00:00 You are listening to the scaling of freedom podcast. I’m your host, Christina Bernhard. And today we are going behind the scenes of a 700 K launch. So almost million dollar launch. I’m really, really excited to go over this. Um, we’re gonna be talking about the overall framework of a 700 K launch. Um, what we did, how much we spent, what we spent it on, which freebies we used for list building , um, how long our lead up time was, what we spent on retargeting. Um, and then just some takeaways and lessons. Um , just some notes from me why this launch went the way that it did and what you can do to replicate , um, this kind of success for your own ads , um, or what to expect whenever you are shooting for something like this. So , um, a lot of people like to know behind the scenes of what some of these launches look like. Um, I’ve done a one other episode where I did a client , uh , case study and I went over three different ones. Um, and with that one, I would , I did a very general overview. So I’m going to go a little bit more in depth in this one. Um, and so my clients launch very different, everyone launches so differently. Um, there are so many different strategies to use. So I do wanna point out that this is just one. It does not mean that the strategy specifically that we used is the one that you have to use. Um, this client actually launches quite different each time, which is , uh, I think really, really helpful. And what I mean by that is the strategy for each launch changes a little bit, and you don’t have to do this. It depends on how your team is set up or how things are set up for you as far as how easy it would be. Um , maybe easy is not the right word, but how , um , just doable , um , as far as capacity and things like that would be for you to actually launch differently every time. But one thing that is really helpful, whenever you do try new things is that you get new data each time. And , um, another thing that this client does is they launch something different at each time of year. So with their specific programs, they usually only launch them once or twice a year, but they do have a couple of different programs. So they’re launching around , um, prob we probably launch quarterly. So, which is pretty common. Um, so it’s quarterly, but it’s not always the same program quarterly. Now again, I’m going to just reiterate that there is no right or wrong way, as far as, you know , this kind of like overview of, of a strategy. Um , this is just what they do. And I do see a lot of benefits in that, but it does not necessarily mean that my other clients who don’t launch like this don’t have success. That’s absolutely not true.

2:46 So let’s get into the overall framework of the launch. So this is super common and straightforward. One thing about this launch is that , um, even though we did hit 700 K , um, it’s not very different from, you know, a normal, smaller launch, like even a six figure launch. The biggest difference is the lead up and , um, the patients , uh, just volume really, and , um, everything that goes into creating that volume. So I want to make that super clear because there is no magic like secret or something that you haven’t, you know , um, figured out or something like that with your launches to the fact that, you know, that it’s the secret of this big launch. That’s not the case. Um, they are just higher volume. Like we’re doing the same thing that we’re doing for a smaller launch. It’s just higher volume, which does mean, you know, some more logistics and things like that. But , um, they’re very minor framework is pretty much the same. So for this particular launch, and again, this client launches , uh , different ways each launch, but this particular one that hit 700 K um, basically what we did was we did list building for six months before this launch. And a lot of people have come to me and been like, I have my launch in a month or two months or something like that. Um , and they have these like really big launch goals that are very, very far from what they did organically before. Now. It’s not a bad thing to have big launch goals, especially if you’re gonna be investing in ads and you have a proven offer and you have a proven funnel and all of that. Um, but understand that a month or two is really not that long in cultivating a new audience and you might know this organically, but a lot of people think that with ads, it’s just sort of magic , like ads are magical . Um, and I understand why like this has come about because it’s kind of presented that way from some of my fellow marketers. I see things like that. Um , whenever we are promoting the use of Facebook ads, which is why I’m always trying to kind of like combat that and make sure that my messaging does not come across that way, because while ads can, you know, do amazing things such as this 700 K launch, but , um, they are not magic though. So they do take time. So for this particular program, again, this client has multiple offers. Um, for this particular one, we had a freebie that was, or we had a few freebies that were specific to this program. So we ran that for six months. Um, and during those six months we did a lot of , um, testing. Um, we did a lot of different freebies, which I’m gonna talk about the different kinds of freebies that we did. Um, and a lot of it was just very, very calculated. It was not just throw up a freebie campaign and see what happens. We were very intentional with everything that we did, but it was something that took time and , um, this client had patience , um, which is fantastic. And so we were able to actually take our time and figure out what really, really worked to grow a , a larger and more engaged audience. So we did list billing for six months. Um, and then they launched a summit that also had guest speakers, I think pretty much I’m trying to , I’m pretty sure that almost all of my , um , clients that do summits, which is a common thing , um, they do have guest speakers, so that really helps to get more people to the event that isn’t just your audience. Um, so that’s a really great way to launch. If you have a good network of , um , guest speakers that you could in include, it doesn’t have to be a lot of guest speakers. Um, it could even just be two or three. So we did a summit , um, this summit, they do every single year. So that consistency is really nice too, because , um, it has this like branding and this awareness each year. So the summit does get bigger and bigger each year. So , um, if you do go the summit route , um, one good thing to do if you have the capacity or if you enjoyed it, or if it worked for you , um, is to launch the same one every year. You can have different guest speakers, different topics, stuff like that, but just having that consistency where everyone knows and expects you to launch this really nice big summit , um , is just really helpful over time. After a few years of it , um, it just starts to get really, really big. Then we , um, had the launch , um, which was almost 700 K.

07:22 So , um, now let’s talk about the numbers. So you’ll be shocked at how little in comparison that the ad spend actually was for this launch. Um, so because the launch was, you know, very, very profitable , um, we actually only spent in total less than $12,000 in ad spend and , um, which is pretty insane. Um, if I would be happy to give $12,000 for 700 K back , but that is what we did. That’s just what happened. And , um, one thing that we did was , um, you know, that six months of list building, we tried different kinds of freebie, so we didn’t want to just choose one freebie. We really want to, especially if you’re investing in ads, we wanna see what kind of freebie actually works the best. Um, so for the first one we did was , um , we did a guide. So this is just like a simple PDF guide we spent about almost 3,500 on that. So we did a lot of testing. Um, that one actually performed pretty well. The audience , uh , this is no surprise. This is very common. The audience was a little bit less engaged though. So they weren’t as invested. Um, whenever the people who did actually sign up for the freebie , um, or the guy , the PDF was not as invested. So this is really common. Um, this is something I see across the board, but sometimes it actually, if you calculate the numbers, the PDF like guide type of a freebie , um, because the cost per lead is so low, sometimes the , um, even if the conversion rate is lower, you still get a higher return. So you have to run all of your numbers to really know you can’t just go off of one metric to decide if something is better than the other. You need to know all the metrics , um, and really calculate it all. Um, but we did try the PDF guide. Um, another thing that we did was they did create a tool. Um, I don’t want to give this kind way . So it was a , um, a tool that , uh , calculated something. So that was one thing that we tried , um, and that was , uh , two grants. So this one was really , uh , similar in , uh , the cost per lead and the people that were going through were a little bit more engaged. So we had a little bit of a higher engagement rate. It wasn’t fantastic, but it was , um, it was pretty good. And then we had, we also tried a mini course . So this one, the cost lead was higher , um , which is to be expected again. Uh , but they were a lot more engaged. And then same with a five day challenge. We also tried a five day challenge. This was a , um, an evergreen one. So it was like , uh , a rolling five day challenge through email. Um, and we spent almost two grand on that. Uh , just testing out, you know, different , um , pieces of copy, creatives, audiences, all of that stuff, so that we did all of that for all of these , um , to be clear. And then we of course had the summit, which is considered kind of list building as well. That was the launch event. And we spent , um , a little under two grand on that. Um, so we had all of that. We did that over a six month period. And , um, I will say that none of it was really like unsuccessful. I mean, definitely within our tests , you are going to have assets that don’t perform well. So there were lots of , um, things that we tried that did not work, but with each test, you figure out what does work. Um, but as a whole, once we got through the testing, all of these different types of list building were , um , pretty useful, I would say the most , um , successful one that we tried other than the summit, if we leave that out, cuz that was the launch event. So that did really well , um , is the , um, calculating tool , um, which I actually have one as my own freebie, but that is not why I will tell you that it does. It really doesn’t matter what , which one worked for this client , um , because it is different for everyone.

11:11 And it does not mean that you should go out and create a calculating tool. What I want your takeaway to be from this is how many, just seeing how many different things that we tried so that you realize what the journey actually looks like. Like it’s not just, I’m gonna put up this PDF freebie guide and I’m going to , um , just, you know, that’s gonna be my list builder and then I’m going to have a webinar and that’s gonna be my webinar. Like we’re trying all kinds of different things. And as you can see this client actually didn’t spend that much in the ad spend . I would have liked to spend a lot more. And so in the future, the next time we launch, we’re definitely gonna spend a lot more , um, well they’re actually already at higher spend now, but , um, just over time, you know, you definitely want to take the investment seriously and by taking it seriously, I’m referring to trying all of the different things and having that patience. Um, then we of course had our retargeting ad. We didn’t spend a lot on that. We only spent like a grand on that. And that was just a lot of different creatives. We did so many things in the retargeting ad , um , testimonials , um, different like carousel of different things of the features, the benefits. Um, we did lots of video , um, lots of animations, graphics, photos. I mean, we did everything. Um, so we had the retargeting campaign that one did really well. I actually did not write down the ROS for that, but it was pretty ridiculous. Um , but we only spent grant on that and we just , uh , we got really great reach with that. So that is, those are the numbers. Um , and so I wanna talk about the overall lesson. So the biggest lesson is to remember that this was over six months. So this is why long term really, really matters. And , um, I want to, I’m always reiterating this because I’m trying to make the narrative change to this idea that it is long term . And a lot of my clients, you know, know this or , well, my clients certainly know this, but people who come to me wanting a spot in the agency or something like that, they know this in what they do because most of them are coaches. So even if they are weight loss coaches , um , a lot of them have like six month programs and they don’t promise people. You’re going to lose all this weight in a week or two or a month. Um, yet they have this idea sometimes that with ads, they’re going to get this crazy return within one month. And so that is why it’s just really important to understand that ads are not magic. There’s no , there’s nothing magical about them that make them produce overnight results. Whereas everything else that we invest in and work on takes time. It’s not like that. It takes time, just like everything else. Um, also, you know, because our, our , uh , engagement after the ad is just as important. So our conversions of our funnels and our webinars and all that plays a role. Um, so it’s not just the ads, the ads just get the people to where they need to go. Um, another lesson that I want you to take away from this is that no freebie is better. There’s no type of freebie. That is standard. Um , that’s a common question I get is like, what kind of freebie tends to work the best? And there really is no freebie that tends to work the best. You really have to run the numbers because even if you have a less engaged audience, sometimes if the cost per lead is lower, sometimes the return is actually higher. It just depends. Um , not saying to, you know, grow an unengaged audience. I’m just saying that to really see what the return’s going to be and choose what kind of freebie that’s going to take. You really have to just run the numbers.

14:44 Um, I will say that I definitely love the summit model. Um, I see a lot of success with that most of the time. Um , and I do love the idea of a challenge, but it really depends on the kind of work that you do. It has to naturally fit into your product suite in this very, very natural, seamless way. So that’s most important. Um, another lesson is that testing works and it’s very, very necessary. Um, you have to test and you have to have patience and you have to figure out what works, what doesn’t part of running ads is gathering that data. And another lesson that , um, I think that you should take from this is that ads do get better over time. Um, so I have been working with this client for much longer than those six months. That’s just what we did for this particular launch. Um, but we’ve been working together for almost two years and they’ve always been very, very patient and , um, understood the whole idea of investing in what this process looks like. So those are the , um , main lessons I think are really important that this is over six months this is why long term matters. Um, no particular type of freebie is better. Um , testing works and is very necessary. And so , um, is patience . Uh , and then also that your ads get better over time. So some important disclaimers about this kind of launch, cuz I know people get flashy with numbers and I am making the title of this podcast, like include a , a large number , um , because it’s legit, but also because it’s flashy, like let’s do Europe , but I do wanna point out that ads are not magic. Um, they also clearly nurtured these leads over six months. So you can’t just gather the leads for six months. You have to nurture them and keep them engaged for that long. So this client did a great job at that. It’s very clear. Um, they’ve been in business for a few years, so they’ve definitely nailed their messaging. That’s another thing as well. Um, they were not new to their , uh , their business and then decided to run six months of list building and then have this huge launch. Now I don’t say that. That’s not a good idea, cuz that’s a great idea, honestly. Um, if you do understand your messaging, maybe not if you’re a beginner at business, but for your first launch, it might not be 700 K, but you’re definitely, it’s going to pay off to do that , um, testing for six months and really figure out what works and then launch something, but know that they have , um , they’re not new to their messaging and they really understand their ideal client. Um, and then the last thing is that they were patient again and trusted their team. So they really trusted us , um, to guide them on the best way to invest this ad spend , um, and exactly what we should do. I was able to look at the data and say, okay, we it’s time for another freebie. Let’s try something else. Um, and they were really, really cooperative of that and they trusted me and that I’m very grateful for and we had a really great payoff. So it worked out , um, beautifully.

17:45 So that is what I have for you today. Um, hopefully you have some good takeaways from this and I hope that I made it very clear on like what it actually looks like behind the scenes of these larger launches , um , that we didn’t just throw up a webinar, fill up campaign and then have this amazing, huge launch. There was a lot that went into this , um , a half a year of a lots of testing and you know, doing different things. And it was a half a year after they’ve nailed down a lot of their messaging and really understood their ideal client and have a really, really great proven offer. So all of that to say that , um , you can absolutely replicate this for yourself. Just understand what the, the role that adds play and how important it is to invest and have a patient . So that is what I have for you today. I hope that you found this helpful and I will see you guys next week. Thank you for listening to the scaling to freedom podcast. If you are a seven figure coach looking for ads management with an agency that partners with you to get your work out into the world and amplify your impact. See if we are a good fit by applying for a spot in our agency@christinabernhard.com slash apply . Find the link in our show notes.