If you’ve ever said “I’ve tried ads, but they just don’t work for me”, this one’s for you. After auditing hundreds of local business ad accounts, I keep seeing the same six mistakes. The problem usually isn’t Meta, your audience, or your budget. It’s the recipe. Running ads without a strategy is like baking a cake with no recipe, guessing the ingredients, the temperature, and the timing, and then blaming the oven when it flops.

In this episode, I walk you through the six mistakes that kill local ad campaigns, including the one setting I see agencies get wrong all the time. If you’ve run ads before and felt like you were throwing money into a black hole, you’ll finally see what went wrong and what to do differently next time.

What you’ll learn:

• Why boosting a post isn’t the same as running ads and why it often leaves you with zero usable data
• The campaign objective that racks up clicks and zero conversions (and the ones to use instead)
• How to create a clear, compelling front-end offer that actually gets new customers in the door
• Why “cute and clever” copy (and unedited AI copy) falls flat and how to talk like you’re explaining it to a friend
• How to create ads that don’t look like ads so you attract the right people with the right context
• The “data over drama” mindset: why you might be more profitable than you feel, even if only 10% of leads convert

Ready to stop guessing? Join Hometown Advantage, my monthly membership with my full local ad strategy course, weekly personalized ad reviews from me and my team, and a community of local business owners:

Join Here: https://www.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/hometown?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio

Think you need to spend $1,500 a month to run Facebook ads for your local business? You don't.

In this episode, I break down what I actually recommend local business owners spend on Meta ads, what to realistically expect when you start small, and why $5 to $10 a day might be the best marketing move you make this year.

Your audience is local so it's smaller. That means a small budget reaches a real chunk of the people you want to reach. Organic posts might reach a couple hundred people. A $5 a day ad can reach a couple thousand people in your target market.

In this episode, we cover:

• Where the "big budget" myth comes from and when hiring an ad agency actually makes sense
• My go-to starting budget for local ads (and why $1 a day still beats $0)
• How to use your goal cost per acquisition to know how long to run ads before deciding whether they're working
• Why ads aren't gambling when you have a strategy: you're either learning or earning
• Real client stories, including a physical therapist who got a new client the day after launching an $8/day ad
• What mailers, vendor booths, and print ads cost you compared to ads you can actually track
• Why staying invisible costs 10 times more than a $300/month ad budget

If you've been wondering how much to spend on Facebook ads or you've been stuck deciding where to start, this one's for you. Starting small is still starting and the audience you build now makes sales easier down the road.

Ready to learn how to run your own ads?

Join Hometown ADvantage, my marketing membership for local small businesses. You get local-specific ad strategies, weekly expert feedback on your ads and fresh ad ideas and prompts every month all for $99/month.

Join Hometown ADvantage: https://www.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/hometown?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio

Think Facebook and Instagram ads are too expensive, too complicated, or just not working for your business? You might be buying into a myth that's quietly capping your growth. In this episode, Nicole runs down the top 10 paid ads myths she hears from local business owners every day. Some have been passed around for years and a lot of them are just plain wrong.

From "I'm not good at marketing" to "I'll just use ChatGPT to teach me," Nicole shares what's actually true, what she sees working inside her agency and membership, and the mindset shifts that help local businesses get more leads, more foot traffic, and more sales from their ads.

Here's what you'll learn:

• Why the best business in town isn't always the one that wins and what does decide it
• Why "it's not working right away" is normal and how every flop ad moves you forward
• How to think about Meta Ads Manager (hint: it's the beat-up car you still have to drive to work)
• Why "expensive" is relative, and how to judge your ad spend by return instead
• Why not every lead has to be ready to buy for your ads to be worth it
• The difference between boosting posts and running real ads, and why more traffic doesn't always mean more sales
• How just 2 hours a week can make you way more confident with ads in 3 months
• Why simple, "ugly" ads often beat polished, produced ones
• Why ChatGPT is sending you in circles on Ads Manager and what to use instead

Ready for more support? Join the Hometown ADvantage membership for Nicole's full ad strategy, weekly eyes on your ad results, 10 monthly ad ideas, and the Hometown Bestie Bot.

Join Hometown ADvantage: https://www.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/hometown?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio