Meta Ads Strategy to Generate Leads with EO QLD Comms Chair Will Swayne
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Hey, it's Will Swain, Marketing Chair of EO Queensland. Franziska's asked me to do a little explainer video of the meta advertising funnel that we're using to generate inbound leads at the moment for the chapter. So, here goes. Please feel free to swipe and deploy anything you like. I'm sure there's lots of ways we can improve this, but it's working quite well so far and might be something that you enjoy.
This is the eoqld.com.au website and you can have an explore to see what's there. There are some sections here for EO membership and EO Accelerator membership, etc., as well as a lead magnet and certain member-centric pieces, partnerships and all that.
We created this landing page at eoqld.com.au/join and we found that was working pretty well. So, we actually redirected this button on the homepage—the "find out more" button—to the landing page. We have a bit of a hero piece here and the opportunity for the prospect to apply now, just requesting minimal information to start with and asking them to self-select their revenue range: the EO range, the EOA range, and the under-EOA range, and apply. It is a self-selection process. We do get people who are selecting the wrong category, but it's a starting point.
This landing page in particular—I'm not completely convinced about the key numbers here. We might do some split testing, but it's working pretty well. Certainly, we talk about the key benefits of EO here, how EO is different from other business owner groups, and we have a few testimonials and some membership options with another call to action to apply now.
The punter will fill in the information and the three radio buttons there will go to one of the three thank you pages. The first thank you page is the EO-membership-thank-you page, and this thanks the person for their interest and encourages them to progress their application by booking a 15-minute fit call with our engagement manager. There's a Calendly booking form here. So that's the EO-membership range. If they hit the middle range, they'll go to a different page. This is managed through Gravity Forms in WordPress. It's a slightly different page, pretty similar but essentially still a booking page. And if they hit that third one, then they'll actually hit this enqueue-thank-you page saying, "Thanks for your interest, but we're not quite right for you yet."
So basically, we have two booking pages, and then if they book on the booking page, they'll go to a booking-thank-you page. We're tracking all these numbers with plausible.io. Plausible is a simpler alternative to Google Analytics. We find it quite good for board-level reporting because it's just simple and clear. I've got some stats up here.
So, in the last 28 days, we had 30 apply but fall into the not-qualified category. We had 21 apply in the 1.5 million plus category. We had 18 apply for EOA. It also allows these little funnels, so we can go to the EOA-to-booking funnel and see that 18 filled in that top form and six requested a call—a fair bit of drop-off. But I’d suggest that one of the reasons why they're not booking is because they realise they're going to be quizzed further and asked about their revenue and things like that.
The EO-to-booking funnel is 21 top line, 13 calls booked. Those calls are then handled by our engagement manager, and they're invited along to a test drive from there.
In terms of the Meta campaigns, we’ve set up an event in Meta—an EOQ inquiry. The definition of that inquiry is just a page view on those thank you pages. So, the key thing there is that if the URL matches "membership-thank-you", then it'll fire the pixel for a conversion. We've actually changed the URL on the contact page anyway, so we don’t get membership inquiries through our contact page. We get them through the apply now page. So "membership-thank-you" is the key phrase. If you go back to our thank you pages, you’ll notice that the EO page has "membership-thank-you", the EOA page has that string, but the NQ page does not have that string—on purpose, as we don't want to train the pixel around trying to get more people who don't qualify. We’re trying to train the pixel around people that hit the revenue ranges we’re interested in.
The campaigns themselves are all pretty straightforward. I'm in the middle of adding some new creative and doing some tweaks, so there are a couple of things that are maybe not launched here, but let's go to the campaign. It's an auction. We've got a daily budget of about 90 at the moment. We have some unspent budget—we're at the moment aiming for about 2000 a month on media on average, but it's a little bit higher at the moment, and that's probably the key thing there.
If we go back to the ad sets, the one that we've been running so far—there's a new one I'm building at the moment—but the one we've been running is this "Queensland business owners" ad set. And if we go down here, it’s conversion on the website, tracking with the EA Queensland pixel, max conversions targeting the EOQ inquiry, we basically don't use any of the automated Facebook creative or targeting options because those are typically more focused on driving revenue for Facebook rather than for you. So we turn all of those off. The targeting we use today is about to change, but I’ll show you what we’re currently doing. It's a broad age range—18 to 65+, all genders—and the targets are quite simple. We use demographics like work employers, founders, business owners, and entrepreneurs. It's very basic, but I’ll show you how we’re enhancing that. Nothing too complex there, and that’s usually enough.
Now let’s look at the ads. We've tested a bunch, but the one working pretty well at the moment—if we look at the last 28 days—has generated 38 inquiries at an average of $69 each. This default ad is placed on the EF Queensland page. It’s a single image ad with a website URL directing straight to the landing page—the join page—with no browser add-ons. The image is of entrepreneurs in Queensland enjoying camaraderie and looking happy and sophisticated.
The primary text reads:
“Business ownership can feel lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. Join the Queensland chapter of Entrepreneur’s Organization and become part of a vibrant community of successful business owners who understand your entrepreneurial journey. Gain access to peer-to-peer learning, executive education, and a support network of fellow business founders who are on the same growth journey as you. Click here to explore EO and apply now.”
Then there’s the URL. Facebook suggests other versions, but I haven’t chosen any of those.That’s about it in terms of what we’re about to start launching. I won’t go into it in too much detail, but we’re planning to change up the targeting and also test more ad creatives now that we have a better idea of what’s working. As part of that testing, we've made adjustments to the audience: narrowing the age range to 28 to 56, limiting the location to Queensland, all genders, and diving deeper into targeting.
We’ve added key demographics focused on business owners, founders, executive directors, owner-managers, CEOs, co-founders, COOs—just casting a broader net around relevant titles. This will give us a pretty wide audience, and then we’ll let the creatives and pixel optimisation do their work.
If you're just getting started with funnels, my recommendation is to get a landing page up and running like the one we've used. You can swipe and deploy it, maybe update it with some images from your own chapter. From a targeting perspective, you could start with the basic setup we discussed. Use the same copy and just update the photo with something from your chapter. Over time, we’ve tested different ad creatives too, which you can do as well.
It’d be great to compare notes and see what’s working, because I imagine things that work in Queensland will likely work in New South Wales, Victoria, WA, Adelaide, or elsewhere. I’m definitely interested in your feedback. If you come up with any great solutions, let us know—we’re looking forward to hopefully creating some great results together. Thank you!
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Manual Over Automated Targeting: The team avoids using Facebook’s automated targeting and creative options as these typically serve Facebook's interests more than the advertiser’s.
Current Targeting Strategy:
Broad targeting: ages 18–65+, all genders.
Simple demographic filters: job titles like business owners, founders, and entrepreneurs.
Targeting is about to be refined for better results.
Ad Performance:
A default ad placed on the EF Queensland page is performing well.
In the last 28 days, it generated 38 inquiries at an average cost of $69 per lead.
Ad Creative Details:
A single image of happy, sophisticated entrepreneurs from Queensland.
Simple and relatable copy focusing on overcoming loneliness in business and highlighting EO’s value.
Straightforward call-to-action directing to the chapter’s join page.
Planned Improvements:
Updating audience targeting to be more refined (e.g., age 28–56, Queensland only).
Deeper targeting based on job titles (CEO, founder, director, etc.).
More ad creatives will be tested based on early performance data.
Recommendation for Other Chapters:
Set up a similar landing page and use chapter-specific images.
Start with basic targeting and copy, then test creatives over time.
Sharing insights across chapters is encouraged for better collective results.
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1. Set Up Your Landing Page
Create or clone a landing page similar to EO Queensland’s “Join” page.
Add compelling, high-quality images of members from your own chapter.
Ensure the page has a clear call to action to apply or inquire.
2. Create Your Ad Creative
Use a single image featuring happy, sophisticated entrepreneurs (preferably from your region).
Write primary text focused on:
The loneliness of business ownership
Benefits of joining EO (community, education, peer support)
Call-to-action to explore EO and apply
Avoid using Facebook’s suggested creative options or multiple versions.
3. Initial Targeting Setup
Set age range to 18–65+
Select all genders
Use basic demographic targeting:
Job titles: business owner, entrepreneur, founder
Employers or industries as relevant
4. Ad Placement
Publish the ad under your local EO chapter’s Facebook page.
Link directly to the landing page you created.
5. Launch and Monitor Campaign
Monitor ad performance (e.g., cost per inquiry, click-through rate)
Keep note of top-performing creatives.
6. Optimise Targeting (Advanced)
Adjust audience to 28–56 years old
Refine location targeting to your specific region (e.g., Queensland)
Expand job titles and interests:
CEO, founder, executive director, owner, manager, co-founder, COO
Keep targeting broad enough for Facebook’s pixel to optimise.
7. Test New Creatives
Develop variations of ad copy and imagery.
A/B test to see what resonates best with your audience.
8. Collaborate and Share Learnings
Share what’s working with other chapters.
Learn from others’ results to improve your own campaigns.