šŸŽÆ Ad pixel trick

by

Happy Friday! Formula 1 is in France for the French Grand Prix this weekend, while filmmaker Jordan Peeleā€™s latest horror flick, Nope, hits theaters. Expectations are high: his last two movies have grossed a total of $510M at the worldwide box office against a combined budget of just $24.5M. Thatā€™s what we in the biz call a banginā€™ ROI.

Mentioned in todayā€™s newsletter: Instagram, BeReal, Google, Twitter, and Meta. Plus what to look for in an ideal client, the ultimate beginnerā€™s guide to structuring your freelance biz, and an unconventional way to feed your pixel better data.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes and 23 seconds

Making the Rounds

  • Instagram launches DM payments feature. Customers can now place an order, check out, and track their shipment straight from the DMs. As of now, the feature is only available to qualified business owners in the U.S. But itā€™s a big step forward as social media platforms aim to keep users from going offsite to make a purchase.
  • BeReal climbs to #1 in the App Store. The new kid on the block is basically the opposite of Instagram. And now itā€™s elbowed TikTok aside to claim the top spot among free apps in the U.S. Will it stay there? TBD. But with over 20M+ installs, itā€™s certainly making waves.
  • Google becomes the latest tech company to initiate hiring freeze. After hiring 10,000 new employees so far this quarter, the company will freeze hiring for two weeks to re-evaluable headcount. Many other tech companies, including Twitter and Meta, have already either frozen hires or laid off staff this year due to drops in stock price and fears of a recession.

Working With Clients

Not Quite the Reaction Youā€™re Looking For

If youā€™re just starting out as a freelancerā€¦

Itā€™s natural to try and sign anyone with a pulse and a credit card as a client.

But thatā€™s a big mistake.

Hereā€™s whyā€¦

Marketing and advertising can be boiled down to taking financial risks on creative ideas.

Some of them pan out.

Some of them donā€™t.

In fact, itā€™s normal to have to iterate 3-5+ times on an angle, offer, or marketing campaign before you find a winner.

But if youā€™re working with a client whoā€™s never hired a freelancer to produce any marketing assets for them beforeā€¦

Or someone whoā€™s never spent a dime on paid adsā€¦

The odds of them having unrealistic expectations are sky high.

Which means youā€™ll have a hard time satisfying them unless you hit out of the park on your first at-bat.

Soā€¦

Aim to work with clients who understand (and have experience) with marketing and advertising.

People who understand you have to spend money to make money.

People who understand that you need to ā€œbuyā€ data through testing before you can optimize your campaigns.

People who understand that even the best copywriters and media buyers in the world donā€™t hit home runs every time.

Now you may have to work a little harder to find and land clients like thisā€¦

But itā€™s an investment that will pay off big time in the long run.

Working For Yourself

When You Sign Those Incorporation Papers

Should you incorporate your business as a freelancer?

Or is it better to run it as a sole proprietorship?

Whatā€™s the best way to reduce your tax burden?

What about limiting your liability? Partnering with other companies? Bringing on investors?

These are just a few of the questions you may be wondering about when it comes to the legal structure of your freelance businessā€¦

And the answer to all of them is:

It depends.

But regardless of how you choose to structure your biz, itā€™s a decision that can have a big impact on your overall financial situation.

Fortunately, our friends at Upwork have written a killer guide on the pros and cons of 5 different business entities, from sole proprietorship all the way to LLC.

Check it out here:

[READ]: Business Entities Pros and Cons You Should Know as a Freelancer

From The Paid Ads Gig

An Unconventional Way to Feed Your Pixel Better Data

Tracking pixels need to be ā€œfedā€ lots of data to optimize.

Itā€™s what makes them such a powerful marketing toolā€¦

Because they get smarter and smarter over time.

Only problem isā€¦

Since iOS 14, tracking pixels have gotten dumber.

Especially when theyā€™re fresh out of the box and yet to be seasoned with hundreds or thousands of conversions.

And platforms like Meta and Google keep removing targeting options to stay out of trouble.

So hereā€™s an unconventional way to feed your pixel better data:

Tell anyone who is NOT your ideal customer to leave the page immediately.

For exampleā€¦

If you were a media buyer running ads to get clientsā€¦ 

You might place this line of copy on your opt-in form:

ā€œIf you are NOT a coach, consultant, or course creator spending at least 1k/day on ads, please leave this page immediately.ā€

Now, will this decrease your conversion rate and increase your cost per lead?

You bet.

BUTā€¦

Your lead quality will improve dramatically.

And because youā€™ll only be feeding the pixel conversion data from smack dab in the middle of your target audienceā€¦

Your campaigns will be able to optimize much better over time as well.

So if youā€™re struggling with low quality leadsā€¦

Or simply looking for a new marketing experiment to runā€¦ 

Give it a go and report back šŸ˜‰

Gig Alert

Quote of the Day

ā€œEveryone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.ā€

ā€” Andy Rooney

ICYMI: