10: Facebook Ad Case Study with Ky Autumn Russell, Fitness and Wellness Expert

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Welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host Destiny Kopf and in this podcast we're we are covering actionable tips to grow your online course business. And I am so excited to have a guest here with me today. I have Kai Autumn Russell and she is a fitness and wellness Expert with nearly 20 years of experience teaching Pilates, mindfulness and stress management. Kai helps busy, care focused women learn to care for themselves through her podcasts, her Pilates and yoga, online membership and stress relief courses so that they can gain energy, strength and zest for their life and purpose. Kai, thanks so much for joining me today. I'm so happy to have you here.

Hi Destiny. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you today. You've just been such a help in my business. It's really exciting to get to chat with you here and I'm really looking forward to it. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. So I know that the course graders who are listening to the show today, they would love if you would tell us a little bit about you, your business and your kind of your journey and how you got to where you are today.

Okay, sure. So basically my kind of journey through fitness and wellness began really early. I was a professional ballet dancer, so, so I trained really rigorously all through my childhood and teens and then, you know, so I had a really interesting relationship with exercise and movement through that where it was something that I did every day but it was really focused on work and performance and then I definitely took some time off from that and you know, studied totally separate issues through my bachelor's degree and wasn't dancing at all. And then once I graduated, I went back to dancing and then pretty quickly got an injury because I was very deconditioned. And then that injury ended up being the best thing ever for me. I got to rehab at a hospital in Pilates based rehabilitation and just really discovered a whole new way to look at movement as something that was really nourishing and healing for the body. And basically I told them after my course was over and my foot had healed, I was like, well, I'm not really leaving. And they agreed that they could tell I wasn't leaving. So they told me to go get certified, which I did, and started working there. That was kind of my beginning of getting to help others really heal through movement. And that was something that I just have such a passion for. And it still carried over almost 20 years later. And I noticed that as you know, and after I left the hospital, I had a private practice of my own and then my own brick and mortar studio. And through that process I just really noticed that, you know, the action of really connecting into the body, even healing, getting stronger, really did impact people on a very deep level. Just like it had me where just being able to connect emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically, kind of connecting the whole self into this real holistic way with the body and movement as kind of the conduit for that. And so, you know, I kept kind of expanding my business the whole time, not even really thinking of myself as a business owner while doing that, which I think a lot of Pilates and yoga instructors also don't necessarily think about the business side of their work. And I expanded to teaching teachers primarily and doing Pilates instructor training programs. And then I definitely realized that I needed to change it up a bit. And so I left my studio, I sold my studio and then started graduate school Kinesiology. And that was back, I think in 2008, that was. And I really focused in on researching. I wanted to know more about how women's experiences with exercise really impacted their lives. And at the same time that this was happening, I had a miscarriage and then I had my daughter, and then even another miscarriage. So I was really just personally experiencing a real, you know, just really kind of shaken as to my relationship with my body, which was something that I had worked with so many women on throughout pregnancy and then into menopause as well, is another time when I feel women really can get their. Their foundation of their. Their connection to their body can really shift there. And so the. So I just. That all influenced my research. I Did research on postpartum women and their experiences in yoga classes, and that just really solidified a lot of what I had been kind of developing over time. And then now I actually am faculty at a university, so I teach stress management, which I have really come to realize through my research, is a key component of what exercise can bring to our lives, particularly Pilates and yoga.

And then.

Yeah. And so that even still now, I have very recently, within the past, I'd say two years, started to even expand my reach a little bit. And I have really realized that the key for most women, particularly the women who are my audience, who are really focused on providing care for others, either through their home life, as mothers, or as caregivers, or through their professional life. A lot of teachers, nurses, women who really do prioritize caring for others, and Pilates and yoga instructors as well, that they. It's so easy to give for others for these women, but learning how to actually prioritize themselves so that they actually do have that energy and the ability to care for others is something that I have really focused on how to make it as effective and efficient and just really easy for women to do this. And so that's why I have created my membership and my podcast to really connect with those women and just really get them the tools that they need very easily. And so I'm loving this new development of my business and just really growing through this whole process, which you've been really helpful in. So I do appreciate that as well. Yeah. So that is kind of where we are today.

I loved a lot of what you had to say there, and I feel like we're close friends, but I learned so much about you as you went through and explained all of that. So you had your private practice, went had your brick and mortar, and then went into grad school and just, I mean, such a great journey and a lot of the personal experiences that you, you know, the things that you experienced personally, has really led you to the work that you're doing today with your online business.

So thank you for sharing that.

I loved it.

Yes. Because now even, you know, with my daughter and my business, you know, teaching, and I'm not in the studio full time anymore, I'm at the university. And so I really just realized that, you know, it's. It's the challenge of fitting in wellness and exercise and fitness into one's life is just. It's so much harder. So I actually kind of created the system for myself. Like, what did I need for, you know, to help me manage stress And I'm also caring for my mother who has dementia. And so that whole I'm managing her care. Right. The time is so limited now. And I always knew this from working with my clients. But getting to experience it firsthand has really just helped me really create the system that I need and then that is helping others as well. So it's fabulous to get to do that. Yeah.

So I want to get into the business part, but before I do that, I have to ask you a question because, you know, it came up as you were, as you were talking about that. And I think a lot of the people listening here are kind of in the boat that you're in. In the boat that I am, you know, I teach also at the college level, as you know, and I have two courses coming up here soon. And then I have my business and then I have four boys. And you know, as you know, it's hard juggling everything. So what is your one to making sure that we have that, you know, that self care. We make sure we prioritize that self care, whether it's exercising or, you know, other things. What is your one tip for that?

Well, the thing really and truly that makes a huge difference is a lot of the work that probably you and your listeners have done around your business. Right. Like identifying and this is what you teach, right, in your courses, and it was really helpful to me is identifying your purpose and your vision and why is it that you want to be healthy and have energy and stamina and all of those things. So I actually take all of my clients and all of my students through that process of kind of identifying where they are, baseline with their health and then really providing a vision for what they see in the future and then getting to their purpose and their why. And you know, it might be for some that that purpose is I want to rock a bikini this summer. Not necessari a lot of my audience necessarily, but you know, for me it's. I want to be the type of person that I want my daughter to be proud of. I want to show up in the world and, you know, have my business that helps others. And I know that you're in that same genre as well. And also, you know, I want to be mindful and with the stress, you know, I am, if I'm not devoting some amount of time to my self care every day, I can get away with it for a day or two, but then it'll catch up to me and I become cranky, cranky. And that is not who I want to Be to my daughter. It's not who I want to be to my husband or my students or just for myself. Right. It doesn't feel good to be cranky. And so really taking the time to sit and identify why health and wellness is something that you need to prioritize. It also helps your business. Right. So if you're feeling good, if your cup is full, you can give more. And if your cup is empty, then there's nothing coming out of that cup, really. Right. So, yeah. So that is understanding why is really the key to getting that motivation and getting the kind of push to do the workouts, you know, every day or three times a week, whatever you decide is the right thing for you. And so that's my main tip. And then the other kind of more practical tip is to make a habit, Right. So you gotta like, habits we can keep. And so giving that attention to going through a period of time where you really do make a habit out of whatever health priority you've set, probably just one at a time is good until you get that habit. So when you create the habit, then, you know, it takes a while to create a habit. The 21 days isn't really backed up by research, so that's sad to know for some of us, but really spending a significant period of time to create a habit around it, and then it really does get easier.

So such great tips. And honestly, that could be a whole separate podcast in and of itself. But I know we're here to talk about your case study. You have a great case study to talk with us about today with your last launch and how you utilize Facebook ads. So I'm going to kind of jump into all of that. So just to kind of set the background, can you tell us a little bit about your last launch, what you did, how you structure it, and what you were selling at the end of the launch, just so people can understand your sales funnel and you know, how the, I guess I should say the transformation that you are promising people what you were selling at the end to get them there.

Definitely, yeah. So this last launch that I did was about a month ago, and I was opening up to the public my membership. And I had already done one very small kind of sample launch to my list, which was pretty tiny at the time. I still have a small but mighty list, but it's gotten a lot bigger since last month, that's for sure. Basically, I was opening up my membership and so wanted to do a challenge because I also wanted to do something that would just impact everyone, whether or not they decided that the membership was for them. And so I did a spring renewal challenge and had folks sign up for a challenge. And mostly, you know, I already had my list, so I had some people sign up through that. And then mostly though running Facebook ads and Instagram ads with your help. And that was key. And so I did a had over 500 people sign up for the challenge, which was great. That's, you know, more than currently follow me on Instagram and Facebook. So. Or did at the time. Now everything's grown since the. Since the challenge. And then over the course of five days, I dripped. Every day was a different workout all around renewal and spring renewal and just really connecting in and getting stronger and having more energy at spring, which is a really great time for beginning new practices. And also our bodies are just really craving that. Right. So giving ourselves some attention before life gets hectic and more busy as the spring concludes and then we get into summer and yeah, it was so much fun and it went really well. Yeah.

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So we ran the Facebook ads and we'll talk about those in a second. You funneled everybody into a Facebook group, if I recall, and then every day in that Facebook group you delivered a video to them?

No, so I actually funneled because I really wanted to build my list and so I had everyone signed up and I emailed them so everyone signed up on the list. And then I also encouraged folks to sign up for the group. And I did have my group grow a lot. And so next time I might experiment with delivering the videos through the group. But I definitely had people, they got the videos through their email and so they basically every morning they would have an email from me with a link to a Landing page with the video that they could watch and do. And each video part of it was, you know, a lot of my workouts are really designed for stress relief, and that kind of needs more constant attention. So it's designed to be a daily or every other day practice. And so they're like 15 to 20 minutes. So they're shorter videos that you can really realistically do either first thing in the morning or in the evening, you know, squeeze in type of a thought. And yeah, so it was all emailed to folks, but there was also the group that was very active and really fun during the challenge. And we had a lot of engagement there and just energy. Yeah.

And what I like about challenges, and I like challenges for a lot of different niches, but definitely for your niche too. It just gives people that opportunity over a longer period of time to get to know you so you can build that know, life and trust factor. Did you feel like doing the challenge was better than for you? Better than maybe a webinar or anything, like a workshop or training?

I do. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. It was a ton of work. They are a lot of work. But it was really rewarding because there was a lot of back and forth throughout the week and really even getting to see people connecting in the group as well. And I definitely feel like, because it was a cold audience. Right. So these were people that had never heard of me before and mostly. Right. There were definitely a few people who were already kind of new of me that took the challenge and were really active into the group. And I do think that that helped as well to kind of get the ball rolling on the group. But I was also offering prizes for engagement throughout the week. So basically on one day, it was post on Instagram a copy of you doing the workouts. And so I also was kind of using it to increase all of my kind of channels. So one day was comment on a YouTube, watch a YouTube video and comment on that. And so I definitely. There were definitely people who were really motivated to engage. And, you know, that was a win win, because the more engaged they are, the more they' going to be actually getting from the challenge that they signed up for and actually motivated to carry through. Right. Do the workouts. And because, you know, with fitness particularly or with anything, if you don't actually do it, it can't help you. So signing up is a good first step, but then you actually have to do the challenge. So, yeah, that kind of helped people stay motivated. And I definitely. And that was really fun. But I did really get to interact and answer questions and I was doing lives almost daily. Because of my teaching schedule at the university, I couldn't do a live every day. So I did, I think three or four lives throughout the week and that was really great. So people, you know, really showed up, particularly in the beginning of the week. Definitely. I noticed with challenges that, you know, the. There's a lot of, you know, energy in the beginning and they do. It does slow down a little bit. And so then using the contest and the prizes to kind of re engage people throughout the week seemed really helpful too. Yeah.

So what did you give away now? Now I want to know.

Well, it varied and I think next time I will kind of change this up. So I would give away an off. You know, I kind of let them choose. And so it would be like, do you want a video that you can download and keep, or do you want me to personalize a video off of, you know, a topic that you would like to have a video address? I tried not to make anything that was too expensive necessarily, and then also used it as a way to let people know about what my services were. So I gave away a free month in the membership one day and I just let people pick. So I give them three or four options. A one on one coaching call with me was one of them. And yeah, so it was just a variety of different things that I do. Yeah, so that was really fun.

I love that. Those are great prizes, by the way. I won coaching call for you. I want to win that.

It was fun. Yeah.

So obviously we want to talk about the Facebook ads. And can you tell us a little bit about your experience with doing ads before this, you know, before we did them for this particular challenge? Have you ever done them in the past? Did they work for you? Did they not work for you?

I had, and I will definitely say that in the past I had not done like a significant amount. I basically just kind of wanted to experiment and get to know the platform a little bit. And so last fall, when I was launching a beta course for my stress management course, which was really, I wasn't necessarily trying to target cold audiences at all for that. So I was just really targeting people who had liked my pages or were already on my very small list and which was, you know, a list that had grown over the past, like 15 years of my teaching. So it was people who had known me, but yeah, so. And I really had no idea what I was doing. And so I wouldn't say that any of those were successful. That the ads were successful, but it did give me. I mean, I might have gotten a couple of people to, you know, sign up for my list or do something like that through the ads. But. And, you know, I had even boosted post it posts before, which I know isn't really a great strategy to do a post boosting, but just to kind of practice and play. And that experience just really helped me realize that I kind of needed some more help, but that it was really an opportunity that I think is just a great opportunity for folks to get to use. Right. It's kind of amazing that there's this, you know, I kind of think about, okay, well, if I was having to place an ad in a newspaper. Right. What would that cost? Which I used to do for my brick and mortar. Right. Or, you know, because I had that studio before, really Facebook, I knew anything about social media or Facebook or anything like that. I was back in like 2005. Right. And then. Yeah. And so. Yes. Anyway, so before, it definitely was not. It was interesting, and I got to play around with it a little bit. Kept my ad spends very, very, very tiny so that I could just kind of play with no risk. And then that did actually give me a little bit of confidence to then be like, okay, I'm gonna figure this out, get some help and invest in actually running some real ads.

So this time and we can talk about kind of what we did. I know we went in there out different audiences because we wanted to mention these were all cold audiences. So we'll go ahead and clarify that for everybody. These were cold audiences that we're targeting. People that didn't know who you were and went out there and we tested a couple and. Or a few, I should say, and then figured out, you know, and they all converted. If I remember correctly, they all converted pretty well. But there was definitely one that was reacting very well to your message, correct?

Yes, there was. I mean, yes. And I'm trying to remember exactly the details. And that was something too, that I would have never really thought to do on my own. Right. Was the testing of the audiences. And I think that was such just great guidance. Right. That you came up with and, you know, kind of really figuring out, like, where my, like these. These people were. Right. From my audience. And. Yeah. And so we did end up with one. And I remember, you know, kind of halfway through, we turned off some ads and then boosted and then put that dollar spend into other. Into the audiences that were converting better. And that really worked well. Yeah.

And then we also tested different creative and, you know, creative meaning the pictures versus the videos. And people absolutely love videos of you doing yoga, extra Pilates exercises.

Yeah.

Which I told you they would.

You did.

But it was. It was just fun to see, you know, in the test versus the static picture or you actually doing the exercises that they really resonated with you and your face there and you actually doing that for them.

Yeah. And that is something that I probably wouldn't have had the guts to do on my own for sure, because I was pretty. Just a little self conscious of that, you know, having a little blip of me. And I think we even kept the sound. So you. Because my tutorial and my instruction is very, you know, it's very explanation based while you're moving. And so we kept a little snippet of me actually teaching the exercise in. And I think that was. Yeah, it was definitely golden. It was a really great idea to do that. And that is not something that I would have done on my own because I was a little shy about it. But it worked really well.

It did work well. And I think people. And this is true for a lot of ads. Right. People like seeing the person there, and the videos tend to work well in general. So I'm glad that worked out for you because your video was great, by the way.

Thank you. Yeah. And I'm a real person too. Right. I'm not gonna be showing off any six packs or anything like that. And so I think that also really was important that people see that it's not really this other messaging that's out there about bodies and, you know, and that's totally fine if that's what motivates people. But that's not necessarily the way I teach, and that's not my audience. So it really did help people get to understand that right away.

Yeah, I mean, they. They knew who they. Who you were. They resonated with you. They resonated with your message. So it was. It was perfect.

Yeah.

So let's talk a little bit about your results. So if I recall correctly, you were able to get around 500, maybe a little bit more in your challenge. And we were running ads for about a week, maybe a day or so.

Yeah, it definitely. I think it actually ended up being. We kept the ads running a couple of days into the challenge and people were still signing up. So, you know, I made sure that every day people could still access the previous videos that they had missed. And then I. Yeah, but really we only had, I think, six days before the start of the challenge, which was totally Because I. It took me a long time to get you the copy and the creative, so. Because originally the goal was that we wanted to have about 10 days before the challenge. So, you know. Yes, I think. And it did really have a big momentum. Like, it kept building and building. So I think if we'd had those just a few more days with a little bit more planning on my part, it would have really even had more. But I was thrilled to get, yeah, over 500 signups for the challenge, which was fantastic. And pretty high engagement rates, too, I would say. You know, people definitely, the first few days were, you know, they were making sure to check in with every video. And then there was a little lull like on Thursday, but then it went back up on Friday, and then I kept the videos available, and then on Friday, I launched the membership and then had that open until Tuesday. And so, yeah, it went really well. It converted at about 3. Almost 3.8%. So almost 4% conversion, which I feel pretty good about with a cold audience. And. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it went really well.

And you have those people on your email list, so you can continue to build that. No lack of trust factor, which is critical.

Absolutely. And that I think. And you remember when we were talking about kind of how much I was willing to budget for. For the ads. I haven't run any kind of evergreen, just lead magnet ads yet. And so just because I still haven't found, other than the challenge, like, obviously the challenge is a great way to build my list, but then I'm still developing a really great lead magnet for folks. And so now that I. And so it's just wonderful because now that I have this audience, like, I'm going to be able to figure out my. My lead magnet, kind of the evergreen lead magnet a little better. And that was. So. Yes, it grew. My list, like, my list more than doubled. Yeah, it almost tripled, I would say, because, like I said, at a small list. And so it was so successful in that arena, too, which is great.

So if you had to, you know, mention one thing to tell someone who needed to build their email list and fill up their funnel for, you know, a membership or an online course launch that they're doing, what would you say to them?

Well, I mean, I definitely, you know, I've spent so, like I said, you know, just moving into my kind of taking my business online. I've been thinking about for about two years, and I kind of thought about it for a year. So really, it's been about a year since I feel like I've taken really significant action, and really, this. So it took me, like, a year of developing my business to actually do the ads. And I feel like that I don't want to say lost time because, you know, I was still learning, and it kind of. That's what I needed to get comfortable to actually run the ads. But I wouldn't say to wait. I would say that the ads just make it easier. Right. Like, I was just trying to build organically for about a year and not really getting a lot of momentum. And I think my mindset was like, oh, well, I'll start doing ads and I'll start spending money on marketing once I have my business more developed. And I kind of see now that that is a little bit of a backwards way of thinking, because how am I going to grow my business if I'm not marketing? And so now I'm kind of shifting and that I'm just really going to be focusing on growth and marketing for the next six months as much as possible. And so that's really what I guess I would say, don't be afraid. And I really do adopt kind of a growth mindset and a learning mindset. And so I just kind of look at everything as an opportunity to learn. And so, yeah. And I don't think you have to spend a ton of money. Like, I didn't spend a ton of money. And certainly when you look at if I haven't spent anything on marketing, and I just kind of for the past year, I, you know, it was basically a couple dollars a day. When you think about, you know, okay, that's how much we spent over the year. Right. And I just kind of funneled it into this one event. But how much did you spend?

I don't remember exactly. Can you tell us?

It ended up being about, I think, around, like, $460. So.

$460. And we had over 500 people in your challenge. That is amazing. We had really great conversion rates.

We did. It was crazy, I think, was all the testing that you did. And I would have never, ever, ever done that. So I would say that, you know, if you are to, like, get help with your ads, because that makes a huge difference, too. So. So either learning from someone or actually getting someone who can directly help you is really useful because we didn't spend a lot, and we ended up, you know, we were getting some of our conversion costs. People signing up were. My gosh, it was like. I can't even remember now, but it was well under a dollar. Right.

And then it was. There were some that were over, some that were under. But I couldn't remember exactly how much you spent because it's been about a month or so since we did that.

Yeah, yeah, it was around.

We had great commercial rates.

Yeah. And so that was great. And then also just monitoring that every day. Right. So we were really watching what was working and what wasn't, and if something wasn't working, we turned it off. So we weren't, like, really wasting money. But almost everything had some, you know. Yeah. It was a really effective. People love challenges, I think.

Well, Kai, tell me, how can people find you if they want to learn more about you?

Well, the easiest way would be my website, which is Kai Autumn. And you spell my name Ky. And then Autumn, like the season. So there is the N at the end of the word and then.com, and so that you can find just about me. There's links to my podcast there and links to all my social media, which my podcast is called the Blessful Body. And so most of my social media channels, YouTube and Facebook and Instagram are just my name, actually. So Kai Autumn and then Russell. Yeah.

Well, Kai, thanks so much for being here today and sharing your experiences with us. I greatly appreciate it. I hope this podcast was helpful for everybody. I will put Kai's link to her website in the show notes, so if you'd like to go join her, just go. The show notes and the link to her website will be there. Bye for now.

Thank you, Destiny.

Thank you.