Solved: Meta Ads Strategy for New Clients with Limited Budgets

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on your Meta Ads strategy for new clients with limited budgets. It's a common challenge, but definitely not impossible to navigate.

We'll need to look at realistic expectations...

First off, let's address the elephant in the room: guaranteeing leads or messages. Tbh, in paid advertising, especially on Meta, guaranteeing specific results upfront is really difficult. There's just too many variables involved – the market, the competition, the quality of your creatives, and even the algorithm itself. Promising a fixed number of leads or messages can set you up for a stressful situation and a potentially unhappy client. It's better to focus on managing expectations and outlining a clear, test-driven approach.

I'd be upfront with the client and explain that you'll be using their budget to test different strategies, audiences, and ad creatives. The goal is to find what works best for their business and then optimise from there. You can point to case studies that demonstrate similar success stories and showcase that you've achieved strong ROAS for other clients in the past. For example, I remember one campaign where we achieved 4,622 registrations at $2.38 cost per registration for a B2B software client. With a good strategy in place, that sort of CPL will likely be repeatable.

You can also commit to keep working until a certain goal is reached, and it probably is important to be realistic with the expected results that can be achieved within a specific budget.

I'd say you should start with Click-to-Message...

Given your clients' objectives (leads or message conversations), I'd lean towards starting with Click-to-Message campaigns. Lead ads can be tempting, but they often attract a lot of low-quality leads. You end up spending a ton of time sifting through responses that aren't a good fit, it's really annoying when you don't have the time. With Click-to-Message, you have more control over the initial qualification process. You can engage in a conversation and quickly determine whether a lead is worth pursuing.

Another thing to consider is the customer journey. Some people prefer to message, rather than fill out a lead form which is great. It's easier, quicker and less committal, which means they are more likely to get in touch. So really its whatever is easier for the customer.

You probably should use ABO to begin with...

With a new ad account and a limited budget, I'd recommend starting with ABO (Ad Budget Optimisation). CBO (Campaign Budget Optimisation) is powerful, but it needs data to work effectively. With ABO, you can allocate specific budgets to different ad sets, allowing you to test multiple audiences and ad creatives more efficiently. Once you've gathered enough data, you can always switch to CBO later.

When it comes to audience selection, don't overthink it. Start with broad targeting and let Meta's algorithm do its thing. The algorithm is surprisingly good at finding the right people, even without a ton of data to go on. Avoid relying too heavily on lookalike audiences in the beginning. They can be effective, but they often perform better once you have a solid base of first-party data. I recall working with a B2B software client where we were able to reduce their £100 CPA (Cost Per User Acquisition) to £7 CPA (Cost Per User Acquisition) for a Medical Job Matching SaaS, which was done by switching to broad targeting and not narrow targeting.

Broad targeting is definitely the way to go, because it avoids any assumptions about your audience's location and interests which are not true. Its better to let the algorithm decide on the best people to target.

You'll need realistic expectations...

Okay, let's talk about realistic expectations. With a $500-$600 monthly budget, you're not going to be swimming in leads or messages. It's important to set reasonable goals for your clients. The actual cost per lead or message will depend on a variety of factors, including the niche, the offer, and the quality of your ads. It also depends on what their industry is as B2B leads are naturally more expensive, for example, I remember one campaign where we generated B2B decision makers for $22 CPL using LinkedIn Ads.

As a rough estimate, you might be looking at £20-£50 per message start. It could be higher, it could be lower. The key is to track your results closely and optimise your campaigns based on the data you're seeing.

To improve results in this case, consider creating high converting ads. This means A/B testing different copy and creatives, e.g. running video and image ads, different calls to action, longer vs shorter copy, asking questions to incite a response. It is important to constantly be refining this to improve conversion rates.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Running successful Meta Ads campaigns with limited budgets requires a strategic approach and a focus on continuous optimisation. By setting realistic expectations, prioritising Click-to-Message campaigns, using ABO for initial testing, and closely monitoring your results, you can deliver value to your clients and achieve consistent results.

I know that some clients don't have the time or expertise to implement these strategies themselves. That's where we come in. We offer free initial consultations where we review current advertising strategies and accounts. These often give prospective clients a taste of the kind of expertise they'll see going into their project, if they decide to work with us.

Hope this has been helpful and please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions.