Today, we’ll talk about how to get Facebook ad clients if you are a freelancer.
I’ve been running ads with my own projects and for clients for years. I know that it can feel intimidating to start out getting Facebook ads clients because you might see other freelancers being crazy successful and wonder how you can compete.
Many Facebook ads-freelancers sell themselves as someone who’s been running ads spending hundreds or millions of dollars on ads.
The reality is that most of us have some failures and some wins. If you are decent at running Facebook ads, landing great clients usually depends more on working with the right businesses rather than being amazing at Facebook ads. Just like copywriting, it cant turn a shitty business around, only amplify something that is already great.
I’ve found that the “secret” is to get the right clients.
Who are the right clients?
Established businesses.
That’s the simple answer. Only if you know what you are doing, can you test different audiences and products to create business profits with Facebook ads.
Ads usually work the best when a business is PROVEN – that means they have a bunch of customers, good products, and know a lot about the market.
Often, those businesses are looking to scale. There is a misconception that ads are a magic bullet to profit but it isn’t anymore (if it ever was).
If you look for clients on Upwork, you’ll often see agencies and newly started businesses wanting help with ads. They are a trap. From time to time (at least if you are outside the US), you’ll see great businesses looking for help with ads but it’s rare.
The agencies on Upwork are usually just looking to use your case studies to land clients and have you do the work while they take a majority of the cut.
It can be a profitable and great approach if you know what you are getting yourself into. It requires great client management skills because Facebook ads are often touted as a magic bullet in online courses these days.
That means you’ll see a bunch of people thinking that they can simply set up an agency easily, get someone to run their ads, and relax in a hammock.
That in of itself is not a problem. But it is more likely that they won’t manage their client’s expectations well (or oversell them on the results) if they don’t have a great understanding of how it works.
Clients with the smaller projects-type often won’t have a proven business and will blame it on the ads (or you) if things don’t work out. In reality, it usually because they had a “great” idea that they thought everyone wanted when really no one cared.
Many of these clients will leave you feeling stressed because they can’t really afford ads and thus want perfect results, so they don’t lose money. And that isn’t how ads work.
Of course, there are always exceptions. I think it’s better to avoid freelance websites when you want to get Facebook ad clients. (link to escape Upwork article)
After many years in marketing, I don’t think Facebook ads are as great as I first thought. The reality is that often people aren’t tracking them well enough to really understand how they are performing.
It’s pretty difficult to track long-term when people don’t buy immediately, across many email campaigns and whatnot. Often people think they work because everyone else says they work. So they run them and assume that they are profiting because they see a large influx of sales.
The other reason is that when you switch the Facebook ads off the fun ends. If you are doing well with Facebook ads, you’ll eventually need to scale and that will eventually be unprofitable because of the targeting mechanics:
The most interested are targeted first and as you scale that circle expands to people less and less interested which means the cost per lead/sale will be higher and the return will be lower.
It isn’t a long-term solution.
Facebook ads are an exceptionally good fit for startups because they are among the few businesses that are racing against time (and investors) aggressively. And they can work well to keep investors happy until you build another traffic channel out.
Another fun little quirk I’ve noticed with Upwork clients is that they tend to be obsessed with screenshots of results, etc. compared to clients outside freelance websites.
How to get Facebook ads clients
There are mainly two types of Facebook ad clients: those that have or are running ads and those who haven’t.
I’ll use this comprehensive guide as the overall framework with a couple of tweaks specifically for Facebook ads clients. You’ll find most of the key information there and just a few extra details here.
The premise is simple: you’ll email businesses and introduce yourself. The approach is slightly different from what you might expect of the typical “spam mails”. I’ve have gotten great results without being spammy. All the details are in that guide above.
The overarching steps are:
- Email businesses and introduce yourself
- Send them ideas if they are interested
- Get on a call to understanding their project better
- Send a proposal
- The client agrees and you start the project
If they haven’t run ads before, this is often enough to land the client and you’ll likely be discussing the potential of Facebook ads for their business. You might be mapping out what the results could look like for them as well.
Pssst..! You can steal my Facebook ads funnel calculation sheet here.
The important part here is to focus on selling results rather than clicks or engagement.
If they have used ads before, I like to do the first call to understand their business as mentioned and ask for access to their accounts.
That way, you can analyze their data and see if it is even possible for you to do well for them. If not, you’ve just saved yourself a ton of headaches.
Then I like to do a second call where I run them through everything with their specific numbers and close them. It isn’t always necessary to do two calls but its a nice tool to have in your toolbox.
For specifics on how to approach every step in the funnel read the guide about – here’s the link again.
Takeaways
- To do well with Facebook ads for clients, the key is picking the right clients – established businesses.
- You can benefit from doing multiple calls with the potential client before bringing them on to make sure you can deliver results for them
- If you are looking for more approaches to landing clients, look at this article
