December 31, 2025
How do you know if you’re ready to run ads? Judy recently reshared a post that said, in short, if you’re already successful running an online business and posting on social media, imagine how much more successful you’d be with ads. Then she added some client wins. One client posted about 8% less that month because of the holidays and saw 200% more reach and 300% more followers, all tied to ads. Judy’s DMs filled up with the same question: “How do I know if I’m ready to run ads?”
In this end-of-year episode of Bringing Simplicity Unfiltered, Judy and Greta share exactly what they use to evaluate it. If you’ve been considering ads, or tried them before (with an agency or on your own) and they didn’t work, this is for you. Their goal isn’t to take your money. It’s for you to be profitable with ads.
Greta believes anyone could start running ads. There’s no “right” time. You might assume you need a large following (to them, that’s 3K+ Instagram followers), but Bringing Simplicity runs ads without 3K followers, and people in the Simplicity Ad System with very small followings have used reach and follower ads to grow.
So this checklist is really about whether you’re ready to pay us, or another marketing agency, to manage your ads. Learning the basics like reach and follower ads early is a great way to kickstart your account, and it makes you a smarter buyer when you do choose an agency.
When we don’t take someone on, it has nothing to do with our availability. It’s 100% about whether they’re ready.
“Consistently” means different things to different people, and we’ve all been told to post two or three times a day on every platform. For us, it means two to three times a week, on one main platform (usually Instagram and Facebook), within the last 60 days.
“But I did that two years ago.” Wonderful. We’ll schedule a follow-up meeting in 30 days. Go do it for the next 30 days, then we’ll talk about what running ads looks like.
Some people run ads precisely so they can post less, and that’s fair. Our client who posted 8% less in December wants exactly that. But when someone sees your ad and clicks your profile, it can’t be dead. You need to build trust and authority and show you’re not going anywhere. If you post once a month, why would anyone believe you’ll show up every week for a live coaching call?
We usually research your social media before a call, so we often already know the answer. We ask anyway, in case there’s another account or a reason, like your business structure is changing. Then the ramp-up just takes longer while we get posting going.
Do you have to have a funnel? Not necessarily. But ideally:
Greta has pulled her favorite elements from 15 years of working with copywriters into a framework for the first week of nurture emails, which we share inside the Simplicity Ad System.
If you don’t have this, you can still run ads. You just shouldn’t hire a marketing agency yet.
Most agencies will offer to write your emails, and marketers can write good copy. But in our experience, it works best when you, or someone on your team who knows your product inside and out (maybe your sales team), writes them. If someone else writes them, always review them.
An agency needs to look good fast, so its emails often push hard for sales right away. That might not fit your audience. Maybe your demographic needs gentler early emails and a stronger ask later. We dig into the psychology of each client’s buyers and build custom GPTs based on what’s already worked for them and how they write. That’s a framework, not a plug-and-play template.
You need a CRM where your funnel and text messages live, and where we can see how a lead came in, how long they stayed, what they bought, and what they kept buying. We review it before deciding which offers to run ads to.
If a marketing company doesn’t ask about this before you hire them, Judy sees that as a red flag. They’re likely focused on a low cost per lead and not concerned about what happens after the lead comes in. They don’t have to build your funnel, but they should be curious about it.
We love CRMs that can text. We do work with clients who don’t text, if they have a solidly proven offer above a certain threshold. After you sign on, we help build out your CRM and data collection further, including things like time in pipeline.
Our baseline: you’ve sold it at least 10 times. The offer can have evolved. Maybe it started as a $300 Telegram group and became a $2,000 mastermind. What matters is similar outcomes, and that you could easily name 5 to 10 people who’d give a testimonial about a quality experience with you.
Trust is very low right now. Even with a big following, ads aren’t guaranteed. We’ve had clients come to us who spent $50,000 with other agencies, had 20,000+ followers, and didn’t get a single lead. Consistent posting, a proven offer, and real testimonials together are what make you ready to earn trust from a cold audience. Warm audiences already trust you. We get you ready for cold quickly.
This is usually our last question. If you can only take four new clients a month, why run ads? Up your networking game first. If you want reach and follower ads to grow your organic network, don’t pay an agency for that. Enroll in the Simplicity Ad System and we’ll help you set it up.
Once you check these boxes, you have two paths: hire someone like us to run your ads, or learn to do it yourself.
People online say running your own ads is super easy. That’s true, the same way you can change your own oil or do your own bookkeeping. But where do you want to spend your time, energy, and money? When ads start working, you get more leads, more tech issues, and more client experience to protect. One client’s ManyChat stopped firing during a follower campaign, so she messaged about 500 new leads individually that week. Ads break systems, which is why we ask whether you’re ready for more leads.
Greta adds a nuance: reach and follower ads really are easy to run yourself, and we teach them in the Simplicity Ad System (which includes eight weeks of access to us). But lead gen and direct-to-sale ads take serious strategy. She’s spent roughly 1,000 hours getting confident running them. Beyond the basics, hire an expert.
If you’re doing $200K+ organically and want to reach and maintain seven figures, ads make growth more predictable. The fastest way there is someone who knows what they’re doing working alongside you. Our done-for-you clients typically spend just two to five hours a week on what we ask of them.
We look at five things: posting two to three times a week in the last 60 days, a lead magnet with at least 21 days of nurture, a CRM, an offer you’ve sold at least 10 times with testimonials, and capacity to serve more clients.
No. Anyone can start with reach and follower ads, even with a small following. A larger following and the checklist above matter more when you’re paying an agency to manage ads.
It usually works best if you or someone who knows your product deeply writes them, or at least reviews them. Agencies often push for fast sales in ways that may not fit your audience.
Yes, especially reach and follower ads. For lead gen and direct-to-sale campaigns, the strategy gets complex, and hiring an expert is usually worth it.
Book a call and we’ll tell you honestly whether you’re ready for done-for-you ads or the Simplicity Ad System. See our services or reach out to us.
Want more? Watch every episode of Bringing Simplicity Unfiltered on our YouTube channel.
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Bringing Simplicity is a full-service marketing and Meta Ads agency helping established online businesses scale proven offers through paid advertising, stronger systems, and smarter strategy.
