I'm getting ready to list my e-commerce business and I keep seeing ads in passive income Facebook groups. The audience is people who want to make money without working, but my business requires about 15 hours a week from the owner. Is it worth advertising there or am I just going to get a bunch of tire kickers who don't want to put in any effort? I don't want to waste money on ads if the audience is fundamentally wrong. Has anyone tried this?
Marketing
Would you advertise a business in groups for people interested in passive income?
I sold a print-on-demand store to someone from a passive income group about a year ago. It went well, but I was very clear in the ad that it needed 10-12 hours per week and I still had to filter out a lot of people who thought they could just hire a VA and do nothing.
Passive income groups are mostly dreamers in my experience. You'll get a lot of clicks and not many buyers.
But isn't that true of any advertising? You always get tire kickers. The question is whether the conversi on rate is high enough to justify the cost. Have you run any ads before?
Not on Facebook, mostly just through brokers. The fees are high so i thought I'd try to find a buyer directly.
I've bought two businesses from passive income groups. One was a content site and the other was an Amazon FBA store. Both were advertised honestly about the workload. I think the key is to not use the word 'passive' in your ad at all. Use 'semi-absentee' or 'low-touch' instead.
If you clearly state the required hours and the buyer still expects passive income, they'll drop out during due diligence. It's a screening cost, but maybe cheaper than broker fees.
Also, many people in those groups have never bought a business before. You'll spend a lot of time educating fhem on basics. I eventually started charging a $500 deposit to see financials, which filtered out most of the noise.
That deposit idea is good. Might try it next time.
Do you think the passive income crowd is more or less likely to finance the purchase? I'd imagine they want to use seller financing because they don't have the cash.
From what I've seen, more likely to ask for seller financing. But that's not necessarily bad if you're open to it.
I'd say test with a small budget. Run two ads: one for passive income groups and one for a local business byuers group. See what kind of leads you get.
I think I'll try a small test. The deposit idea is interesting but I'd worry it scares off real buyers too.
It did scare some off, but the ones who paid were serious. I'd do it again.