Should I trust an online marketer to market my killer product?

[JT388]

Hello,

So I am newbie to the marketing world, I really only began my journey at the start of this year.

However I got lucky really early, I found a killer product that sells like hot cakes.

I'm using FB Ads to make these sales, however this products capability of sales is infinite, it goes beyond my knowledge. I can put an ad up at midnight and wake up in the morning with sales from the same ad. - Now the issue is, right now I'm spending a lot more then I probably need to, simply because I am not implementing all the special techniques etc etc that an expert marketer would have.

What scares me with allowing a marketer to do my marketing is that he himself is going to have the ins and outs on my marketing campaigns, which scares the shit out of me.

I've spent all week searching Upwork, trying to find someone I can trust online, I came across 1 guy, pretty much the only guy who didn't sound salesy, was more cold and blunt but honest on FB Ads, the whole "one size does not fit all" approach, which sold me.

However, I am still overthinking this, keep telling myself "I can do it myself, I'll learn it all, it can't be that hard".

I've got an NDA form signed with this guy. However I am still hesitant, but If I don't bring on board an expert in this field, I worry that my business will be sacrificed.

Things I know on FB so far:

-How to create an Ad
-How to retarget
-How to use look-alike audiences and seperate the countries

That's the extent of my knowledge, I am not sure about the little tricks with FB ads, or the things to do or not to do.

What would you do?

 

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[devine]

First, when you have a good product, Upwork is the last place to go to. Pay peanuts = get monkeys. And "specialists" there are nothing but monkeys.

Second, if you're so worried about sharing details, it only means that your business is substantially fragile.
Solid business won't be significantly affected even if all details would be shared publically, because it's not about what you do and how you do it. Everyone can do X, but few people do it well.

Regarding "I can do it myself" - no you cannot. Everything that's done good is that hard.
You may save yourself $10k, waste months and earn 5% of what you could have earned otherwise. Math is simple: the more you save on specialists - the more you lose profits.

"Aren't it great! I saved myself a ton of cash!"
Yes, aside from the fact that you could drive Lambo already, genious.

Things I know on FB so far:
-How to create an Ad
-How to retarget
-How to use look-alike audiences and seperate the countries

That is what people can learn how to do in less than an hour.

What do you show in your ad? Where you land your prospects on? How well the page(s) are done? How much is conversion rate? What is your cost per acquisition? What is your customer lifetime value and how it can be increased, if it can be? What's the scalability?
There is a whole lot of questions you must answer if you really have a killer product, otherwise it's waste of money, time and opportunity.

What would you do?

I would search for a partner, or two, or three, or how much I need to squeeze the maximum from the product and opportunity.
I wouldn't offer equity.

 

[Nam88]

Congrats on your product JT388.
Not sure on how you're running your campaign, ppe webconversion etc but you should try to scale your budget without sacrifice your ROI either scale out so create many ad set with different audience or scale up the budget (little bit risky) . You can also try manual bidding if you're not already doing it.

As Devine say you can hire a specialist to maximize this quarter. Learn it all in facebook is not possible since they're changing the game so frequently that what works now won't work next month (literally) so the best is learning from the people that are spending serious money every single month.

Also you should analyze why this product is so successful and try to find other related product to sell to your audience. By now you should have a nice custom audience since the product is selling good so sell them more related "shit".

Search for FB ads group on facebook. Plenty of them try to test many things, at the end is test test test.

Hope that it helps.

btw what do you mean by " I can put an ad up at midnight and wake up in the morning with sales from the same ad" isn't suppose to be like that?

 

[devine]

Also you should analyze why this product is so successful and try to find other related product to sell to your audience. By now you should have a nice custom audience since the product is selling good.

Exactly.

Also, without adding more products, business is easily copied by lurkers. It's not hard to replicate ads, deliver the same product and come up with things like better website, more friendly customer support and offer promotions.
The original business could be dead within 7 days.

It happens far less often with more solid business models, as it's much more difficult to do the same for a variety of products.

 

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[fhs8]

How far off is your CPA? Did this guy you hire advise you to go to other platforms? If not then I would fire him immediately because he is totally incompetent. Don't even ask him about advertising in other platforms. If he didn't mention that to you then instantly fire him and tell him to read "Advertising for Dummies."

FB is good for impression based and impulse buying but you're missing out on people searching for your product/service on search engines. I would get educated on advertising. You can lower CPA by going on more platforms while still keeping traffic the same.

The fact that you had the guy sign an NDA form is laughable. It's overwhelmingly likely that your business idea is bad. Why do you think nobody else is doing what you're doing?

 

[hughjasle]

Did this guy you hire advise you to go to other platforms? If not then I would fire him immediately

lol.

If he didn't mention that to you then instantly fire him and tell him to read "Advertising for Dummies."

LOL
Yikes that's bit harsh and possibly short sided. I believe the OP was looking for someone JUST for his FB ads. I would personally be hesitant to hire anyone to run any of my FB campaigns that runs on other platforms. I don't want a jack of all trades, I want a master.

To the OP, my only advice to you is to realize that this is only your first. You will have many many more products and opportunities in the future. Use this winner to gain knowledge and skill, consider the money just a cherry on top. Focus on bettering yourself so you when you find that next winner, you can do better than you did with this one.

 

[JT388]

First, when you have a good product, Upwork is the last place to go to. Pay peanuts = get monkeys. And "specialists" there are nothing but monkeys.

I'm not sure if your familiar with Upwork, but the majority are peanuts, but it's the only freelance site with some decent options. When looking for a freelancer I ensured it was the top hourly rate for marketing ($60-$100 an hour). I read marketers with the most unique, trustworthy copy.

Are those still peanuts, or were you assuming I was hiring cheap $10-$20 an hour marketers?

 

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[JT388]

Second, if you're so worried about sharing details, it only means that your business is substantially fragile.

Well, so far I have mastered the way of producing the product I sell, I am the only one in the market (literally created the market myself) and I've got a team and office in Manila, I've got raving reviews, and a crazy a$$ customer support team.

The problem probably is my own personality more likely, I am quite a paranoid person.

 

[JT388]

Regarding "I can do it myself" - no you cannot. Everything that's done good is that hard.
You may save yourself $10k, waste months and earn 5% of what you could have earned otherwise. Math is simple: the more you save on specialists - the more you lose profits.

That's not my problem, I'm clearly looking to find specialists at the top of the game here, nothing less, It's more about is it worth putting the product and market that i've created at risk by revealing something to someone who's got the skills to copy it?

When looking on Upwork I was only looking at the most expensive option, I am NOT trying to save money, I am trying to spend the top dollar here to find someone I can trust and obviously knows their stuff with FB Ads.

 

[devine]

I'm not sure if your familiar with Upwork, but the majority are peanuts, but it's the only freelance site with some decent options. When looking for a freelancer I ensured it was the top hourly rate for marketing ($60-$100 an hour). I read marketers with the most unique, trustworthy copy.

Are those still peanuts, or were you assuming I was hiring cheap $10-$20 an hour marketers?

Yes, I am familiar with upwork and the fact that it's the only big freelance website doesn't mean you have to use it.
It doesn't have any decent options, as decent specialists don't use Upwork. Not in a way you would assume they do.

60-100$/hour is peanuts btw.

 

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[JT388]

Yes, I am familiar with upwork and the fact that it's the only big freelance website doesn't mean you have to use it.
It doesn't have any decent options, as decent specialists don't use Upwork. Not in a way you would assume they do.

60-100$/hour is peanuts btw.

Oh man, please please please send me to where I can find decent specialists? I've been looking all online, where do you find these people?

 

[devine]

Oh man, please please please send me to where I can find decent specialists? I've been looking all online, where do you find these people?

Funnily, google.com
All top specialists have their website and list clients they have worked with. Linkedin also helps a lot.

I wouldn't search for SMM services though, you must optimize other aspects first, as FB ad performance is partially just the outcome, especially in your kind of situation.

 

[JT388]

FB is good for impression based and impulse buying but you're missing out on people searching for your product/service on search engines. I would get educated on advertising. You can lower CPA by going on more platforms while still keeping traffic the same.

Really? I mean, i've literally created the product,

Funnily, google.com
All top specialists have their website and list clients they have worked with. Linkedin also helps a lot.

LinkedIn looks worse then Upwork, full of options from third world countries.

Google just is showing me agencies, and who works at agencies? 70K a year employees.

It's obvious anyone with intensely valuable skills will have a high price, but where are they? Anyone with crazy good skill sets would be off selling their own products I could imagine.

 

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[IGP]

You can do it yourself. It's not rocket science. However, it will take time.

An NDA doesn't do shit for you BTW. It's very hard to enforce and/or prove unless the guy who steals your idea is blatantly obvious. Even then, it would cost a lot of money to lawyer up.

The question you need to answer is this: What do you want your role to be?

Do you want to become a FB Ads/Marketing expert?
Spend the time learning how to scale and all the tips and tricks to maximize your ROI. Landing page conversion, upsells, maximizing LTV etc.
Pros: Now you can market ANY good product you find or come up with. Don't have to divulge your product(s). Ample resources to learn this.
Cons: Opportunity costs with current project. May not be your core competency.

Do you want to be the "CEO" and delegate marketing tasks?
Create a killer team and focus your attention on the bigger picture.
Pros: Don't need to learn the marketing stuff. Potential to grow at a much faster rate.
Cons: Finding good people is hard. Inherent risks with divulging product(s), etc.

Obviously there are more pros and cons to both of these scenarios, so this is just to help you get your mind moving in the right direction.

 

[devine]

LinkedIn looks worse then Upwork, full of options from third world countries.
Google just is showing me agencies, and who works at agencies? 70K a year employees.

That made me smile
No, it's not worse than Upwork. It's not nearly in the same ballpark with Upwork.
All the industry top specialists have their profiles at Linkedin, if you find them or not depends on your research skills.

You realize, I can sell consulting services right here for thousands of dollars to you, worth dozens of thousands right away and hundreds of thousands or even millions in near future. Because if you really have a good product, it's still pennies compared to what you gain.
Did you really want to pay $100/hour to a specialist for making you a lot of cash? Did you expect to see these people competing on some platform where the typical project is under $5k?

It's obvious anyone with intensely valuable skills will have a high price, but where are they? Anyone with crazy good skill sets would be off selling their own products I could imagine.

Well, typically we work with high budget projects and it takes less time than running a product-based business. I have multiple ventures, including physical stores and sales offices, but my primary income stream is still service-based.

Cons: Finding good people is hard. Inherent risks with divulging product(s), etc.

Not that finding good people is hard (not the main problem), working with good specialists for an inexperienced entrepreneur can be difficult.
The gap in mentality and approach is too big. Entrepreneur is usually the one who screws things, not the specialist.

 

[Andy Black]

Check your immediate network first?

Do you know anyone who is a FB ad specialist? Do you know anyone using a FB ad specialist?

Check forums too. I've found good technical specialists from this forum. The beauty of forums is you get a very good feel for someone by how they post in general, as well as getting a feel for how well they know their area of expertise.



Personally, I don't worry about NDA's or even telling (a select few) people what I'm doing. Most people are so caught up in their own plans they won't pay attention.

In fact, with my team of contractors and freelancers, I'm extremely open about my vision of where I'd like to go. It's up to me to find the right people and convince them that staying in their own lane and pulling in the same direction is going to get us all there faster than trying to do things on our own.



Can you find the right people and create win-wins?

If you try to find out what their goals are, and what drives them, then you might find specialists who just want to keep doing what they're good at, and who don't want to branch out into creating products and building businesses. I dare say most technical specialists are like that.

 

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[icon8]

Learn to do it yourself, then outsource it once you are competent. That way you will know if you're getting screwed by whoever you hire