I Spent $800 on Ads, Made $2.92, Then Tried Something Different
How To Get Leads Online in 2026
The first time I ran ads, I burned $800 and made less than $20 back.
That’s a 97.5% loss, which was pretty discouraging. So I thought about my mistakes, made a new plan, and started a new run of ads.
Week 1 of my new ads, I still got nothing. But by Week 2, I had 8 leads at $15 each. By Week 5, I was getting leads at $9.25 each.
Here is exactly what changed and what it cost me to learn it.
Week 1: I ran 4 ads at $5 a day and got zero leads.
For the first week, my goal was to figure out what video I should advertise to get the best results. So I went onto my YouTube channel, picked my top 4 highest viewed YouTube Shorts, and used those.
Next, I tested the four videos as ads on Facebook. Each one got $5/day for 7 days. That is $20 total per day across all four.
The video titles were:
Total spend for the week: $142.86. Total leads: zero.
All of the videos hit over 1,500 views. One got nearly 2,900 ThruPlays. People watched. Some even clicked.
But nobody signed up for my free lead magnet.
When people clicked the “Learn More” button attached to my ad, I sent everyone to a Linktree page. They landed there, filled in their name and email, agreed to receive emails, and downloaded a PDF called “The Guide to Your $100k Skill.”
That sounds reasonable, right?
Wrong.
Here is what I realized.
When someone scrolls Facebook, they feel safe. They know the platform. They trust it. When they click a link and leave Facebook, they enter a different place. That place does not have Facebook’s trust built in.
In hindsight, it didn’t matter how good my PDF was because people never got that far. They already felt curious. But asking them to jump to an entirely different page(the Linktree) to fill out a form introduced just enough friction to kill the conversion.
This was the issue.
Don’t miss our July offer. Unlock everything on our site for 40%, and get a free bonus when you do⬇️
Week 2: I kept the offer and changed the delivery.
To prove whether or not the Linktree was the issue, I tested out two changes for week #2.
Change #1 - In week 1, people would click on my ad and go to a Linktree page. For week 2, I swapped the Linktree for a Facebook Lead Form. Lead forms do the same thing as a Linktree signup. But the form popped up right inside the Facebook app. This meant no extra clicks, no leaving Facebook, and no trust barrier.
In the form, I asked people 3 questions about their skills. They gave me their email, and I sent a personalized assessment afterward.
Change #2 - In week #1, two of the videos clearly outperformed the others. “How to Spend Your Paychecks” and “JOB SECURITY DOESN’T EXIST” got more views and more clicks than the rest.
So I stopped the 2 lower performers. I took that $5 from each and moved it to the winners.
For my new setup, I had 2 ads at $10 per day each instead of 4 ads at $5 per day each. Same total daily budget. Just more concentrated.
The results: By the end of week 2, I had 8 new leads(people who gave me their email in exchange for a skills assessment), and I spent $120.09 to get them(that’s $15.01 per lead).
Of the 2 video ads I used, “JOB SECURITY DOESN’T EXIST” got 5 leads at $11.96 each. The other video got 3 at $20.09 each.
What I Learned in 2 Weeks
The ads worked. The offer worked. The only broken piece was the path from the ad to the lead.
What didn’t work:
Sending people outside Facebook to an unknown page.
Asking for name, email, and agreement before they got anything.
What did work:
Using native Facebook lead forms to keep people on the platform.
Taking budget from losers and putting it into winners.
A clear video that connected with the audience.
Don’t miss our July offer. Unlock everything on our site for 40%, and get a free bonus when you do⬇️