What To Do If You Only Have $100 For Marketing (Facebook Ad Budget)

[Operator’s read] This is from inside an actual P&L I’m responsible for — not theory. If something doesn’t earn its keep on a live revenue line, it’s not in here.

Post written by: Anthony Tisara (want to write here?)

Alejandro: This topic is one my favorites because it is so relatable to so many starting entrepreneurs. I still remember the days when I used to sell my products in the street to get additional marketing dollars.

The early days are probably the hardest because there’s limited funds (but unlimited will!). I asked Anthony to write a post on doing marketing with a small budget and see what’s possible if you only have $100 to promote your brand/product on Facebook. Notice how he not only gives a clear advice but also backs it up with a real case study.

Now, let’s hear it from Anthony…

Would you be interested in learning about an effective strategy that can be used to bring your business highly qualified leads with only $100 dollars in marketing?

How about if I show you a complete breakdown of the strategy I used for one of my clients and share the exact results we achieved with $100?

The strategy I used involved Facebook Advertising. I can’t tell you how many business owners I’ve run into that overlook the effective, and extremely cheap marketing vehicle known as Facebook advertising. Worse yet, many of them just straight up ignore Facebook because they clicked ‘Boost Post’ once and didn’t automatically generate new business.

The Art of Effective Facebook Advertising

Thanks to Facebook’s scary accurate ability to target audiences and deliver ads, direct response marketing strategies have made the platform one of the cost efficient lead generation tools available to marketers when they approach it correctly.

Think of your Facebook ads like a billboard on one of the busiest highways in the world.

If you can create a strong irresistible offer for your target then put that over an eye-catching design to interrupt the potential customer from mindlessly scrolling on Facebook then you can run a Facebook Advertising campaign that works.

Real Client Example:

I’m going to break down a small budget campaign that I recently ran for a local Pilates studio in Scottsdale, Arizona. My client’s Pilates business does extremely well in the winter but since most of her business comes from snowbirds who leave in the summer, she’s left with a much smaller client base during this time.

Facebook was clearly the best option for her to quickly generate new business from residents who live in Scottsdale year round without breaking the bank on a large marketing budget.

I’ll start with my targeting…Who would be the best market to show my ads to? I ended up creating an audience with the following requirement.

• Must live within a seven mile radius of the Pilates studio.
• Must be a woman between the ages of 24-55.
• Must Be interested in Fitness and wellness or Pilates.

The Ad

So now we have a solid audience to target, but how am I going to get their attention? With the following ad below…

“Hey Pilates lovers in Scottsdale!” This simple but effective opening copy allows me to speak directly to my audience in their timeline and will increase the chance that they’ll stop scrolling.

Then I hit them with my offer. Since I know everyone seeing this ad is interested in fitness or Pilates, 3 free classes will sound like a sweet deal for them.

What will 3 free Pilates classes cost them? Only their name, email and phone number so my client can contact them and schedule their classes. All they need to do is click ‘SIGN UP’ and the user will be taken to a lead capture form. In this case, I used a Facebook lead generation card, which can be made in just a few minutes on Facebook. This tool will even auto populate the user’s information.

Now my client can easily reach out to leads schedule their trial classes. From then on, the goal is to provide high quality experience with the goal of converting them into a monthly membership.

The Results

The average cost per lead on this campaign consistently sits around $7. So after putting $100 into this campaign, We had received 14 highly qualified leads who want to experience my client’s business.

Not bad for $100 dollars right?

If you’re willing to put in the time and energy it takes to learn how to effectively run a Facebook marketing campaign, you can see some serious results with just $100.

Learn more about marketing on a budget:

• How to sell anything to anyone (like ice to an eskimo)
• From the Pros: How to go viral on Facebook
• How to get free traffic to your site using SEO

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The shorter version

If you’re reading this because the workflow it describes is eating your week, that’s the kind of loop I build AI agents for. Two build slots open at a time.