Ads are a great way to automate your output, but automation is just the beginning.

Yes, an effective campaign allows you to put your growth on autopilot so you can spend more of your time doing the things that only you can uniquely do for your business.

But ignoring your ads completely can ultimately work against you.

Advertising is just the first step in the process.

Once our ads are live, it’s time to turn our attention toward maximizing engagement and communicating the benefits of our offer.

Fortunately, it’s a simple, two-step process.

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Respond to comments

If you run an engaging ad campaign, you will inevitably end up with comments on your posts.

And this is a good thing, even if some of the comments aren’t all that great.

If you want to increase the overall efficacy of your ads (read: building your audience), you’ll want to take the time to respond to every comment if you can.

Now, in my experience, comments fall into one of three categories, each requiring a different type of reply.

First, the positive comments.

These are easy.

Respond to these encouraging comments with sincerity and gratitude—a simple “thank you for taking the time to reply” goes a long way.

You can even respond with a question to keep the conversation flowing.

These types of comments are low-hanging fruit for building new relationships.

And they may even lead to additional engagement via DM or email, so don’t sleep on them.

Second, comments that are just hateful.

You’ll get these.

We all do.

And, unfortunately, the negativity per capita does go up a bit for paid posts vs. organic.

It’s just the nature of the game.

In instances like this, the delete and block features are your friends.

But use them sparingly.

Remember, we want engagement on our content, so reserve this response for users who are just outright nasty and don’t deserve your attention.

At the end of the day, it’s your content and your brand—you have the freedom to remove someone from the conversation.

And third, the critical comments.

These are things people say that aren’t necessarily bad, they’re just… not positive or kind.

However, critical comments are opportunities.

These interactions can lead to a reorientation of opinion (and often not just for the person who wrote the critical comment).

Replying to critical comments positively and constructively allows you to showcase more of your personality and clarify your value proposition.

New users who see your ad after these interactions will have more context about what you do as well as crystal clear examples of who you are and how you respond to adversity.

This is free context that allows your ad to tell a deeper story.

In reality, critical comments can actually become a net positive for you and your business if you can learn to navigate them with kindness and empathy rather than anger and defensiveness.

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Fix your profile

Your social media profile is a sales page.

I don’t care if you’re running ads on Facebook and Instagram or posting organically to X and Threads.

No matter where you are, you need to optimize your profile to communicate your value as an artist, creator, and entrepreneur.

Normally, we like to think of sales pages as web-hosted sites that clarify and inform.

For a saas company, this might look like your home page.

For music, this might look like a multilink.

For e-commerce, it’s likely going to be the product page.

But sometimes we overlook the first sales page most of our audience sees: our profile.

Your profile bio needs to be good.

And more importantly, it needs to be clear.

Now it’s worth mentioning that this will evolve over time, so don’t be afraid to test things as you analyze and learn what works and what doesn’t.

And it will never be finished.

Just make sure you’re doing your best to communicate your “true north” as a value creator.

If you’re an artist, it should be abundantly clear what kind of music you make and what someone can expect from you should they choose to pay attention.

If you’re a creator, be candid about what you have to offer and how you can help.

If you’re selling products, showcase their benefits.

Remember, people only pay attention to things that bring them value, whether that’s entertainment, health, wealth, happiness, or something else.

Whatever it is, the end-user has to benefit if you hope to earn their time and attention.

But it’s not just about the bio.

It’s about the content too.

Even though ads exist outside of organic content, what you post on your profile helps to sell long-term engagement when people find you from your ads.

If you have content on your profile that is old, repetitive, phoned-in, or just irrelevant, it’s not going to help you build a dedicated following of like-minded people.

When someone lands on your profile, they are scanning your bio and glancing at your first few posts.

These things should tell a story about who you are and what you do.

If you can run a good ad, effectively respond to engagement, and build a profile-based environment that delivers a clear value proposition, you will instantaneously stand out amongst the competition and put yourself in a category of one.

Then you can make it even better with time.

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