How to scale your course with Facebook ads for free

Want to scale your course without watching all your profit disappear into Facebook ads?

In this episode, I am pulling back the curtain on a strategy I call the List Building Machine. This approach has completely transformed how I run ads, grow my list, and sell my course with ease.

Inside, you will learn:

• A simple way to grow your email list continuously, without constantly showing up.
• How to turn freebie seekers into paying customers automatically.
• How to make sales while your ads are running, and use those sales to pay for your ad spend.
• Why this strategy sets you up to scale your course with more profit and a warmer audience.

If you are tired of pouring money into ads that do not convert, or you want a smarter way to build your audience and make sales on autopilot, this episode will open up a whole new way to grow your business.

And if you are ready to start building your own evergreen sales system, download the FREE Daily Sales Guide for female course creators who want to make money every day without relying on exhausting launch cycles.

👉 Get the guide here.

Transcript

0:05

Welcome to the Empowered Edupreneur Podcast. My name is Michelle Smit, and I'm an ex-teacher turned online business coach for Edupreneurs the owner of Digiteach and a six-figure entrepreneur. I am in love with empowering educators just like you to create freedom filled online businesses and lives they love. If you are looking to uplevel your skills, your finances, your mindset, and change the trajectory of your life as an educator in business, then you are in the right place. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of business and mindset development to help unlock the infinite potential within you. To play bigger with your life and go after your dreams. We are going to have so much fun together. So thank you so much for pushing play today. Now let's dive in. Hello. Hello. Hope you are doing fabulously. I'm so happy to have you here. Today I am talking about something that is specifically for the course creator, gals out there who have a course. They have sold the course. This is likely how it went. You probably created a course and sold it with organic marketing and got people in organically. Maybe you tried a little bit of Facebook ads in your first launch or whatever, and you have been launching your course and selling it with a combination of using organic marketing and maybe a bit of Facebook ads and then. You've realized, to increase the amount of money and sales I make, I need to get more people into my launches. And in order to do that, you need more traffic. So in order to create more traffic, you go and likely choose Facebook ads over organic because of the speed at which you can bring people into your launches. Organic, as we know, is a slow burn, and Facebook ads is literally like a tap. You put money in, you get traffic, you get leads, and then you can launch to those people. And make an ROIA return on investment on that money put in. But you've probably had the situation where, okay, every time you try scale your course launches, your ad costs go up, your cost per lead will go up. And this is just a really frustrating phenomenon that happens in the journey of selling courses because when you scale on Facebook ads. It's very, very likely that as you scale your cost per lead will increase and you will basically you'll be paying more for that traffic. Which at the end of the day means that you are going to have less profit at the end of your launch, and that just keeps happening. The more you want to scale. So this is something that I dealt with because you get to a point where your offer is dialled in. You've got the messaging dialled in, you've got the launch and sales process dialled in. You know that when you do this thing and you sell this thing in this particular way, that you are going to get this sales conversion, this is the result you're going to have. And so then you reverse engineer your numbers and then the goal is to bring more people into those launches. But as you do that and you try scale, your money goes to Facebook ads because of the cost increasing. And generally speaking, since I've been in business for I think like seven years now, Facebook ads only goes up. I don't think I've ever, ever seen Facebook ads go down in my life. So that is the truth of that one. Just the nature of it is it will keep increasing. And so if your prices aren't increasing and if sales conversions aren't increasing, ultimately your profits are decreasing. So now I'm talking to you particularly about what to do in this situation, how to scale your course with Facebook ads for free. Now you might be like, that sounds crazy. What are you talking about, Michelle? Well, let me tell you. So this is a machine that I like to call the free list building machine. If you have a course that is converting then in order to get more humans into that course, typically what you would be told is, okay, build a free lead magnet and run ads to that lead magnet or organic traffic to that lead magnet, and build your email list with that free lead magnet and then launch your course to those people. Now, the free list building machine is all about creating a low-ticket offer that you can put on the thank you page of your lead magnet so that when you run ads to your lead magnet, people will go through it. They will opt in to your free guide, and then on the thank you page of that, there will be an offer presented to them. This is a low-ticket offer. Typically, you're looking at a range between 7 to around $47. Somewhere in that area of price. And a percentage of people who land on that page. If the page is done well, if it's a good sales page, if it's a good offer, a percentage of people will buy it. And what you want is about 5 to 10% of people to buy it. 10% being on the extreme high, it's typically more around 5%. If you can have 5% of people buy it, you are winning. So then what that means is as you're running ads to this lead magnet funnel. You have an offer in it, and that means a percentage of people will buy. And that means if the numbers are dialled in and you've tested a few things that those sales that are made within that funnel basically pay for your ads. And there's obviously quite a few moving pieces to this. I'm giving you like the nutshell right now. There is a lot of strategy to this. There's a lot of things to get it right. So yes, the low-ticket offer is the first piece of the puzzle. You want to have something that is a easy yes. Like a no-brainer yes. That people can just buy quickly. Sort of impulsively because it's like a cheap offer, but it's such a good offer. It needs to be a very good offer. It can't be an average offer. It has to actually be very, very juicy. And then people will buy it, and those sales would then cover at least a portion of your ad spend. Now, the next step in this free list building machine is, you've got the low-ticket offer. The next piece of the puzzle that you want to add to increase the average cart value, meaning how much people spend within that funnel to help you pay more of your ad spend. Because with a low-ticket offer, you can probably cover just under half of your ad spend. So it won't cover all of your ad spend. So then you need to have basically what I call an upsell track. This is a couple of offers after that low-ticket offer that people can add to their cart as they're going through to increase the average card value to then pay for that ad spend. So if you think about going through like a shopping aisle, if you go towards the checkout aisle, you'll always be pushed through a queue, right? And you squeeze through this little funnel where there's a queue and on in that queue you typically would have, like in a grocery store. You'd have easy things that you can just buy and add to your cart as you're going through that queue up until you get to the checkout page. So I want you to think of that. It's almost like that principle, but in an online store. So you create this aisle where as they're going through the process of buying, there are things that they can add to their cart. So the next little piece of the puzzle would be an order bump. An order bump is basically a really low-ticket, easy, yes. It can be literally five dollars. It could be even more. So it can sometimes be more, your order bum can even be more than your low-ticket offer, but you're typically looking at, I would say you're looking between$5 and probably $50 and add a push. Depending on your niche, maybe a hundred dollars. Every niche is different. This is like a super juicy, easy thing that you can just add in the checkout, that someone can literally just tick and say add to cart. So they buy your low-ticket offer, then they go to the checkout page, and then there's a little mini offer that is supplementary. You want to think of your order bump as. Something that doesn't compete with your low-ticket offer, but it's supplements. So it could be an added little piece of the puzzle that helps them even more within that pain that you're solving in the low-ticket offer. This little order bump could just be an extra little piece of the puzzle to help them with that pain or give them that solution. So that's something that you would add. So they buy the low-ticket offer or they add the low-ticket offer to cart. Then they go and they see, in the checkout page there's this little order bump, they then add that order bump. Then once they then pay for that product, they put in their details on the checkout page, and then they move through to the next page. Now this next page is the next piece of the puzzle. This is going to be an upsell offer, a one time only upsell offering. So this person has now purchased a low-ticket offer. They've then added the order bump. And now they've gone through to the next page, and now there's one offer that is presented to them with a sales page that is an upsell. This could be under $300, so it could be a DIY course for $200, 197. It could be 97, it could be 47, but this offer can be a bit higher. And this is a one-time offer, so they're not going to see this offer again. And you have a very particular page that you create to sell this offer. And a percentage of people should, you want at least, I would say 12 to 15% of people to add that upsell to their cart and buy the upsell. And so what ends up happening is you have this like grocery aisle, but it's a funnel where as they're going through, they can add these things to their cart and then they can pay. And then by the end of it, you've increased your average car value. Meaning people are spending a bit more within that funnel. Because you've presented them very good offers at really good price points that people want, that have strong messaging, strong positioning, and a strong sales page to sell them in an automated way. That they then add those offers to their cart. At the end of it, instead of spending just $27, they've now spent $67. Assuming they bought all of your things. And then that $67 that they've then spent with you would immediately cover your ad spend to acquire that lead. And not only just acquired a lead, you also turned that lead into a customer. And this is done in a completely automated way. So you build out this machine. And this machine builds your email list and turns those leads into customers in an automated way 24/7, all the time. Now, you might actually be asking, before I say how you scale your course. You might be asking, how do you then scale your course with that? So when you put this machine in front of your course. So instead of having just a lead magnet, building your email list and paying for those leads and then having a launch to those leads. You are going to put that low-ticket offer funnel that I just shared with you in the front. So where your lead magnet is, you're going to put the low-ticket offer there and give them a bunch of opportunities to buy things. And that's going to build your email list and it's going to pay for ad spend. So then not going to have to spend all this money on marketing Because you're going to be recouping that with your low-ticket offer machine and then you can put more ads into that machine, you can say, okay, I'm going to scale up from $20 a day to $50 a day to a hundred dollars a day, and I'm going to push more people into that machine, if it's dialled in. And I'm going to have more leads coming through, and I'm going to have more sales coming through, and that's going to pay for my ad spend. And then every few months you would launch to those new leads that come through. But the good thing about this, and the thing that makes it much more effective is these people aren't just leads. A percentage of them will already be customers. They've already had a good taste of your work. They've done your low-ticket offer, they've seen how you work, they've built more trust with you. If you've delivered a good experience or a good program. If you've solved a problem for them, they are 10 times more likely to buy from you again. And that is powerful stuff. You've got a machine that turns leads into customers and those customers are 10 x more likely to buy from you again. So then when you launch your course to those people, when you say, hey, I've got this program, this is what it's going to do. They're going to be really be much warmer to you. And they're going to be much more likely to convert and buy into your actual core offer or your signature course. The thing that is $500, a thousand dollars, $2,000,$3,000, however amount that is. Because they are not called leads. They have gone through this process where they've bought something low-ticket from you, they've had a good experience, and they want more. And then they're going to likely invest in the next thing. And that is how you scale your course with Facebook ads for free. If you do not have the low-ticket offer machine that I just shared with you, you will come to a point in your business where you are running Facebook ads trying to scale your course launches and your profit is going to be chewed up by Facebook ads. And it's going to feel very frustrating. And so the solution to this really is to build out this Evergreen automated free list building machine where you have a low-ticket offer, an order bump, and an upsell that are strategically built in a series of pages that move someone from being completely cold onto the internet to opting into your list to purchasing something, to potentially upselling into something, becoming a customer, and then later down the line, when you do sell your course are more likely to convert. Now the strategy behind this is that instead of you going and spending Facebook ads on your free launch, driving a lot of cold people straight into that training, spending a huge amount of Facebook ads and only recouping that Facebook ads once you've launched. You add an extra machine in the front of that launch that allows you to build leads consistently all the time, evergreen in an automated way. And pay for those leads and turn them into customers all the time in an automated way and build up new leads all the time and new customers all the time so that when you are ready to launch, you have fresh new people to launch to. And you don't have to go and spend as much money on cold traffic, getting cold people into your launch that are going to convert a lot less. Versus going and inviting those new leads into your launch, they've already warmed up to you. They're more likely to work with you again, and you end up having higher sales conversions as a result of that because you're running your launch more to warmer traffic. Warmer people who are a little bit more trusting of you versus scaling straight to cold and spending a huge amount on ads. And so every single business owner who's got a course that they are then trying to sell a course online. This will be a problem that you will face and this is the solution to it. So this is exactly what I teach inside of the Growth Accelerator, which is my program for female course creators who are wanting to sell their courses Evergreen all the time and scale their business in an automated way without having to rely on just live launching and the stress of that. And it's something that I haven't really launched publicly before, but I am planning on actually launching it to the public soon. And so this is something that if you want to build these kinds of machines in your business, because there's a lot of strategy that goes into it. What I've shared with you is just the top of the iceberg. There is a lot that goes into getting these automated evergreen machines dialled in and working. Not saying that it's going to take you a huge amount of time. It's not going to take you any more time than what running live launches would take you. But it will take strategy to get it right. Strategy is absolutely essential when you build these machines out for the numbers to add up, for things to actually work. So, that's what I'm going to be helping with inside the Growth Accelerator. This is one piece of the machine puzzles that I will teach inside of that program, along with Evergreen webinar machine, which will then sell your signature course on autopilot. So then you build out these machines. That then work for you in your business so you don't have to constantly be selling all the time, be live launching all the time, be exhausting yourself. You actually have these amazing machines that are very strategically built out that are these like ecosystems that help your business scale and grow. So if you are listening to this and you haven't yet sold a course before or you are in your first launch and you're pretty much a beginner in this. You haven't yet fully sold a course, got an email list, made some money. Then I don't recommend building out this free list building machine in your business. I think it's a little bit more of an advanced thing, and I think the only people who should be focusing on this particular machine are the ones that already have a course that has already sold and they are running launches that are converting. But their next problem is that they are trying to scale and their profits are being eaten by Facebook ads and they're struggling to scale and get more people into those launches. If you have that particular problem, then your solution is to build this free list building machine. If you are not yet there, then don't focus on building this free list building machine because it's not necessarily going to be the best use of your time. I would focus on getting your signature course or core offer sold and converting and making money, getting that boost of profit that you need in your business in the beginning stages so that you can keep growing and things like that. So it depends on where you're at in your business, which Evergreen machine I'm going to recommend that you start with and focus on. And that's another thing in the Growth Accelerator. Everyone who comes in, I tailor it to exactly your business, where you're at, what are your problems, where do you want to be? And we look at, okay, what Evergreen machine do you need to focus on first to get to that goal? And then what do we need to do next? And things like that. So it's not a cookie cutter thing. It is going to be different for everyone depending on where their business is at, the problems that they're experiencing and where they want to go. Alright, so I hope this was, it was a very strategy heavy episode. But I just wanted to share this with you because it is possible to scale your course and pay for your ad spend and all of this stuff. When I say scaling your course with Facebook ads for free, that is really a thing. It just takes strategy and a certain type of machine to build that then achieves this amazing goal. And when you have this thing in place, the sky is the limit because you can then push more money into your ads, obviously at a gradual rate. You don't just throw money in, you do it strategically, but you can put more money into your ads, get more traffic into that list building machine. Get more leads, more customers, and when you have more leads and more customers, your business will grow as a result of that, which is amazing. All right, so I hope this was helpful, inspiring, interesting. And if you are interested in building out these incredible evergreen machines into your business, so you can create systems that sell for you, that create stability, that creates sales daily in an automated way, then I really recommend. You keep your eyes peeled for my Growth Accelerator coming program launching publicly soon. And for now, you can grab my daily sales guide. It's free. You can click it below this episode and that's going to give you a full breakdown of the evergreen machines that are required in your business and six to seven figure business owners are using right now to grow their business in an automated, sustainable way. So they don't have to rely entirely on live launches that destroy them. All right, so I hope you have a beautiful day, and I will chat to you again soon. Ciao. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you would like to ditch the live launch rollercoaster and start selling your courses Evergreen in an automated way, then make sure to grab my Free Daily Sales Guide below. This will show you the behind the scenes Evergreen machines that six to seven figure business owners are using to make sales all the time. Hit the link below and grab it. I appreciate you so much, and I can't wait to connect with you in the next episode. In the meantime, go create a business and life you love.