After running my ads and PR company for the past 22 years, I've learned that you always have to think ahead and be resourceful. Whatever worked yesterday doesn't mean it will work today or tomorrow, especially now in our post-pandemic world.

When the cost of living crisis hit, I could see many companies in trouble. They were struggling with finding leads, filling their calendars with appointments and deploying automation in their business to save time and money. This is something I have experience with – over two decades of experience, so I created an offering to help companies of all sizes stay afloat. But the challenge I faced was, how do I get this offer out there? So, I turned to Meta advertising – advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

Related: How to Master the Art of Digital Marketing in 2023

With years of digital marketing and advertising experience under my belt, here are my hacks to scale digital marketing side of my business for just $10 a day.

1. Have an irresistible offer

You need to think about what will make people stop and want to talk to you. Put yourself in your own potential customers' the shoes. If you don't think you'd want to accept your fantastic offer, then would you? Focusing on the product or service benefits your customers will receive will help you create your compelling proposition.

For example, if you're a real estate agent selling property, don't sell a specific home on social media with a listing photo, but target investors – offering them the opportunity to buy a great asset without even showing an image of the property. it's return on investment after all you are promoting and not selling the house.

Guarantees can also be enticing, as long as you can deliver on your promise and it doesn't sound too far-fetched. Ads that promise “we'll get you 15 full paying clients in one month” are very unrealistic and actually deter potential clients. Instead, for example, you can have a 30-day satisfaction guarantee if you have a training course or “see results in 30 days” if you are a personal trainer.

Related: How to create irresistible offers that your ideal customers can't refuse

2. Create a design that stops motion

The best designs have the foundation of a great, funny and clever headline that grabs attention. I've found that slick, professionally shot and edited videos don't work at all. People are on social media to catch up on updates from their friends and family – not to watch a fancy video ad. Attention spans decrease per minute. Don't think for a second that your target audience will watch your 90 second video encouraging them to go to a landing page. Instead, base your design with a simple, easy-to-read font combined with a simple pop-up background. When it comes to your static image design, less is more. Your title should be the only text that makes up the chart. This will make viewers stop scrolling immediately.

Don't have a stylist? Don't worry. Programs like Canva make it very easy to create different designs for social media channels and even come with built-in size templates so you know your artwork will match. The Facebook Ads Manager platform also has an AI feature that will automatically redesign your artwork for different placements, so you no longer need to design multiple versions.

3. Set your campaign objectives

Facebook and Instagram have recently overhauled their lead form ads, allowing advertisers to get cheap leads using their built-in forms. Ultimately, Meta wants its audience to stay on its channels as long as possible, so companies that choose to use its built-in forms and keep their audience sticky are paying off.

Think about your objectives and structure your campaign accordingly using the platform options. If you're after more sales and leads, lead forms are ideal. Another great way to increase engagement with potential customers it's with an engagement campaign that encourages people to message you directly. This is often one preferred mode of communication with people under 45 years old.

Related: How text marketing can also be your most powerful customer engagement

4. Optimize the ROI on your ad spend

When it comes to your designs, it's important to see what works and what doesn't without changing too many variables at once. I always suggest spending no more than $10 per day initially with your ads. By doing so, your ad creative is actually doing all the heavy lifting rather than your budget. If you have an unhappy ad or offer, testing at $100 a day can skew your results because you're spending more than your competitors. By choosing to test for just $10 a day, you'll see a return on investment in the creator you're testing within a day or two. If you are meeting your goals, continue with $10 per day. If not, disable that ad group and open a second creator and start again.

Related: You won't have a solid budget until you follow these 5 tips

5. Slowly increase your Meta ad budget for consistent campaign performance

Once you've seen results with your creativity, it's time to scale. This does not always mean improving yours bUDGET immediately. Often the pixel needs some time to go through a learning period. Many of my clients spend as little as $10 a day, like I do on advertising, and get several customers coming in every day. However, if you want to increase the learning phase period, then start slowly by increasing your budget by no more than 25% every few days.

When it comes to marketing your business on a budget, it's definitely possible, and thanks to platforms like Meta, you can now quickly see what works and what doesn't. There's never been a time in business where you can turn an advertising campaign on or off so quickly and measure results down to every dollar spent.