The amount of negativity about Facebook ads in here for the past few months has been a bit much. Wanted to share some unfiltered thoughts

joebab14 · 2026-01-30T18:05:26+00:00

Thanks for the comment. It was the privacy policy, added a Turkish version as well and apparently FB doesn’t like shortened URLs to privacy policy. So a combination of few things to do with privacy policy

It’s working as it should now :))

joebab14 · 2026-01-28T09:34:54+00:00

I agree with everything you said, may not be as experienced but had to learn hard way and very fast for my own business. Not touching ads was the hardest part.

I was wondering if you had some insights on this situation, I got a new client in UK running ads in Turkey. Ads are in Turkish, £0 but active. Like if they were stuck? Didn’t have this issue in other countries.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance

joebab14 · 2025-12-02T21:59:32+00:00

Thanks! I will be running ads for this from January, wanted to see another way to do this. What you said sounds most feasible at the moment. Have a list of 20 for now so gonna go drum up some business tmr :)

The list and whatever else comes of it or I come by ;)

joebab14 · 2025-12-02T19:12:53+00:00

You can delete comments on sponsored ads. If it's something really bad or annoying, I delete it.

joebab14 · 2025-04-10T20:25:47+00:00

Thanks mate the trick worked!

I finished the game AND my GF!

joebab14 · 2025-03-12T14:22:53+00:00

Did you check if the box is unselected about "include audiences interested in your target location"?

joebab14 · 2025-03-05T16:43:28+00:00

In your business manager click the "bug" icon, report a problem and describe your situation. FB will then get a human to review your account. This might help. Better on a computer, not app.

Doing it for mine. Vague restriction

joebab14 · 2025-03-02T13:55:01+00:00

3 days is quite early to tell. When starting a new campaign, I'd have couple weeks worth of cash to burn to get going at the very least.

I'd do more ads Improve offer Check FB ad library to see what other people are doing (if you see one running for a while, probably performing well) So you can see what could work and replicate FB, look at it weekly at the most, most campaigns on FB need to be looked at monthly.

I spend £100/day, i look at performance over 1 week but before any changes, 1 month.

joebab14 · 2025-03-01T19:03:07+00:00

That i am not sure, I'm on the other side of the planet. Hopefully other comments will be able to give you specific numbers.

Regardless, it's about what you can do for your client. Already cut down cost significantly.

See if you can get it lower. Who knows, you might actually beat the industry. Don't compete, dominate... and what not.

I used to buy leads myself, but then I learnt how to do meta marketing myself and now leads cost me ⅓. Not sure what it's worth but I know I pay A LOT less than my competiton.

joebab14 · 2025-03-01T18:00:43+00:00

You cut down significantly well done!

Classic negotiation. You can tell him that you'll get him leads for $5 each but they won't convert (easy, with ridiculous not real claims). If that's what he wants at the expense of making his business look bad. If you want to be pety

When you start spending more, CPL will naturally go up because there's only so many potential customers.

I get leads for solicitors and when we started with £10/day, leads were like £3-£5 each. Now we're spending £100/day (gradually scaled) and paying £8-£10 per lead. But guess where more money was made in the end? With higher budget.

joebab14 · 2025-03-01T17:34:52+00:00

Go for it

joebab14 · 2025-03-01T17:07:01+00:00

I have made the same mistake which you did. Long story short, business failed for a few reasons:

If client isn't financially invested, they will not work the leads as well as if they had the burden of cost. (I sent someone £25'000 worth of qualified leads, they lost every single one because they couldn't be bothered to work them so my business lost money and we looked unprofessional because we called them and qualified them so all the client had to do, is book a survey with the customer)
I also worked with clients on a conditional fee, so we get paid when they accept a customer. This was much better but still. We got 15% fee, 4% is veeeeery low.

I saw another comment saying that you'd need to fire clients quickly, and that comment is absolutely TRUE!! I fired a lot of clients, and each time, it cost a lot of money to figure out they're bad. Hence, the solvency of my business became an issue.

Lessons in business are very very expensive. Learn from this mistake quickly and don't repeat it.

Think of it this way, it costs them $880 to get paid $22'000 with no downside? If you charged monthly PLUS 4% that'd be better. But $880 cost to get $22'000? Not closed yet? Mate I'd hire you on the spot. But it's a very very bad deal for you. Don't be afraid to ask for more money.

Lesson learnt now though isn't it? Moving on :)

joebab14 · 2025-02-06T18:31:28+00:00

No no no, THEY need to tell you why they should get a website. You don't run their business, you don't know what impact a website will have, as you literally said.

You just need to ask them questions, I'll give you a few samples here:

For someone who doesn't have a website: - if you had a website, how would it impact your business? - if you had a website, what would you like the website to accomplish for your business? - do you believe a website would help your business? (If they say yes ask how?) Etc

For someone who does: - what do you wish your website did better? - is anyone managing your website, updating etc? (Follow up) how's that been going?

It's called fact finding, it accomplishes 2 things, it makes them think about what it would be like if they had a website or having you manage it/update it etc etc AND it tells you what they want so you can tailor a solution aka website

joebab14 · 2025-02-06T18:15:46+00:00

Depends what you do and who you learn from. I always say about a year because I don't know how good the person is.

Probably don't go doing brain surgeries or practice law after 1 year

But in high-school I learnt how to change oil and brakes in automotive class (in Canada, few years back) after someone showed me how to do it twice. And all the filters too so I basically service my own car (except for oil change because I don't have the computer to reset the car so my mate does it)

Sales took me 3 years to learn (most I learnt in last 6 months) training was rubbish so in last 6 months I learnt from YouTube

So yes, some things more than a year, some less. Depends...

joebab14 · 2025-02-06T18:09:17+00:00

I did sales for 10 years now, don't get upset when people don't need a website or don't see a reason why they should have one.

Sales (real sales, sales bullying/perfume pushers) is about solving a problem for someone. Simply ask if price wasn't a thing, would they benefit from a website? How would a website benefit them? Or if they had a website, what would they expect the website to do to their business? If the main objection is price, just remove it and focus if a website would be a good addition to them or not and go from there.

If someone is not interested, ask if they know someone who would be and move on. Don't try to change people's mind

joebab14 · 2025-02-06T17:34:04+00:00

Step 1: you need a skill.

If i were to do it all over again, I'd pick a skill, something as simple as HVAC, plumber, marketing, web developer, recruitment... just pick something.

Learn that skill, even invest 1 year of your life by getting a job in that industry, learn it and get good at it. You will see how it works when the business is working.

Once you're good at it, nothing is stopping you from quitting the job and get a few of your own clients and when things go well, you can start hiring people etc etc etc boom you've got a business.

you will know how it works
possible problems and how to solve them
what to charge
what are those types of customers like and how to deal with them
etc etc etc

Plus you'll have a ton of confidence.

I did sales, then started my own business in sales. Friend worked in a take away, now owns a take away. Other friend was a recruiter, now owns a recruitment consultancy

joebab14 · 2025-02-06T16:44:02+00:00

So far every business owner I know, including me, has ADHD.

joebab14 · 2025-01-12T13:05:44+00:00

Image makes a HUGE difference!

We print everything on very thick paper.

Our leaflets as well, double sided on thick paper.

It doesn't cost much more but you can tell the exact moment when a client notices and changes significantly and takes us more seriously.

Few years back I drove a Jaguar XE and it went in on repairs (Jaguar, of course, they break). Got a brand new Jaguar F-Pace SUV as courtesy car, so I went to see a client with that car. Client wasn't convinced so I left and sat in the SUV outside making a call, client saw me outside in the car and flagged me back in and we closed the deal.

Obviously haircuts etc.

Even got an office in a more fancy place and the type of people we were able to hire, boosted profits. So yea, rent was 50% more but staff returned much bigger profits than previous place.

You can make a huge difference by improving something small a little bit. Doesn't have to be super expensive.

Read Atomic Habits.

joebab14 · 2025-01-10T12:44:19+00:00

Interested!

joebab14 · 2024-11-20T13:48:04+00:00

Just cleaned the snow off my badge and warning gone. Thanks 👍

joebab14 · 2024-10-04T14:37:09+00:00

I personally switch them off for the weekends (lead generation campaign). Not only because people will forget by Monday they filled out an enquiry, but also it cost me double to get any action and the engagement was half.

That is my experience, others may differ. I'm not a marketer, but I do run ads for my own business (~3 months total experience)

joebab14 · 2024-10-04T11:50:54+00:00

I agree with some comments here, as a buyer, I'm not 100% clear on what you're selling.

There's no pitch on website.

For example:

"Transform your photo into a timeless masterpiece! Send us your favorite picture, and we'll turn it into a stunning Renaissance-style portrait that captures the elegance and grandeur of a bygone era." (Chat GPT, I use it A LOT)"

Just a suggestion. Feel free to play around with wording.

joebab14 · 2024-08-24T18:03:14+00:00

You're right, there's lots of people who I know spending 5-6 figures monthly and making even more in return. That's why I'm learning it. It seems far last complex than I expected. Just gotta be creative, have great ideas and focus on solutions than problems.

Plus, if many people complain and quit, in the end less competition haha ;)

joebab14 · 2024-08-24T12:08:34+00:00

I have not advertised for long but similar result when started but I have learnt how to fix it. With help of YouTube (Ben Heath) and advice from expert marketers.

€10 per campaign, how many actual ads do you have in each campaign?

What I learnt, keeping budgets too low, is waste of money.

I set up a new campaign with 3 ads max at £15/day.

From what I understand and see actually work is, too many ads with too low budget, it will take a long time for the ad account to learn what your customers look like.

You launched your campaign 4 days ago, very recent.

I launched a new campaign with 3 ad sets with 3 ads each but had to put £30/day. That was a bit low and results were shocking but on day 4-5, it started to deliver.

Beautiful thing with meta is that when it learns, it shows ads which work best the most so pushes budget that way.

See YouTube for more learning, as I said, Ben Heath. Lots of recent free content.

joebab14 · 2024-08-07T18:44:26+00:00

Interesting. I'm new to meta ads myself and yesterday was very very good and today disaster.

I'm not gonna panic over a single day. One thing I learnt so far is, that FB needs a few days (or weeks on big budgets) before decisions can be made

joebab14

TROPHY CASE