Solved: Best Audience for CV E-book Conversions?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some initial thoughts on this. Running a campaign for an e-book, especially something like a CV guide, is a common challenge. The temptation is to go broad, but that's almost always a surefire way to burn through your budget with very little to show for it. The real trick is to get incredibly specific, almost uncomfortably so, about who you're talking to and what problem you're *really* solving for them.

Below are my detailed thoughts on how I'd approach this, moving away from generic tactics towards a much sharper, more effective strategy.

We'll need to look at your ICP... because "Job Seeker" is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic

Right, let's get the biggest and most common mistake out of the way first. When you say you want to target "job seekers," you're falling into the same trap as 90% of advertisers. You're thinking about a demographic, a broad category of people. The ad platforms love this, because they can charge you to show your ad to millions of people who vaguely fit that description. The problem is, it tells you absolutely nothing of value and leads to generic ads that get ignored.

Your ideal customer isn't just "looking for a job." They're in a specific state of pain. A state of professional nightmare. Your job isn't to sell them an e-book; it's to sell them the cure for that nightmare. You need to become an obsessive expert in their specific, urgent, and often expensive problem.

Think about it. A 21-year-old graduate staring at a blank Word document, terrified they have no experience to show, is in a completely different world to a 45-year-old sales director who's just been made redundant and hasn't written a CV in 20 years. Or a 35-year-old project manager trying to switch careers from construction to tech. They all need a CV, sure, but their fears, their language, and their needs are worlds apart. Lumping them together as "job seekers" means you speak to none of them effectively.

Your first job, before you spend a single penny on ads, is to define these nightmare scenarios. Forget demographics for a moment and focus on the problem state. Who are they?

• The Terrified Graduate: They feel like an imposter. They're worried about their lack of "real" experience. They don't know how to translate their degree and part-time café job into a compelling story for a corporate role. Their nightmare is being ignored, sending out 100 applications and hearing nothing back.
• The Stuck Professional: They've been in the same role for 5-10 years. They feel undervalued and underpaid, but they're scared to leave. Their CV is a dusty list of responsibilities, not achievements. Their nightmare is applying for a better job and being told they're not senior enough, or getting rejected for roles they know they can do.
• The Career Changer: They're making a huge leap. Maybe from retail to software development. Their current CV is completely irrelevant to their new goals. Their nightmare is that no one will take them seriously and they've wasted time and money retraining for nothing.
• The Redundant Executive: They have immense experience, but they're suddenly on the back foot. They might feel a bit of shame or panic. Their CV might be too long, too dated, and they don't know how to position themselves for a modern job market. Their nightmare is appearing irrelevant and being unable to secure a role at a similar level of seniority.

You must pick one or two of these to start. You cannot be all things to all people. Once you've isolated that specific nightmare, every single thing you do—from your ad copy to your landing page to the e-book's content itself—becomes laser-focused on solving *that* pain. Doing this work first is the difference between a campaign that flops and one that actually delivers conversions.

I'd say you need to find their digital watering holes...

Once you know whose nightmare you're solving, the next question is: where do these people spend their time online when they're procrastinating? Where do they go for advice or to vent their frustrations? This intelligence is the blueprint for your ad platform choice and your detailed targeting within it.

This isn't about guesswork. It's about building a map of their digital lives. Again, let's break it down by persona:

For 'The Terrified Graduate':

• Platforms: Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and TikTok are their native environments. They're probably not spending much time on LinkedIn yet.
• Meta Targeting: -> Demographics: Age 20-23, Recently graduated ('Education Level'). -> Interests: Target university names, 'Graduate recruitment', 'Entry-level jobs', student-focused influencers like 'The Student Room', career advice pages they might follow. Think about software they might use like 'Canva' for making a basic CV.
• TikTok Targeting: Use hashtags like #graduatejobs, #firstjob, #cvtips, #careeradvice. Look for creators in that space and see if you can target their followers.

For 'The Stuck Professional' / 'The Career Changer':

• Platforms: LinkedIn is the obvious choice, but Meta can also be very effective and often cheaper.
• LinkedIn Targeting: -> Job Titles: Target specific, common job titles of people who get stuck (e.g., 'Marketing Manager', 'Account Manager', 'Project Coordinator'). -> Years of Experience: Target people with 5-10 years of experience. -> Skills & Interests: Look for skills related to their current field. -> Groups: Target members of industry-specific professional groups.
• Meta Targeting: -> Interests: People who follow industry publications (e.g., 'Marketing Week'), influencers in their field (e.g., Seth Godin for marketers), or competitors (e.g., people who like pages for other professional development courses). You can also target by 'Job Title' on Facebook, though it's less reliable than LinkedIn.

For 'The Redundant Executive':

• Platforms: Almost exclusively LinkedIn. Google Search is also very powerful here.
• LinkedIn Targeting: -> Seniority: Director, VP, C-Level. -> Company Size: You could target people who recently worked at large companies known for recent layoffs. -> Interests: High-end business publications like 'The Economist', 'Financial Times', or leadership-focused groups.
• Google Search Ads: This is where you catch active intent. People in this group are likely to search for very specific, high-value terms. You'd want to bid on keywords like "executive CV writing service", "c-level resume help", "board position CV template". This is more expensive per click, but the intent is much higher. You are catching them at the exact moment they are looking for a solution.

This process of mapping their digital world prevents you from just throwing money at a platform and hoping for the best. You're making an educated bet on where your specific customer is most likely to be receptive to your message. It's about precision, not scale, especially at the beginning.

You probably should make them a message they can't ignore...

Now that you know *who* you're talking to and *where* to find them, you need to craft a message that stops them scrolling and makes them feel understood. A generic "CV Making E-book" ad is invisible. It's wallpaper. It will fail. Your ad needs to speak directly to the nightmare you identified in step one.

The best framework for this is Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS). It’s brutally effective.

1. Problem: State their specific pain point in a way that makes them nod their head.
2. Agitate: Poke the bruise. Remind them of the consequences of not solving the problem.
3. Solve: Introduce your e-book as the specific, simple solution.

Let's write some ads for our personas:

See the difference? We're not selling features. We're not talking about "professionally designed templates." We're selling a solution to a deep, emotional frustration. This is what gets clicks from the right people. Your landing page must then continue this exact conversation, using the same language and reinforcing that you understand their specific problem. A generic landing page will break this chain of relevance and kill your conversion rate.

You'll need a proper campaign structure, not just a 'boosted post'...

Okay, let's get into the mechanics of setting this up. There is an uncomfortable truth about platforms like Meta. When you set your campaign objective to "Reach" or "Brand Awareness," you are giving the algorithm a very specific, and very unhelpful, command: "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price."

The algorithm, being a ruthlessly efficient machine, does exactly what you asked. It seeks out the users inside your targeting who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively least likely to ever buy anything. Why? Because those users are not in demand. Their attention is cheap. By choosing 'Awareness,' you are actively paying to find the worst possible audience for your e-book.

From day one, every single campaign you run should be a Conversion campaign, with the objective set to Purchases. Yes, even if you have no data yet. This tells the algorithm, "I don't care about clicks or views. I only care about finding people within my target audience who have a history of buying things online." It will be more expensive per impression, but the quality of person seeing your ad will be exponentially higher. You are fishing in a pond stocked with buyers, not just viewers.

Now, how do you structure this? I always recommend a simple funnel-based approach, even for a simple e-book sale.

You'll put most of your budget (around 80%) into the ToFu prospecting campaign. This is your engine for finding new customers. The MoFu/BoFu campaigns are your safety net, catching people who were interested but got distracted. An ad for the BoFu audience could be a simple reminder or even offer a small discount ("Forgot something? Get 10% off your CV guide today") to get them over the line. Tbh, for an e-book, a lot of sales happen on the first visit, but retargeting is still definitely worth doing and often delivers your highest return on ad spend.

We'll need to look at the numbers and manage expectations...

So, what should you expect to pay for a sale? This is the million-dollar question, and the honest answer is: it depends. A lot. It depends on your audience, your ad creative, your landing page conversion rate, and the price of your e-book. However, we can make some educated estimates based on experience with similar campaigns, like course sales and other digital products.

For an e-commerce style product sold in developed countries (UK, US, Canada, Australia, etc.), you're typically looking at a Cost Per Click (CPC) between £0.50 and £1.50 on Meta. A decent landing page for a digital product might convert at 2-5%. Let's do the maths:

• Best Case Scenario: £0.50 CPC / 5% Conversion Rate = £10 Cost Per Purchase (CPA)
• Worst Case Scenario: £1.50 CPC / 2% Conversion Rate = £75 Cost Per Purchase (CPA)

Your actual CPA will likely fall somewhere in between. If your e-book is priced at £25, a £10 CPA is fantastic (2.5x Return on Ad Spend - ROAS). A £75 CPA would be a disaster. This is why optimising your ads and landing page is so vital. Getting your conversion rate from 2% to 4% literally halves your cost per sale.

I remember one client of ours selling online courses saw huge success, generating $115k in revenue in just 1.5 months on Meta Ads. Another, an app with an e-learning component, got over 45k signups at under £2 per signup. These results are possible, but they come from rigorous testing of audiences and creative, not from a single 'set and forget' campaign.

To help you understand the relationship between your spend, revenue, and return, I've built a simple interactive calculator below. Play around with the numbers to see how small changes can have a big impact on your profitability.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

To pull all this together, here is a summary of the strategic shifts and actionable steps I'd recommend you take. This is the blueprint for moving from a speculative campaign to a predictable, scalable sales system for your e-book.

As you can probably tell, there's a fair bit to getting this right. It's not just about setting up an ad and hoping for the best; it's a process of deep customer understanding, strategic testing, and ruthless optimisation. Many people spend months and thousands of pounds learning these lessons the hard way.

Working with an expert can shortcut that entire learning curve. We can help you correctly identify your most profitable audiences, craft messaging that resonates, structure your campaigns for success from day one, and avoid all the common, costly mistakes.

If you'd like to chat through your specific plans in more detail, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can take a look at your e-book, your landing page, and build a tailored launch strategy for you. It's a great way to get a second pair of expert eyes on your project.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh