Facebook advertising has become an increasingly popular way for people to make money on the side. With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers a huge potential audience for businesses to connect with. While Facebook ads can be profitable, it does require knowledge, skill, and effort to generate a good return on investment. In this article, we’ll look at the pros and cons of using Facebook ads as a side hustle to help you decide if it’s right for you.
The potential of Facebook ads
Here are some of the advantages of getting into Facebook ads as a side business:
- Huge audience – With billions of users, Facebook offers access to people all over the world. You can target very specific demographics and interests to find customers for almost any type of business.
- Relatively low cost – Facebook ads can cost as little as $1 per day when starting out. The minimum spend is low so it’s accessible even if you have a limited budget.
- Easy to analyze – The Facebook Ads Manager provides detailed analytics on your ad performance. You can see which ads are working and optimize accordingly.
- Various ad formats – In addition to standard text and image ads, Facebook offers video, carousel, collection, and other ad types. This allows you to create more engaging content.
- Retargeting options – Pixel technology lets you track visitors and re-engage them with customized ads as they browse the web.
The massive reach, detailed targeting, and optimization features give Facebook ads huge money-making potential. Many people have been able to turn it into a very profitable side business.
Challenges of Facebook ads
However, it’s not as simple as just setting up an ad and watching the profits roll in. Here are some of the challenges to contend with:
- Lots of competition – With so many advertisers, competition is fierce to capture attention and clicks. Standing out requires smart targeting and compelling creative.
- Narrow targeting can limit reach – While you can zero in on specific demographics, going too narrow may shrink your audience significantly.
- Ad fatigue – People tend to tune out ads after seeing too many. Avoiding ad blindness requires constantly testing new creative.
- Bidding for clicks – Most ads are auction-based, meaning you have to bid competitively for each click. Costs can add up quickly.
- Time and effort required – To see success, you’ll need to constantly monitor, optimize, and evolve your ad campaigns. It takes real work.
Simply creating an ad or two won’t bring in significant money. It takes skill and effort to craft campaigns that convert. And Facebook advertising rules are always changing, so you have to keep up.
Skills and knowledge needed
To have success with Facebook ads, you’ll need to develop skills in areas like:
- Copywriting – Writing compelling ad copy that captures attention and interest.
- Graphic design – Designing visuals and creatives that get people to stop scrolling.
- Audience targeting – Finding and defining your target demographics and lookalike audiences.
- Bid management – Developing bidding strategies to keep cost per click/conversion low.
- Campaign optimization – Analyzing data to identify high-performing ads and killing underperformers.
- Pixel tracking – Implementing Facebook pixel to track conversions from your ads.
- Testing – A/B testing ad creative, audiences, placements, and other elements to improve performance.
- Video production – If doing video ads, you’ll need video creation and editing skills.
Some experience with online marketing principles like funnels and sales funnels is also very helpful. You can develop all these skills, but expect a significant learning curve when first getting started.
Types of services you can offer
Once you build expertise with Facebook ads, some services you can offer clients include:
- Ad management – Design, run, monitor and optimize campaigns end-to-end.
- Audience building – Help brands identify and build custom audiences to target.
- Creative design – Create compelling ad copy, images, video and other assets.
- Pixel implementation – Install Facebook pixel and integrate it with other tracking tools.
- Reporting & analysis – Prepare detailed reports on ad performance and suggestions for improvements.
- Retargeting setup – Help brands reach and re-engage past visitors to their site.
- Funnel optimization – Improve the conversion rate through the entire sales funnel.
Offering a specialty service like video ad production or conversion optimization can be very lucrative. But most clients will want support with the full ad management process.
How much money can you make?
Income potential with Facebook ads depends on:
- Your skill level
- The niche and services you offer
- How many clients/accounts you handle
- Your rates and fees
For example, an independent consultant could charge clients:
- $500 – $1,000 per month to manage a small ad account
- $2,000 – $4,000 per month for a medium-sized account
- $5,000+ for larger monthly ad budgets
Agencies often mark up the base management fee significantly. Some caso studies to consider:
- An agency generating $300,000 in annual ad spend across 12 clients could earn over $100,000 at a 25% management fee.
- A freelancer billing $60 per hour, working 10 hours per week for 10 clients could earn $30,000 per year.
- A specialist running 3 video ad campaigns with $50,000 budgets could charge $8,000 – $10,000 per campaign.
With multiple clients and services, six-figure earnings are possible, but take time to build up experience and your client base. Keep in mind you may need to reinvest profits into things like software, courses, and contractors to scale.
Pros of Facebook ads as a side hustle
Some pros of pursuing Facebook ads as side income include:
- Relatively low startup costs – You can get started for less than $100 in most cases.
- Work from home – Everything can be done remotely via a laptop and wifi.
- Flexible schedule – You control when and how often you work.
- Scalable – You can grow income by taking on more clients.
- High demand – Most businesses recognize the power of Facebook ads.
- Employable skills – Facebook/digital ad skills are highly sought after.
- Creative work – Coming up with compelling ads leverages creativity.
The combination of low overhead, location flexibility, growth potential and useful skills make Facebook ads an appealing side business idea for many people.
Cons to be aware of
Some potential downsides to keep in mind:
- Very competitive – Standing out from other Facebook advertisers is difficult.
- Significant learning curve – You’ll need to invest time developing specialized skills.
- Unpredictable income – Earnings depend heavily on client ad performance.
- Account restrictions – Overoptimization can jeopardize ad accounts.
- Constantly changing – You have to stay on top of Facebook’s frequent algorithm and policy updates.
- Frustrating clients – Some clients have unrealistic expectations around leads/sales.
- Manual work – While there are tools to aid efficiency, the work is largely unautomated.
Jumping into Facebook ads without proper training or support can lead to you spending a lot of money with little return. Patience and persistence are vital.
Getting started tips
Follow this advice to start off on the right foot:
- Take social media marketing courses to understand the foundations.
- Study Facebook Blueprint guides and certification.
- Experiment with a personal or business account to get first-hand experience.
- Build a portfolio of successful ads and campaigns.
- Learn tracking and analytics tools like Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, etc.
- Develop your positioning and offerings for ideal target clients.
- Consider an internship or mentorship from an experienced ad manager.
- Network and pitch local businesses on a free trial of your services.
Investing the time to learn the ropes before taking on clients is highly recommended. Find a niche you’re passionate about to make the work enjoyable long-term.
Is Facebook ads worth it as a side hustle?
At the end of the day, whether Facebook ads are a viable side hustle for you depends on your goals and circumstances. For the right person, it can absolutely be a profitable business that allows you to work from anywhere. But it does require real dedication and effort to develop expertise and consistently deliver results.
The potential is certainly there, especially if you specialize in a high-value area like lead generation or video ads. However, you need reasonable expectations around the workload and likely timeline to profitability. For many, it may make more sense as a side income initially rather than leaping into full-time. Test the waters and see if you have the skills and passion for this business model before diving all the way in.