I previous ran a Google Ads experiment for ArtsyPetz and the results weren't exactly great. So for the past week I've ran a Meta Ads campaign and the results are a lot more promising.

Also, I've been exploring a data-as-a-service company to put my professional data skills to use and hopefully make some money.

Also also, I got sick of wasting time of YouTube so I built a tool that helps me see what a video is about without having to watch the whole thing.

ArtsyPetz on Instagram: The Clicks Are There, The Sales Aren't

In the moment, Google Ads felt like weird choice for ArtsyPetz but I only did it because I thought that is what other people do.

Honestly, I'm happy that that particular experiment didn't turn out great because it pointed me over to Meta Ads which had better results.

ArtsyPetz is very much a visual product and Instagram/Facebook are visual platforms.

So I created an ads campaign only for the framed portrait that I offer. And when I say those ads were minimal, I mean minimal. I wasn't concerned about making a great ad for my first try. I was focused on seeing what kind of traffic I can get with ads that can accurately be described as "meh." See for yourself:

Like I mentioned before, the results were pretty great. I ended up with 243 link clicks for $0.24/click. That's way less than what I paid for Google Ads!

And here's some interesting details around the demographics and platform. Apparently by biggest demos is younger men and older women! Plus my suspicion that ArtsyPetz would resonate on a visual platform like Instagram was right because the majority of my clicks came from there.

So let's look at the analytics from Plausible…

Clearly, nobody converted. That's ok!

…kinda.

So obviously it would have been nice to have conversions but the fact that people clicked on the ads means there is some kind of interest in ArtsyPetz from Instagram/Facebook users.

The vast majority of the visitors clicked on the link, got to the page where you can order a framed portrait, and said "adiós." I see two possible issues for the page.

First, the pricing is too low. Pricing implies value and people might see the low price and assume the product isn't that good. I know other companies are charging $100+ for the same thing I'm selling for $45.

Second, I'm not being explicit enough on the product page. Visitors might not be understanding what they're getting or how it works. To me, it's clear. But hey, I built the damn thing. And it doesn't matter what I think. It only matters what the visitors experience. So I might need to add more example images and explicit copy. In other words, I'm letting visitors make up their own mind and they end up leaving. I should be stepping in to hold their hand along the process and that hand holding comes in the form of exciting product images and crystal-clear copy.

I'm going to make those updates and I'll report back with results. 🫡

What If I Actually Used My Day Job Skills?

I'm a data engineer with a master's in data science. I know a thing or two about data. Yet, I've been struggling with how to use those skills in entrepreneurship. Companies pay a lot of money for data engineers so the market is clearly signaling that I can provide value. But I got frustrated with how to make a separate business out of those and, to be honest, I kind of gave up on trying to figure it out.

Recently, I came up with an idea to test out to leverage those skills in a business: data-as-a-service.

This is a big industry and there's a lot of money being spent on it.

So my (very rough) idea has been to create a data-as-a-service business that helps medical device companies find super high-value prospects for their sales pipelines.

I landed on this because I've basically been working with healthcare or healthcare-adjacent data for my whole career and I know there is a need for this. Better yet, I know that medical device companies pay for this. So I want to see if I can meet that demand myself.

This is very early stages but it's also exciting to see a space for the intersection of my data skills and market need.

Stop Watching, Start Scanning

Last, let's talk about YouTube.

I genuinely love it.

I also love my time.

A problem I have had for a while: there are a ton of YouTube videos that looks super interesting and I could learn a lot from but there is no possibly way I would watch 10% of them in their entirely.

This has been bugging me for a while so I just ignored it.

The other day I got annoyed enough to built a small tool to solve the problem.

And here it is!

It's simple because…I'm simple lol.

You put in the URL of a YouTube video that you're interested in watching.

Then some magic happens and you end up with an executive summary that you read to see if the video is worth your time.

And if you want more detail, you can read the detailed summary which is very detailed. That way, you get extract the value from the video without having to sacrifice so much of your time.

So far, the tool has been awesome and helps me consume a bunch of interesting content without wasting hours each week.

Bouncing Between "Useless" and "Awesome"

Going through multiple ad campaigns and having only 1 conversion is tough. It's hard not to be bummed out. I'm also equally interested because each of these weird little steps gives me some clarity on what direction to head into. So now I know people are interested and I need to my website to help convert them.

Also, it feels good to see a play for data-as-a-service and to build a tool. I go through phases of "my tech skills are useless" and "my tech skills are awesome." I'm bouncing between the two right now.

On to the next week.