My Big Disaster in Bootcamp Week 5 & the $1/Day FB ads

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This was my disaster of a Week 5 of bootcamp. However, don't miss the silver lining at the end of my post!

The $1/Day FB Post Boost

Week 5 of the Affiliate Marketing Bootcamp was last week, and it was all about boosting our FB posts using a $1/Day strategy.

Honestly, this week did not go as I planned or expected and I had to step back and think about where I was going with this.

This was the first time I had ever done any online advertising, so I had a learning curve to begin with.

Week 5 Tasks

The Week 5 tasks seemed relatively simple. Create 3 ads at $1/Day.

I did create my first ad, which was a post related to AI. I didn't realize that it would be as controversial as it turned out to be. I got a lot of bad comments. Nasty, rude, profanity, you name it.

I'm not exactly a wilting lily LOL! I've been a small business owner for my entire adult life so I've dealt with a variety of issues between customers, employees, etc. But for some reason - This. Bothered. Me.

Perhaps it bothered me because I was so completely unprepared for the fact that this could happen. I don't know.

I was so bothered, that I paused my first ad after 2 days (and it seemed to be getting some decent engagment). It was just engagement that I didn't want to deal with.

The Thing I Disliked The Most

By the end of the week, after I'd not only paused my ad, but not boosted any more posts for the week, I realized that what disturbed me the most was that I had begun to question what I was doing here.

All because a bunch of rude jackasses online that I would never see or hear from again, said some bad stuff.

That was my bad.

Back In The Saddle

It's now Wednesday of Week 6. And I'm back in the saddle.

I've gone back to the Week 5 tasks, and have boosted 3 new ads, as of today. Since these ads should have been running since last week I should have ad results by now, but of course because I did nothing after I paused that 1st ad, I'll have to wait a bit to see some results on my new ads.

Here are the results of the ad from the 2 days it ran. I guess not too bad, although I don't know much about this yet! And, I messed up on the Audience, and had a much younger demographic than I intended.

Lessons To Be Learned

Needless to say, I learned some valuable lessons here. Excited to see what the next ads will bring me.

Surprise, Surprise

Up until now, I thought I had no results from my Bootcamp efforts (in terms of WA referrals).

As I was beginning work today on Week 6 of bootcamp, however, I noticed that I had my first referral yesterday and didn't even know it.

The referral didn't actually come from an ad, but from the first review post (other than WA) that I did on my bootcamp site, although it doesn't appear that they've set up their WA account yet, so we'll see.

I don't think I got an email about the referral, so I'll have to check my email settings.

But YAY!






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Recent Comments

26

Good morning Mary,

Thank you for your honest blog post, it's great to hear member's real stories.

I think we have to be prepared for some unpleasant comments at times, keyboard warriors can be quite brave when it comes to comments, but not quite so face-to-face! The best thing we can do is just turned a blind eye! I sometimes receive a few comments, that may not be too pleasant, on YouTube, I generally ignore. It's interesting that when you go to these comments and look at that profiles, you find that they haven't created any content, but will criticise someone else's content!

I'm glad you have turned your ads back on, Mary, that's good news. At least it's bringing engagement to your page and hopefully something more.

I look forward to hearing more results in the future.

Have a great day.

Roy

1

Thank you, Roy!

1

It's a pleasure, Mary!

It's really good when Wealthy Affiliate members document their story!

A very happy Sunday to you.

Roy

1

Hey Mary,
I'm sorry you received those rude comments but good thing you caught your self-doubt and got passed it.
Remember that even if someone doesn't like your stuff or says something mean that's not your audience. Sometimes its misinformation, bad experience or the person just wants to bring you down.
Keep doing what you're doing and I'm proud of you for keep going. This part gave me some different challenges but that is what growth is.
Marlinda

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Thank you, Marlinda! Appreciate your comment :)

Yes, there are a lot of keyboard know-it-alls in Facebook land. Learn to click that "block" button!

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Oh, I would have deleted or restricted their rude comments. Nobody got time for rude or negative people. Especially when you are doing something positive

3

I second this

Thanks for sharing your story, Mary-Elle. I recall Kyle was saying the same thing about how people react, especially when it's about AI. I also got a few shouts from a Facebook group where I shared the first conversational text about AI.

Two people were asking the admin to see what I was doing even though I haven't and I won't advertise anything on that page. The group is about self-publishing and books, a group by an Amazon Bestselling Author, Mark Dawson.

Sharing this is part of learning for you and us all. Keep us posted as you go through the bootcamp and your ad campaigns. I'll do the same when I can. Congrats on your referral!

2

Thanks, John! This is definitely all a learning journey, and I feel it's important to keep it real - and discuss what's happening whether it's good or bad. I appreciate the support of the community!

1

Sure, we are all learning. I've been running Facebook ads before with some success in terms of getting my goals achieved. Some of my readers for my email list came from my ads for leads.

1

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