Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out!
I've had a look over your situation and I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts. It's completely understandable to be worried about spending your savings and not seeing a return. Paid advertising can feel like a gamble, but when you approach it systematically, it's more about testing and maths than luck. A $2,500 budget is definitely enough to get some solid data and potentially see a profit, but only if the underlying numbers of your funnel are sound. Let's break down what you need to focus on.
TLDR;
- Your $2,500 budget is enough to test your funnel and find a profitable audience, but you must be ruthless with the numbers. Don't expect huge profits from day one.
- A webinar funnel is a viable model, but its success depends entirely on the conversion rates at each step. We'll look at the benchmarks you should be aiming for.
- For a course, especially in self-development, a video ad is almost always better to start with. It builds trust and connection far more effectively than a static image.
- The most important piece of advice is to calculate your maximum affordable Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) before you spend a single penny. I've included a calculator below to help you do this.
- Your ad objective MUST be set to conversions (leads or sales). Setting it to 'reach' or 'awareness' is like paying Facebook to find people who will never buy from you.
We'll need to look at the maths first: Can $2,500 actually be profitable?
This is the question that trips most people up. They ask "is X budget enough?" when the real question is "how much can I afford to pay to get a customer?". The answer depends entirely on your course price and your funnel's conversion rate. If you know these numbers, your budget becomes a tool for validation, not a blind gamble.
Let's introduce two concepts: Lifetime Value (LTV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). For a one-off course sale, your LTV is simply the course price minus any fulfillment costs. Your CAC is what you pay in ad spend to get one person to buy that course. A healthy business model usually aims for an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1. This means for every £1 you spend on ads, you get £3 back in profit.
Your funnel has multiple steps, which complicates things. You're not buying customers directly; you're buying webinar registrants first. So we need to work backwards:
- Cost Per Course Sale (CAC): The final number we care about.
- Cost Per Webinar Registrant (CPL): The first thing you'll be optimising for.
- Conversion Rates: The percentage of people who move from one step to the next (Registrant -> Attendee -> Buyer).
I remember one client we worked with selling courses who managed to generate $115k in revenue in just a month and a half, but that was only possible because we first established what they could afford to pay per lead and then relentlessly optimised the ads to hit that number. Below is a calculator that models this out. Play around with the sliders. See how a small change in your webinar's conversion rate can dramatically change how much you can afford to pay for a lead.
So, is $2,500 enough? If your numbers show you can afford to pay, say, $8 per webinar signup, then your budget allows you to generate over 300 leads. That's more than enough data to find a winning audience and ad creative. Your initial goal isn't to make a massive profit, it's to prove the model. If you can spend $2,500 and break even or make a small profit, you've found a system you can scale.
I'd say you need to map your funnel and plug the leaks
A webinar funnel is a classic for a reason, it works. But it also has many points where potential customers can drop off. You mentioned you have one in place, which is great, but we need to be realistic about performance at each stage. A small improvement at one stage has a massive effect on the final outcome.
Here's a typical breakdown of what a 'good' webinar funnel looks like, performance-wise. If your numbers are way off these, that's where you need to focus your attention before scaling your ad spend.
Your current organic efforts are a great start, but paid traffic behaves differently. It's colder. People don't know you. This means your landing page copy, your webinar content, and your sales pitch have to work much harder. Before you spend, review each step:
- Landing Page: Does it clearly state the benefit of the webinar? Is it focused on one single action (signing up)? A 20-30% conversion rate from click-to-registrant is a good target.
- Show-up Rate: Are you using email and/or SMS reminders to get people to actually attend? A 30% show-up rate is decent for cold traffic. Anything lower and you're wasting ad spend.
- Webinar Content: This is critical. The webinar cannot be a 60-minute sales pitch. It must deliver genuine, standalone value. It should solve a small, specific problem for them for free. This builds trust and demonstrates your expertise, making the sale at the end feel like a natural next step, not a hard sell.
- The Offer/Close: Is the offer you make at the end of the webinar compelling? Is there a sense of urgency (e.g., a time-limited bonus)? A 5-15% close rate (sales / attendees) is a realistic range.
If you track these metrics, you'll know exactly where your funnel is breaking down and where to focus your efforts. This is far more productive than just blindly changing ad creatives.
You probably should lead with video
You asked about video vs. image. For a course, and particularly in the self-development space, you are the product as much as the content is. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Video is, by far, the fastest way to build that connection with a cold audience.
An image ad with great copy can work, and you should definitely test it. But I would strongly reccomend you start with video. It doesn’t need to be a Hollywood production. In fact, a simple, authentic video shot on your phone often outperforms a polished, corporate-style ad. We've seen UGC-style videos work wonders for SaaS clients, and the principle is the same for courses.
Your ad's job is not to sell the course. Its only job is to sell the click to the webinar registration page. A great framework for this is the Before-After-Bridge:
- Before: Start by describing their current painful situation. What is the frustration they're living with every day? Speak directly to that pain. "Are you feeling stuck in your career, watching others get promotions while you're spinning your wheels?"
- After: Paint a picture of what their life could be like after they've solved this problem. The desired outcome. "Imagine waking up excited for work, knowing you have a clear path to the leadership role you deserve."
- Bridge: Introduce your free webinar as the bridge that gets them from the 'Before' state to the 'After' state. "In my free training this Thursday, I'm sharing the 3-step framework that my clients use to land a promotion in the next 90 days. Click the link to save your spot."
This structure works because it focuses entirely on the customer's problem and desired transformation, not on you or your course features. It makes the webinar an irresistable offer.
You'll need a solid plan for testing audiences
Your budget is for testing, so you need a logical way to test. Don't just throw a bunch of random interests into one ad set. Structure is everything. I often see people make the mistake of running "Brand Awareness" campaigns. This is a trap. You're telling Facebook's algorithm to find you the cheapest people to show your ad to, who are almost by definition the least likely to take any action. Always, always run a Conversions campaign, optimising for Leads (webinar signups).
Here’s how I’d structure your testing with a $2,500 budget. I'd split the budget across a few ad sets inside one campaign.
Recommended Audience Testing Structure
| Ad Set | Audience Type | Examples for Self-Dev Niche | Why? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Test 1: Gurus/Authors | Interest Targeting | People who like Tony Robbins, Brené Brown, James Clear, "Atomic Habits", etc. | Targets an audience already invested in self-improvement and familiar with paying for information. |
| Test 2: Tools/Media | Interest Targeting | People who like Headspace, Calm, MasterClass, Blinkist, Audible. | Targets people who use digital products for learning and well-being. They understand the model. |
| Test 3: Problem-Aware | Interest Targeting | Interests like "Productivity", "Procrastination", "Mindfulness", "Career Development". | Targets people actively trying to solve the problem your course addresses. |
| Test 4: Lookalikes | Lookalike Audience | 1% Lookalike of your email list or past organic webinar registrants. | (Once you have data) Finds people who are statistically similar to your existing warm audience. Often a top performer. |
Run the same 2-3 video ads in each ad set. Let them run for 3-5 days. Look at the Cost Per Lead (CPL) for each. If your target CPL from the calculator was $8, turn off any ad set that's spending way more than that (e.g., $15-20 CPL) after a few days. Double down on the winners. This systematic approach removes emotion and lets the data guide your decisions. This is how you make a smaller budget work hard for you.
This is the main advice I have for you:
To make this a lucritive and successful venture and not burn through your savings, you need a clear, data-driven plan. Below is a table summarizing the actionable steps you should take.
| Step | Action | Why It's Important |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Define Your Metrics | Use the calculator above to determine your maximum affordable Cost Per Lead (CPL) based on your course price and a target 3:1 Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). | This gives you a clear pass/fail metric for your ad tests. Without it, you're flying blind and can't make objective decisions. |
| 2. Set Up Campaign Correctly | Create one Facebook Ads campaign with the "Conversions" objective, optimising for your "Lead" pixel event. Do not use any other objective. | This explicitly tells the algorithm to find people most likely to sign up for your webinar, not just people who will watch your video or 'like' your ad. |
| 3. Lead with a Strong Video Ad | Create 2-3 simple, authentic video ads using the Before-After-Bridge framework. Focus on the transformation, not the features. | Video builds trust and connection with a cold audience much faster than images, which is vital for selling a high-trust product like a course. |
| 4. Test Audiences Systematically | Create 3-4 separate ad sets, each targeting a different themed group of interests (e.g., Gurus, Tools, Problems). Allocate your budget across them. | This allows you to clearly identify which audience segments are most responsive and cost-effective, so you can focus your budget where it works best. |
| 5. Optimise Your Funnel | Track your conversion rates for: Landing Page CVR, Webinar Show-up Rate, and Webinar Close Rate. Compare them to the benchmarks provided. | Your ads can only do so much. A leak in your funnel (e.g., a low show-up rate) will kill your profitability regardless of how cheap your leads are. |
As you can see, there's a fair bit to get right. It's not just about creating an ad and pressing 'go'. It's about building a predictable system. Running campaigns for courses and eLearning is something we have a lot of experience in, and getting the strategy right from the start makes all the difference between a wasted budget and a profitable, scalable business.
If you get this right, you'll not only avoid being devasteted by the results, but you'll have a proven customer acquisition machine. If you'd like to go over your specific funnel and ads strategy in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can give you some more tailored advice.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
