| Hey, We're finally getting to the meat of the Facebook Ads sandwich, after several episodes of cavorting with fillings and condiments. To catch up on previous installments of the How To Scale series, head over to my subscriber-exclusive Facebook Ads Resource page, where you'll find links to that series neatly ensconced among 25 resources for Facebook Ads—which are all free BTW. It really is worth exploring that page, he says in no way scolding his audience, because many of the answers you seek are already there, including questions you email me about. Okay, there was a modicum of scold, but I believe in your ability to handle it. As a super-quick refresher, most people struggle to scale up their ads because they simply turn up the budget on a winning ad and expect results to scale along with their spend. Would that it were so simple. I've detailed the reasons why in those aforementioned previous episodes and the solution is to first scale your offer, then scale your interests, then scale your audience. Then, and only then—unless you like playing Russian Roulette with your credit card—do you scale your budget. Which is where we are today. *curtsies* Even if you have diligently followed the previous three stages, the next one still might require a little bit of a mindset shift. Because the first step I recommend isn't a scaling up of your spend per se, but to roll it up. we rollin' I'm not suggesting you should take advantage of your state's recent liberalization of certain substances (but I'm also not not saying it). I am saying you should take the daily Facebook spend you are planning and roll it up to make maximum impact over a limited period. Sometimes it can be hard to see the benefit of a modest spend—especially if it is stretched out over an elongated period. And it can be hard to analyze too. It's also tricky to make decisions on what is working and what isn't when the data takes forever to populate. Even if your ads are attracting clicks and converting well, there's a certain critical mass required before you hit the charts and make some noise, or, even more importantly in my experience, prod the Amazon algorithms into action. What does this look like in practice? be strategic Let's say you have three book launches in 2025. It makes sense to focus most of your marketing spend during those launch weeks. If you approach these things like I do, you will generally be running deals on related books to support a new release, and I tend to split my ad spend between the new release and whatever other deals I have running. My aim, always, is to make a splash big enough that Amazon's algorithms take notice and start promoting the books for me—usually just as my launch week ends and my ad spend is done. I don't advertise continually, at least not with Facebook Ads (Amazon Ads is better suited to that job, in my opinion). Instead, I pick my moments, concentrate my spend, make a splash, then let Amazon take over and do the selling for me… while I put my wallet away. So, my suggestion to you is this. Whether you are a newer author with a book or two who is leaving the ropes, or an experienced indie with several books and a bigger budget, consider focusing your spend instead of spreading it out. When you concentrate your ad dollars on key moments—i.e. when you have a new release and/or a backlist sale—then you will see a far greater return. And that will really help when you do actually scale your spend. But if you have been following closely, you will have seen several opportunities to do that spend as we went along. it was with you all along If you remember, I suggested that you scale the offer by expanding the number of things you are dangling in front of readers—to catch the widest spread of people. I also recommended that you really hone what you are putting in front of your target audience to attract the maximum number of clicks from the right readers, and to pump up conversion as much as possible. This will allows you to increase your effective spend without negatively impacting your return—indeed, it should increase your profits significantly as you increase the flow of readers through your series. I recommended that you scale the interests by carefully expanding the segments you are targeting, without moving into areas which will act as a drag on your results. This will also help the dumb AI stay on track and reduce the inconsistency it can inject into your results. If done correctly, this will allow you to multiply your spend more or less in tandem with your increased audience size without resulting in any real performance hit. And then when you have basic ads nailed down, your offer optimized, and your interests successfully expanded, the next step is to scale the audience. It's important to master these in the right order. First, interest audiences. Second, customs. Third, lookalikes. Once you don't try to skip ahead, you should be able to expand your audiences significantly and only see a modest hit in performance. Taken collectively, you can scale your spend significantly by following this path without any real impact on results—nothing you can't live with (as operating at a higher scale will deliver other benefits). In some cases, like with Custom Audiences, you can actually improve results across the board, for example by really milking the social proof that customs will layer on all your ads. And now that you have all the pieces in place, this is the moment you can turn the dial and see campaigns really take off. It takes a lot of hard work—and time—to get to this point, but this is what's necessary to scale effectively and really master the platform. It's always tempting to take shortcuts, especially when the road ahead is long and difficult (and the prize so alluring), but without taking all these careful preparatory steps, any number of things can go wrong—and if you have turned up the dial without resolving those issues, the crash can be spectacular. Approach scaling up with caution—and an abundance of patience. Recognize that there are several stages in this journey, rather than some secret hidden inside a $1000 course. Lower your expectations of any kind of overnight success. This takes time, it requires you to be deliberate in your actions and organized in your approach. You must be prepared to test, analyze, and, yes, deal with any number of frustrations along the way. But if you are prepared to invest the time, if you are ready to work hard, and if you are able to accept that this is a process which will take time, then the rewards can be immense. Dave P.S. Writing music this week is Pavement with Gold Soundz. | 
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