Solved: First Ad Campaign Tips in Brussels (Step-by-Step Fix)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! It's completely normal to feel overwhelmed when you're just starting out with paid ads. There's a lot of noise and bad advice out there. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and a bit of a roadmap based on my experience running these campaigns. The good news is, you don't need to do everything at once. You just need to do a few things right.

The biggest mistake I see new businesses make is jumping straight into creating ads and choosing platforms without laying the proper groundwork. They burn through cash and conclude "ads don't work". That's rarely the case. Usually, it's the strategy—or lack of one—that's the problem. So, before we even touch on ads, we need to talk about your customer and your offer.

Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic

Right, let's get this sorted first because it's the foundation for everything else. Forget the sterile, demographic-based profile you might have been told to create. "Companies in the finance sector with 50-200 employees" or "Women aged 25-40 living in Brussels" tells you nothing of any real value. It leads to generic, boring ads that speak to absolutely no one and waste your money.

To stop burning cash before you even start, you must define your customer by their pain. You need to become an expert in their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare. Your customer isn't just a job title; they're a person terrified of something going wrong. They're frustrated by a broken process. They're anxious about falling behind competitors.

Let me give you a couple of examples of what I mean:

• For a legal tech SaaS: The nightmare isn't 'needing document management'. It's 'a senior partner missing a critical filing deadline and exposing the entire firm to a malpractice suit.' The fear is palpable.
• For a fractional CFO service: The nightmare isn't 'doing the books'. It's 'the founder lying awake at 3 AM, staring at the ceiling, terrified that one bad month could lead to a payroll crisis while their competitors are confidently raising their next funding round.'
• For a handcrafted jewellery e-commerce store: The nightmare isn't 'needing a necklace'. It's 'the anxiety of finding a truly unique, meaningful gift for a milestone anniversary that doesn’t look like it came from a generic high-street chain.'

Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. Once you've isolated that nightmare, you can start to figure out where these people actually live online. Find the niche podcasts they listen to on their commute. The industry newsletters they actually open. The specific software tools they already pay for. Are they members of a particular Facebook group? Do they follow certain influencers on Instagram or LinkedIn? This intelligence isn't just data; it's the blueprint for your entire targeting strategy. Do this work first, or you have no business spending a single pound, or euro, on ads.

Your Offer Needs to be Built to Solve That Nightmare

Once you know the specific pain, your offer has one job and one job only: to be the perfect, most obvious solution to that pain. This is the number one reason campaigns fail. An offer that's not offering enough value, or an offer that's trying to solve a problem nobody really has. It's a lack of genuine demand.

I see so many founders building what they think is a great product, adding loads of features, spending months or years on development, only to struggle because nobody realy needs it. So, how do you avoid that? You build the offer around the pain.

Let's look at what successful offers have in common:

1. They focus on a specific audience. This makes the offer and the subsequent ads highly relevant. When your message is aimed at a very specific person with a very specific problem, it's incredibly powerful.
2. They identify an urgent problem. They don't just sell a "brand film"; they sell a solution to a deep frustration: "We're a talented firm but we're struggling to get enough clients because no one understands what we do." This emotional connection is what drives action.
3. They have a crystal-clear solution. They've developed a really obvious offer (a product, a service, a SaaS tool) to solve that exact frustration. For example, a video production company could turn their service into a "1-Day Filming Process." It has a name, clear deliverables, and a defined timeline. This makes a complex service feel simple, tangible, and far less risky for a buyer to invest in.

Before you spend a penny on ads, look at your business. Is your offer a clear, compelling solution to a painful, urgent problem for a specific group of people? If not, fix that first. No amount of clever advertising can sell something nobody wants.

Delete the "Request a Demo" Button

Now we get to the most common failure point in advertising, especially for services and software: the offer you present in your ad. The "Request a Demo" or "Book a Call" button is probably the most arrogant Call to Action ever invented. It presumes your prospect, who has never heard of you, has nothing better to do than book a 30-minute slot in their busy calendar to be sold to. It's high-friction, it offers zero immediate value, and it instantly positions you as just another commoditised vendor clamouring for their attention.

Your ad's offer has one job: deliver a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell *themselves* on your solution. You must solve a small, real problem for them for free to earn the right to solve the whole thing for money.

What does this look like in practice?

• For a SaaS company: This is your unfair advantage. The gold standard is a free trial (with no credit card details required) or a freemium plan. Let them use the actual product. Let them feel the transformation. When the product itself proves its value, the sale becomes a formality.
• For a marketing agency: Don't offer a "free consultation." Offer a free, automated SEO audit that shows them their top 3 keyword opportunities. Give them something tangible and valuable.
• For a data analytics platform: Offer a free 'Data Health Check' that scans their database and flags the top issues. Instant value.
• For a corporate training company: Offer a free 15-minute interactive video module on 'Handling Difficult Conversations' for new managers. Give them a taste of the expertise. For our own consultancy, we offer a 20-minute strategy session where we audit failing ad campaigns completely free.

The principle is the same for any business. Bottle your expertise into a tool, a piece of content, or an asset that provides instant value. This changes the dynamic entirely. You're no longer a salesperson begging for a meeting; you're a helpful expert offering a solution.

We'll Need to Look at a Platform That Fits Your Customer's Mindset

Okay, so you've defined the customer's nightmare, you've sharpened your offer to solve it, and you have a low-friction way for them to experience your value. Only now should you start thinking about which ad platform to use. The choice is simpler than you think. It comes down to one question: Is your ideal customer actively searching for a solution to their problem right now?

This is probably the most important strategic decision you'll make. Getting this wrong is like trying to sell ice cream at a ski resort. It's just not the right place or time.

A) If your target audience is actively searching -> Google Search Ads

This is the case for many service businesses. If someone's boiler breaks, they go to Google and search "emergency plumber near me". If a business needs to switch accounting software, they search for "Xero alternatives". This is called 'high-intent' traffic. These people have a problem and they want it solved *now*. For this, Google Search ads are usually your best bet. You bid on the keywords they are searching for, and your ad appears at the top of the results. It's the digital equivalent of putting your shop on the busiest high street in town. We've seen this work for all sorts of services, from an HVAC company we're currently working with to childcare services. The cost per lead can vary wildly depending on how competitive your market in Brussels is, but the leads are often very high quality because they came to you.

B) If they aren't searching -> Social Media/Display Ads

This is for products or services that people don't actively search for. Nobody wakes up and Googles "innovative new SaaS product I've never heard of" or "handcrafted jewellery from a brand that doesn't exist yet". You have to interrupt them while they're doing something else, like scrolling through their social media feed. This is about creating demand, not capturing it. Your main options here are:

• Meta (Facebook/Instagram): This is usually the best place to start for most B2C businesses and even some B2B. The targeting options are powerful, allowing you to reach people based on their interests, behaviours, and demographics. You can find people who like similar products, follow your competitors, or fit a certain profile. For a new business, this is where you'll likely begin.
• LinkedIn: If you're strictly B2B and need to reach specific decision-makers in specific industries (e.g., "CTOs at software companies with 50-200 employees"), then LinkedIn is where you need to be. It's more expensive, but the targeting is unmatched for B2B. We've seen it work well for high-ticket B2B services and software, getting leads for around $22 in some campaigns.

For a new business, I'd usually advise picking *one* of these channels to start with. Master it before you try to be everywhere at once. Spreading a small budget too thin is a recipe for disaster.

I'd say you need to know how much you can afford to pay

Before you spend a single euro, you have to answer a crucial question: "How much is a new customer actually worth to my business?" Most new business owners have no idea, so they focus on vanity metrics like clicks or try to get the lowest Cost Per Lead (CPL) possible. This is a mistake. The real question isn't "How low can my CPL go?" but "How high a CPL can I *afford* to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer lies in its counterpart: Lifetime Value (LTV).

Calculating your LTV tells you the truth about your business model and gives you the confidence to spend money intelligently to grow. Here's the basic formula:

LTV = (Average Revenue Per Account * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

Let's break that down:

• Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What do you make per customer, per month/year on average?
• Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue after accounting for the cost of goods or direct service delivery?
• Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of customers do you lose each month? (For a new business, you might have to estimate this based on industry benchmarks).

Let's run an example. Say you have a subscription box business:

• ARPA = €40/month
• Gross Margin = 60% (0.60)
• Monthly Churn = 5% (0.05)

LTV = (€40 * 0.60) / 0.05 = €24 / 0.05 = €480

This means each customer you acquire is worth €480 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. Now you have a powerful number. A healthy business model often aims for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to €160 (€480 / 3) to acquire a single customer and still have a very healthy, profitable business. Suddenly, a €20 cost per purchase from a Facebook ad doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like a bargain. This is the math that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth.

I've built a small calculator for you below to play around with your own numbers.

You probably should expect these kinds of costs

So, what should you actually expect to pay for a conversion? This is a "how long is a piece of string" question, but based on the hundreds of campaigns we've run, I can give you some rough ballpark figures. The cost depends massively on your objective (a simple email signup is cheaper than a high-ticket sale) and the country you're targeting. Developed countries like Belgium are more expensive than developing countries.

Here's a rough guide for costs on platforms like Meta:

• For leads/signups/subscribers (quick conversions): In developed countries, you're often looking at a Cost Per Click (CPC) between €0.50 - €1.50. With a decent landing page converting at 10-30%, your Cost Per Action (CPA) would be somewhere between €1.60 and €15.00.
• For sales/completed purchases (eCommerce): The conversion rates are much lower here, typically 2-5%. So, using the same CPCs, your Cost Per Purchase could be anywhere from €10 to €75. A lot depends on your product price here as well. For sales, the most important metric isn't CPA, but Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). For one of our eCommerce clients selling cleaning products, we achieved a 633% return.

These numbers can feel scary when you're starting out. But if you've done your LTV calculation, you'll know what you can afford. The goal isn't to be the cheapest; it's to be profitable.

You'll need a message they can't ignore

Right, now we get to the actual ad creative. Your ad needs to speak directly to the nightmare we identified right at the start. It needs to grab them by the collar and say, "I understand your exact problem." Generic ads get ignored. Specific ads get clicked.

There are a couple of simple, powerful copywriting frameworks you can use:

1. Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS)

This is perfect for service businesses. You don't sell "fractional CFO services"; you sell a good night's sleep. Your ad copy would look something like this:

Problem: "Are your cash flow projections just a shot in the dark?"
Agitate: "Are you one bad month away from a payroll crisis while your competitors are confidently raising their next round?"
Solve: "Get expert financial strategy for a fraction of a full-time hire. We build dashboards that turn uncertainty into predictable growth."

2. Before-After-Bridge (BAB)

This works brilliantly for software and products that create a clear transformation. You don't sell a "FinOps platform"; you sell the feeling of relief.

Before: "Your AWS bill just arrived. It’s 30% higher than last month, and your engineers have no idea why. Another fire to put out."
After: "Imagine opening your cloud bill and smiling. You see where every dollar is going and waste is automatically eliminated."
Bridge: "Our platform is the bridge that gets you there. Start a free trial and find your first €1,000 in savings today."

Notice how both examples focus on the pain and the transformation, not on a list of features. Features are boring. Benefits, and the emotional release from pain, are what sell.

Finally, you'll need to know this about "Brand Awareness"

Here is an uncomfortable but necessary truth about advertising for a new business. When you go onto a platform like Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and set your campaign objective to "Reach" or "Brand Awareness," you are giving the algorithm a very specific command: "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price."

The algorithm, being a very literal 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 pull out a credit card. Why? Because those users are not in demand by other advertisers. Their attention is cheap. By choosing this objective, you are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product.

For a new business, awareness is a byproduct of having a great product that solves a real problem, not a prerequisite for making a sale. The best form of brand awareness is a competitor's customer switching to your service and raving about it online. That only happens through conversion.

So, when you set up your first campaign, always, always, *always* optimise for a conversion objective. That means telling the platform what you actually want: sales, leads, trials, appointments. This forces the algorithm to find people who have a history of taking that specific action. It'll be more expensive per impression, but you'll be fishing in a pond full of hungry fish, not an empty puddle. One of our software clients, a medical job matching SaaS, reduced their Cost Per User Acquisition from £100 to just £7 by optimising their campaigns properly for conversions. It makes that much of a difference.

This is the main advice I have for you:

So, to bring this all together, here's an actionable plan for your first campaign. Don't try to do everything at once. Just follow these steps in order.

This process might seem like a lot of work upfront before you even create an ad, but I promise you it's the fastest path to getting results. Jumping straight to Phase 5 is why 90% of new advertisers fail.

Getting this right requires a mix of strategic thinking and hands-on technical skill. While the framework above is a solid starting point, the real gains often come from the nuances of execution—the daily optimisations, the creative testing, and the deep understanding of how the ad algorithms work. It's a lot to manage when you're also trying to run a new business.

If you'd like to chat through your specific situation and get a more tailored plan, we offer a completely free, no-obligation 20-minute strategy session where we can look at your business and give you some clear next steps. It might be helpful to have a second pair of expert eyes on it before you start spending money.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh