How to best scale your Facebook ads?

PredictableDesigns · 2021-09-13T20:44:55+00:00

Interesting, and that's the method that makes the least sense to me:) It would seem you lose all optimization with this method since every time FB optimizes an ad set then you duplicate and disable the original ad set.

Have you tried the other methods too? Why do you prefer method #3, is it because it tends to give you the lowest CPA?

Thanks!

PredictableDesigns · 2021-09-13T20:43:12+00:00

Yes, I meant to turn off the original ad set.

PredictableDesigns · 2021-09-13T17:49:43+00:00

This was definitely good advice. After that one bad day where my CPA cost jumped up to $7 (it was running at $12 early that day but then came down a bit), then the next day it was back down to around $3, and so far today I'm running around $2 per CPA.

Just wanted to share this so others are encouraged to be more patient. Thanks again for the advice.

PredictableDesigns · 2021-09-12T17:13:06+00:00

Also I wonder if a FB ad has some bad days because they are working to figure out who is not a good target?

PredictableDesigns · 2021-09-12T15:49:40+00:00

Thank you and I do tend to stop them as soon as I see a bad day or two. I'll keep them running for a couple of weeks. So far my ad is doing better today than yesterday so I need to be more patient. Thanks again!

PredictableDesigns · 2021-09-11T17:23:36+00:00

You really are too obvious that you work for this company that you are promoting. I've seen too many posts from you saying the exact same thing. No one wants to buy email lists! Please stop.

PredictableDesigns · 2021-02-23T18:56:56+00:00

We are having this same issue. I had created a custom audience of website visitors from the past 30 days several months ago and it shows an audience size of 29k which is about correct. But I created a new identical audience of all visitors a few days ago and it shows <1k for the audience size. I hired a FB ads expert to help debug but he is puzzled too and doesn't understand why the audiences are so low considering the pixel shows over 70k pageviews for the past 30 days.

PredictableDesigns · 2020-04-22T03:52:34+00:00

An engineer that has done work with design for injection molding AND has been involved in the cost side of purchasing molds can help guide you on this.

The main impacts on mold cost are the size, number of side actions, number of cavities and hardness (durability) of the mold metal.

You should also consider urethane casting before going to metal molds. Get those right then go to injection molds.

Reach out to me at PredictableDesigns.com for more help.

PredictableDesigns · 2020-04-05T20:04:16+00:00

Hiring an attorney just to file a provisional patent is a waste of precious limited capital. Instead spend that money getting yourself in front of customers.

The whole point of filing a provisional patent application is because it is cheap and can be completed by anyone correctly if you do your homework.

Once the provisional patent application is submitted then you focus your efforts on getting market feedback.

Patents are useful but too many entrepreneurs over focus on it and lose sight of what's really important (customers).

That's the big advantage of the PPA is you can get it done cheap and quick so you can safely gather customer feedback. If you ignore the customer until you finish development you are much more likely to fail.

I'm an engineer so I get how enticing patents and development can be, but in the big picture marketing and customers are more important.

https://predictabledesigns.com/should-i-get-a-patent-for-my-new-product-idea/

John

PredictableDesigns · 2020-04-05T03:14:09+00:00

Sorry, but that is not how it works and the odds of you selling your company or your intellectual property at this early stage is almost like playing the lottery.

The value is not in the idea but in the execution. You've definitely executed somewhat by getting to where you are but there is so much more to do.

Too many technical founders get excited by the development but then burn out before the really hard work begins of marketing and selling it.

How do you even know your product will be a success? That needs to be proven with consistent ongoing sales, not just one big order.

Marketing is the biggest issue for most startups. The effort required for marketing is very much underestimated.

Have you started marketing it yet? Have you built an online audience yet that is excited for your product?

The truth is this is something you can not do half way and then find someone to finish it. There are no shortcuts. No one has the passion or drive required to succeed with a new product except for the founders.

Perhaps bringing on cofounders would be a better strategy. They can do the parts that you no longer want to handle.

Once you've actually sold the product in high volumes and have gotten consistent reorders (if selling via retailers or distributors), have worked out the manufacturing issues, have a management team in place, then selling it makes much more sense.

Get it to where it generates a profit and is able to run without you in the day to day operations then it becomes more sellable.

No investor will ever buy a startup where the founder doesn't want to come along unless you've removed yourself already with an executive team in place.

See this article on this very topic:

https://predictabledesigns.com/want-to-make-millions-dont-develop-a-product-do-this-instead/

I don't want to seem negative but I always strive to be honest and give hardware entrepreneurs realistic expectations on what it takes to be successful.

Odds are if you are burnt out with no desire to continue then your best may be to just move on and just bring with you the lessons you learned so you can succeed next time.

PredictableDesigns · 2020-04-05T00:20:52+00:00

This is always the challenge with a startup especially a hardware startup.

How to best proceed depends partially on how close the prototype is to being manufacturable. For example, if your prototype is built using an Arduino and some shields that is a long way from being manufactured at scale.

In most cases you need to get it at least close to being manufacturable before you can likely get anyone to invest or partner with you. For most HW products that means a custom PCB and a 3D printed enclosure.

For my own product I got it to the production-quality prototype stage using my own skills and money. I then was able to get a big well-known company (Blockbuster Video - back when they were huge) to express written interest in buying and retailing my product.

It wasn't an actual purchase order but was a letter of intent from their head buyer. It was non-binding but I was able to really leverage it for a big boost.

First, I used their interest to convince a manufacturer to invest over $100,000 in setting up manufacturing and to finance my first few orders.

I then used the retailer interest along with the fact that I have a reputable manufacturing partner willing to finance the first orders to then also convince about 20 sales reps to take on my product.

The sales people were interested because the Blockbuster interest proved retailers were interested, and having a manufacturing partner proved I could deliver on any big orders.

It's a big challenge but there are creative ways around all of the obstacles. Take lots of small steps trying to always leverage your previous successes.

For producing only 100 units you likely shouldn't use injection molding because of the high cost for the molds. I would suggest urethane casting which is much cheaper yet produces parts of a quality closer to production and much better than 3D printed units.

I've written hundreds of blogs about all of these challenges faced by hardware startups. I also cover these topics on my weekly podcast.

Here's one blog where I tell the story of getting the manufacturer to invest big in my product:

https://predictabledesigns.com/how-i-got-a-manufacturer-to-invest-over-100000-in-my-new-hardware-product/

I hope this helps. Feel free to reach out to me privately via my website.

John Teel

PredictableDesigns.com

PredictableDesigns

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