I Turned On Meta Ads Before I'd Even Built My Product

[00:00] Over the past couple of weeks, I've done something that honestly made me feel a little bit sick. I launched Meta ads to cold traffic. Not people that already knew me, not my email list, not my Skool community, actual strangers. And I realised something very quickly. I have become very comfortable selling to people who already trust me.

Selling to cold traffic? That brought up a whole new level of imposter syndrome. But then something happened that completely surprised me. Within 24 hours, the ads had already paid for themselves. Let's talk about it.

Are you a female business owner frustrated with battling the algorithm and looking for growth strategies that don't involve awkwardly pointing or dancing online or throwing cash at paid ads? Welcome to The Email Growth Show. I'm your host, Kylie Kelly, visibility and email marketing strategist. I grew my email list from zero to almost 10,000 subscribers in less than two years, and the same is possible for you too.

[01:00] Are you ready to build your email list and start making more money in your online business? Let's head into today's episode.

Hey, hey. Welcome back to The Email Growth Show, episode 257. Today I want to pull back the curtain on a little experiment that I'm running in my business right now. Because if you've listened to the last few episodes, you'll know that I'm in a season of change.

The masterminds that I hold so dear and have loved running are starting to come to a close. I am still keeping a handful of one-on-one clients and running sprints and intensives because I love them, but for the rest of the year, I'm really focusing on low-ticket digital offers, digital products, creating systems, growing my audience, and building a business that scales in a way that feels really good for this season of life.

As a mum of two little boys, I don't want a business that requires me to be on all of the time. I don't want every school holidays to feel stressful. I'm recording during one of those moments right [02:00] now, which is still tricky. I don't want every sale to depend on me launching something.

I want systems, I want compounding, I want assets, and that's exactly why I wanted to create a brand-new mini course called 50 A Day. But I didn't want to create this thing if no one wanted it, and I knew that I wanted to play with Meta ads. So I did something a little bit risky. I actually turned on Meta ads before I'd even created the thing. I created the checkout page and the delivery email.

That was it. Then I threw it up on Meta ads, and I had sales within the first 24 hours, which meant the next day I had to actually create the course really damn quickly. It was a very fun experiment, one that completely took me by surprise. I must admit, I think subconsciously I didn't think it would work.

So when sales started coming in, can I be really honest? I felt so sick to my stomach. I celebrated, I was excited of course, I was pumped, but I also felt ill. And here's why I think that was. I think that when you sell to your [03:00] email list, your podcast listeners, your community, there's safety there, right?

You already know me. My email list subscribers, my Skool community members, all of those people know, like and trust me already. They know my stories, they know my values. They've been hanging around for a while. Cold traffic is completely different. I'm putting my work in front of complete strangers, people that have never heard of my podcast, people who don't know my story, people who don't know my expertise, people who don't know if I'm trustworthy. And all of a sudden I found myself thinking, "Holy sh*t, is this even good enough? Will they get it? Will they think this is valuable? What if no one else buys it? What if everyone hates it? What if this whole pivot is a terrible idea?" Those thoughts that crept in really surprised me. And look, I definitely still get those thoughts normally. If I'm stretching outside of my comfort zone, if I'm speaking on stage or in front of a new group, or if there's something happening that [04:00] is stretchy as f*ck, I still have those things I have to overcome. But when it comes to selling a $27 digital product, I didn't expect to feel this way, right?

I didn't expect those thoughts to pop up over this. And I had to remind myself, I'm always telling my students and my clients that confidence isn't something that magically arrives. We don't just wake up one day and think, "Oh, I'm officially successful now, and I'll never doubt myself again." No, that is not how it works. And more than anything, I was really proud of myself that I still took action despite being really uncomfortable. Despite having these thoughts pop up, I still pushed through, and it's been a really exciting, scary experiment.

So let me talk to you about the numbers, because if you're like me, you always love to know the numbers. Here is what happened. I spent 161 Australian dollars on Meta ads, so roughly 100 USD. And in the first 24 hours, I had two sales come [05:00] in. Both people purchased the $47 bump offer, and one person joined my Skool membership at the premium tier. So the total revenue that came in was 148 USD immediately. Plus, depending on how long this member stays in my Skool group, I'll have the 49 USD recurring from her as well, meaning that in 24 hours, the ads were cash flow positive.

That's literally immediately. I was shocked. And I know, like with anything, we don't expect it to be successful straight away. I know that running ads to cold traffic is the hardest thing to do.

That's the hardest audience to crack, to get in front of, and to actually sell to, because they don't know, like and trust us yet. I know that. I know it's a long game. I was expecting to spend money to learn. I didn't think the results would happen so quickly. So being profitable from almost day one was kind of crazy.

And look, I don't know what's going to happen. They might just go down the toilet tomorrow, [06:00] right? But I thought this was worth sharing because the money isn't even the most exciting part. The exciting part for me is the validation, because it tells me that people who don't know me, who've never heard the podcast, who have never opened my emails, are willing to buy. And that feels really significant, because it means that this new business direction, away from high ticket and more to low ticket, high volume, has legs for me.

It means that this idea resonates. It means that it's not just something that my warm audience wants. It means that strangers are saying, "Yes, I want that." And that is incredibly encouraging. Now, the other thing that I want to mention is that this experiment also reminded me of something that I teach all the time: traffic matters.

It's kind of everything. Over the years, serving and supporting all of my students and clients, I have seen so many brilliant business owners question their offers, question their expertise, question their pricing, question whether they're cut out for this, simply because [07:00] a launch or a sale didn't go the way they'd hoped.

And then when we look at the numbers, usually there just wasn't enough traffic. Not enough people even saw the offer. That is it. Because, again, you cannot sell to people who don't know you exist. I don't care how amazing your offer is, how transformational your program is, how incredible your coaching is. If nobody sees it, nobody can buy.

And I think so many of us accidentally make things harder than they need to be. We spend time tweaking the offer, rewriting the sales page, lowering the price, creating something new, when actually all we need is more people, more eyeballs, more subscribers, more listeners, more traffic, right? Let's do a little thought experiment. Let's say your offer converts at 2%, which is pretty normal. If 10 people see your offer, you probably make zero sales. If 50 people see your offer, you still might make zero sales. If 100 people see your offer, you would expect to make one or two sales.

Same offer, same [08:00] pricing, same messaging. The only thing that changed was the traffic. And I genuinely think some of the best offers online are sitting on dusty sales pages right now simply because not enough people ever saw them.

And that is heartbreaking, because I have worked with women who have extraordinary offers, truly life-changing offers, but they don't have enough traffic, and then they start to question themselves, their expertise, their pricing, even their worth, when the issue was never the offer. It was just the visibility of it, right?

So again, traffic is key. I think as entrepreneurs, once we have an offer, our whole job should be traffic, should be just getting people to see the damn thing. And if we can focus on that more, we are going to be more successful than we ever knew was possible. Now, for all my data nerds out there, hello, I'm one too.

Let's talk about the ad stats, because you're probably wondering. At the moment, the click-through rate is sitting at around 2.6%, which tells me the creative is resonating. The offer is resonating. People are stopping, they're [09:00] clicking. The order bump is converting at about 40% at the moment, and the Skool upsell, which is actually not even a part of the funnel, it's just a mention inside the welcome email that they get, converted, which is crazy.

Meta is still in the learning phase, which means that costs could improve over time, or who knows what could happen, right? It's very, very, very early. But this is incredibly encouraging.

Now, what I'm really testing with all of this experiment, yes, I've included Meta ads, but it's not really about Meta ads, right? The experiment is: can I create a business model that doesn't rely entirely on me? Can I build assets that continue to sell? Can I build systems that compound over time?

And can I build something sustainable? Because I think that is what a lot of us want, especially mums, especially women with busy lives, especially those of us who don't want to create content every single day or just don't have the energy to show up every single day.

And again, traffic is a huge part of that conversation, because if I can consistently get [10:00] new people into my ecosystem, everything becomes easier. Selling becomes easier. Launching becomes easier. Growing my community becomes easier. Building relationships with new people becomes easier. Traffic solves so many problems in business, and I just don't think we talk about it enough.

Now, as I wrap this episode up, I do think we're entering a season where business owners need multiple ways to grow: relationships, collaborations, podcasting, SEO, email, paid traffic. I don't think any one strategy is enough anymore. I think we need to diversify, and I think the businesses that thrive are going to be the ones that have multiple traffic sources feeding the same ecosystem.

And for me, of course, that ecosystem is my email list. Everything points back there, always, because your email list is where the relationship gets to go deep. It's where we build trust. We own it, and the opportunities there can compound. So no, I haven't cracked Meta ads. I'm still learning. I'm still testing.

I'm still figuring things out. But I wanted to share this [11:00] experiment with you, because I think sometimes we wait until we've mastered something before we even start talking about it, and I think there's value in sharing while we're in it. The messy middle, the testing phase, the I-have-no-f*cking-idea-if-this-is-going-to-work phase, because that's where business is actually built.

And I think my biggest takeaway from all of this is that I don't need a completely new business. I don't need to reinvent myself. I just need more people discovering my work, and maybe that's true for you too, because sometimes we don't have an offer problem. We just simply need more traffic, more people seeing our work.

And once we can see the difference, it can change everything. So my loves, I will keep you posted on how the ads continue to perform. If you want the inside scoop at any point, come and jump into my Skool community, Email Marketing Skool. I am an open book there. We do monthly calls for the premium members where they can ask me anything.

So it's definitely a great place to get the scoop on what's going on. Come [12:00] and join us. Ask me about the Meta ads. I will share everything that I know. And fingers crossed, right? Fingers crossed that it continues to work, and if it doesn't, we'll just try something else.

I'm all about experimenting. All right. I love you so much. Thank you again for being here. I hope you're having a lovely week, and I will see you again next Friday. Bye for now.

Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of The Email Growth Show. I hope you found valuable insights into the next steps you can take to grow your email list and boost your business without relying on social media or paid ads. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show and share it with others.

Your feedback helps me reach more female entrepreneurs just like you, who are ready to say goodbye to social media and leverage email marketing to grow their business and make a bigger impact. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode.