand. Um they don't know your business. They don't know your numbers. And that's so critical when you're running ads is to make sure that you understand like, you know, what what is a customer worth to you? Like what is your average order value? You know, all these things come into play when you're running ads and and they they don't know that. Um, so yeah, I think it's just an opportunity to, you know, we all need to just be investing and learning and we should always be upskilling no matter what because this platform does change. Um, and I saw someone actually put a hold on their they're launching an academy, an ad academy, and they've put a hold on it and I was like, why would you like, you know, because all these changes are coming. I guess they don't want to build something and then all these changes are coming.
 

 
Ashley Boston: But that's the perfect opportunity to launch it now because these changes are coming. Um
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: so I think there's so many opportunities at the moment to teach and educate. Uh and I believe from what I have read that any campaigns that currently have detailed interests with them will be paused when the changes roll out. Um from what I believe. So that's what I have read from Meta. Um so we'll see what happens. I did do a podcast on this uh recently about all the changes and and what's happening and with AI and all that as well. So you can that's over on um oh you can put a link in the show notes to the podcast and it's one of the most recent ones that I've done. Um and I just go into a bit more depth of that. But um yeah, we'll see what happens. But I think it I think actually it will it should make agencies step up and
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: um and yeah and show up for their clients a little bit more.
 

 
Ashley Boston: And I think the creative that there at the meta um they do like a big conference for agencies and apparently a lot of them were creative agencies not ad agencies. So, I think there's there's a lot of people that are going into that space and I've seen a few of my um fellow agency u women start to look for UGC creators and building their profile to make sure that they're ready for those changes and to make sure that they're when they onboard clients, they can offer that as a service as well.
Mariah MacInnes: Ah, that's cool. Also getting, for those that don't know, user generated content. So getting um the users out there to create more organic stuff, which is super interesting cuz that that's like I mean, good on them. That's smart.
Ashley Boston: Yeah. Yeah, it is. And I think if we're going to need lots of creatives for campaigns
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: like and I think it using one person per like as a dedicated person for a business rather than you know having like one do one job, one do another job for that brand is having someone who is dedicated to that brand.
 
  
Ashley Boston: So they get to know it really well.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: Um but yeah, they are I've just seen over the last oh probably the last couple of days um a few looking for user generated content people um and specifically Sydneybased as well.
Mariah MacInnes: No.
Ashley Boston: So it is interesting. Um so we'll see how it all plays out in the end
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah,
Ashley Boston: come next week whether the changes are going to happen overnight or we'll open up the ad account and it'll be all different.
Mariah MacInnes: but like they haven't even like are they planning on communicate cuz I didn't know that my ad would be paused. That's annoying. I'm annoyed by
Ashley Boston: Well,
Mariah MacInnes: that.
Ashley Boston: this is the wonderful thing about Meta, isn't it? That they just don't communicate anything that they do. You just log into the account one day and all of a sudden there's a new enhancement or there's like actually and I noticed this week um I have a client and she kind of you can't you can't really run campaigns for leads or sales really.
 

 
Ashley Boston: So, a lot of it is about awareness. And I went in and set up a video views campaign. And in the ads set there is a conversion section now which I thought was interesting. So you obviously are choosing like at the end of the day what's the goal you want to achieve? Is it a lead or a sale? So I
Mariah MacInnes: H.
Ashley Boston: found that interesting and I hadn't seen that before. So you know just I mean we don't get notified a lot of the time. Um, it's about being in spaces who have really good meta reps, you know, like, um,
Mariah MacInnes: H.
Ashley Boston: as part of their really big teams. Those that spend a lot of money have a really good meta rep. Um, and
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: so I'm in a lot of communities, um, trusted communities that I'm in. Um, and then also just making sure that you know you're on top of those changes. Um, which is hard. I know it's hard to find those and keep on top of.
 

 
Ashley Boston: It would be nice if they sent out an email, but this
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: is not how they roll all the time. But
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah, that would be very nice. Some communication that would I wonder if Yeah. what their comm's team does. Probably more like crisis management.
Ashley Boston: I Yeah, like Yeah. Yeah. putting fires out probably um helping people get their accounts undisabled.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah. and that it's all very interesting. I think like as a small business owner, it can be so overwhelming, right, to be like, okay, well, I've got to do organic marketing and I've got to do potential paid marketing down the track and I've got to do this and I've got to do that. And that's where like obviously, yeah, finding your people that can support you, I think, is it makes such a difference because otherwise you just you're just throwing money out the window basically cuz that's what can happen with ads if they're not set up properly. And it's interesting with like the whole agency thing.

 
Mariah MacInnes: I think the same thing happens in organic. Like it's exactly the same. Like you've got these agencies that will just pump out a month's worth of content and slap it up and then not talk to you for a month and then all this stuff goes out on people's feeds and it's just a bit you know interesting. And it's the same thing with a bigger agencies and you know you feel like I've that many people that come oh I was at the and I just felt like a small fish and I felt like they didn't listen to me and they didn't like once the content was set that was it. I couldn't do anything and then all this stuff goes out on your page and it's like well that's not really the point
Ashley Boston: Yeah.
Mariah MacInnes: is it?
Ashley Boston: And I think like you I think it is important to have you know there are some really great mentors out there who are um like I mean even e-commerce and that um and they are very good at what they do but at the end of the day if you don't you know there's always negative talk about oh but you know I left their program and whatever but at the end of the day like I've had people go and do multiple pro programs come to me and then go oh So like it's the same sort of strategy, but there's I think I've just realized there's no magic bullet.

Ashley Boston: Well, if you don't do the work, you know, like you not just you can go and do as many programs as you like. And yeah, if if we're all teaching like strategy and and if you're going, "Oh, okay. Well, then there's just no magic bullet." No, you've got to put in the work. Like you if if you're going to do it yourself, you have to put in the work. Um, and you have to make it a priority. So, um, and yeah, like you said, there's so many hats that we wear. We didn't set out to be ad managers or content creators or accountants or email marketers. So, I do think it's important that you make sure if you are running ads that you do find someone to make sure that you're on top of what the changes are doing so it doesn't impact what's happening um, in your business. And yeah, that's one of the things that I do love and enjoy doing. Um, and and what works now probably won't work in 6 months time or what worked last year won't work now, you know?
 
Ashley Boston: So, it's always evolving and changing and we just have to roll with it and it frustrates us, but at the end of the day, like it is what it is and we don't have control over it.
Mariah MacInnes: That's a big Yeah, you don't have control. And that that's one of the things I learned when I lost my Instagram. you just don't have control over anything. And
Ashley Boston: Yeah.
Mariah MacInnes: you've had the same thing with ad accounts and
Ashley Boston: Yeah.
Mariah MacInnes: and that's why it's always important to build a sustainable marketing plan, right? And yeah, anyway, it's it's I think as a business owner, yes, we didn't set out to be all these things, but it is just part of the label of what you want to try and create. So, you've kind of just got to find a way that works for you and and the strategies that work. And you're right there. Anyone could teach the same thing and you go, "Oh, well, I resonated with this person when they taught it, but they don't have any secret. There's

 
Mariah MacInnes: no secret source like everyone."
Ashley Boston: No.
Mariah MacInnes: So, I found that with organic like the the videos that perform well or even clients that have had viral content, not that that's always the goal, totally different from one video to the other or from one piece of creative to the other. like it's
Ashley Boston: Heat.
Mariah MacInnes: not there's no you know you'll have people say this is the magic formula if you want your content to go viral and your business to make millions or whatever and it's like they don't it's so different it's so different in that side like I think the biggest thing is connecting to the audience as well right like and that's what I
Ashley Boston: Yeah.
Mariah MacInnes: guess makes a little bit hard with this new meta change is you don't really know well you hope that the AI is sending it to the right audience but I
Ashley Boston: Yeah.
Mariah MacInnes: guess
Ashley Boston: And yeah, you're not Yeah, I think and that's your copy like your messaging and your copy is really important too because that they're going to draw from that.

 
Ashley Boston: They're going to draw from what is inside of your messaging. So that becomes even more important too um as well as our creatives to ensure that we're getting in front of the right people and that we're attracting the right type of people. Um, and I've just taken an over another ad account recently. And um, you know, it's always interesting to go in and see when another ad specialist has uh, managed campaigns and set up things and and this client was just so burned out. You know, she's like, I've spent so much money. Um, I haven't seen the results. Like, I just And it's frustrating to me like that that is still happening. these days, I guess. Um, because it's too small of a space, you know, to to to not do a good job for a client. Um, and and yeah, but I think like, you know, we all have different people that we learn from, but some of those things are so outdated. So, it's just so important to make sure that you you are up to date or if you're doing a program, you know, or a course, just make sure it's up to date.

 
Ashley Boston: Make sure it's really relevant so that you're not making any mistakes that could be costing you money in the long run. And if you do hire an agency or an ad strategist, just, you know, I think trust your intuition as well. Um, but ask for, you know, proof of what they've done before. They don't have to share clients names, but, you know, just always ask um what their skill set is. And I had someone recently say like like how do you choose who you decide to work with? I was like that's a really great question, you know, like um and I think it's those questions that um are really good to dive into and like interview them as if they're going to be part of your team. Um
Mariah MacInnes: No.
Ashley Boston: so yeah, I mean yeah, these things still happen, but anyway, we'll see what happens. We'll see where things go.
Mariah MacInnes: It'll be interesting, but thank you for sharing. Um, I thought it was Yeah, it's obviously we talk more content marketing and organic, but uh, if we want to scale our impact, definitely you got to put the money into it, right?

 
Mariah MacInnes: and ads obviously is one of those elements and as business owners I think it's always on our mind to one day you know kind of get it working so that we can have a little bit more of that like evergreen as you said and not always be on all the time like showing up um and you can do it in different ways I think we always just think like oh social media but social media is a 24/7 platform so you've got to like it's got to work for you and we don't always have the energy to show up and promote our products and services. So, it's nice to have something working in the background for you, but it it can be something that's so overwhelming because it's actually putting money into it, whereas like I guess organic you could hire someone, but like you don't you don't quantify your time into money. So, it's sort of like, you know, it's kind of like girl math in a way, like,
Ashley Boston: Yeah.
Mariah MacInnes: oh,
Ashley Boston: Yeah.
Mariah MacInnes: this is free.

 
Mariah MacInnes: But it's not because it's your time and
Ashley Boston: Yeah.
Mariah MacInnes: like when I was doing my own Canva graphics and a mentor said to me, Mariah, if if you charge yourself if you charge $100 an hour, for example, and it takes you three hours to do your Canva, that's $300. And I'm like, oh, yeah. You know, you just don't think of it like that. But so it's good to have a conversation and and um see what's happening in this space because yeah when obviously meta come out and say things uh you're always like okay what's what's happening here? What does this mean for all of us? So it's nice
Ashley Boston: I
Mariah MacInnes: to have
Ashley Boston: know
Mariah MacInnes: an
Ashley Boston: the anxiety, don't worry. The anxiety kicks in and and and like I've known this has been coming for months and and you're just waiting for it, you know, like it's just just waiting just waiting just waiting for it to happen. It's like just get it can we get it over and done with.

 
Ashley Boston: The
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: other thing that I noticed that thread profiles is now inside of your ad creative section as a profile to run ads to. And I think yeah, I know. And I'm like, we're still using threads. Like I it's been a long time since I logged into threads.
Mariah MacInnes: I don't know. But I guess it's the
Ashley Boston: But
Mariah MacInnes: Twitter
Ashley Boston: apparently it's a growing platform still um according
Mariah MacInnes: still.
Ashley Boston: to Meta.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: So that will be interesting. But that's, you know, like I just logged in this week and I was like, "Oh, threads. We're there.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: We're running ads. Okay.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah. and and as business owner, you just you don't see like I've had to be honest, I've got a a calendar thing for every week to go in and look at my meta ads, but it's not like I'm opening the campaign and doing all this
Ashley Boston: Mhm.
Mariah MacInnes: stuff because, you know, I mean, I know we should be, but it's like you some weeks you just don't even have time to look at your numbers to see if something's working, let alone, you know,

 
Ashley Boston: Well,
Mariah MacInnes: Um
Ashley Boston: yeah. I think uh there's lots of fun things that I've been playing with like chat GPT and how to use it to bring in your numbers and like give you feedback. So then it's quickly it's automated like it's not something that you have to sit and do and that has been where AI can come into play in a in
Mariah MacInnes: yeah.
Ashley Boston: a fun positive way if you're not a numbers person. So yeah,
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: I've been building some custom bots to play around with things like that and and um strategy wise. So yeah, that's kind of exciting and fun to do. But yeah, you're right. Like we don't always have time to go in and and make changes or adjust things if we're running our own campaigns. Um
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah.
Ashley Boston: but it is important to make sure that we are checking on them because
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah. Because you're spending the
Ashley Boston: you're
Mariah MacInnes: cash
Ashley Boston: spending money. That's

 
Mariah MacInnes: coming.
Ashley Boston: right.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah. So true. Oh, I'm excited to hear what happens with your bots. So, keep us posted. This sounds
Ashley Boston: Yes,
Mariah MacInnes: exciting.
Ashley Boston: I
Mariah MacInnes: I'm
Ashley Boston: will. I will keep
Mariah MacInnes: Cool. Well, thank you for coming on and chatting with me again. I'll link
Ashley Boston: always.
Mariah MacInnes: Yeah, I'll in the link in the show notes, I'll put the original episode if people are like, "Oh, what is like what is ads 101?" Because we did a really good episode on that and um your recent episode on the meta changes. So, thank you so much and
Ashley Boston: That's all right. You're welcome. Thank you again. Bye.
Mariah MacInnes: bye. Okay, let me stop recording. Thank you so much. This turned off at some stage. Battery
Ashley Boston: You're
Mariah MacInnes: full.
Ashley Boston: welcome. Thank you.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment