Cancel The Hustle Culture and Figure Out Ads that WORK with Facebook | Alexandra Ramirez

ALEXANDRA RAMIREZ [0:00]

When instead, I should be saying, "Wait for a second. That's just not me. That's not what I'm made for. I'm not made to be like that. I'm made to be like me. So, I have to figure out what's going to work for me and I can't do what that other person is doing.”

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CAMILLE WALKER [0:24]

So, you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business sharing your voice? How do women do it that handle motherhood, family, and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO.

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CAMILLE [0:43]

Welcome back, everyone. I hope you are having a fabulous day and a great start to 2022. This week, we are talking about embracing the lazy CEO and getting rid of hustle culture to the point of burnout where you feel like more is always best because we know that when we are pushing ourselves too much, oftentimes, we cannot do anymore. And that is not where we want to be.

So, my friends, today we are talking to Alexandra Ramirez. She's going to be speaking to us specifically about the ad changes that are happening in Facebook specifically and how you can launch and create successful ads and also create space and time for you to grow and to stay in your business. Let's get started.

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CAMILLE [1:34]

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Call Me CEO. This is your host, Camille Walker, and today we are going to be talking about dismantling the hustle culture and talking to the expert, Alexandra Ramirez, who is the owner of The Freedom Ad Agency. And I can tell you as a business owner, ads and marketing, that part of the business stresses the crap out of me. I don't know if I'm alone in this. I don't think I am, but Alexandra has figured out a way to focus in on what makes a difference in the growth of her business, how she's been able to simplify her approach to growing and building. And we are so excited to hear all about it. So, Alexandra, thank you so much for being here today.

ALEXANDRA [2:18]

Thank you for having me. I'm actually really excited to talk to your audience because you guys are my people. So, I'm excited to really get into all this.

CAMILLE [2:29]

So, tell our audience about yourself, how you got started in this business. Now, one thing we talked about just for a brief moment was that you started as a virtual assistant, which I think if anyone listening is thinking about starting a business, but they're not quite sure what, I think stepping into the virtual assistant world is the best way to tap into your own individual talents and abilities because there's so many different things you can do with it.

That's why I have a virtual assistant course, 60 Days to VA. And so, when I knew I was talking to you today, I was like this is perfect because I'm going to be launching my next group of students in February. So, if you're listening to this now and you're interested, go to www.camillewalker.co/VA. All right, Alexandra. Take it away.

ALEXANDRA [3:18]

Having a virtual assistant business is actually one of the easiest businesses right now because you can pick so many different niches. You can pick so many different skills that you can go off of. You can have super high price point. You can have a low price point. There are so many different ways that you can be a virtual assistant.

But how it started was really funny. So, my mom was a computer programmer for many, many years. When internet first started coming out, she became a computer programmer and she started working with coaches. And she was doing a lot of website stuff, some Mailchimp, email marketing type of stuff. And my husband was getting out of the Air Force because it was a medical retirement and that's a whole another story, but basically with that being said, I needed to find financial income to be coming into our lives because I was pregnant with my daughter and I have a son. And so, I needed to figure out an easy type of financial income for us to bring in that would be again easy.

So, virtual assistant was the first thing that popped up because my mom just told me, "Hey. Start doing this." And I started on Fiverr and actually was back in the days when Fiverr, you had to have a $5 gig. Nowadays, you don't. But I had one hour for $5, worst pricing for myself. Don't ever do that. But that's how I started that little area. Then I moved into, gosh, there was a platform called Periscope, if anybody knows about that back in the day. I started off there too where I started getting first couple of coaching clients and they were amazing.

I loved working with them. And obviously, when you get to the coaching world, it's just easier to get the next job, the next job, the next job. And as a virtual assistant, if you're good at what you do, your clients are going to get you more clients. That's just the way it is. People are always searching for a virtual assistant or OBM or whatever you want to call it, they're always doing that.

So, that's how I started the virtual assistant world. And eventually, I moved into doing funnels, and then it moved into doing Facebook ads. And now, I just love Facebook ads because it's a good challenge for me. It changes all the time and I love that. So, that's how it really went to heart.

CAMILLE [5:55]

Wow. Now, I know that you breezed over a really challenging time in your life. I know your husband had some medical difficulties. And this is a time where I feel like a lot of us are going through transitions right now with the pandemic and everything else. Could you talk to us a little bit about where you were in that moment when you decided to dive in and start your own business, what you felt like? I don't want to gloss over that because I feel like it's such a powerful step that you made in taking the reins and making it happen.

ALEXANDRA [6:31]

Yeah. To be honest, when I think back to it, it wasn't a big leap for me because I was a stay-at-home mom at the time. So, it was just like I have a computer. I have a phone and I can do some tasks for some clients that I know what to do. I know I could do that. I can go on Canva or I think at the time it was PicMonkey.com. I could do those things. I can do those quick little graphics for the clients or I can schedule that post that they want to put up or whatever. That was really super easy for me to task out. So, it wasn't a big leap for me in order to change that.

I would say the big "leap" probably would have been when I decided to really niche my virtual assistant business. That was the big leap because it went from I have all these clients that tell me to do this task, this task, this task, it doesn't matter and I had to do every single one of those tasks and moved over to a niche where I knew exactly the task that I needed to do for every single client.

And so, I would do launches for clients. That was my big niche is I would use to work with the high-ticket coaches who had high ticket courses that they would sell and they would do launches for those. And I would help set up their sales page. I would help them launch it with posts, all those types of things. I would definitely help my clients with those things. And that was my big leap.

But yeah, that's a long story as far as my husband stuff is concerned, but I felt like in that moment that I had to do something or else he was going to work again or I would have to work at Walmart or I don't know, somehow a job of some kind because I've been out of the job industry for so long at that point. So, that was a difficult for me. But other than that, it was just like I have to.

CAMILLE [8:43]

Yeah. I love that your statement of getting started where you were was you used what you had and you used skills that you were familiar with. It wasn't scary. And I think that a lot of times, it's just starting with what you know, and then really finding out what that thing is that you want to dive into. And so, for you, that was Facebook ads and Instagram ads and you started your agency.

So, tell us about that. And then, we do, we're going to talk to you all about how video is changing the ad industry as well as iOS 14 on Facebook, which is a bear in my opinion. So, how did you decide to start the ad agency and do you have a team that works with you that helps you to do your work?

ALEXANDRA [9:27]

Yeah, of course. It's a lot. So, if I need you to ask any of those questions again.

CAMILLE [9:32]

Yeah. I've just unloaded it, so let's go.

ALEXANDRA [9:35]

There's a lot. So, when it came to me starting my agency because I actually started a done for you funnel agency, gosh, 2018, 2019, something along those lines and I did not like it. I didn't like creating all these funnels for clients. It just was a bear and it was hard to get all these team members to be able to know how to create all of these different things. And so, it was really difficult for me to do.

So, I left all of that niche business and instead, I went into consulting and I would consult clients with their funnels. I would consult clients with their Facebook ads and that's really when I started to figure out and experience Facebook ads and Instagram ads and really just starting to understand the algorithm, understanding the marketing. Because everybody tends to think when it comes to Facebook ads, they tend to think of the technology behind it.

When we look at the Ads Manager, really feeling like it's complicated, "Oh my gosh, there's so many buttons, so many things I could be looking at. What do I need to do?" Calm yourself down for a second and it's not a technology thing that people struggle with in terms of Facebook ads. It's the marketing behind the Facebook ads that many people struggle with.

So, although people might think that the iOS 14 is what's messing them up, it's not. It's just that yes, the iOS 14 is making it more difficult for us to be tracking and for the pixel to be able to optimize better. You just have to figure out a way to work around that technology error I guess is what you can call it and be able to figure out, how can I reach my potential lead in a way that's going to get them to become an actual lead, and then become a client? What is that process going to look like for me? And that's the type of thing about some people. It's like they think only about the technology of it rather than thinking of the marketing side of it.

CAMILLE [11:50]

So, we're going to dig deep into this because I feel like with my first launch of my course last year, I kept using a wrong keyword because I would say, "Make money working from home." And if you use the words "work from home," it's tagged as spam. Because it's my understanding, you're the expert, but if Facebook believes you are promoting an MLM, it's considered spam, which of course, I was not. I was promoting my virtual assistant course.

ALEXANDRA [12:20]

MLM or get rich quick scheme.

CAMILLE [12:22]

Yes, or get rich quick.

ALEXANDRA [12:24]

Yeah. It's under the same error, the same rejection thing that you get. It's under that same claim. Yeah, there's certain words that I try to stay away from and I mean they could be on this podcast forever if I go through that list.

First, I would recommend to go look at the policies that Facebook and Instagram has in terms of advertising. Because then you're going to be able to see what is those policies and can my ad get rejected and how can it get rejected? What kind of words would I be using that can get it rejected?

So, a couple of the things that I would probably say for your ideal client that could be listening to this and maybe they get rejections, I would say anything that has to do with income does tend to get rejected, especially if you're first starting out with your ads or if you've been rejected multiple times. And if you've been rejected multiple times, you will get rejected more times after that. That's just the algorithm and it's just going to happen. But yeah, anything that has to do with income is something that does get rejected pretty fast. Also, anything if you have to say like "work from home" or anything along those lines, that's definitely a trigger for those types of things.

But I would definitely look at the policies. If you can, have a chance to look at the policies because then you can see, "Oh, this is what they're looking for." They're not going to tell you the exact keywords, but you can tell.

CAMILLE [13:51]

I've seen a lot of people now using vertical video for ads more of that short under 10-second or 15-second video.

ALEXANDRA [13:59]

The Instagram story one?

CAMILLE [13:59]

Even on Facebook or Pinterest and Instagram, everyone's starting to use a vertical video for using ads. Do you think that that is the most effective at this point or what has been your experience?

ALEXANDRA [14:14]

It's hard to say because I feel like with every single one of my clients, something is different. It works different for every single one of my clients. I have clients where I could put the same exact type of graphic, same type of exact video for two different clients with two different niches. And for those particular ones, Client A could end up doing great with the Instagram story video or like a vertical video and does horrible with the graphic. And then, the Client B may be the opposite of that.

So, it varies. It's very different with some of my clients. And so, that's when we tend to test different things. And I feel like also again, you have to come at it from a perspective of a consumer. What does that client want? What is that potential lead looking for? Did they want to see your face? Do they want to be able to connect with you in some way, shape or form before they're able to say, "Yes. I need to register for this three-day challenge this person has" or what do they need from you in order for them to become a client of yours is the question you need to be asking yourself at the end of the day.

CAMILLE [15:38]

What do you think is the biggest mistake that people make when launching a new program or course?

ALEXANDRA [15:47]

Oh, that's a good question. There's a lot.

CAMILLE [15:52]

Give it to us.

ALEXANDRA [15:52]

There's definitely a lot. And I think it's giving up is the number one thing. The number one thing is giving up on the offer and giving up on your ultimate goal. If your ultimate goal is to start making passive income off of a course and, let's say, your first launch flops. Let's say, you put $2000 into Facebook ads and you got $0 out of it. Oh my gosh, I'm horrible. I'm this worst person. This course is over. I'm done. I give up, whatever.

And instead of going, okay. What could I have done better on this? Okay. Let me look at the stats really quick. How many people joined the Facebook group for the challenge that I had? How many people moved over? What were my stats on my ads? How many people actually opted into it? Do I need to work on the creatives? Do I need to make an Instagram story video? Do I need to write better copy? What do I need to do throughout this entire launch to optimize it and get it better, so that I get more sales next time? But yeah, I think giving up is the ultimate mistake that people make when it comes to launching, especially with Facebook ads.

CAMILLE [17:16]

Yeah. I think that that's really good advice because even as I'm listening to this now, I feel like my launch went okay. Of course, I want it to do better, but I feel like I'm at this stage now where I would love to work with someone like you where you could take it and be like, "Okay. This worked, but I can help you make it better."

And that's not always something that you can do on the first round and maybe that's something that you do on the second or the third round, so that you can progress forward and also have someone in your corner who's helping keep that momentum. Because I think it's very easy for us to lose that momentum and think, "Oh, this isn't working or maybe I thought I wanted to do this, but I can't" or whatever that reason is.

Now, a big part of your mission is to cancel the hustle culture. And I love that so much because I feel like if the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we are limited in our capacity as far as what we should be taking on as a human, as a mother, as a wife, as a sister, an aunt, whatever it is. I think that there is always going to be more to do, especially as a business owner. So, talk to me about how you've created this cancel culture on the hustle.

ALEXANDRA [18:36]

Yeah. I don't like to call it full on cancelling hustle because I know that there's people, especially in the coaching space or even the virtual assistant space that love working, that love being able to be in their passion. They love doing that. And if you're that type of person, I'm not going to knock you down for that. You do you. You're great at it. Keep up you work.

But for the people who are more like me, that don't like to hustle, I don't want to have anyone think that they have to hustle in order for them to be the CEO of their business, to be able to have a successful profitable business, in order to create the desires that they want. You don't have to work 24/7 in order for that to happen. And I think that's been nailed into us for so long of work, work, work. And actually, we're taught that in school too. We're taught that.

And then, on the outside, we tend to look at other mentors not to dog on GaryVee or anything, but he's very much of a hustle guy. And there's people out there who are like me who we ride this train of should I go and work hard like these other people and hustle until I burn the heck out? Because I know I'm going to burn myself out if I do that or can I ride the train of I don't like to call it too much lazy because that seems to be a very negative word, but can I not do as much work, be the CEO of my business, be the visionary of my business, and still be successful as that other person who's working really super hard? You know what I mean? So, that's something that's really super important to me is for the person like me that doesn't want to work super hard in order to get what they want.

CAMILLE [21:00]

Yeah. No, I think that really rings true to me more than ever, especially when I became a mom and I knew for me, I wanted something that I could use my mind and my brain for on top of being a mom because I love being a mom, but I also know that if I'm pushing or pulling too hard on one way or the other that I will feel out of whack. And that just goes with the phases of your life, whether you're pregnant or you have a nursing baby or you have that spell in between having another kid or you're starting to have kids start into school or whatever it is.

We just all go through phases of what it is that we can give or what we want to give, so that we don't burn out on either side of the coin. And I think that it's easier for men to be in that hustle mindset all of the time because they aren't pulled as much as women are. And so, that's something we have to do. We have to figure that out for ourselves what is that balance for me.

ALEXANDRA [22:06]

Yeah. Maybe we're going to go into this, but literally I just took off all of my social media platforms off of my phone for that very reason of I know myself too that I get triggered really fast by looking at the hustle types of people. I look at those people and I say, "Oh my gosh, I'm lazy because I'm not like that." When instead, I should be saying, "Wait for a second. That's just not me. That's not what I'm made for. I'm not made to be like that. I'm made to be like me. So, I have to figure out what's going to work for me and I can't do what that other person is doing. It's going to be burn me out."

CAMILLE [22:52]

That's really powerful. I think that that is something that as a culture, especially for our kids, they are holding up mirrors through these phones and thinking that whatever they see on the screen is a reflection of them or what they should be and that is so toxic. I think that that is something where even in our generation, we developed as a human without having to imagine what other people might be thinking of or outfit as a virtual like or whether or not we are missing out on a party because you see all your other friends doing whatever the thing might be.

But what I want to know from you is I know that you are able to make your business really successful and putting up these blinders, so to speak, through social media. I'm really jealous of that. Actually, I think that sounds really lovely because I've had my own struggles of maintaining my space online. But what I want to know is what would you say are the steps that you took to be able to focus on your business in a way that moved the needle?

ALEXANDRA [24:01]

Bottomline has been I am the type of person that is a fast action taker. I'm not the type of person that has to sit with it for a while before they make the decision. I'm very much a quick boom, bam, I have to do this, this, and this. I started this agency back in the beginning of January of 2020, so there's that. And when I started that, I just knew that I wanted to create a business, I wanted to create this agency where I was the CEO. And I had people under me that were really amazing and passionate about what they do and I can take my genius and I can give it to my team and they are able to create the results for the clients that they're asking for and that they're hiring us for.

So, a couple of things that I've been doing is I've created the funnel of that is going to be able to really streamline potential leads into clients, getting them on the sales calls. I've really been able to do that and I'm still growing. I’m still doing the sales calls right now, so eventually that's going to turn into a closer of some kind.

But I'm always thinking as a CEO. I am always thinking as a CEO. Sometimes, I tend to think as a campaign manager or I tend to think as an OBM or something like that because I still have to do things in my business that matter, the little tiny details that when things happen, the fires I have to put out, I still do those things. However, I am always thinking as a CEO.

And that's my number one thing is to always think as the visionary. So, what do I need to do to get this agency further into success, but at the same time also thinking what can I do in my business that will allow it to be more streamlined and bring me more freedom? So, that tended to be creating a funnel, having a Facebook ad out, hiring the right people like my campaign managers and my OBM, which is amazing and all these different things that I'm streamlining and figuring out.

CAMILLE [26:25]

How are you able to find good team members for your company?

ALEXANDRA [26:31]

That is one of the most difficult things that I don’t think anyone, to be honest, has ever figured out. You can write as many blog posts as you want on how to find the right team members, but the real honest answer is you're going to have to walk yourself through and hiring not the best fit people and learning that that's okay that you've made those mistake of hiring this person that's just not the right fit. And you got to let them go and find the next person. And maybe that person will do great and so on and so forth. And then, you'll eventually have a team of amazing great people because you've done the work to be able to do that.

CAMILLE [27:23]

Yes. So, you're talking a lot about systems and I love asking other CEOs what systems they like to use. Is there especially as you're working with the team, is there an online program that you like to use? Do you use Trello, ClickUp? What are some of the systems you like to use?

ALEXANDRA [27:41]

So, we've used a lot in the past. We've used Asana. We've used ClickUp before. We've had Airtable. We've had I think Trello. I wasn't a fan of Trello though from the get-go. Basecamp has been our big one that we've been using. And I think it's just because it's how it's organized. It's not more than anything than that. ClickUp, for myself, it's a little bit too clean. I don’t like that. I like being able to create certain things and to be able to customize in a certain way, but Basecamp seems to be the best one for us to be able to organize all of our clients as certain projects basically and all this type of stuff.

CAMILLE [28:30]

What tool do you use for keyword research?

ALEXANDRA [28:37]

I don't do keywords research.

CAMILLE [28:40]

Not for your Facebook ads? How do you use keywords? No? Okay. What? Okay. You are blowing my mind right now because when I recreated my Facebook ad this last go-around last year, I had to do keyword research, and then find what you can look at.

ALEXANDRA [29:02]

Do you mean interests?

CAMILLE [29:04]

Maybe. Yeah, maybe that's what it was interchangeably. I think I think it was keywords, maybe it's interests.

ALEXANDRA [29:12]

I think it could be interests.

CAMILLE [29:14]

Okay. So, talk to me about if we were to put together an ad right now, what are the steps that you take with a questionary guest because I know you want to do it like geographically. You want to get the interests and also there's a part where you can look up other people who you may want to attract who you find yourself similar to that you want to attract their people too? What are the top steps that people should go through when they're putting something together?

ALEXANDRA [29:42]

To be honest with you guys, I would recommend, if you want to start with Facebook ads, maybe go buy my $27 Facebook Ads Course because it does tend to go through all the different interests. I can go on and on about interests all day long and the demographics, how to go through that.

So, I have a secret strategy that I can walk you guys through on how I do interests in terms of Facebook ads. Actually, I have a YouTube video on it, but basically what you do is that you can even do this right now guys, so take out a notebook, piece of paper, whatever, pen, pencil, everything. First thing I want you to do is I want you to write out all of the, let's say, let's start with public figures that your ideal client would like. Just name as many as you can. I don’t even care who they are. Name them. And try to get a little niche there too if you can. So, for example, for Camille, it could Marie Forleo and Amy Porterfield and stuff like that. If you're a spiritual entrepreneur, you might go for Esther Hicks or the Hay House stuff like that. If, let's say, you are a fitness instructor, you might put up like Jillian. Is that her name, Jillian something?

CAMILLE [31:09]

Jillian Michaels.

ALEXANDRA [31:10]

Something like that. Okay. Public figures, that's your first one. Your second one, I want you to start putting in ones for, gosh, let's change it. Let's do companies for the second one. So, that would look like, for example, for Camille, that could be Infusionsoft. It could be ClickFunnels. It could be Mailchimp. What are the different software/companies that your ideal client would be interested in? Okay. And you can do this for different categories, just like thinking of different categories that your ideal client could be interested in. So, I'm going to books, for example, stuff like that. And that could be the third category or whatever. You just want to start putting all those interests in.

Now, when you go back in the Ads Manager, when you're creating your ad and you go to what's called the ad set. That's where you're going to put in your interests for the audience. That's where you're going to put all your demographics in, so the age bracket, you could put a gender, you can put in different countries if you'd wanted. And by the way, normally ones that I pick are United States, Canada, Australia and if I can, even though really picky these days, is United Kingdom and really difficult though because of all the policies that they've been putting in recently, especially with Facebook.

But when you do that, what you're going to do is for the first category of interest that you put in, you put that as the initial ones, put those all in, as many as you can find. Put those in. Then there's a little button that says narrow audience. You're going to click on that and that's where you're going to put the second category or the third category, whatever you want to put in. So, you put the second category in. If you have a third category, you click narrow audience again, and then you do the same thing for the third category. And this is layering your audiences to figure out the algorithm a lot faster.

And also, to be honest with you guys, nowadays, people are actually tending to do a general audience. So, what that looks like is instead of layering it like I just talked about, which might get you to 2 to 3 million, maybe maximum 5 million. If you want the algorithm to figure it out itself, you can do a general type of audience. And what that would look like is, for example, people who are interested in entrepreneurship, that's going to at least I think it's like 15 million or 20 million at the top of my head or something along those lines. And that way, you can allow Facebook to figure out the algorithm for you.

It really depends on what your end goal is. If you had a high-ticket program, I might recommend the layered audience instead of the general audience. If you have a course like yours, for example, Camille, I would recommend more of a general audience like entrepreneurship, for example. Just because then you're going to have a wider range of people that are probably going to be interested in it, and then Facebook can literally figure out the algorithm for you.

CAMILLE [34:29]

That's really interesting. I know that it can be a big risk starting with the Facebook ads. What do you suggest that people start with as far as investment?

ALEXANDRA [34:38]

If you're scared about it, start small and work your way up.

CAMILLE [34:43]

So, would you say $5 a day or would you say?

ALEXANDRA [34:46]

Yeah. So, I would say especially with retargeting ads, with retargeting ads, you don't have to spend a lot. So, you can literally have a retargeting ad to your Instagram following or people who follow you on Facebook or people who have touched your pixel. Let's say, you put your pixel on your website a long time ago and you've been able to grow a really big pixel with that. But yeah, I would definitely say if you're scared about it, start small like $5 a day, create a retargeting ad that gets people to book a call with you or something along those lines. Make it very easy for the consumer to say yes to you.

CAMILLE [35:29]

What do you think as far as experiences that you've had in targeting people and using ads and looking at ad spend and everything else, what has been a really good to action for an ad?

ALEXANDRA [35:43]

That's a really hard question only because, like I said before, when it came to the creatives, it's the same way. We've had different calls to action for each client and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So, it really just depends.

However, what we're utilizing lately is inside the Ads Manager, you can use different objectives, so there's like engagement objective, there's view objective. That's where people tend to get confused about. I don’t even know where to start type of thing. And actually they've just changed their platform to some people. And so, there is a way nowadays where it literally just says, "Do you want more sales? Click on this. If you want more this, do this." So, that's really cool that Facebook has started doing that although I don’t like it for myself because I'm just so used to one way, and then they change it.

Anyways, but I would definitely recommend the messages objective. It's been doing really super well for a good amount of our clients to do the messages objective. And basically, what happens is instead of the consumer clicking onto the ad and taking them off the platform to your opt-in or whatever you might have, instead you get them to message you on Instagram or Facebook and it's super easy.

CAMILLE [37:08]

Yes. I have noticed that I got some message ads or messages that came in from my ads and if you do choose to do that, make sure that you're looking in your inbox because sometimes if it's someone obviously most you wouldn't have a relationship with because they're seeing your ad, you have to make sure you're checking in on that, which if you had someone managing your ads like you are, I'm sure you're on top of that sort of thing.

But there were a few that came through that said, "I want to know more. Tell me more." And it becomes so personal instead of it being like, "Buy from me, learn from me, whatever." It's like all of a sudden, this person is in an inbox with you and it becomes a one-on-one conversation. And in my opinion, the best sales take place one-on-one in a chat and that goes for DM in Instagram. That goes for Facebook Messenger. It just makes it very human, a very human experience where I agree, I think that that approach can be so powerful because it takes it from this very, I don't know, plastic feeling or a billboard where you see it, but you're not going to engage to something where this is a person and they're talking to me. And I feel like that changes everything.

ALEXANDRA [38:24]

Yeah. And it comes down to they still do it now and a real estate agent sends you a piece of mail and they actually wrote it versus just a piece of mail that has a brochure about a new house inside of there. Those are two completely different experiences that you're creating for the consumer. Which one is that person going to lean towards? Probably the one that's more personalized and has their name on it as the signature, really just personal like that.

And I think we're also just getting to that time and age where not evergreen is leaving, but the evergreen grow marketing strategy is leaving, which is the evergreen webinar that tends to say like, "You're in the right place if" and with the countdowns and the Deadline Funnel and all these different things. I think that's leaving out the door right now and we're bringing in more personalization into it.

CAMILLE [39:24]

So, talk to me just a little bit about that where that funnel system, which in my opinion, is like that Russel Brunson ClickFunnels.com secret that kind of approach. How are you retargeting those ads, so that it is a more personal? I would imagine it's through this personal messenger approach, but how do you walk them through that process without burning yourself out? Are you using message bots to help manage that? I'm not to a place where I have so much volume that I need to worry about that yet, but is that something where that's what you're utilizing is messenger bots to help them walk through that process of that funnel, but it's through a messenger?

ALEXANDRA [40:05]

Yes. We're definitely using chat bots to start the conversation. We have clients who allow the chat bot most of the work, and then we have other clients who just want the chat bot to start the conversation. So, it really depends. I would say, to be honest though, the ones who tend to create that personalization and just allow the chat bot to start the conversation, those are the ones that tend to do better versus the ones that allow just that chat bot to do all the work. Because again, when you do that, when you add that personalization, that creates more connection with the consumer. And obviously, that rule of somebody needs to see your stuff 7-8 times before they become a client, I think it narrows that time frame down from 7-8 to now 3-5 or even 1 time depending on who it is.

CAMILLE [41:12]

Are those chat bot services within Facebook or is that a secondary?

ALEXANDRA [41:17]

It's a secondary.

CAMILLE [41:18]

Okay. I thought so. I know there's more than one. So, what would you say?

ALEXANDRA [41:22]

We use ManyChat just because I've used ManyChat for so long that it just became a thing. And I think also with ManyChat, they are so interconnected I feel like with Facebook and actually now Instagram too that they abide with every single policy that those platforms have. Whereas some other chat type of platforms, they're a little sketch. So, I tend to not lean towards those ones, but I do like ManyChat just because of the fact that they follow the policies that Facebook and Instagram have.

CAMILLE [42:03]

Okay. This is so interesting. And I love this conversation. I know we didn't get to all of it. One last question here, if someone had a course, a program, a Facebook launch group or whatever it might be, would you say it makes more sense to invest in one platform like Facebook where you're doing the ads in the Messenger rather than taking them to a landing page with a funnel and the testimonials, etc., the whole thing? Are you saying that you think the best approach is staying on Facebook, keeping them where they are, and letting the bot do the rest of the work, and then, of course, making it personal?

ALEXANDRA [42:42]

Yeah, a 100%. Keep it on the platform because it does two things. One, it keeps it easy for you and the consumer who want to say yes to purchasing with you and becoming your client, but also two, what it does is that with Facebook and Instagram and all social media platforms want to keep their consumer on their platform because what does that do for advertising? That helps them.

So, if you keep your ad as much as possible, if you can keep their consumer on the platform, they reward you for that. They put you higher in the algorithm when you do that. So, that's why I tend to tell clients to either use the message objective and/or the lead generation objective because those objectives inside the Ads Manager are the best ways to keep the consumer on the platform.

CAMILLE [43:43]

That's so smart. And then, say, you're having a conversation and they want to buy with you, then how are you processing the transaction or the purchase?

ALEXANDRA [43:55]

Again, that's different for each client. So, the client that tends to just allow the chat bot to just start the conversation, that client, she has her own process. She literally does everything off to the side. We have nothing to do with that side of her business, which is actually I love that, to be honest. But no, she literally just focuses on messaging them, getting them to schedule a call with her, and then her team.

CAMILLE [44:30]

They handle it.

ALEXANDRA [44:31]

That's all her team. And then, the client that tends to let the chat bot do all the work, then we just push people to a sales page or we push people to her scheduler or something like that. So, it really just depends on whichever way the client wants to go, yeah.

CAMILLE [44:53]

Okay. So, the transaction isn't happening in the Messenger. Eventually, it's going to a landing page somewhere where they have to.

ALEXANDRA [45:00]

I do have some clients that are great at the DMs. They're amazing at the DMs and they can literally just DM the heck out of this person, and then the client says, "Yeah. Send me the invoice." And then, they send the invoice and it works out. But you have to be really good, really good at the DMs, in order to be able to do that. But we do have some clients that are like that.

CAMILLE [45:24]

This has been so fascinating. I appreciate you taking the time and it sounded like you had resources available for both, if you're starting out and you want to do a DIY or if people want to reach out to you directly. Can you give us that information, so that we can let them know?

ALEXANDRA [45:41]

Yeah. So, I have a lot of resources that you guys can definitely get into. So, first off, if you want to just do it yourself, you just want to try it out, you want to do that $5 a day type of thing, I would recommend to go to my YouTube channel. Just look up Alexandra Ramirez and Facebook ads or something like that. And then, you'll be able to find it all. I have tons of resources on there. I tend to do a lot more videos starting next year now that I have no social media platforms on my phone at least.

And then, I would also probably recommend my $27 Facebook Ads Course. I'm constantly updating that because I think it's a valuable resource for every single person and it's super cheap. $27 just for you to learn Facebook ads, that's a steal. And then, also if you just want to let go of it, then hire my agency and you can just go to www.thefreedomadagency.com, and then you'll be able to apply to schedule a call with me or maybe at the time a closer hopefully.

CAMILLE [46:46]

All right. Thank you so much. This has been super helpful. And if you've enjoyed this episode, please leave a review here on wherever you're listening to this podcast. Share with a friend. We all want to start 2022 with momentum without burnout. So, I hope that you've learned that today. Alexandra, thank you so much for your time.

ALEXANDRA [47:06]

Thank you for having me.

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CAMILLE [47:11]

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you are curious about learning more about the virtual assistant program, please go to www.camillewalker.co/VA and I would love it if you would leave a review about this podcast. I love hearing what you think and what you specifically liked about this episode. Thank you so much!

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