New EU regulations might destroy my business

[testuser]

Hi,

I recently released a book about anxiety and panic in the Netherlands. I only get raving reviews and messages from people who have resolved their anxiety and panic after being stuck in it for years (nothing else seemed to work).

Like 90% of my customers come from FB. And now FB is facing a permanent ban on using personalized data for ads in the EU within two weeks:

Facebook owner Meta faces EU ban on targeted advertising

I was about to expand to countries like Germany but this news makes everything uncertain.

Everything was going great but frankly, I don’t know what this will do for my business. This might destroy my entire income if FB ads stop working. I tried other platforms but they are nowhere near as successful as FB ads.

I just got back up after Covid destroyed my other business that was doing great in the vacation space and decided to quit this space after three years of trying (since 2020).

So I don’t know what to do. I know I need to wait and see what happens. But something tells me this won’t end up pretty. I feel like I have to do all kinds of things within this two-week time-frame. Like setting up new FB campaigns and trying to get as much out of it as I can before everything goes to shit.

I also have an almost finished ENG version of the book. I know the product is awesome because I suffered from anxiety and panic myself for over 30 years and got raving reviews so I know it works. I’m just waiting for the proofreader to finish the details. Should I go full focus on the ENG version?

I also planned a Dutch audiobook but that takes a month to make (by a pro) and I’m not sure if that is worth it right now if the ads are dying within two weeks.

Am I overreacting? Any advice?

 

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[Roli]

Hi,

I recently released a book about anxiety and panic in the Netherlands. I only get raving reviews and messages from people who have resolved their anxiety and panic after being stuck in it for years (nothing else seemed to work).

Like 90% of my customers come from FB. And now FB is facing a permanent ban on using personalized data for ads in the EU within two weeks:

Facebook owner Meta faces EU ban on targeted advertising

I was about to expand to countries like Germany but this news makes everything uncertain.

Everything was going great but frankly, I don’t know what this will do for my business. This might destroy my entire income if FB ads stop working. I tried other platforms but they are nowhere near as successful as FB ads.

I just got back up after Covid destroyed my other business that was doing great in the vacation space and decided to quit this space after three years of trying (since 2020).

So I don’t know what to do. I know I need to wait and see what happens. But something tells me this won’t end up pretty. I feel like I have to do all kinds of things within this two-week time-frame. Like setting up new FB campaigns and trying to get as much out of it as I can before everything goes to shit.

I also have an almost finished ENG version of the book. I know the product is awesome because I suffered from anxiety and panic myself for over 30 years and got raving reviews so I know it works. I’m just waiting for the proofreader to finish the details. Should I go full focus on the ENG version?

I also planned a Dutch audiobook but that takes a month to make (by a pro) and I’m not sure if that is worth it right now if the ads are dying within two weeks.

Am I overreacting? Any advice?

First of all let me say, well fricking done! I have just finished writing my first book (awaiting KDP approval) and so I understand what you've been through. It's funny because I have a similar book about to be released, not on panic, but a complimentary area. Hopefully, we'll both be recommended together on Amazon one day!

Okay, so you've been selling well through Facebook ads and now you're worried about the EU regs. First of all, I personally don't think they'll screw over FB too much, because of the money they generate and the power they have. However, it's good to prepare for it, so good on you for recognising that.

Have you tried other marketing forms like TikTok, Youtube, that sort of thing? Do you sell on Amazon? If so, do you use their advertising?

Also, have you been building a list from the sales of your book? That is the best form of marketing and you can always reach out to people you've already sold to. If like you say, they all love you and have given rave reviews, then a cleverly crafted email, urging them to market the book to anyone else who has anxiety problems, will probably go down well.
You need to ask them for more reviews, a lot of them have, but I bet a lot more would if you asked them.

Lastly, your website is a marketing tool, especially the blog, which you can keep sharing on FB without fear of repercussion.

As far as the audiobook is concerned, if you have generated enough sales to make you want to do that in the first place, I would urge you to carry on with that. Self-help audiobooks probably outsell their ebook and print partners (that's just a guess by the way, no data to support this). I think a book about quelling anxiety would work very well, because people who are anxious in particular situations, can have the soothing audio playing in their headphones whilst they navigate the world.

All-in-all, I would say not to get too down about it. You've done the hardest part, which is to write a good book that people want to read and you have sales to boot.

Keep your chin up and keep going!

 

[circleme]

GDPR is one of the worst developments for entrepreneurs who have EU members as their main customers in a long time. It is an absolute mystery to me how much one can put one obstacle after another in the way of an entrepreneur in times like these.

Conversion tracking? Nada. (Almost) impossible to achieve 100% GDPR compliance in certain EU countries. Until a few months ago, I worked as an SEO freelancer for the last year and specialized in lead gen. Sadly, it's gotten to the point where companies can't even understand their ROI anymore. The same also applies to the ads area and apparently soon also to large social media platforms. When it comes to the insights from our customer data, things are getting worse and worse.

Sorry for the RANT and congratulations on your book success. If you still manage to become a Productocracy, advertising is no longer necessary anyway! I hope you find a workaround.

 

[Beijing]

The trite truism that applies to this situation is to never put all your eggs into one basket. My advice:

1. Get the English version finished ASAP.
2. Don't work on the Dutch audio version at all. Do an English audiobook version instead.
3. Get started on your second book as soon as you can. (You don't want to only have one product, you should have ~5 within 2 years in the same product category.)
4. If you don't have one already, create a website and start working on SEO that drives sales to that website.
5. Create a course that complements and expands on your book.

 

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[testuser]

The trite truism that applies to this situation is to never put all your eggs into one basket. My advice:

1. Get the English version finished ASAP.
2. Don't work on the Dutch audio version at all. Do an English audiobook version instead.
3. Get started on your second book as soon as you can. (You don't want to only have one product, you should have ~5 within 2 years in the same product category.)
4. If you don't have one already, create a website and start working on SEO that drives sales to that website.
5. Create a course that complements and expands on your book.

1. It's almost done
2. I get many questions about the Dutch version so I will continue and can use this as another leverage (and put this in front of all my previous buyers at a discount). Will also do an ENG version
3. Already in the making
4. Already have one
5. already have one

 

[amp0193]

Really sorry to hear about how this is going to affect you personally @testuser , but no, I don't think you're overreacting.

The powers that be have consistently tightened down on data and privacy every year. That is the trend. To try to pretend like it's not happening will not fix your problem.

So I think it's time to start looking for another traffic channel.

Personally, I love this, and welcome the changes. Facebook made a ton of money exploiting the data of it's users (and businesses making money hand over fist were complicit in fueling it... myself included), and it's time to put an end to it.

ios 14.5 was just the tip of the iceberg. Browser cookies, and email opens, and the rest of it will be on it's way out soon as well.


This sort of stuff is why all of my marketing efforts are in non-paid channels that I own. It's not sexy, and it's harder to scale, but regulators and big tech can't touch it.

 

[Beijing]

1. It's almost done
2. I get many questions about the Dutch version so I will continue and can use this as another leverage (and put this in front of all my previous buyers at a discount). Will also do an ENG version
3. Already in the making
4. Already have one
5. already have one

1. Great!
2. Great!
3. Great!
4. Then get on that SEO. You can't change the reality of regulations, but you can work diligently towards actually owning (more or less) your own marketing funnel. Depending on Facebook ads was never going to be sustainable.
5. Perfect! You've made plenty of effort. Now just keep growing your business.

 

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[Stan_]

Conversion tracking? Nada. (Almost) impossible to achieve 100% GDPR compliance in certain EU countries. Until a few months ago, I worked as an SEO freelancer for the last year and specialized in lead gen. Sadly, it's gotten to the point where companies can't even understand their ROI anymore. The same also applies to the ads area and apparently soon also to large social media platforms. When it comes to the insights from our customer data, things are getting worse and worse.

Look, I genuinely do not want to sound condescending but
Those "customer data" and "customer insights" are private information of actual people.
It feels very creepy for a lot of people (including me) to know that some company in some other jurisdiction knows everything up to what I am interested in and they can do whatever they want with that data

I think there's a balance here to be made where anonymity is kept for users and businesses get good insights. Creepy spying on people is not it though

 

[Andy Black]

I don't run Facebook Ads but follow Laurel Portie because I think her strategies are interesting.

She runs video ads and retargets people who watch more than x% of them. That's an on-platform metric where the user never left Facebook, so it wasn't affected by the IOS update.

I think she targets people for the first videos based on people they follow, pages they Like, and maybe other on-platform attributes. I don't know if those targeting options will be affected, but if not then is this a strategy you can try?


On another note:

1) "Overthinking is the art of solving problems you don't have." A lot of people wind themselves up worrying about things that haven't happened, and maybe won't.

2) Problems are stepping stones or opportunities. See them as barriers to entry for those that don't get over them.

MINDSET - What's Your Problem?

What's Your Problem? Do you know what your biggest problem is? If you can’t decide then these short videos might help. Andy Black’s Video (2 mins) Apologies for the hushed voice. All the kids were in bed by the time I did the audio. I’ll only ever record audio during the day going forward...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[shubham___3011]

I don't run Facebook Ads but follow Laurel Portie because I think her strategies are interesting.

She runs video ads and retargets people who watch more than x% of them. That's an on-platform metric where the user never left Facebook, so it wasn't affected by the IOS update.

I think she targets people for the first videos based on people they follow, pages they Like, and maybe other on-platform attributes. I don't know if those targeting options will be affected, but if not then is this a strategy you can try?


On another note:

1) "Overthinking is the art of solving problems you don't have." A lot of people wind themselves up worrying about things that haven't happened, and maybe won't.

2) Problems are stepping stones or opportunities. See them as barriers to entry for those that don't get over them.

MINDSET - What's Your Problem?

What's Your Problem? Do you know what your biggest problem is? If you can’t decide then these short videos might help. Andy Black’s Video (2 mins) Apologies for the hushed voice. All the kids were in bed by the time I did the audio. I’ll only ever record audio during the day going forward...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Hey Andy! By following you mean you watch Laurel Portie youtube video right? or is there any other way to refer to her content?

 

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[Andy Black]

Hey Andy! By following you mean you watch Laurel Portie youtube video right? or is there any other way to refer to her content?

She has a podcast and a membership too. I'm actually in the $7/mth membership but find her trainings too long. I pay just to say thanks for the YouTube and podcast content.