Until 2014, like many of the people I review, I was working in a corporate job from 9 to 5.

Not only was it soul-crushing, but it didn't give me any time to pursue my bigger goals.

I tried everything to get out of the grind: Amazon FBA, eCommerce, FB Ads, but nothing worked for me.

That was until I discovered a method to rank sites organically, generating free leads for my clients.

That website you see above, for the tree care company, I created that site in 2015, and since then I haven't had to touch or update it:

It has gained me a passive income of $2000 a month.

That's more than $100,000 for one site, in 5 years.

That's the magic of the Lead Generation business, it's by far the best model to generate passive income. If you want to know more, just hop over here!

Module 1: Mastering the FB Ads Foundations.

If you thought Module 1 was going to be another of those mindset fluffy fillers, think again.

In this module you’ll discover the “must know” Facebook ad foundations.

You’ll learn everything you need to do to give your ads the absolute best chance of winning from day one.

My main takeways were 2 in particular.

The first one was the 15 myths about Facebook advertising we should get over.

It's pretty reassuring when someone who spent more than $100M on FB Ads dismantles some myths.

Here they are, in no particular order.

• “I’ve tried this before, it doesn’t work for me.”
• “What works for the “big guys” won’t work for me.”
• My business/niche is different.
• My audience isn’t on Facebook.
• Facebook is not effective for B2B.
• My page/following isn’t big enough to run ads.
• Facebook ads are too expensive.
• Boosting posts is the same as running ads.
• It’s best to target a very narrow audience.
• Instagram is only advertising to young people.
• Facebook is only valuable for “bottom of funnel” marketing.
• Turning your ads on and off helps performance.
• Users will not convert on a Facebook ad the first time they see it.
• Videos are always better than images.
• Facebook is changing so quickly… your info is already outdated.

Another fundamental aspect of the first module is the explanation of all the FB ad talk used throughout the course.

Some, you may be familiar with, but it's always good to brush up on it!

Some are a bit more technical, so thanks Nick for coming in our aid:

• ULPV - Unique Landing Page View - The number of consumers who made it to your landing page.
• UCPLV - Unique Cost Per Landing Page View - The average cost per each landing page visit.
• UATC - Unique Add To Cart - The first step in the checkout process.12. UCPATC - Unique Cost Per Add to Cart.
• UIC - Unique Initiate Check Out - The second step in the checkout process.
• UCPIC - Unique Cost Per Check Out Initiated.
• UP - Unique Purchase.16. CPUP - Cost Per Unique Purchase.
• CPA - Cost Per Acquisition - Cost Per Result - Cost Per (Enter you goal).
• ROAS - Return On Ad Spend - The money you receive derived from spending on advertising.
• PCV - Purchase Conversion Value - The revenue seen from Facebook specific purchases.
  

Module 2: Finding Your Target Clients.

With module 2 you're already in the meat and potatoes of the course.

This is all of about the prospecting end of the funnel, the top bit.

Most of your cash will be spent there, circa 60%, so you can find your ideal clients.

This is where you’ll master not only driving traffic, but driving the right kind of traffic!

Since this will also impact the quality of your clients further down the funnel, you have to be extra careful here.

This prospecting aspect is fundamental:

You need to understand your customer’s journey and how they go from cold “prospect” to warm “lead” to piping hot “buyer.”

The phases of prospecting are mainly 4:

1. Interest-Based Audiences: targeting people based on their interests and behaviors in your category, which means a higher likelihood that they will be interested in your product or service.
   
2. “Lookalike Audience”: a custom audience that includes all potential customers who LOOK LIKE a given group. It’s an effective way to widen your audience and reach more potential customers, especially when you have a smaller following or customer base to start with.
3. Broad Audiences: fine to use, and you can get more granular from there as you gather learnings.
4. Exclusions: for example, people who have already visited your website and purchased from you recently (and are unlikely to purchase from you again so quickly).

By going for these 3+1 different kind of broad audiences, you can begin testing and checking out what works better and what doesn't. 

Throughout the course Nick goes through some of his most iconic ads.

He then breaks them down and focuses on the subject at hand.

How he got the right audience, in this case.

There are also excel documents to calculate ROAS, different audiences to target.

Nothing is left to chance in this course.

By the end of this module, you will have learned how to find your top-of-the-funnel audience and will be ready to go!

Module 3: Middle of the Funnel.

This module is all about Re-engagement.

In this module, you'll walk through the next part of the funnel — the “middle of funnel”

You'll be bringing your prospects a little bit closer to purchase.

This is where you warm them up, and bring them a little bit closer to purchase.

You should be spending about 10-20% of your time, budget, and creative energy on Re-Engagement ads.

The ad campaigns aren't structurally different from the previous prospecting one.

The main differences are your Audiences, the Copy, the Timing and the Campaign Structures.

Re-engagement targets usually include:

• Instagram engagers (past 365 days)
• Facebook engagers (past 365 days)
• Video viewers (past 365 days)
  

These are people who were clearly interested in something you showed them, but didn’t quite have the motivation to purchase from you just yet.

You have another chance to expose them to your product/service through Re-Engagement campaigns, and bring them a little bit closer to converting.

They’ve already seen one or more of your Prospecting ads, so they are aware of you.

They may have even engaged with one of your Facebook Ads, watched your video, or followed you on Instagram.

Module 4: Bottom of the Funnel.

You're now at the very bottom of the funnel.

These people are even more familiar with you.

They’ve seen your ads.

They’ve even taken some kind of action, whether that’s clicking your ad, shopping on your site (but not buying), or some other event that shows high intent.

They just need that little push over the edge, which requires unique ads, right?

At this point of the funnel you will be able to use DPA, or dynamic product ads.

The potential customer knows about you and your product, he's so close.

DPA campaigns pull content automatically from your product/service pages to show people custom messaging based on their Pixel behavior.

DPA allows you to show them another Remarketing Ad displaying the exact product/service they were looking at.

This way you have another chance to convince them to buy.

Remarketing also has its own microfunnel:

At this point, there are different tactics you can use:

• Build FOMO — Fear of missing out is a powerful psychological trigger.
• Inject scarcity / urgency — e.g. “It’s nearly gone...” , “Time’s running out” , or “Only a few seats left.”
• Same creative, new copy — repurpose existing creative assets, like a video clip or image of your product being used.
• Message match — Make sure your messaging lines up from ad to landing page, otherwise people will bounce.
• Clear, timely CTA: if you’re running ads around a holiday or specific sale event, make sure to be clear about this in your copy.
• Leverage UGC — User Generated Content is a very powerful social proof technique, especially when it’s authentic.
  

There's no way they're not going to buy at this point!

You've basically done all of the work for them.

Module 5: Ad Creative That Converts.

So you've gone through the theory.

Now it's time to get your hands dirty and learn how to write killer copy.

Luckily, Nick is one of the best in the world, so you're in good hands.

Nick writes down what you actually need in an ad creative:

• Angle / Idea
• Hook (first 3 seconds)
• Problem Setup
• Present Solution
• Social Proof / Validation
• Big Promise / Benefits
• Objection Handling
• Call to Action (CTA)

This division of all you need to do in your creative is pretty priceless.

This is what all of Nick's ads are made of.

One of the most important aspects Nick really focuses on is that of congruence:

You should match what you say in the ad with what is written on your landing page.

You want to create a cohesive customer journey that carries them smoothly through your funnel, and make it easy on them.

If you have a negative experience that doesn’t make sense for your consumer, or a high bounce rate (the person clicked away from your page right after landing), Facebook will begin to dock your score and negatively view your user experience.

This leads to things like disapproved ads and higher costs.

Always make your style congruent throughout your writing gigs.

People will like that, resonate with you, and then be more likely to buy.

Module 6: Avoiding Costly Mistakes

By the end of this module, you’ll have the confidence and troubleshooting framework to dive in and solve any problem that arises.

You’ll be equipped with a proven framework on how to approach any ad issues or problems that can pop-up on your journey.

And, knowing Facebook, and the way accounts are shut quite arbitrarily, I feel that this is the most useful module out of the whole course.

This module will answer questions like:

• Where do you even look when something goes wrong? (and something always goes wrongwith Facebook)
• Is it a traffic problem, or a conversion problem?
• Why are my Ads getting disapproved by Facebook?
• Is it the Ad itself, or my Website, or my Facebook Page?

Nick dives into the 6 most common roadblocks and how to fix them:

• Overspending of an Ad Set
  
• Underspending of an Ad Set
  
• Target Cost Campaign won't spend
  
• Exported list from Shopify incompatibility
  
• Not knowing what budget to start with
  
• How to scale your budget without upsetting FB
  

This is frankly a godsend, especially for those who are just starting out.

You can get shut down from FB but not get told why, so it's great to have a pro on your side.

But by far the best part of the module, and maybe of the course, is another one.

It's the MGD method, which has allowed Nick to become a millionaire.

As Nick says: 'The difference between a successful and unsuccessful Facebook marketer is their confidence to make decisions and to take advantage of what the data is giving you'.

The 'MGD Method' stands for 'how to Make Good Decisions!'

According to Nick, when you leverage this lesson and the template we’ve provided, you can effectively make better decisions on the fly.

That will allow you stay in complete control of your ad spend even when scaling, and never light money on fire again. 

In order to do this you are provide with a Correlations Template.

All you have to do is to fill it in with your stats, and the numbers will do the talking.

Through the MGD method, you will be able to:

• Cut the Ad if it’s not working 
• Apply more budget to an Ad that’s working
• Eliminate guesswork in your Ad Account
  

Sometimes, knowing exactly when to do the right thing will save your butt from overspending.

Bonus Module: 6 Hardcore Bonuses

You know when you get bonus modules in courses and you just know they are going to be complete fluff?

This is definitely no the case for this Foundr course.

Boy they really went all out on this one, and they are keeping the course current by adding new material regularly.

For example, since the iOS 14 update, people can opt out of FB capturing lots of their details.

This has caused concern in the Feb/March 2021 period in the course FB group.

Nick then proceeded to do a 2 hour video to add to the course addressing this very issue!

The actual bonuses you get are 6:

• The FB community (where Nick is surprisingly active).
  
• A 2 for 1 license, which means your partner can run the course to.
  
• Nick's most successful ads in png or video file, for your consumption.
  
• The Agency Replacer Toolkit, to help you save the $$$ for your ad spend only.
  
• Tried and True Spreadsheet calculators (a frickin' godsend).
  
• How to find free money by using delayed attributions.
  

But this is not all!

Recently a bonus module has been added on the topics of:

• Intro to Scaling.
  
• Scaling Vertically.
  
• Scaling Horizontally.
  
• Your Scaling Questions, Answered.
  

I swear, the course just keeps getting better and better as time goes by.

The Final Verdict: The Good & The Bad

So at the beginning of the review I promised to go over the main questions you guys were probably going to ask.

In my opinion, this is the best FB Ad course I've seen out there, so far.

It really takes you from complete noob to ad pro, and you can take your time to learn.

Nick and other experts in the FB Ad group have achieved ridiculous results, like 30x ROAS in some case.

The course promises to teach you the basics of FB Ads and then how to scale to success.

Frankly, the amount of screenshots I've seen in the group have been pretty astounding.

A lot of people, and I mean a lot, have had huge success with this course.

And you guys know what I think about paid ads, but I'm just being honest here.

Nick Shackelford is definitely not a scam.

The dude has spent over $100M on FB Ads and has obviously made insane profits.

He's worked for the rich and famous, massive brands, startups, and has always brought home the results.

The course is $997, but you can buy it in 3 installments of $397 if you like.

If that is what you are really into, I'd say it's worth it.