In-person lectures: revenue from $1,000 to $40,000+ a month

The task

The in-person lecture business started with one format, a team of 4 people and revenue of up to $1,000 a month. Since 2022 I have worked with it as a contractor. I take part in every process of the business, but my main work is marketing, software development, and developing the products and the business.

I do not name the company and do not share details that would help its competitors.

Everything around the ads

Ads bring people in. Whether they buy depends on the website, the payment, the mailings and the analytics, so I build all of it.

• Website. I built it and proposed its design and features, so that buying a ticket is easy and more visitors become buyers.
• Client automation. I automated the payments, the mailings and the reports.
• Admin panel. Monitoring and analytics of the clients and the ads in one place.
• Analytics and SEO. I set up the analytics, optimize the website for search and watch the competitors.
• Products and content. I propose ideas for content, new products and hypotheses. The business launched new products and put my ideas to work.

Facebook and Instagram ads

The main ad channel is Meta Ads: Facebook and Instagram. We tested dozens of approaches and built a strategy that gives a steady result, and we keep testing new combinations to find better ones.

Creatives for each product

The products are similar at the core, but each needs its own approach, so we make creatives for each product separately and vary their formats and styles.

Audiences and Meta updates: Andromeda

We look for audiences and change the settings when Meta updates its ad system. Andromeda, the Meta system that picks which ads each person sees, changed our ads the most. To adapt to it, I changed three things: the number of campaigns, the approach to audience settings, and the variety and formats of the creatives. We improve and scale the ads the same way after every new update.

How I run these ads for other businesses: Facebook and Instagram ads.

Other channels

We tested TikTok, Google, Telegram, media relations, influencers, content and SEO. Meta is still the main source of clients, but its share fell from 80% to 35%: there are more repeat clients, referrals and mailings, and I keep developing SEO and Google Ads. The business now depends less on one channel.

Market analytics

Every month we analyze all the players in the market. For each competitor we count the products, the average ticket price and the average number of clients per event. We add data from people inside the niche to the open data. This is how we estimate our share of the niche market: it grew from under 1% to a steady 25%.

What did not work

• The advice of Meta consultants. They sold new features that did not match the main goals of the company.
• Mass-produced creatives. Even similar products need creatives of their own.
• Big influencers.
• Many settings and ad ideas in Meta. We keep testing and changing them.
• Many platforms, formats and funnels.

What works today stops working sooner or later, so we keep testing.

The result

• Revenue: up to $1,000 a month at the start, now a steady $40,000+.
• Lecture attendees: up to 100 a month at the start, now 2,000.
• Share of the niche market, by our estimate: under 1% at the start, now a steady 25%.
• Products: 1 format at the start, now 200+ formats and venues.
• Team: 4 people at the start, now 10 core employees and 40+ contractors and partners.
• Share of clients from Meta: 80% at the start, now 35%.

This is the result of the whole team. My part is the marketing, the website, the analytics and the automation.

What your business gets from this

• The whole system around the ads: the website, payments, mailings, reports and analytics.
• Facebook and Instagram ads that I keep testing and rebuild when Meta changes the rules.
• Less dependence on one channel: repeat clients, referrals, mailings and SEO.
• Decisions based on data about the ads, the clients and the competitors.