905: EVERYTHING you need to succeed (and how it's all changed!) with FB + IG Ads w/ Sheena West

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, Brian LoFermento.

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I've got to put my hand in the air today because it has been way too long since we've talked Facebook ads here on this show, and today we are bringing someone whose energy is infectious.

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She has such a passion for it and a heck of a lot of experience in helping other businesses grow through paid advertising.

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So let me tell you all about today's guest.

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Her name is Sheena West.

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Sheena has over 12 years of experience working in the digital marketing space, With a degree in multimedia writing and technical communication from Arizona State University.

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She's developed her expertise in paid social media advertising across several different agencies, mastering both the nonprofit and the for-profit spaces.

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Whether it's helping donor files for nonprofit organizations or generating six to seven figure revenue for online businesses and entrepreneurs, Sheena has a breadth of experience that serves a diverse client roster After being laid off.

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I love this part of her entrepreneurial journey.

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After being laid off amidst the COVID pandemic, Sheena recognized that the next step in her entrepreneurial journey was to create a self-driven, sustainable way of making a living dream up content in 2020, with a goal of providing a select client list with a high touch personalized advertising experience.

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I'm super excited about this one.

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I'm not going to say anything else.

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Let's dive straight into my interview with Sheena West.

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All right, Sheena, I'm so excited that you're here with us today.

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First things first.

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Welcome to the show.

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Thank you so much.

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I appreciate you having me and I'm so looking forward to diving into all things marketing.

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Heck.

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Yes, well, we've got a lot to say because, as I said in the intro, it for sure has been too long since we've talked Facebook ads, and it's a world that's always changing.

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But before we get there, take us beyond the bio.

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Who's Sheena?

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How'd you start doing all this awesome stuff?

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Yeah, so I started my entrepreneurial journey when I was probably 18.

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And I was just like excited about the idea of creating something that I can get clients and I saved up all of my money at the time and I bought my first MacBook and I was so stoked about it and I started to do organic type of content.

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I did some photography, and so I was always kind of just like trying to find my niche and where I wanted to land in terms of actually growing a sustainable business.

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So, over the years of being able to get some clients, learn some things, I then was finishing up school.

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I worked for some agencies and I actually got some really good experience to be able to feel more confident with kind of branching out on my own.

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I upgraded my Mac.

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I ended up kind of nailing down that I wanted to be in paid ads.

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That was the thing that got me most excited, and so that's kind of where I started.

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There's always been like a little bit of a thing inside of me that wanted to pursue entrepreneurship, and so I ended up in 2020 getting laid off, and that's really where the fire was lit.

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I remember the day that I was laid off.

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I was like you will not just leave me high and dry.

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So that night I started to like apply for jobs as like a backup, while also considering what it would look like more fully to be able to build out what is dream up content today.

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What is dream up content today.

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So I was able to really kind of figure out that, you know, being being left out in the dust after a layoff during a time where, like the world was like not trying to hire people.

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I decided to really formalize some of the stuff that I've learned over the years and be able to present that for clients who want to grow and scale their business.

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So that's kind of how I ended up where I am now.

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Yes, I love that overview, sheena, but it was not the layoff, that was the catalyst for you, because it sounds like you always had that entrepreneurial bug inside of you, and that's why all of our listeners are here is because once that's inside of you, wherever you are in your journey, you just can never ignore it, and all roads eventually lead to you starting your own thing.

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So I love the fact that you picked yourself.

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Seth Godin talks about it.

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He calls it the tyranny of being picked, and if someone else gets to pick you, that's not so secure that society makes us think that it is.

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So kudos to you for making that big leap, and I love the fact that you serve people in such a deeply meaningful way through marketing, through advertising.

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That really is.

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It's the fuel for growth for all businesses.

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But, sheena, the reality is paid ads are so intimidating for so many business owners.

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Talk to us about the paid ad landscape, because it's certainly changed over the years.

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I remember the good old days when you could get clicks for around 10 cents per click.

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That's what paid advertising looked like.

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What's the paid advertising arena look like today?

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Like what's?

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the paid advertising arena look like today.

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Yeah so, the paid advertising arena, specifically facebook and instagram, I have done some tick tock, but with it being newer it's a little bit, uh, its own kind of department, but with specifically facebook and instagram ads, it's definitely become harder.

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Like you said, the costs are just different in order to advertise and so in order to kind of combat some of the higher costs and some of the the industries that are a little bit more saturated now, such as, like coaching, course creators, things like that, you really have to differentiate yourself, and I think this is the thing that I've really learned over the last even few years is like you really have to differentiate yourself, and I think this is the thing that I've really learned over the last even few years is like you really have to differentiate yourself by your unique selling points and your unique messaging, because there's going to be other coaches in this space, and how are you setting yourself apart?

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There's going to be other e-commerce trying to get in front of people and sell their things right.

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So, like, what's the thing that's really going to set you apart and how do you use your own story, your own experience, to really rise above some of the normal high costs and things like that.

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So it has changed a lot in terms of pricing, but also I think it's allowed us to paid ads more recently, has allowed us to really dive into more of a holistic strategy.

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Where I think people get scared is like it feels like you're just throwing money at ads and hoping something sticks fingers crossed, that whole situation and instead, like what I found is really figuring out a holistic strategy and that that starts from the offer to the actual ad copy, the creative, the landing page, the landing page conversion rate, what you're offering, how it's presented, and then obviously your purchase conversion rate.

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Like it really becomes way more than just an ad that you click on.

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It really becomes a whole journey that you have to think through, which can be really intimidating for business owners that are so busy already and then feel like they can't maybe find the right strategy for themselves because they're too close to it or whatever the case may be.

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And so really the thing that makes the difference right now in paid ads is having that strategic, holistic view on your funnel and then being able to execute that with, obviously, the actual paid ads media buying expertise.

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But yeah, I would say it used to be a little bit more like you can throw some stuff out there and you'd see some good action.

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Now it's like nope, you're just wasting money if you do that, so it's not recommended.

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But yeah, I would say those are some of the differences and nuances of how things have currently changed in the paid ad space.

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Yeah, I love that overview, because this is something that's so magical to me about talking about marketing is you can't have a marketing conversation without coming back to the fundamentals of business.

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So, sheena, here we are talking about the ad space, but you couldn't help but talk about messaging and positioning and the offer structure and all of those things.

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Everyone wants to talk ad creative, everyone wants to talk about targeting options, which we're going to do in today's episode.

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But really, you, laying out that overview so clearly for us makes me realize that it's really three things we have to talk about to help other business owners with this episode, which is what do we need to do before we ever place an ad?

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What do we do in the ad itself?

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And then, what do we do to make sure that that ad is successful after people click it, because they're not going to buy right then and there.

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So, sheena, let's go deeper into the before we ever run an ad, because that's going to make or break us Ultimately.

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If we don't get any of those things right, we could have the prettiest ad creatives, we could have the best targeting, but it's not gonna convert.

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So what must business owners consider before we ever?

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run an ad.

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Yeah, great question, and I love this.

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It is a little bit three parts, like you said, it's never just the ad side of things.

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So, before even launching ads, I think it's super important to get clear on what you're trying to offer and how you want people to get there, how you want people to feel what solution you're solving for them, what is the lifestyle that you're presenting or offering Like.

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You have to really think beyond that and get clear on, like who you're even going after, right, like sure, you can say women 18 to 55, but like who of that group, because those have that age range, even has such different needs and desires and whatnot.

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So getting really clear on like what it is you're offering, who you're offering it to, what is the vibe and feel that you're trying to get them to experience when working with you or when going through one of your courses or buying one of your products.

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So I think all of that stuff is super necessary prior to actually launching ads.

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I think additionally, I mean there's some tech components that you know should be considered before launching being able to actually have, you know, your Facebook account set up, your pixel installed on your website.

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There's some of those things that will help make the journey easier when you are ready to launch ads.

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So there's that kind of tech component a little bit, but I think the primary thing is really getting clear on who you're trying to target, what you're trying to target them with, and then really does the journey make sense of how you're trying to get them there?

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I think sometimes what I see is that it makes sense to the business owner of what they're trying to present because they're so close to it.

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So they understand like yeah, this goes with this, because it goes with it, because that's how I made it.

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But I think the thing that really makes a difference is if you're looking at it from a cold prospect, cold audience standpoint, are they going to have all the nuances that you may know?

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That makes sense to you.

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Are they going to be able to connect the dots where you can connect the dots easily.

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So it's really thinking beyond, just yeah, this is the thing I want to launch and not actually considering will this make sense to my audience?

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So I think all of those things are really essential to think through and spend a lot of actually of the brunt work up front in order to actually make it successful.

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And part of that kind of goes into the actual like messaging of what you're offering Cause I've seen where I've launched ads for somebody and it did not hit.

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It just was not performing.

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It did not hit and our costs were crazy.

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We weren't really getting any good leads or conversions or anything like that and then we switched our messaging and all of a sudden it was like it resonated different and so being able to do client surveys, send out things to ask questions to your audience there's so much research and brainstorming you can do ahead of time that really makes such a difference when you go to actually push live on ads.

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Yeah, sheena, hearing you talk about this, you put such a strong emphasis, of course, on the people receiving the ads.

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We, as entrepreneurs, we have a tendency to get inside our own heads and to make everything about ourselves, but you really keep coming back to who is it that we're even going to be serving this messaging, this offer, this ad, to which I think it's really important for us to touch on the really the edge that Facebook and Instagram have as an ad platform.

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Of course, it's all looped under meta, but as an ad platform, they have so much data on every single one of us.

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They know things that we may not know about ourselves, simply based on what we look at, what we click on, what we message and share with our friends, and so knowing that this is an interest-based advertising strategy versus intent-based.

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So people know, if I search on Google for pizza place near me, of course Google knows what I want.

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I want a pizza and I want it right now and I hope it's near me but we're really talking about targeting people based on their interests.

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Talk to us about some of those targeting options because, again, I feel like, every step of the way, we could say, if you get this wrong, it's not going to work.

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We have to get all of these things right.

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Talk to us about interest based targeting.

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Yeah, so the targeting on Facebook something that's actually been a little bit newer, I would say, over the past year, which is very different than 12 years ago is that Facebook is actually favoring broader audiences.

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So they want you to actually be able to let the algorithm do its job and to learn, do its job and to learn.

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So creating really niched in audiences, like we used to do in advertising prior, where we're trying to find literally almost like the one person that we're trying to get to and narrow in our targeting.

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That close Meta is kind of like that's old news, we're not doing that anymore.

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So for now, I guess.

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So it's really about going broad, which is why the messaging becomes so important.

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So you can target interest-based targeting.

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Say, you don't have a huge email list, you don't have a huge traffic to your website, it's going to be hard to create really large lookalike audiences, essentially, which are audiences based off of another list or cookies, from a pixel that you build an audience off of those people that look most similar to that right.

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So if you don't have a ton of people on your email list and you don't have a ton of traffic to your website or maybe a huge following on Instagram.

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That's okay, Like you can create those audiences when you do get to a point where it becomes like a really great option for you when you have enough traffic or volume.

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But there's interest-based targeting that allows us to still speak to the people, tap into the people that we want to, while also trying to stay broad in order to give meta enough of a select of people in order to actually hit them.

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So I would say, from an interest-based targeting you could do.

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It used to be more specific, where you could literally target people based on their political affiliations, how much income they make, their household income and a lot more specific details.

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That was part of the change with some of the data stuff that happened a while back with Meta.

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But now you can target still, like if someone's married, if you're looking for couples maybe you have a coaching service for couples you can target people who are married.

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If you have an e-commerce, you can target people who have more of an affiliation.

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I'm blanked on the word I'm trying to get to, but the affinity, thank you, oh my gosh, I'm like over here saying affiliation affinity to shop and to purchase and actually follow through with a conversion.

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And actually follow through with a conversion.

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So it allows you to really still hit the people that you want, while also being able to select larger audiences.

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So you're not only targeting a thousand people.

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Your goal is to really try to hit in any given audience anywhere from a million to 10 million people, to really give Facebook enough space to tap into the right people.

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Yeah, and I think that is a hugely important call out that you just made for listeners here and really all business owners who want to leverage paid advertising, is that Facebook and Instagram meta.

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They have so much data on their users that they are always going to be better than we are at finding those people, and I think the key consideration here is that they want us to succeed on their ad platform at the end of the day, because if we're not successful, if it costs us more money than it makes us, we're not going to keep giving money there, and so Facebook wants us to make more money than we spend.

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So, sheena, hearing from your perspective about setting ourselves up for targeting success, but also trusting the data, which we're for sure going to talk metrics in a little bit I think that's such a powerful and important shift in the way that advertising is working these days, which we, of course, need to talk about.

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The ad, because everyone sees all these pretty ads, maybe some gimmicky ads.

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They see videos.

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They see all those beautiful Canva templates that everyone's using the same things these days, and obviously, the copy that goes along with it.

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When we lump in an ad, creative, it's the visuals and the copy Sheena.

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What do people do right there?

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What do people do wrong there?

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Walk us through there.

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Yeah, of course.

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So obviously this is the thing that people will see when they're seeing your ads right.

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They're not going to see any of the back end decisions you made in terms of targeting or the effort you put into finding the right offer and all of that.

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The thing that they see is the messaging and creative, so it is a hugely driving factor of success.

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So it isn't the only thing, but it is important in order to hit some baseline metrics in order to understand if your copy and creative are working.

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I think something that business owners and entrepreneurs get stuck on, specifically with paid ads, is that they want their branding to remain and that is like their most important thing when it comes to ads.

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The thing that I have found is that when you get really hooked on, you just need your graphic to look very like pretty and a specific way and aesthetics matter totally fine.

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But when you get stuck on like the logo has to always be in the right hand corner and the colors have to be this and this, you do box yourself into not being able to really get enough testing and learning into what actually works again for your audience.

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You might love your branding colors and your look and feel and vibe, but does your audience really resonate with that?

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And so sometimes what I've seen is like the prettiest most, what you would consider like the best looking ad, not perform.

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And then I throw up an ad against that to test and it's a little bit choppy, it's not like all smoothed out and refined and it performs 10 times better.

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I think some of that is because people have a little bit of an aversion to ads on Facebook and Instagram because they see so many, and so it really having something that feels a little bit more organic or stands out a little bit more resonates more with people when they're scrolling on their feed, opposed to something that feels and looks like an ad out the gate, people are more resistant and don't feel as inclined to click.

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So sometimes when we get stuck from an ad creative perspective in the it has to look and feel a certain way and this is the only way that I can run content you you're doing yourself a disservice because you're missing out on so many potential tests and versions that you can run to see actually what sticks.

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You know, and I think that's an important thing.

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Obviously, meta has been pushing video content as a huge source of higher click-through rates and just overall better performance.

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I will say it really just depends on the client and the type of material we're launching with.

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Like video creative is awesome, but also if the video sucks, like maybe it's not awesome.

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So I think it's important to also be able to fully test out do static graphics resonate better than video creative?

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And then, what's the quality of video?

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Because sometimes too highly produced videos end up feeling like am I watching a commercial?

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Like what is this?

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And people you're going to lose.

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People like especially if that's not your demographic or audience.

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Sure, if you're going for audio visual tech, people, maybe that hits.

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And so it's really about figuring out and doing enough testing for what works and not getting too much in your way for trying to decide if everything has to look and feel the same.

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As far as messaging in the actual copy of the ads, it's really important to find conversion based messaging so you can write an ad that's like hey, buy this right.

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That's not like persuasive, it's very direct and you know what Test it see if it works for you.

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But I think the messaging is really important to paint the picture of like your experience, without making it all about you, and to also provide your audience with the end goal in mind.

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So if it's a, if it's a newbie coach, right, that's trying to get into the industry.

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And they, right now their only thing they're thinking about is how the heck do I get a coaching client Like that's the only thing they're thinking about, while saying you know, here's how you can build a seven figure coaching business might feel inspirational, but I don't know if that's the thing that they're trying to get at.

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So phrasing that differently by saying get three coaching clients by the end of this month Feels very attainable, actionable and also speaks to the specific needs of who you're trying to target.

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So that's why messaging really is super important.

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There's so many cool tests and things like Mint Zero testing and stuff that you can do to really hone in on a small budget on the messaging that resonates most with your audience.

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So that's kind of how both of them tie together and ideally you find copy and creative that rises to the top, that both are performing well, and you can pair that together and develop new copy and creative off of that version that performs well and kind of build it out from there.

00:23:06.753 --> 00:23:20.138
So you start actually having kind of like an arsenal of copy creative that resonates, works and performs and you can really just swap it in ads as you kind of optimize your campaigns.

00:23:20.744 --> 00:23:21.887
Yeah, sheena, I'll tell you what.

00:23:21.887 --> 00:23:28.320
The more great marketers that I talk to, yourself included, the thing that always stands out to me is that you don't have templates.

00:23:28.320 --> 00:23:32.955
Like every entrepreneur, we wish we could just copy and paste what works, but I mean you just shared with us.

00:23:32.955 --> 00:23:37.076
The goal is not to create the prettiest ad, the goal is to create the most effective ad.

00:23:37.076 --> 00:23:46.407
And even when you talk about copy, even if you give a seemingly bad direct example, you interject it right there because you know you're just like test it, it might work.

00:23:46.488 --> 00:23:53.346
You're not married to any single thing that may or may not work, and I think this is really powerful and I want to call this out for listeners is that, sheena?

00:23:53.346 --> 00:23:57.836
It's also clear to me that you don't go in presuming you know all of the answers.

00:23:57.836 --> 00:24:02.952
You are always willing to test it and let the market decide and let the data show you what those answers are.

00:24:02.952 --> 00:24:15.729
So I love the way that you look at this and the way that you share it with us, which we've got to follow right on down the funnel, because, sheena, I hope that you dispel all of our the myth for all of our listeners here today of sending all this traffic just to our homepage.

00:24:15.729 --> 00:24:21.115
Holy cow, if I click one more ad and just get sent to a homepage that doesn't convert, it's going to drive me crazy.

00:24:21.115 --> 00:24:24.260
So, sheena, where are we sending all of this traffic to?

00:24:25.665 --> 00:24:26.608
Great question.

00:24:26.608 --> 00:24:34.250
If only a good little website homepage did the trick, I think we would all be multimillionaires and thriving in life.

00:24:34.250 --> 00:24:42.952
So it's really important, sure, if you would again like to test setting traffic there and see what performs better, that's great.

00:24:42.952 --> 00:25:06.497
If you have a stellar homepage that has all your information, sure, the thing that I would propose, and that I've seen work the best for clients, is really having a dedicated A, a dedicated funnel, specifically for ads traffic only, so you're not clouding your understanding of who's coming through, and a dedicated one for any organic or email efforts that you do.

00:25:06.497 --> 00:25:22.470
This will help you better understand the decision-making of each audience how warm audiences behave better than cold audiences or, sorry, behave differently than cold audiences, and then actually, how much we're spending in ads and how much we're getting back.

00:25:22.470 --> 00:25:28.555
And if you add in other traffic to that, you don't actually know, like, what you're spending and what you're getting back.

00:25:28.555 --> 00:25:31.755
So having clarity is always super important.

00:25:31.755 --> 00:25:36.892
So you're sending traffic to a Facebook, Instagram, dedicated funnel landing page.

00:25:36.892 --> 00:25:50.428
All of that the pages that you actually create are so important to have a dedicated, for example, using lead pages, right, it's to create landing pages where you can customize them.

00:25:50.428 --> 00:25:59.897
It's going to be a very different feel, look and vibe of the homepage specifically around it should have dedicated messaging to the offer that we're talking about.

00:25:59.897 --> 00:26:11.286
So when they click on the ad, they're going to a page that feels very similar in messaging, in what they're getting, what they expect to see from the ad and what they're actually seeing on the landing page.

00:26:11.286 --> 00:26:19.938
All of that, that cohesiveness, really plays a significant role in if people are going to move beyond your landing page.

00:26:19.938 --> 00:26:23.952
So the page should actually be something.

00:26:23.952 --> 00:26:31.942
The page conversion rate should be something that you monitor in order to understand like we have a huge, great click-through rate on ads.

00:26:31.942 --> 00:26:35.111
So many people are coming to our landing page but then they don't do anything.

00:26:35.111 --> 00:26:37.415
So why is that?

00:26:37.415 --> 00:26:40.765
And that can be something that you continue to tweak and optimize on your page.

00:26:42.186 --> 00:26:52.765
But something that's really important on the landing pages is having like, for example, ctas, call to action buttons regularly throughout the page.

00:26:52.765 --> 00:27:00.474
If someone's on mobile, how many scrolls do they need to get to until they get to another CTA button if they're feeling interested in going to their next step?

00:27:00.474 --> 00:27:03.818
Is the messaging for mobile friendly?

00:27:03.818 --> 00:27:08.670
Is it designed that it looks well on desktop right?

00:27:08.670 --> 00:27:20.739
Is all the functioning working when people want to opt into something or click a button, are you tracking each step of those actions, tracking each button on the page to better understand?

00:27:20.739 --> 00:27:29.796
Oh, people, I'm offering them to join a free webinar, but they're actually clicking in order to see more testimonials.

00:27:29.796 --> 00:27:31.085
Why is that right?

00:27:31.085 --> 00:27:41.413
So being able to understand that page is really important and that's why keeping clear data is super significant, because it really does impact the way that you optimize and change things.

00:27:41.413 --> 00:27:55.800
But sending people to a dedicated landing page, dedicated initiate checkout or thank you page, whatever the next step is in the funnel is really important for the success when it comes further down in the funnel.

00:27:55.984 --> 00:28:04.654
So your conversion side of things further down in the funnel, so your conversion side of things so I would say a couple of things that you know are important is similar to what I said of creative.

00:28:04.654 --> 00:28:07.869
Sometimes we want to have, like a beautiful looking page.

00:28:07.869 --> 00:28:13.147
I've seen pages that almost look like they were made 20 years ago actually perform well.

00:28:13.147 --> 00:28:18.508
So that's where A-B testing, landing page and landing page conversion rates become really important.

00:28:18.508 --> 00:28:21.093
Because, again, like you can't be married to one idea.

00:28:21.093 --> 00:28:42.910
Like you were saying, brian, just like being married to one idea is not going to be the thing that actually allows you to grow and succeed, being married to the thing that actually converts, sure, but being married to something based on like a look or what you think it should feel like, is not going to be the thing that drives the most success or the most revenue.

00:28:43.070 --> 00:28:53.906
So I would say that's a couple of just takeaways, like thinking beyond just the page itself and really diving into, like what's the functionality, how easy is it, is it?

00:28:54.426 --> 00:28:55.489
Do I have heavy text?

00:28:55.489 --> 00:29:03.326
Nobody, nobody is reading heavy text landing pages, like how can we put things in quick bullet points?

00:29:03.326 --> 00:29:08.055
How can we use little graphics instead of full paragraphs?

00:29:08.055 --> 00:29:12.672
How can we, you know, optimize things above the fold, right?

00:29:12.672 --> 00:29:24.923
So above the fold would be what you see prior to scrolling any further on the page, right, it's usually a headline, maybe a video or an image, some sub headline texts, maybe some bullet points and opt-in form.

00:29:24.923 --> 00:29:30.925
Like all of that would be things that would be above the fold, right, and so that's super important to figure out.

00:29:30.925 --> 00:29:33.972
How are your ads speaking to your audiences?

00:29:33.972 --> 00:29:36.306
And then, how is your landing page speaking to your audience?

00:29:36.306 --> 00:29:40.998
Because you want to make sure both of those are in lined, especially above the fold.

00:29:40.998 --> 00:29:44.095
So I guess a couple of key takeaways when we're looking at that.

00:29:44.095 --> 00:29:51.996
I'm sure I could go into more, but I think that's like a helpful kind of overview on kind of the essentials when looking at your landing pages.

00:29:52.585 --> 00:29:54.612
Yeah, it's funny hearing you talk about this stuff, jean.

00:29:54.612 --> 00:30:02.090
In my head I'm like we probably could have done a 12 hour episode here today and still not cover all of this stuff, but I do want to.

00:30:02.090 --> 00:30:11.852
As we come towards the end of this episode, I feel like I just want to inject this before we let you go here today, because AI is all the rage right now and a lot of people think that AI is going to replace people.

00:30:11.852 --> 00:30:12.835
But there's so much.

00:30:12.835 --> 00:30:14.006
It's got limited inputs.

00:30:14.006 --> 00:30:16.430
You're only ever going to get the outputs as good as your inputs.

00:30:16.430 --> 00:30:17.371
There's a lot to say there.

00:30:17.411 --> 00:30:22.159
However, I do know that AI is creating more productivity at scale.

00:30:22.159 --> 00:30:23.520
There's a lot of good sides of it.

00:30:23.520 --> 00:30:25.086
What's your take on AI?

00:30:25.086 --> 00:30:35.506
Because I would imagine that AI is shaking up the industry when it comes to not only content creation, but also analyzing all the data for us to make sense of so many different variables.

00:30:35.506 --> 00:30:43.458
Because, sheena, even in just 30 minutes here today, listeners can hear from you how many different moving parts there are to one advertising campaign.

00:30:43.458 --> 00:30:45.586
So what's the role of AI in all this?

00:30:46.528 --> 00:30:47.950
Yeah, I personally love AI.

00:30:47.950 --> 00:31:00.976
People can feel a little bit nervous about it, but I think it's such a beneficial tool to help time efficiency, even creative brainstorming ideas.

00:31:00.976 --> 00:31:13.398
I agree that I don't think it'll ever replace what the human mind and ability has, but it's a great place to you know.

00:31:13.398 --> 00:31:21.038
If you're not great at video editing, use AI to you know, create a couple of videos for you and see if you can use those.

00:31:21.038 --> 00:31:45.729
If you're stuck on, maybe feeling burnt out with creating content for another 30 days, then using AI to kind of input some information into in order to get a good 30-day content calendar is a super great time-efficient way to use AI as a tool, and I think the thing that's.

00:31:45.729 --> 00:32:02.832
I mean I use it for inputting data and understanding things and so, like any tool that we have, it really is supposed to help think beyond maybe the way we would think of something, provide some fresh new ideas.

00:32:02.964 --> 00:32:10.276
I use it for brainstorming content all the time and then being able to use that in order to understand the data better.

00:32:10.276 --> 00:32:13.074
So I don't think it'll replace it.

00:32:13.074 --> 00:32:25.431
I mean, meta's added an AI messaging feature where you can add in some additional headlines and primary body text in order to like create different versions.

00:32:25.431 --> 00:32:27.134
So I think it's a supportive thing.

00:32:27.134 --> 00:32:37.931
If you can get past like the creepiness of it sometimes, then it can really benefit with time efficiency and also just thinking beyond what we normally would.

00:32:37.931 --> 00:32:39.335
So I say it's a tool.

00:32:39.335 --> 00:32:49.856
It definitely I can't envision that it replaces the manual thought of a human, but it is a helpful tool if you channel it well.

00:32:50.045 --> 00:32:52.173
Yeah, really well said, especially to that point.

00:32:52.173 --> 00:32:57.415
I want to echo it, because that, to me, is the most beneficial part of AI today is brainstorming.

00:32:57.415 --> 00:32:59.338
It's like an enhanced part of our brains.

00:32:59.338 --> 00:33:10.029
It expands our existing thinking and I always love just bouncing ideas off of it where I'll say, hey, here's what I'm looking to work on, here's an ad campaign, here's all the different headlines that I want to split test.

00:33:10.029 --> 00:33:11.115
Am I missing anything?

00:33:11.115 --> 00:33:12.301
And I'll just leave it at that.

00:33:12.301 --> 00:33:13.286
Am I missing anything?

00:33:13.286 --> 00:33:15.288
And see what it adds to the conversation.

00:33:15.288 --> 00:33:16.651
So I love those insights.

00:33:16.711 --> 00:33:24.026
Sheena, I have no idea how you're going to answer this last question because we covered so much today but, like I said, it's still only the tip of the iceberg.

00:33:24.026 --> 00:33:42.357
So, sheena, I know that listeners well, really, I'm going to say this on behalf of listeners is that I hope for listeners who may say that they tried which I hate that term Maybe they've tried paid ads in the past and maybe it worked, maybe it didn't work, maybe it worked for a short amount of time and then they didn't keep doing the work to optimize it and tweak it.

00:33:42.357 --> 00:33:49.909
But, knowing all of these different intricacies and things that we need to get right and things that need to be aligned to be successful in paid ads.

00:33:49.909 --> 00:33:51.633
What's your one takeaway?

00:33:51.633 --> 00:33:56.651
What's that one thing that every listener is saying Sheena, I've got homework or maybe I need someone like you.

00:33:56.651 --> 00:33:59.855
What's the one takeaway that you hope they walk away from this episode with?

00:34:01.018 --> 00:34:02.921
Yeah, I would say with paid ads.

00:34:02.921 --> 00:34:10.998
It's just a never ending testing process and I think entrepreneurs can get in the mindset of like, okay, is it working yet?

00:34:10.998 --> 00:34:13.789
So have we gotten there, have we arrived?

00:34:13.789 --> 00:34:19.307
And it's just not the space or the industry to ever arrive.

00:34:19.307 --> 00:34:31.195
It's always going to be changing and that can be very overwhelming for people to feel like should I even start if in three weeks the platform is going to change or the algorithm is going to change?

00:34:32.045 --> 00:34:33.228
But it is more.

00:34:33.228 --> 00:34:42.735
If you go into it with the mindset of it's just an always never ending testing process, it alleviates the pressure of why isn't this working?

00:34:42.735 --> 00:34:45.869
It's like, okay, this isn't working, let's test the next thing.

00:34:45.869 --> 00:34:49.869
This messaging didn't hit, let's test the next messaging, this creative didn't hit.

00:34:49.869 --> 00:34:52.472
What other alternatives can we launch with right?

00:34:52.472 --> 00:35:10.525
So I think that's the thing that, if you've tried and it didn't work, or if you tried and it worked for a little, the thing to fall back on is continuing to try, and continuing to test is really the thing that will set you apart and you'll start to find, okay, we got to the landing page conversion we want here.

00:35:10.525 --> 00:35:20.215
Now we need to address the purchase conversion right here and like what can we move the needle on this in order to really make the most of what we're spending in ads?

00:35:20.215 --> 00:35:23.769
So it's just a little bit of a never ending testing process.

00:35:24.652 --> 00:35:25.653
Yes, I love that.

00:35:25.653 --> 00:35:32.085
That's not only strategic advice, sheena, but that is a mindset shift that I think we all need to bring into all facets of our business.

00:35:32.085 --> 00:35:34.795
So I love the fact that that's what you're imparting on our listeners.

00:35:34.795 --> 00:35:38.992
I also know that a lot of people are going to be keen on checking out your website.

00:35:38.992 --> 00:35:41.018
There's two things I want to call out on your website.

00:35:41.264 --> 00:35:45.416
Your sub headline, I think, is just so simple and so short and sweet and to the point.

00:35:45.416 --> 00:35:49.193
Done for you Facebook ads that actually convert.

00:35:49.193 --> 00:35:50.237
I love that on your website.

00:35:50.237 --> 00:35:59.891
I also love the fact that you call out so many different clients, that you've worked with so many different industries, from course, creators to e-commerce businesses, to really anybody across the spectrum.

00:35:59.891 --> 00:36:08.371
If you have a product or a service or an offer that you want to get in front of people, even if you have no audience, heck, especially if you have no audience.

00:36:08.371 --> 00:36:11.056
That's where paid advertising is so key.

00:36:11.056 --> 00:36:15.864
So, sheena, drop those links on us for listeners who want to go deeper into all the great work that you're doing.

00:36:15.864 --> 00:36:16.987
Where should they go from here?

00:36:17.728 --> 00:36:19.690
Yeah, you can go to my website.

00:36:19.690 --> 00:36:21.293
It's dreamofcontentcom.

00:36:21.293 --> 00:36:26.887
You'll find social platforms attached to that for my business side of things.

00:36:26.887 --> 00:36:33.476
If you want to follow my personal journey, you can follow me at Sheena C West on Instagram, and I would love to get to know you.

00:36:34.077 --> 00:36:36.105
Yes, listeners, you already know the drill.

00:36:36.105 --> 00:36:40.809
We're making it as easy as possible for you to find those links that Sheena just shared with you down in the show notes.

00:36:40.809 --> 00:36:47.255
Wherever it is that you're tuning into today's episode, her business website is at dreamupcontentcom.

00:36:47.255 --> 00:36:49.110
That's dreamupcontentcom.

00:36:49.110 --> 00:36:50.574
I love that business name.

00:36:50.574 --> 00:36:51.764
You don't have to remember it, though.

00:36:51.764 --> 00:36:53.532
Click right on through from the show notes.

00:36:53.532 --> 00:36:59.197
Otherwise, sheena, on behalf of myself and all of our listeners worldwide, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

00:37:03.485 --> 00:37:04.166
Brian, thank you for having me.

00:37:04.166 --> 00:37:06.335
You're doing awesome work and I'm so happy that I can just join you for a few minutes.

00:37:06.355 --> 00:37:11.489
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:37:11.489 --> 00:37:15.487
If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.

00:37:15.487 --> 00:37:22.240
Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewantrepreneurshowcom.

00:37:22.240 --> 00:37:24.686
And I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.

00:37:24.686 --> 00:37:33.474
There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.

00:37:33.536 --> 00:37:35.527
These are not sponsored episodes.

00:37:35.527 --> 00:37:37.130
These are not infomercials.

00:37:37.130 --> 00:37:40.617
Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions.

00:37:40.617 --> 00:37:51.568
They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome wantrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible.

00:37:51.568 --> 00:38:00.072
So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there.

00:38:00.072 --> 00:38:01.414
We also have live chat.

00:38:01.414 --> 00:38:07.431
If you want to interact directly with me, go to thewantrepreneurshowcom, initiate a live chat.

00:38:07.431 --> 00:38:16.849
It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.