2 builders who never spoke to each other

Expect the first year of ads to lose money

Two operators kept going through the period where the numbers looked terrible. One spent roughly his first year buying traffic, reading the data and reshaping both campaigns and site around it before the return went positive. The other started paid social with no experience at eight or nine dollars per subscriber and optimised down to between one and one and a half. Abandoning at the first bad cost per acquisition means paying the tuition and skipping the lesson.

The method

1. 01

   Expect to spend the first year buying traffic at a loss while you read the data and reshape the campaigns and the site around it. Positive return on ad spend is a year one outcome, not a launch one.

2. 02

   Do not abandon paid ads on the first terrible cost per subscriber: keep iterating on targeting and creative until the number is sustainable.

What it returned

• $8

  Colton Sakamoto and Tyler Parker started Facebook ads with no experience at $8 to $9 per subscriber and optimised down to $1 to $1.50.

• For roughly the first year all Matboard and More did was pay for traffic, analyse it, collect feedback and iterate. After about a year the site turned a positive return on marketing spend.

Sources

• Friday Feature: Office PartyColton Sakamoto · sparkloop.app · 🙋 How Office Party does it · undated
• Digitizing a Startup & Making $170,000/MonthMehdi Kajbaf · failory.com · How did you build Matboard and More? · undated