How to Validate Your Idea for $10 With Facebook Ads
Have you ever had an idea you really wanted to bring to life, or at least be able to understand if it was a good idea or not? No matter if it was an idea for a company, an app, a book, a new recipe, a movement, a campaign or an event, I’m sure you’ve had plenty of them.
So how did you go about it?
If you’re like most people, you let your ideas die in your mind. Fear of judgment usually prevents you from asking friends, family or anyone else for feedback.
There’s a reason why they say — “The richest place on the planet is the graveyard.”.
But even if you go ahead and ask for the feedback, are friends, family, or even acquaintances really the best target audience? What are the odds of your mom or your best friend being totally honest and telling you your idea sucks? I bet not very high. In fact, the best and most honest audience would be one composed exclusively of people that don’t know you at all and therefore have nothing to either lose or gain from telling you the truth.
So what if there was a way in which you could get your idea out to the world, to the right people (no matter if they’re in Brussels, Bangkok, or New York), so you can get the feedback you really need?
Well, in fact, these days there’s a surprisingly simple way to do just that. All you gotta do is set aside $10 (could be less or more depending on the amount of feedback you want), create a Facebook Post, and use the “Boost Post” option to deliver your newly cooked idea to your preferred audience.
I know it sounds simple, and it is. But most people won’t take the necessary action to do it. So if you wanna get serious about finally starting to bring your ideas to life, no matter how big or small they are, here are 5 easy steps you can follow and implement right now:
1. Create a Facebook Page (1 min)
Here I would suggest creating a “Public Figure” page.
I recommend this simply because you’ll be able to run any kind of experiment through it since the page is basically you as a person, not a specific company or product. (And there’s always the chance of one of your boosted posts going viral and creating you a personal brand over-night.)
You can use any other type of page though, your choice. Either way, it won’t take more than a minute.
And don’t worry about having 0 page likes, you won’t need any fans for this particular experiment.
2. Create a Facebook Ads Account (1 min)
Ok, here all you have to do is:
- Go to facebook.com/ads
- Click “Create Avert”
- Facebook will then guide you through creating your account
- The only real thing to do here is adding a preferred payment method
3. Create your “Idea Validation Post” (5 min)
This part will totally depend on what type of idea you’re looking to test.
Now, although it doesn’t fit all purposes, one obvious option is to simply create a survey, which will provide you with direct feedback.
Here’s how you can do that:
- Go to Typeform.com
- Click “Get started free”
- Choose an adequate template (or start from scratch)
- Think of no more than 5 questions and write them in sequence
- Then just get the link to your survey and post it on your newly created page!
(I recommend Typeform here but any other survey software like SurveyMonkey will work just as fine)
If a survey is not fit for you, think of what would be:
For example, are you testing an idea for a marketing campaign? Then just represent it in a simple post on your existing business page and run it to a limited number of customers as an ad for about $10 and see how they respond.
There are endless possibilities or approaches here, I’m sure you’ll be able to come up with the one that works best for you!
Once you do, just put it in a Facebook post and publish it on your page.
4. Boost Your “Idea Validation Post” (3 min)
After clicking the “Boost Post” button on the right down corner of your post, there’s really only 2 things to do:
1 — Define your Budget (again, $10 will usually do the job but it could be as low as $5 or as high as $5.000.000 — your call)
2 — Define your Audience
Who’s your idea going to appeal to? Is it a fantasy/adventure book series? Then consider targeting Lord Of The Rings fans (I promise I’ll give you honest feedback!)
Is it a new and improved dating app? What about targeting Tinder fans?
You get the idea. Just figure out who it will appeal to and make sure you’re targeting those exact people.
Here are the targeting options you’ll be presented with:
- Gender
- Age Range
- Locations
- Demographics, interests or behaviors
At this point you’re pretty much done. All that’s left to do is…
5. Hit “Boost” and Wait for the next move (1 sec)
Now prepare for the eventuality of very positive feedback and start thinking of ways in which you will implement your idea, because from there on it’s all a matter of execution (and that’s the hardest part!). But the odds are against you, so always be ready to get bad feedback and move on to the next thing.
If you think of 10 ideas every day you’ll have 3650 at the end of a year. Most will be bad, a few will be good, maybe one will be brilliant. One is all you need to change your life.
And don’t worry about people stealing your idea. Even though everyone will at one point or another experience that fear — by the law of averages, it won’t happen. It’s always better to get feedback on an idea before starting to implement it.
And remember, no matter what happens — on a macro level — the world is always better today than it was yesterday, no matter how hard the headlines try to trick you into believing otherwise.
Connect further
You can reach me at joaoabrantes.04@gmail.com or connect on LinkedIn!
