Promoting Your Holiday Box Using Facebook Ads with Josh Coffy | EP 172

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“Marketing is a mathematical equation not an emotional decision.” - Josh Coffy

The 4th quarter is here! And one of the best promotions subscription box owners (and hopefuls) can launch is a one-time holiday box. One-time boxes are a great way for business owners to test an idea before launching a subscription box and for established subscription box businesses to bring in additional revenue. 

Launching a one-time holiday box in the 4th quarter is good business. Doing it without running ads isn’t. That’s why I brought my friend and colleague Josh Coffy of The Ecommerce Alley to talk with us. 

Listen to episode 169 for more about why YOU should consider a one-time holiday box. 

Do you need to run Facebook Ads? 

You should always be building your audience organically. And you should get your audience excited about your one-time holiday boxes organically. But, if you want to maximize the sale of your one-time holiday boxes, you need to use ads. 

Josh is an expert on Ecommerce marketing and Meta ads. He says that whether it’s now or later, you HAVE to figure out advertising. In order to predictably attract new customers, you have to advertise. 

I shared my favorite ads analogy. Ads aren’t the base of your marketing strategy. Your base is all of the organic audience building you do. Consistently showing up on social media, engaging with your audience… And ads? They are like lighter fluid. They take what you’ve already built and make it burn hotter and faster. 

Why run Facebook Ads in the 4th Quarter? 

In Q4, people are buying like no other time of the year. Take advantage of the momentum Q4 naturally gives you. 

Josh talked about the types of ads you can/should run: 

• Engagement ads
• Traffic ads
• Video view ads
• Lead generation ads
• Conversion ads -Josh recommends 95% of your ads be this type 

Facebook Ads Explained  

Josh had even more recommendations including running purchase-based campaigns and keeping it simple. Start slow and increase your ads budget as sales come in. 

Josh walked us through how he would build a campaign for a one-time holiday box no matter what your budget is. He explained “return on ad spend,” what is realistic to expect, and what you need to spend to get to the desired number of box sales. 

You can look at it two different ways: 

1. How many boxes do you need to move? Reverse engineer how much you need to spend. 
2. Decide how much you are willing to spend and then how many boxes you can expect to move with that expenditure. 

Subscription box owners must manage their expectations and remove emotion (which is hard). Josh reminded us that marketing is a mathematical equation, not an emotional decision. Ads require a great deal of mental fortitude. 

Josh also shared that “ad-dy ads” are working right now. Customers are responding to ads that look like ads. 

Getting in Front of More People 

As E-commerce business owners, our goal every day is to get in front of more people. As subscription box owners who face cancellations each month as a reality of doing business, growth depends on getting in front of more people. 

I asked Josh what advice he had for someone who has never run an ad. He said it might feel like Mt. Everest in front of you. After all, Meta ads can be confusing and expensive. But the only way to get to the top is to start climbing. It’s going to be scary but just do it. Start slow and small… but do it. 

Join me for this episode as Josh and I nerd out on all things Facebook Ads and how you can use them to maximize sales of your one-time holiday box! 

Episode 169 - A One-Time Holiday Box Can Validate Your Subscription Box Idea

Find and follow Josh: 

• The Ecommerce Alley on Facebook
• The Ecommerce Alley Podcast  
• Josh Coffy on Instagram