Why do most artists and photographers fail at Facebook ads?

Most fail because they lack perspective on how long it takes to learn and build momentum. They spend a small amount ($150–500), see little immediate return, and quit—thinking it’s a waste. They also don’t understand the many costly mistakes (the ‘idiot taxes’) built into the ad platform that drain budgets if you don’t know how to avoid them. Finally, they try to jump straight to cold traffic and sales, which doesn’t work for art because art isn’t an impulse purchase. The combination of impatience, lack of knowledge, and wrong strategy dooms most efforts before they start.

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Asked by an artist who has failed at ads before · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-01-29