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An image of a woman holding up her hands to stay stop. On the left side of the image there is an orange rectangle with a grey rectangle layered over the top with orange text reading ‘10 reasons not to work with me’ and on the right side of the image there is an orange circle with white text reading ‘Jo Francis’

10 Reasons Not To Work With Me As Your Facebook Ads Strategist

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Yep, you read that right! 

I’m about to give you 10 reasons why you might not want to work with me as your Facebook Ads Strategist.

“Has she gone mad?” I hear you say.

Nope. It’s important. 

It took me a long time to set boundaries in my business. Wayyyyy longer than it should have done. Which meant that for years (honestly, years!!) I put up with things from clients that literally make my teeth itch – demands to know if I was at my desk at 8:30am, a “holiday request” channel in Slack, so many out of hours messages that I refused to look at social media in the evening for fear of “being spotted” on line.

But this doesn’t necessarily mean I had horrible clients (to be fair, some of them weren’t great!!) – what it does mean is that I hadn’t been clear about my boundaries and “rules”.  Essentially it was a me problem, not a them problem. 

So let me hit you with the headlines first off, and you can decide if you want to delve deeper.

Reasons why I am not the right person for you to work with on your Facebook ads

  1. You want help with your organic social media 
  2. You like to listen to advice and then generally ignore it
  3. You think Facebook ads are a magic bullet that will solve ALL your business problems
  4. You just want the cheapest person available
  5. You like to feel like “the boss”
  6. You’d like me to “just make a start” because “payment is on its way”
  7. You love a bit of price negotiation! Nothing is more satisfying than a discount…
  8. You’re not sure what you want, you’re just after some “ballpark” figures
  9. Your business is 24/7 so you’d like me to be available with similar timings
  10. You’re not a fan of holidays or weekends

So, you’re still here.

Great!

Let me break it down further for you.

1. You want help with your organic social media 

I am not a Social Media Manager. If you want to know what to post and when to post on a daily basis, that’s a whole other business. And part of the reason I haven’t gone down the Social Media Manager path is because I think that you, yes, you the business owner or manager, are the very best person to handle the social media. Organic social media should be about what’s happening day to day in the business, what you’re dealing with, snippets of behind the scenes, and it should be in the voice of your company. So you either need to find a really good SMM who totally “gets you” or you need to crack on with it yourself. 

I’m not going to just send you on your way though. If you do want support with your organic social media, then I strongly suggest you get in touch with my very good friend Catherine Gladwyn at Delegate VA. She has a whole bank of suitably qualified people on hand to help you, and she is an expert at matching business owners to support freelancers – literally the Cilla Black of the business world!

2. You like to listen to advice and then generally ignore it

Part of my role is to give you the best advice I can regarding your Facebook ads. Which utilizes all the training I have done, my years of experience, the hundreds of thousands of pounds of ad spend I have managed and the numerous campaigns I have built and managed, so it would be a shame if you chose to ignore me! 

And I don’t mean that you have to do exactly what I say, all of the time, or else…but I often get clients that, ahead of challenges or webinars, ask how far in advance should we start running the ads. And if I say 4-6 weeks, then I mean 4-6 weeks. If I then don’t get the creative and copy until a week or two prior to the event, it’s likely that you won’t get the kind of results that you were hoping for, or that I had predicted could be possible.

3. You think Facebook ads are a magic bullet that will solve ALL your business problems

This one is simple for me. Facebook ads can be a fantastic part of your sales funnel but they are a “part” of it. They should not be the only thing you do and nor will they save your business if all else has failed.

I cover this in more detail in my blog “Why you’re not ready for Facebook ads”.

4. You just want the cheapest person available to run your Facebook ads

Thanks for thinking of me, but that’s unlikely to be me. I’m also not the most expensive (although come to think of it, I probably should be…) but if you want cheap then head off to Fiverr or one of the other super cheap freelancer sites.  

Ultimately you will get what you pay for, and I’m sure you would rather work with an experienced professional than someone just “having a go” at ads.

You are not just paying for my time, which is why I don’t have an hourly rate. You are paying for the years of experience and the continual learning and development that I put myself through to ensure that I stay on top of the game when it comes to Facebook ads.

5. You like to feel like “the boss”

Of course you’re the boss. You’re the boss of your business, your office, your household, whatever you like! But if we work together then we are collaborating – working together to achieve one goal.

If I wanted to stand to attention, then I would have joined the police (like my incredibly successful DCI sister!) but that’s not for me… I’m more of a flat organizational structure kinda gal, where objectives are achieved without any one upmanship or “willy waving’. My role will always be to get you the best ROI possible with your Facebook ads, but your job is to help me do that! 

6. You’d like me to “just make a start” because “payment is on its way”

That’s a hard no.

I invoice in advance for payment on receipt of invoice.

I understand that might not be your payment terms, but it is mine.

I don’t have the capacity to chase invoices or worry about when I’m going to get paid so these are the terms that work. We both know where we stand – the invoice gets paid and the work commences.

7. You love a bit of price negotiation! Nothing is more satisfying than a discount…

I am not a back street market trader – I don’t haggle.

I will never fire over an off-the-cuff quote, so you know that when you do receive a price from me it has been carefully worked out, taking into account the necessary volume of work required – both in terms of my skills and my time.

So the price is the price.

Of course we can reduce the price – just let me know which bits of what I’ve proposed you don’t want.

8. You’re not sure what you want, you’re just after some “ballpark” figures on getting help with Facebook ads

You can pretty much refer to the previous point here. I don’t fire over off-the-cuff quotes and nor do I give ballpark figures.

If you’d like a ballpark figure, then it’s likely to be somewhere between £1000 and £3000. That’s the best I can give you.

9. Your business is 24/7 so you’d like me to be available with similar timings

You might think I’m joking but a client actually once said to me that her business was a “24/7 online business” and therefore she expected more of me in terms of availability.

Her business really wasn’t a 24/7 operation. She just had a website where people could make purchases, so there was the “potential” that someone could buy something at any time of day. Regardless of that, I don’t expect anyone to dictate my hours.

I am from a corporate background, and have never really shaken that mentality, so you will actually find me in the office most days from around 8:30am. And generally I work through until anytime between 3:30pm and 5pm, depending on the kind of day I’m having! I am pretty much always in the office Monday to Friday and if I’m working on a campaign with you, I’ll most certainly let you know if I’m not going to be around.

10. You’re not a fan of holidays or weekends

Actually this one is unfair. You can like or dislike holidays. You can like or dislike weekends. But all I ask is that you respect the fact that I enjoy my weekends with my family and I choose not to work over the weekends. At all.

And holidays. I’m not living the nomadic dream, travelling all over the world at the drop of a hat, but I will be having the odd week off here and there, which I would like to enjoy, in peace, with no work distractions! And of course, you’ll know well in advance if I’m not going to be around!

Are you still with me?

Perfect!

If you haven’t been mortally offended by my list, and completely understand my reasoning, then you and I could be a great fit.  A really great fit! 

You, my friend, are my type of person! 

So let’s do it. Let’s get your Ad Action Plan in place, and get your Facebook ads up and running! 

An orange background with white text reading ‘Sign up for your ad action plan today’ and a black rectangle below that with white text reading ‘Purchase now!’. To the side of the text is the image of Jo Francis who is a white woman with ginger hair wearing a navy blue short sleeved dress and holding a leopard print mug.