63: Why Your Skool Ads Aren't Working (And What to Do Instead)

Stacy Covitz explains why running Facebook ads directly to a Skool community page often fails: cold audiences click an ad and immediately face account creation, creating too much friction before they know or trust the community. 

She notes ads can work better for free communities because the commitment is low, but sending cold traffic to a paid tier is especially difficult because it asks strangers to create an account and provide a credit card. 

Covitz recommends warming prospects first through brand awareness by running ads to a free community, delivering value, and then inviting engaged members to upgrade to the paid tier as a natural next step. 

She previews a future episode on ads that work for warm audiences and references Evelyn Weiss as a technical Skool ads resource.

00:00 Welcome and Series Focus
00:34 Why Ads to School Fail
01:22 Friction Kills Conversions
02:24 Free vs Paid Communities
03:38 Warm Up Funnel Strategy
04:33 Bucket Method Recap
05:02 Next Steps and Resources

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Transcript

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FAQT: 63

[00:00:00] Hey my friends. Welcome back to Facebook Ads. Quick tips. My name is Stacy Covitz, your host, and over the next few episodes, I'm going to be talking about Facebook ads for Skool communities. , This could also relate to running ads, to memberships or other groups.

It, it's the same strategy. So thank you so much for being here, and if this is your first time, I really appreciate it. So let's just get right into it.

I'm kicking it off with something people don't really talk about. And that's why running ads directly to your school community, so directly to the school page is probably not working the way you think it should. So let's get into that. Here's what happens when most Skool community owners run their first ad.[00:01:00] 

They set it up, they're excited, and they send cold traffic straight to their page, and almost nobody joins. And then they think, oh, the ad is broken, or the creative is wrong. Meta doesn't like me, meta doesn't work. But here's probably the real situation. It's not the ad, it's the friction. And friction is one of those marketing terms that's going around a lot right now.

But when someone has never heard of you and clicks on your ad, and then they land on a school page, especially if they don't know what school is and they've never seen it or heard of it, the very first thing that they're asked to do is create an account. Yeah, before they've seen anything be before, they trust you, before they know you, before they know what they're signing up for, and [00:02:00] that's where you lose them.

Cold traffic and a forced account creation are not a great combination. People leave and your ad budget just goes down the drain. It, it goes with what I've been talking about, which is the brand awareness, right? Sending, sending ads to cold audiences and asking them to do something..

So how about a paid versus a free community? Here's where it gets a little bit interesting, because this isn't a. Ads don't work for Skool situation. It depends on what you're sending people to. For a free community, ads can work reasonably well.

The barrier is low. It's free. So if they click and you're asking them to create a free account, there's no money that you're asking for. It's a low commitment. The [00:03:00] friction is annoying, but not as bad as if you're asking them to join a paid community.

So that's, that's the community that is really the struggle is a paid community to cold traffic, or let's reverse that cold traffic to a paid community. You're asking a stranger to create an account and give you their credit card for the first time. They've ever seen you. And that's a big ask, and most people aren't going to do that.

So if you're running ads straight to your paid Skool tier and wondering why no one's converting, that's probably why. So, okay, so what do you do? What do you do instead? Again, warm them up first. This is the same thing I've been talking about for months, which is brand awareness, and it applies perfectly here.

You don't wanna walk up to a stranger and ask them to marry you . You build trust first, right? [00:04:00] For school, specifically, the smartest funnel, are add to a free community. Then invite warm members into the paid tier after they've experienced who you are and you've, you've given them value.

They know you, they trust you. And then the paid upgrade feels like a natural next step, not a cold ask Now. Does that sound familiar? It's the bucket method applied to Skool. to wrap up, here's, here's what's going on and what to do instead. We're having a friction problem, we're having a . Asking someone who has never seen you or met you to not only opt in and join something, but pay and what to do instead. Okay? So start with your free community, warm them [00:05:00] up,

and then it's a natural next step.

Next episode I'm gonna talk about the actual ads that work. Once you have that warm audience and they're simpler than you think. If you want more technical step-by-step, set up , look up  Evelyn Weiss. I'll put her name in the show notes. She is the Skool ads expert and guru, and her content is really great.

So with that, I thank you so much for listening and I'll see you next time.