The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

I screwed up a really profitable business... now what?

Social media marketing, advertising, and growth

eqttrdr

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
55%
Aug 25, 2013
369
204
Will try to summarize a long story...

Maybe people can learn from my mistakes....

Have a diet/weight-loss coaching membership site.

Optimized front end/backend

Optimized AOV and LTV... found best is one off diet program purchase with 2 one time offer upsells in the front end of the funnel.

Was converting 2% cold traffic to our Facebook ads..... (tested other traffic means and nothing converted even close to FB)

CPA $40, AOV $60 (cold traffic) 6 month LTV $75...

From April 2017 to October 2017... scaled to $250k in revenue during that time (only got up to 1/10th of my target spend)

All of a sudden (in OCT) on our 9 year old Facebook ad account...... we got disabled for "violating policy".... which they never told us what that was (nor do they ever tell anyone)

Appealed as relevance scores were 9's and 10's... high positive feedback..... low frequency

We made no promises, guarantees, claims.... no misleading copy or tricks...

Even have a 100% documented 1% return rate (unheard of for a digital product)

We severely UNDER-promise and OVER deliver massive value.

Tried everything we could to get back in FB's good graces the white hat way and nothing since October...

So now months later.... we still can't advertise on Facebook (after numerous phone calls with our FB rep, chats, emails, etc..)

Simply tried to start over.. get a new business manager, ad account, FB page, payment method..IP address..etc..

Banned even faster... we are flagged and nothing works...

Was running great.... basically doubling my money for a 10000% legit online diet/weightloss coaching business that our customers LOVE...

No clue what to do from here.. as our customer avatar/target demographic is 100% on Facebook..

Adwords, Bing, Natives, Solos, Direct buys... none convert even close to our 2% cold traffic on Facebook (never even bothered with retargeting)

Tried with our new accounts to offer a lead magnet instead of going direct response as I figured that was "safer"

Was getting $.75 leads, 40% optin.....

Didn't convert like our cold traffic (CPA was $100 instead of $40)..... besides ultimately our ad account was disabled yet again.

-- No clue what to do from here as I single-highhandedly managed to somehow completely CRUSH an extremely profitable business that wasn't even scaled to my target levels.

Invested so much time, effort, blood, sweat tears...

Have so many landing pages, presell/bridge pages, awesome VSL, lead magnets, know our exact target audience, FB look alike audiences, seasoned pixel, highly optimized funnel...


REALLY sucks even more because April is the month we usually do ROAS of > 3.0 and slowly drops from there..


Sick to my stomach, out of ideas, frustrated, depressed, upset and feels like I'm going crazy in the head at this point.

Would have felt better if this never worked from the beginning...

I have a product that delivers massive value, customers love it but I can't deliver it to them via the means they want to purchase.

"Here take my money"... became... "sorry we're closed"


No clue.... my next move.....


Move to clickbank and give away 90%?
Find someone who knows FB ads inside and out to JV with?


You finally get something that works and works well...and gets flushed down the toilet.


</rant over>
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

minivanman

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
265%
Mar 16, 2017
1,722
4,562
54
DFW
What types off questions did you ask in your ad? Can I see your ad that you was running?
 

NuclearPuma

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
222%
May 3, 2015
192
426
So you tried a new ip address and new business name? Advertise under a new name but with an ad that won't get you banned?

Also don't use Facebook for personal.
 

eqttrdr

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
55%
Aug 25, 2013
369
204
So you tried a new ip address and new business name? Advertise under a new name but with an ad that won't get you banned?

Also don't use Facebook for personal.

Making a completely brand new profile, with brand new business manager and ad account is sketchy in FB's eyes and unless you scale SUPER slowly.... same thing will happen... - account disabled..
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

NuclearPuma

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
222%
May 3, 2015
192
426
Making a completely brand new profile, with brand new business manager and ad account is sketchy in FB's eyes and unless you scale SUPER slowly.... same thing will happen... - account disabled..
How would Facebook know? And why would they care as long as terms aren't being violated. Use different ads that comply.
 

Parker fields

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
200%
Dec 14, 2017
39
78
Tulsa, OK
If your product has that much value why are you going to let Facebook control your entry? If you want control of your business figure out how to market it more than just Facebook. Why not just build click funnels for your website? Affiliate market with customers for a commission. Tons of different options to market you just need to start plugging away and testing. Don't give up over a bump.
 

kkoasdfawfqwe2

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
256%
Feb 17, 2017
140
359
Europe
How would Facebook know? And why would they care as long as terms aren't being violated. Use different ads that comply.

Facebook is more careful than you think and they are very hard to fool.

I've been in the affiliate marketing game for blackhat ads previously and I can tell you that they are not that easy to screw with.

Nothing is 'just create a new. . .' when it comes to Facebook Ad Accounts..

I used to buy year old accounts that are phone verified and then they would last a weeks time and you could only pay by direct bank transfer.

Thats what worked for me.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

minivanman

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
265%
Mar 16, 2017
1,722
4,562
54
DFW
I bet it all starts with words used in his ad. But we will never know unless he tells us what he said.
 

eqttrdr

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
55%
Aug 25, 2013
369
204
I bet it all starts with words used in his ad. But we will never know unless he tells us what he said.
Wasn't the ads as it was generic... it had to be the landing pages...

Doesn't matter what it is/was... as we can't advertise on FB now

Ads were always 100% approved all the time...
 

LeoistheSun

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
152%
Oct 3, 2017
426
646
Honolulu
Try creating an account on the forums on MPSocial.com they might know.

FB does look at your landing pages, but i've heard of cloakers and other devious things.

Also why not Instagram?
 

Almantas

Nothing to Lose
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
475%
Dec 21, 2015
887
4,210
32
Ireland
@Andy Black might be able to offer some hardcore wisdom on this. Although he's more of an AdWords warrior :)
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
@Andy Black might be able to offer some hardcore wisdom on this. Although he's more of an AdWords warrior :)
Thanks @Almantas, but not really my channel or vertical.

Personally I wouldn’t cloak or go black-hat. I prefer to get the thousands of bright minds in Google/Facebook behind me, not hunting me.



@eqttrdr

I’ve seen a €120k/day AdWords spender have the plug pulled and implode overnight.

I presume you have the contact details of people who’ve bought from you? At least that would be something.

Can you apply your Facebook skills to other verticals?

Can you sell via other channels?

What are you going to do next?

What will you do different going forward?
 

ZCP

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
336%
Oct 22, 2010
3,952
13,267
Woodstock, GA
An online forum and postcards to bring them over.....
 

Mastercool

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
200%
Feb 9, 2014
4
8
37
cloaking the traffic source can be a long term game IF done right...

i know several people who make xxxx - xx,xxx$$ per day doing this...they aren't newbies whatsoever though.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

GoldMan79

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
50%
Oct 16, 2017
12
6
France
Making a completely brand new profile, with brand new business manager and ad account is sketchy in FB's eyes and unless you scale SUPER slowly.... same thing will happen... - account disabled..

That's why there is a black market for old business accounts with high spending limits, maybe you can try to buy or rent one? Also, you need to change the domain of your business, you said the ad was generic, I guess you are talking about the copy, what about the image?
 
Last edited:

craig1928

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
163%
Jul 31, 2012
311
507
Dublin, Ireland
look for JVs and offer up LLAs

problem here is your domain is probably flagged as well, you'll probably have to switch that up.

Saying that, FB is on the warpath at the moment to try and clean their image.
 

HackVenture

Digital Marketer
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
146%
Mar 11, 2011
345
502
Planet Earth
I've done big volume on FB cloaking but that's certainly not something I would recommend in your case.

I urge you not to come to the conclusion that "you can't run ads on FB" yet.

Native could be a good traffic source, perhaps you might want to try that out while figuring out your problem with FB.

In the meantime, hit me up on PM if you'd like my help, we could probably try running some ads on my accounts to test your theory.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top