In the paid-traffic world, someone once called me the “Scale King”. I guess it’s because of my vast experience and success in the use of free and paid traffic to generate more sales for my business. You know my story. I’ve done it all!

Since this is a book about print-on-demand, I might not have the luxury of talking much about Facebook Ads. Honestly, if I have to explain Facebook Ads, I might have to write another book!

So, in this book, I’ll try to give you enough information to help you make headway in using Facebook Ads when scaling your business. Sound good?

I know what works and how it works. So, yeah, you can call me the not-so-humble Scale King! You should refer to me as*** ‘His Royal Scaleness!’***

Unarguably one of the best ways to scale, paid traffic is an inevitable factor in online business growth. Facebook and Google are the ‘power couple’ you need to enjoy thousands of regular engagements and purchases.

It all begins with selecting your winning products from Amazon or Etsy and promoting them with paid traffic from Facebook Ads and Google Ads.

With the world’s most visited website (Google) and the world’s most populated social networking platform (Facebook) on your side, your scaling potential is limitless!

Scale Your Print-on-Demand Sales to the Moon using Facebook Ads

If you want to scale your print-on-demand business to the next level, you might want to use paid traffic. You can make tons of sales using Facebook Ads in a very short time. But beware: this business model is hard to implement.

You need to find winning products, learn how to use Facebook Ads, understand how to select the right target audience, and know how to scale it and maintain good ROI. You have to pay to learn all these things and start making money.

Anyway, the process of finding winning products to promote using Facebook Ads is easier if you also sell print-on-demand products in the marketplaces.

Just pick the ones that sell well on Amazon or Etsy and promote them using Facebook ads. I did exactly this for Mother’s and Father’s Day and made over $350K within a few weeks.

It’s like a shortcut. You don’t have to spend lots of money to find winning products.

But not all hot-selling products on the marketplaces can be scaled using paid traffic. You still need to find the right audience to show your product to.

If the audience and the product don’t match, your product won’t sell. You have to spend money to find the right audience for your product.

You might lose money when you start, but after you match the right audience and the right product, you can scale your sales to 5-6 figures.******

If you want to skyrocket your sales, Facebook Ads is your go-to strategy. One downside here is that there is a chance that Facebook might tweak its ad processes sometime in the distant or near future.

But for now, here’s what you need to set up a Facebook Ad:

• A Facebook Page- A Facebook Ads Manager account- An active credit card- A clear objective- Attractive imagery- Your ideal customer’s buyer persona- The destination where you want to send your audience once they engage with your ad

Let me put this out here and now. There is no*** ‘single-blow knockout’*** strategy for running an effective Facebook ad!

Don’t blame me. Facebook has a thing about making changes here and there in their ad system. So, it’s difficult to say,* “Hey, this is all you’ll ever need to get great results from a Facebook ad campaign!”*

For now, the best practice is to identify your business goal, identify your audience, select an image or video, and write your ad copy.

When creating your ad, you must ensure that you select the best objective for your ad. Conversion is a good marketing objective, as you want to make sales.

With all of this in place, you can now create your audience. This is where your customer buyer persona will come in handy. By defining an audience for your Ads, you let Facebook know who you want to see your ads and sell your products to.

Facebook allows you to define your audience by including or excluding demographics, interests, and behaviors.

• Demographics: education, relationship status, income, job title, employer name, language, financial, homeownership, parental status, etc.- Interests: everything from Facebook brand pages to celebrities, and almost any other topic you can think of.- Behaviors: shopping habits, spending, mobile device ownership, travel habits, etc.

This helps to narrow down the audience and laser-target your audience.

As a POD seller, you must define your audience according to the product you’re advertising. For instance, a Facebook Ad for **“Engineer Mugs” **would focus on men between the ages of 25 and 60. You can also narrow down the audience by interest and topics.

On the other hand, a Facebook ad for **“Son Mugs” **would focus on moms within the age bracket of 35 to 65.

By knowing the characteristics of the person that is most likely to engage with your ad, you will benefit in two ways;

• First, Facebook will reduce your Ad’s cost, because the more accurately targeted your Ads are, the more the user will be pleased (or not bothered at least), and a positive experience will be delivered. This is what Facebook wants.

• Second, the people who click on your Ads will be more likely to purchase and you’ll realize a real monetary benefit from advertising POD products on Facebook.

Once your target audience is properly determined, you might have to fill in other required details before creating the ad itself. The ad can include an image and/or a video accompanied by captivating copy.

For the visuals, you can use a clear and plain product image. I mainly use a picture of a plain coffee mug on a white background when I promote them.

One area where most sellers fail is in creating great sales copy for their ads. Good copywriting requires more than just listing product features. You must be able to elicit sales from an unwilling buyer.

Let’s take a quick look at how to craft high-converting sales copy for your Facebook Ads.

How to write Facebook Ad Copy that converts

If I ask you about best practices for Facebook Ads, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

Probably visuals and finding the correct audience are the top two items on your list. But what good is the perfect visual targeted to the ideal customer without great ad copy to lure them to your product page?

The importance of a good copy cannot be overemphasized. After all, after the visual, it’s the first thing a reader sees. It will determine whether or not they’re interested in learning more about your product.

So, how can you create the best ads and blow your competitors out of the water?

1. Make sure your copy fits your images

Even though the ad copy will drive your advertisement home, people need to stop scrolling to read the ad.

Finding or creating great visuals that will make them stop scrolling is one thing. But finding or creating great visuals that align with your ad copy is another thing. If the copy of your ad doesn’t match the visual, people will start to wonder what you’re trying to advertise.

So, don’t use copy meant for a coffee mug to a T-Shirt. Never leave your buyers confused about what you’re trying to sell.

Using a plain product image on the background converts very well. Amazon requires sellers to put the product on a white plain background. Since they’ve already proved that this works well, just follow that template.

Products shown on a white background give buyers a better view of what they’re thinking of buying.

When people scroll through their social feeds, the first thing that stops them will often be the image. Then they’ll read the accompanying text. Make sure you’re thinking about this when writing your copy.

2. Ensure your copy matches your campaign objective

Just as your visual needs to correlate with the copy, your copy also needs to align with your objective.

If you’re running a campaign for a POD business, just use a conversion objective. (A purchase objective, to be exact.) Why? Because you want to sell!

This is important because Facebook will optimize your campaign according to your objective. If you select “Traffic”, Facebook will find people who like to “click” and show them your ad.

If you select “Engagement”, Facebook will pick people who like to “like or share” your ad. But with the “Purchase” objective, Facebook will find people who like to spend and purchase products.

So, add a line with the sentence like “Get yours here” and add a link to the product’s page.

3. Smaller audiences mean more effective ads

One of the most beautiful things about ads on Facebook compared to “traditional” advertising is that you can narrow down your target audience to the exact specifications you want.

Think of it like this: your potential customers come to you for a variety of reasons, so why would you use the same ad? Facebook’s strength is its ability to target, so don’t treat your ad like a billboard.

What this means is that when you narrow down your audience, you can tailor your copy to make it perfect for your ideal customer.

Why?

The target audience persona is quite different! So, if you want to create effective ad copy, be sure to narrow the audience you’re targeting to make it as small as possible.

When you do that, you can write as if you’re talking to just one person. Talking to one person makes it easier to persuade them.

In your copy, make it clear to your audience that you feel their pain. For example, when you’ve narrow down your target audience well enough, don’t be afraid to mention their job title in your text. If you’re trying to sell professional niche-based POD products, this is a good way to get traffic.

This is a great way to stand out in the News Feed and have your audiences thinking, “Hey, that’s me!”

4. Use simple language that even a third-grader can understand

Big, fancy words might be cool for talking to fellow internet marketers. But when it comes to writing for a broad audience, these words may be hard to understand.

And what’s the result of a lack of clarity in your copy?

Well, people will keep skipping your ad and scrolling through their newsfeed. Write a Facebook Ad that everyone can understand, even a third-grader.

Do you want to grab the attention of the reader, let alone spark conversions? Write your ads in such a way that when someone sees your ad, they immediately know what it is you’re offering, how it benefits them, and what they need to do next to get your product.

Nothing makes a Facebook user scroll past your ad faster than lengthy sentences that are too complicated to understand on the first read. Think of your copy as an elevator pitch you’re giving to a kid that’s looking for a very specific solution.

5. Use power words

Power words are words that grab attention fast. They are words used to trigger an emotional or psychological response. They are so persuasive that your readers simply can’t resist being influenced by them.

Words like “You” or “NOW” or “BEST” or “INSANE”. Words like this tap into deep-rooted fears and aspirations. You can increase your conversions by using these types of words.

They help you to tap into greed, lust, vanity, trust, curiosity, and many other feelings in your readers.

A great example is this:

OPTION A: “Check out coffee mugs for Mother’s Day at a good price.”

OPTION B: “Check out AMAZING coffee mugs for Mother’s Day at an UNBEATABLE price TODAY.”

Which one evokes the buyer in you the most? OPTION B. If you tap into your reader’s desires, you’ll increase their motivation to click on your ads.

6. Write copy that isn’t about you

The harsh reality about Facebook Ads is that when people see your ad for the first time, they don’t know you. They don’t care about your business.

People probably aren’t clicking on your ads to learn about your business. They’re not clicking because you worked your ass off for the last six months to create a winning product.

That might happen at some point, after you’ve interacted a lot with them and they’ve become fans of your products.

But before that, they don’t care about you. And since your prospects only care about themselves, your message has to be on point with what they want. It has to sound like it’s all about them.

You’re not selling a product. You’re selling your prospect a better version of themselves. The general rule of thumb is to write customer-centric copy instead of business-centric copy.

How do you write customer-centric copy?

When writing customer-centric copy, you need to use the word “you” instead of “we”. It’s that simple. When you switch most instances in your copy from “we” to “you”, you immediately switch the focus from business-centric to customer-centric.

So, try to use the word “you” twice as much as the words “we” and “us” or “me” and “I”. Here’s a good example from a cleaning agency ad.

Instead of saying something like:

“Buy a white Coffee Mug for Mother’s Day for an affordable price!”

Say:

“Are you looking for a special gift for your lovely mother? Do you want to get her something unique for Mother’s Day? We’re glad you stopped scrolling your newsfeed. Enough with the boring cards. Why not put your very own words on a cute white coffee mug?”

Scaling your POD Business with Google Shopping Ads

Google Ads is one of the best tools for scaling any online business! So, let’s get down to business. What do you need to know about Google Ads and scaling a POD business?

First, there are two main types of Google Ads that most people use in the POD business: Text Ads and Shopping Ads. Both are managed from your Google Ads dashboard, where you can create ad campaigns and exchange money for clicks.

But in this section, I’ll talk about Google Shopping Ads. This is because I’ve used them a bit.

Of both ad types, Google Shopping campaigns are the ones that bring in the money. These campaigns account for as much as 60% of Google Ad clicks.

Shopping Ads let you showcase much more than text-based ads and are more effective at driving engagement and revenue.

What does this mean for you as a POD business owner?

Well, if you’re not running Google Shopping campaigns, you’re leaving money on the table.

If you haven’t used Google Shopping Ads before, you’ll need to create a Google Merchant Center account and a Google Shopping catalog. This is where your product data is inputted and the product feed is generated.

Google Shopping is a subsection of Google that lets you showcase ads with products in a more visual way. This isn’t a marketplace like Amazon or Etsy; it’s a product directory that showcases your products to potential customers and points them to your website.

When creating a Shopping Ad, Google takes the information directly from your Google Shopping product catalog.

If you want to see more sales rolling in, your ads should be as straightforward as possible. The more information you give your customers, the higher the click-through rates you can expect.

For example, use accurate pictures, write detailed product descriptions, and don’t hide shipping rates or other fees.

When setting up your Google Ads campaigns, the default keyword match is often set to a broad match, which lets you target a wide audience.

But you can use other types of keyword matches to reach a specific audience. You can choose the exact match, the phrase match, the negative keyword, as well as the broad match modifier.

When you’re using Exact match, Google only matches your ads if the searcher is using that exact keyword to search. There’s not much wiggle room here. In Exact match, your keywords need to be in square brackets.

Like this: [mothers day mug], [engineer mug]

Here, you have to be careful with your research. If you choose keywords that are too specific and have a low search volume, you might not get the results you want.

For the Phrase match, Google will only match your keyword phrase to searches using the same phrase. You need to put the whole phrase in quotation marks.

Like this: “mothers day mug”, “engineer mug”

This keyword type has the same risk as Exact match, so keep an eye on the search volume and don’t go for something too specific!

Then there are Negative keywords. These are keywords that ensure you’re excluded from irrelevant searches. This works very well with Broad match if you still want to use that for some reason.

For example, if you’re an online store that sells t-shirts, then you could exclude “work shirts” or “dress shirts” from the searches. For that, you add a hyphen (i.e., the minus sign) before the keyword.

Finally, there’s the Broad match modifier. This match type is similar to Broad match, except it doesn’t include synonyms or related searches. For this, you need to add a plus sign before the keyword.

Like this: +mothers +day +mug, +engineer + mug

This is the one I’d recommend the most. It gives you enough control over your keywords and where the ads show up, and you don’t have to worry about being too specific.

Let me mention this quickly. If you want to target a specific location, you have to tighten up your geo-targeting options. Just because you can reach potential shoppers in 189 coun- tries doesn’t mean you have to.

Segmenting your target market into locations and creating different campaigns catered to those audiences will keep your budget safe while bringing in targeted traffic.

Ideally, you want to target different areas like country, state, and city in the different ad groups of the campaign. This will help you identify the locations that bring you the most conversions and let you adjust bids so your ad dollars get spent on the ad groups that bring you more sales.

Another great way Google Ads helps you bag more sales is the Remarketing Campaign.

Remarketing campaigns on Google Ads help you reach people who have already visited your store. Since they’re familiar with your brand, they’re more likely to trust your ad.

However, you’ll need to create remarketing lists you can then use for your Search and Shopping campaigns.

Finally, keyword trends, conversions, bid competition, and quality score—to name a few—are constantly changing. You will need to adjust your campaigns accordingly to make sure traffic stays on target within your budget.

In summary, all of these strategies are proven methods that have helped me and a lot of my POD students earn 6-7 figures over the years. If you want to make it big in the POD business, you must scale up! And to scale up, you must be able to use all of these tools.

Want to start selling on Amazon? Then send some of your products to the Amazon Warehouse. You’ll make tons of sales using the Amazon FBA method. You could stop there, because you can expect to make over $100-200K a year from Amazon FBA.

But if you want to take things to the next level, learn how to use Facebook Ads and Google Ads to promote your prod- ucts and generate traffic.

Having a great social media presence is a great plus, too!

Best of luck from the Scale King!