A Diary of a Failed Campaign: What I Learned Losing $10k on Facebook Ads.
In the marketing world, we love to talk about our wins. We write case studies about the time we 10x'd a client's revenue. We post screenshots of analytics charts that go up and to the right. We act like we have the Midas touch. But that’s not the whole story. It’s never the whole story. I want to tell you about the time I set $10,000 on fire. It was a few years ago. I had a client—let’s call him "Bob." Bob ran a successful landscaping supply business. He had been around for 20 years, relying mostly on word-of-mouth and a few billboards. Bob came to me and said, "I want to go digital. I want to dominate the state." I was younger then. I was arrogant. I looked at his budget and saw dollar signs. I thought, "Easy. We’ll just run Facebook ads targeting homeowners, and the money will roll in." I didn't do my homework. I didn't research the nuance of his specific market. I just plugged in the standard "best practices" I had read about...