How To Get Record-Breaking ROI From PPC Ads with Ameet Khabra

Tim Melanson: hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.

Excited for today’s episode. We’re talking to the owner and founder of Hop Skip Media. And she helps people get more leads by educating people about digital advertising platforms. And she also works individually with people as well, if that’s what they’re interested in. Very excited to be rocking out today with Ameet Khabra.

Ameet, you ready to rock?

Ameet Khabra: I, uh, definitely am Tim perfect as much as I possibly can, I guess.

Tim Melanson: good. Well, let’s start off in a good note here. Tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Ameet Khabra: Oh, gosh. I feel like my entire career to a certain degree, even though it’s had its pitfalls, is probably.

a success in itself. Really just being able to get to this place of, um, being able to say that I actually own a business. Cause I think for a really long time, I, uh, wouldn’t even say that. I’d just be like, oh yeah, I just do ads and then I call it quits at that point. So even get into a place where I’m like, I own an agency and we do this, this and this.

Um, I think it’s kind of a success story. Cause I think that’s a big thing that a lot of business owners struggle with is like calling themselves like a CEO or an entrepreneur or even just saying that I own a business. Can be rather difficult. Oddly enough. Yeah. Like I feel like a lot of people on the outside would be like, that should be easy.

That should be the easy part. And I’m like, no, it’s not .

Tim Melanson: No. Well, yeah, you have sort of like this, uh, I don’t know, imposter complex, I think, right? Like when you’re, when you’re, when you’re talking about these things, I know I just got business cards made and I, like, I, I sometimes will say owner, founder, but I’m like, no, I’m just gonna put web person on it now this time instead.

You know, it just is what it is, right? ?

Ameet Khabra: Yeah. We got new cards made in June and I had the same struggle where I’m like owner and then what I put, what do I put at the end of it? So eventually I settled on managing director, but I’m like, what does that even mean? Like, after they’re just words. But like, I had such a struggle trying to figure out what to write, and I’m like, at the end of the day, I still do the same job.

It’s just, it’s, it’s just the title. It’s just that for some reason we, um, we. So much weight towards it for Yeah. For whatever reason.

Tim Melanson: Well, and, and you know what I mean, the, the way I thought about it was like, what kind of benefit does it give me to say that I’m the owner and founder of a company on a business card?

Mm-hmm. , like, what are they gonna do with that? Right. , I, I thought, you know, I, I thought if I’m giving out cards, why don’t I just give up the card and keep in mind if they’re looking for something, that’s what they’re gonna call me. So I’m gonna put that right on the business card , and, uh, don’t worry about the owner, founder thing.

So maybe it’s a, I don’t know, maybe I’m trying to distance myself away from that. But also it has a practical sense too. .

Ameet Khabra: Yes. No, exactly. I was like, I feel like everybody needs to know that, but at the same time I’m like, does everybody need to know that?

Tim Melanson: Like, yeah. Yeah. I think it might be that that’s the thing.

It’s the kind of the opposite, right? I mean, a lot of entrepreneurs are sort of uncomfortable with. idea of like, I’m the, I’m running a business even though they’re sort, sort of self-employed. And then there’s other people that wanna like flaunt that and go like, I’m the owner and founder of this company.

And, you know, it’s, it’s one of those things where, I guess it just depends on, uh, what you think other people are gonna wanna call you for. You know, they wanna talk to the owner or do they wanna talk to the person who’s gonna get the job done for them? .

Ameet Khabra: Yeah. Yeah, that’s actually a really good point. Yeah.

Oftentimes I’ll have that with clients. Clients where they’re like, we wanna talk to you. And I’m like, I’m not gonna do anything different. Like you could talk to me, you could talk to Idris, you could talk to the analyst themselves. I’m like, it’s not gonna change. So I’m like, really? This point, just take the person that you have.

They’re probably the best and well-versed person. Um, but it’s always just really funny cause I’m like, okay. There’s, there’s like that whole mind shift note or, yeah. There’s a mind shift even just in consumers wanting to talk to the person who owns everything. Yeah. Um, and sometimes they’re not necessarily the best person to talk to, so.

That’s always the thing in the back of my head where I’m like, is this really important ?

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually the, probably the, the only time that, that it would be useful to talk to the owner, founder is if it’s a company of one . Yeah.

Ameet Khabra: or, yeah. .

Tim Melanson: Right. I mean, o other, other than that, I mean, you’re probably talking to a manager who is really just not necessarily doing that work.

He’s just gonna hand it off to somebody anyways. Mm-hmm. that, that’s, uh, that’s gonna actually do the work for them. Yeah, exactly. . So now along our journey, you know, not everything is good notes. We hit some bad notes from time to time, things that don’t go as planned. So I’m wondering, can you share with us something that didn’t go as planned for you and you know, how you recovered

Ameet Khabra: Where do I begin? Is really the question. Um, . I think probably like my first, um, I, I wanna call it a roadblock cause I don’t wanna call it a failure cause I don’t really think it was really much of a failure. . Um, but it was like six years ago, seven years ago, I had decided to leave agency life. So I was working for an agency at that point.

Um, decided to leave agency and go full-time freelancing. Um, took out my first client like I think maybe two weeks into my full-time freelancing and took whoever I could get to leave that point cuz you. , that’s the note. Like, that’s the whole thing where all of us don’t really look at who the client is.

We just go, yay, somebody wants to hire me. Um, and then we wanna move really, really quickly and over-deliver and do all these great things for them. Um, and I think in that experience I learned that you, one, you really need to vet who you are taking on as a client just as much as they need to vet who they’re actually hiring for everything.

Um, so it took a total of 45 days for me to have to file a lawsuit against the. Um, . Yeah. Uh, cause he flat out just refused to pay. So I walked in as a Google Ads expert, which I mean, I, I would like to believe that I am. Um, and he had sat there and he was like, I need social media and I need content and I need a website and all this stuff.

And I went, okay, yeah, we could do that. And I put a quote together and found a bunch of people who could help with all of that. Um, and then we, we went and executed the work. And I guess it wasn’t to his standard, even though he really wouldn’t con. tell us what that was. Um, which was like the most annoying part cuz I just sat there and I’m like, okay, there’s a mistake on the website.

You keep on telling me there’s a mistake on the website, but I can’t see it because I’ve been staring at this thing for 20 some odd hours. So like, obviously we need fresh eyes to tell us where the errors are so we can go in and fix them. And at one point he just flat out refused and he was like, if you can’t see them, then you’re not good at your job.

And I just kind of sat there and went, okay. Okay. Like, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do there. Right. Um, and then eventually he had this thing where, and I should have heard it during our initial meetings cuz I heard it and then it just kind of went in through one year and out the other where he had basically said that, um, he had a history of kind of bullying agencies into giving him what he wanted.

So oftentimes that would end up being, um, months of free work or credits or something like that. And I didn’t really, like, I heard him say it and I didn’t really quite register any of it. Uh, and just went, oh, it’ll be fine. It’s okay. No big deal. This is a referral. He’s like my friend’s accountant.

Shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Um, so his last email to me was, see you in court. Cause I was like, you have to pay your invoice. You have a signed agreement with us. Like, what the heck? Um, and instead of sitting there emailing back and forth for hours on end, I just simply picked up my phone and called someone and I’m like, so he wants a lawsuit, so let’s just give it to him.

Um, and I think he saw me as like this timid little girl who didn’t really have. The nerve to do it. Um, which is why he kind of went in and was like, okay, let’s just see. Like, let me push your buttons. And um, you know, the one thing a lot of people don’t realize is that I was raised by my mother and, uh, she’s uh, a little bit of a spitfire.

So naturally I was gonna end up being like her. , um, and then get the brutal honesty from my dad. So really at this point I was just like, okay, let’s go. I’m like, you wanna play this game? Let’s play this game. Um, eventually I did end up winning the case, um, but I didn’t get the full amount back, which I kind of, uh, I made that decision myself.

Cause I was just at that point where I was like, I don’t really want to actually go to court and waste a whole day fighting with this person for no reason. And if that means that it’s a $500 loss, It’s a $500 loss. It’s much greater. My mental health is so much greater than when, than that 500. Um, but the biggest, one of the other biggest things I learned in between all of that was doing, you really need to be doing what you’re actually passionate about and web design and content of social media.

Um, although I do those all for the agency internally. Don’t really care for, um, even after all of these years. I, I love being on social and it’s fun, but it’s not necessarily something that brings me joy. Whereas Google Ads and sitting there and looking at all of these little. Details that seem to be incredibly complicated to everybody else around me.

Um, make me happy for whatever reason. Uh, so for me, after him, it was more of that, that notion of going, okay, I’m gonna do one thing and I’m gonna do it really, really, really, really well, versus doing multiple things and be mediocre at them. .

Tim Melanson: Yeah, man, there’s a lot to unpack there. .

Ameet Khabra: Yeah. It’s, it’s quite the story.

Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Well, I mean, uh, there’s a couple like, like red flags too. I’ve definitely noticed, uh, that someone who wants to hire you for a whole bunch of different things, it’s probably not gonna work out. Mm-hmm. , uh, and, and I, I mean, I, I, I think that, You know what, that’s, if he has a a, a habit of doing that, that’s probably his, his his plan.

Like, it’s like, okay, well I know you’re really good at this, but I’m gonna ask you to do all these other things cuz I know you’re not gonna be very good at it and then I’m gonna get it for free. Right. ? Um, yeah, because that’s the thing is that we can’t be good at everything. Like I, I suppose we could, but, but you, at some point, if you’re gonna run a a, a business, you have to sort of figure out what it is that you do really well.

Cuz you know, it’s very difficult to promote. I do everything. But it’s easier to promote. I do this specific thing, um, and then it’s exciting to hear that you say like, cuz I do, I do do websites and design and stuff and that’s what I like to do, but when it comes to the nitty integrated details of the, of the ads, I like to have someone else do that

So,

Ameet Khabra: exactly. I kind of, I, I believe in, uh, giving the work to somebody who’ll actually sit there and be like, oh, like, like, have that spark in their eye and be like, yes, this is exactly my thing and this is what I wanna do. And I understand obviously, that you’re not in love with your job 24 7 all the time, but like if it’s, I don’t know, let’s say an 80 20 split, I, I think that’s pretty, a pretty good sign at that point, that that’s what you’re meant to be doing.

So for me, as odd as it may sound, I, I think I was meant for ads. I think this was exactly what I’m supposed to be. , um, web design, not so much . Well,

Tim Melanson: and you know what? You, uh, that is a, you know, a, a bad note, but it’s not as bad as it could be cuz you did have an agreement. And you know what, there’s a lot of people that don’t have agreements.

Mm-hmm. . So I think True. That’s one of the things that you, uh, you definitely did write cuz of, you didn’t have that agreement. I don’t know how that lawsuit would’ve went .

Ameet Khabra: Oh no. I would’ve been, uh, I would’ve been in the hole for all of that money really at

Tim Melanson: that. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, over and over again, we always hear anytime that something like that happens, there’s always a red flag before, or like, uh, some sort of like gut feeling that uhoh, I don’t know if this is gonna go the way and then we end up taking that work on just because probably we need it right.

With

Ameet Khabra: desperation, really. Or at least for me, it was desperation. I wanted to prove that, um, leaving the agency was a good idea and that it was what was meant for me at that point. . Um, so for me to be able to sign a client with him, like, I think it was like the first two weeks of doing it, I was like, yeah, this is it.

Like this is, yeah, this is me proving that this is for me. Um, and, uh, I think that was really, it was a cool moment, but then having everything unfold and I kind of just did it quietly so nobody else really understood, like knew what was going on with the other half of it, where I’m like, I kind of feel like I should have talked about it a bit more and had like that support with my friends, especially like other business owners or freelancers at that.

Um, so I’m like, I think that would’ve helped quite a bit and I think it really, and it would, would’ve helped me, but I think it really would’ve helped them as well. Cause after a certain point when I started talking about it years later, uh, a lot of my friends were like, oh, I had this happen to me and I had this happen to me and I’m having this happen to me and I don’t know what to do.

And I’m like, here are some really weird tips and tricks on how to figure this out. Yeah. Um, cuz a lot of people would go the lawyer route really, for these lawsuits. And I actually went civil. because it’s significantly cheaper when it comes to fees. Um, and I think the cap is, it’s either 25 or 50,000. I can’t quite remember off the top of my head.

Um, that’s a big cap. Yeah, it’s a, it’s pretty decent. I think it’s 50. I’m quite certain it’s 50. Um, so if somebody owes you up to 50,000, that small claims, so you can save a significant amount of money if you go with a civil claims agent versus a lawyer. And that was something that not a lot of my friends knew, or actually any of my friends knew.

Cause it was just like, that’s not information anybody ever gives you. Mm-hmm. . And I just got lucky that I happened to be in the right place at the right time to meet this person. And then he was the first person I thought of when I was trying to figure it out. And he’s like, yeah, this works perfectly cause I’m, we’re doing.

Um, and that’s like basically literally how I. got to, to civil claims in the first place. Cause chances are I would’ve called the lawyers and spent thousands of dollars on that just to, oh yeah, regain what? I think it was five, 6,000. So I’m like, Ooh, that wouldn’t have made sense. Whereas I think I might have paid Wayne 500 for the entire thing.

Uhhuh . Um, so yeah, significant, significant savings when you actually know what route to take.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. I didn’t know that either, so thank you, . Of course. That’s really, really good tip. Um, okay, so let’s talk a little bit about getting fans for your business, cuz that’s, that’s what you do. So tell me what, what is it that you did, first of all, how did you start doing it?

And then, you know, how do you, how would you do it now if you were to do it differently?

Ameet Khabra: Oh, I don’t know if I would do anything differently actually this time around, I feel like. Me stumbling into how I got here is probably the perfect way to do it. I mean, I think I would try to be a bit more calculated and more strategic with everything.

Um, but everything I did initially was completely unintentional. I just was alone in that city, uh, where I didn’t know anybody either. So I had left British Columbia, moved to Alberta, and I didn’t really know a lot of people and just, you know, anybody that I knew from work. But that was kind of the end. . Um, so then eventually I just started going up to meetups.

Um, cuz there wasn’t anything for paid, obviously, cuz there’s like three people who ever do page at this point. Um, uh, so I used to go to the social media one new uiux, web dev, uh, SEO content, uh, and just show up and people would look at me really funny and be like, okay, well what are you doing here?

You’re not. In this field and I’d just sit there and hang out. Like literally just have random conversations with these people. Ask them about their jobs, learn more about what they were doing. Eventually they got me to come in and actually do presentations with them, um, in relation to like SEO and ads or like content and ads and stuff like that.

And found ways to find it, like for them to be parallel. Cause I think a lot of people after a certain party were like, oh yeah, like this all makes sense. Like we’re all still connected. Um, and then eventually it became like a big joke where if I didn’t show up, everybody would be calling me and be like, where did she go?

Um, and at one point I used to have like, or I still do have them, I have stickers of my face. Um, I just thought it would be a funny thing to do and I took them to conferences and handed them out to everybody and a couple of my friends put them on Popsicle sticks, so every time I wouldn’t show up, they’d have me.

at the very least, which I thought was really cute and sweet. Um, and also absolutely hysterical. Cause people would sit there and be like, all the new people would be like, what are you guys doing? Like , who is this person? Why is her face on this sticker and this Popsicle stick? Um, but that was kind of really how I fleshed out like my network.

Initially, and then when everybody ended up leaving their agency jobs or their nine to fives, they went off to start agencies themselves. Um, and that’s kind of how like the ball kind of started, uh, rolling in terms of actually getting clients. And even the ones that had left agency went to a bigger nine to five, and then they needed, um, Help or new vendors for their ads.

So then they would call me and be like, okay, well we know you’re freelancing. Why don’t you do this for us? Like, we’ve worked together before, we know each other, and stuff like that. Um, and then eventually I started just taking everything online as well. So I started blogging quite a bit. Um, so people who didn’t know me personally, um, started associating Google ads in Edmonton with a meet.

And that was kind of just like the end all, be all really at that point where I, all I had to do was just continue blogging and acting. or what felt like acting in, in my head at that point as the expert. Um, and it was just like this little snowball effect that kind of just kept on happening. And, um, yeah, then Instagram happened and I started doing a little bit more posting on that, and that’s grown quite a bit.

Um, yeah, that’s basically how we’ve kind of gotten to this point of like this weird random stumbling, um, into, into really great tactics that I didn’t even realize existed until I, I did them. Figured it out two years later, .

Tim Melanson: Wow. The stickers on the face is hilarious. That is actually really, really good. Oh man, I wish I thought of doing that.

Ameet Khabra: you, it’s, it’s your idea now. You are, you are more than welcome to take it. .

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Oh, wow. Uh, no, that, that’s a, that’s a really, really good idea. And I mean, it sounds to me like you just use a lot of personality in, in what you do right. And mean as people as.

Ameet Khabra: I think for me, I, I think, and this is something, and this came a couple, maybe a year ago, I was talking to this person maybe a year prior to this message.

Um, and she also did the same thing, paid search, um, and had a whole studio again around it. And we would talk about just the issues that she was having and then I would also tell her about like mine. Um, and it was just like this organic conversation with somebody on the internet that I had no idea what she looked.

Um, and then I remember one day I just like randomly thought of her and realized that I hadn’t heard from her in like six months or something like that. Um, so I reached out cause I was just like, where did you go, ? I would talk to you every day and now you’ve disappear. Um, and it turned out that she actually ended up changing careers.

So she would sit there and look at me, um, in stories or my posts or just in our conversations together and realize how passionate that I I was around. that I actually really genuinely enjoyed them. And then she sat there and looked at herself and went, I don’t care as much. So then she spent the next six, seven in whatever months, uh, looking at every other digital facet and then went, I like content, I really love content.

That’s what I wanna do. So she came back and she’s like, I wanna thank you for that cuz she’s like, I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for you. Um, so I think for me, I think the. . Um, the biggest asset that I have is literally the fact that I actually really do enjoy what I like, do, like what I do for a living.

And I think that comes through pretty easily, or I’m at least hoping that it does, um, that I think it makes it a little bit easier for people to make that decision in terms of wanting to work with us or not, or even wanting to follow along on Instagram or any other platform because they’re like, at least she, she actually enjoys it.

It’s not her trying to push product. Services onto people for the sake of doing it. It’s like something that she actually genuinely enjoys.

Tim Melanson: Hey, rockstar. I hope you’re enjoying this episode of the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast. If you didn’t know already. My business is Creative Crew agency. We build websites now, let’s talk about your website for a minute.

Most people realize that at this day and age, we need a website, but we don’t really know what the website’s supposed to do, and sometimes you’ll just go and build a website for the sake of building a website. What I do is I make sure that your website actually accomplishes a goal. Now, there are three main.

To most websites, number one is to provide information and build credibility. Number two is to schedule some sort of appointment and get them on onto a sales call. Number three is to sell something like an e-commerce site. Now, when you’re setting your website, you have to be very mindful that the visitor doesn’t know what to do.

and so you have to provide them with a roadmap that leads them down a path to wherever you want them to go. On my website, I want them to be on a free consultation, so that’s why when you go to creative crew agency.com, you’ll see information about scheduling a free consultation. Now for you though, I’m gonna provide you with an extra link so that you can get your free website audit.

Go to creative crew agency.com/free website audit and schedule an audit with me and I’ll go through your website live and determine what we can do to improve your conversions and make sure that you’re getting the business from your website. Go to crave crew agency.com and we’ll see you. That’s awesome.

That’s really good advice. I mean, and, and that’s the thing, right? Especially in this world where we have so much choice. Mm-hmm. , I mean, why not find somebody who really loves what they’re doing? Right. And you can, you can see that through all the social media platforms that we have now. You can see them on podcasts, you can see them on, uh, YouTube.

You can see them on Instagram. And if they are smiling and having fun with it, well then. , chances are you’re gonna think this is a good person to work with. Right. So that’s really good advice. Yeah. Thank you. So now what about the band? So, um, how do you approach or do you actually delegate things? Like how do you approach building teams?

Ameet Khabra: Uh, uh, initially it was kind of haphazardly, I’m not gonna lie, , I kind of just went, I don’t wanna do this anymore, so you do it and I don’t wanna do this anymore. So you. . Um, and I didn’t really implement any SOPs or anything. I just kind of went, you’re the expert, you figure it out, really type of, uh, type of nonsense, I guess.

And I think the biggest thing, um, because I’ve, I’ve blown up and rebuilt the agency more times than I can count. And I’m actually currently doing that right now. Um, and the SOPs is like the biggest thing. That’s been my focus lately around my, I can’t keep on running an agency and not knowing what people are up to.

Like, it’s just not. It’s just not feasible really at this point. Like, no, I can’t sit there and be like, I’m an agency owner and I dunno what half my staff is up to half the time. Right? So, um, for me it was, um, initially just kind of going at it, uh, in terms of jobs that I didn’t necessarily wanna do, and now it’s, uh, more impact than anything else.

Where can I, is there somewhere where I’m lacking that someone else can do a better job? So, For a while, project management was that, and now I’m realizing that project hundred isn’t all, all that horrible anymore, that I can easily take on that job and do it. And I have been for the last, maybe about two months now.

Um, and it’s been pretty good. I actually don’t mind it as much as I thought I was going to. . Um, and then sometimes it’s like, oh, maybe I shouldn’t be the one running Google Ads. And for a really long time I ran away from it. And now I’m sitting there taking accounts from, um, a couple contractors that we let go, and I’m slipping them pretty quickly and I’m just sitting there laughing at myself going, you dummy like you, you’re actually really good at your job.

Like, why are you running away from something that you’re good at? Uh, so for me it’s more or less just like looking at. What we have going on and trying to fill the gaps in there. So I know that running pads is something that I’m good at, so, um, I’m gonna continue doing that until the workload is a bit too much.

And maybe if I wanna start working a little bit less and maybe hiring somebody in in that position makes more sense. Um, I know that I hate, I hate meetings. It’s literally the like, I don’t wanna talk about the numbers that I’ve been looking at all month. Like it’s just not for me, cuz I’ve already talked to myself about it like 50 million times and I have to explain that to a client.

It’s just like one of those things where I just can’t do it. So we have a director of sales and marketing and I kind of tack that onto his job where I’m like, you meet with clients now. Um, and he, he loves it. He loves talking to people and that’s something that he really, really enjoys. So it works really well that he takes something that I don’t necessarily enjoy and he.

Um, and that way I’m able to focus on, on the things that I believe that I’m really, really good at. So, um, building the team now is more or less of where, where the more, where we, where can we put, or where can we have more impact, um, and make honestly my life a little bit easier, but also give our clients exactly what they’re expecting.

Tim Melanson: Right on. I, I’ve also found that, uh, creating like operating procedures is, is useful even to k keep ourselves accountable and to mm-hmm. make sure that we’re doing the right things as well. Because you know, when you’re self-employed, working on your own, sometimes your time can run away from you. Like next thing you know, your day is gone.

What did you do with it? ?

Ameet Khabra: Yeah. I actually was supposed to be at a webinar and showed up 15 minutes late, cuz I just started doing random. And it was like for a friend too, and I had to text her afterwards and be like, I’m so sorry. Like I’m deeply, deeply sorry, but I’m like, this is just like, and really for her, obviously she understood, but I’m like, this is just how it is.

Like we just get into something and suddenly it’s half an hour in and. We were only supposed to do it for five minutes. Like .

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And like our energy can be different during like random days. Like, I mean, when you’re really excited, maybe you’re not, maybe you’re having a hard time focusing or maybe you’re on a real great role mm-hmm.

and, uh, sometimes you’re not feeling it and, but there’s certain things need to be done all the time no matter what you feel like . And so having some, those, those operating procedures in place, allows you to keep yourself accountable. And then like you say, when you’re ready and you got too much work, it’s already all packaged up to hand to somebody else, right?

Yeah.

Ameet Khabra: And there’s no questions really at that point. You just sit there and say, here is how we do it. Even like all onboarding, new clients contract needs to go up before we can even get the questionnaire. Before we get the questionnaire, we have to, uh, get access to an account or something along those lines.

And then even, um, how we set up. Is starting to change. Cuz I was like the naming con, letting everybody else decide on naming conventions is probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. Um, cuz now I go in and I’m like, none of this makes any sense. Yeah. And I have to go in and separate everything and make it make sense for, for me, but also the reporting side of things.

Right? Like a client seeing an ad group named Ad group is not descriptive like, but a client seeing ad, an ad group named. Orthodontist or in Invisalign or something along those dentistry type of words, that’s gonna make sense to them because they’re like, okay, this one was talking about this, this one’s talking about this, this one’s talking about braces.

Um, and that makes sense for them. Um, and it also helps with us writing better ad property and, and all of these other things. So, uh, it’s one of those things where I am unfortunately relearning right now. . But, uh, at the very least I’ve seen it. Now I’m like, okay, let’s go back and actually make sure that we actually have all these steps, um, in place.

So that way we’re, we’re, um, not in this position again.

Tim Melanson: Love it. So now what about tools? I mean, we live in a digital world, lots of tools around you. Which ones are, are useful for you?

Ameet Khabra: Uh, the top two right now for us is Asana as our project management. So we’re able to wor break up everything in like workspaces.

So I have an internal one where it’s just people who are working on internal marketing or content or whatever else. Um, they’re housed there. And then we have one that’s strictly just for clients. Um, and that’s where we place a couple templates as well. So that way every time we bring on a new client, it’s just a duplication and.

We put in their name and, and, and, uh, we’re off to the races. Um, and then we’re able to obviously assign it to the person who’s actually supposed to be working on it deadline, and then they’re able to see what client that they’re working on versus, um, just kind of be like, oh, we need to do this for X, Y, Z person.

It doesn’t really work very, very well. Um, which is something that I used to. So it’s not, um, I feel like some people are being gonna be like, yeah, that’s a no-brainer, but really it wasn’t for me at that point. So , um, uh, yeah, using a project management tool is a big one, especially with our team, our team being completely remote and basically all over the planet.

We don’t know what times anybody’s gonna get to. So having a due date for everything is, has been the biggest game changer for us. Um, and then Slack for communication has been the, the. , um, cuz now we’re able to respond to each other at whatever hours we’re working, um, or are, are online. Um, and it’s kind of perfect cuz a lot of our staff is a couple hours ahead of us, so they’ll actually ask and answer questions before we even wake up.

And then we’re kind of off to the races on that front. So we’re able to kind of have that little, uh, that cycle in communication where it actually works really, really well. But then also we have a couple hours that, um, Overlap so that way we’re able to just have the discussion. Um, I’m not a big fan of meetings, which I probably, men, I’ve definitely mentioned.

Uh, so I don’t really do like internal meetings unless I have to. I just. I wanna avoid it. I don’t wanna waste somebody’s time for the sake of just having team meetings really at this point. Um, so then we’ll use Google Hangouts for those meetings, just cause everything’s, all of our stuff is Gmail. Um, I mean, we run Google Ads, so naturally we’re gonna go the, the Google route for all of our products as well.

Um, and that’s been relatively pretty good. I don’t think we’ve really had any issues with Google Hangouts, um, as.

Tim Melanson: Nice. Right on. Yeah, I, I think, uh, using a project management and even slack for communication, it’s so much better than email too. Don’t you find like, uh, ,

Ameet Khabra: yeah. Email kind of. I feel like email is like how we compare mail to email is almost how we compare email to Slack now.

Tim Melanson: Agree. Yeah. And, and I find that, uh, like a lot of people will try to like communicate over like maybe Facebook Messenger or something like that, and I find that that just gets mixed up in all the personal stuff. Whereas with Slack, you can, you can set your, your work hours. You know, you, you’ve got sort of like a separate thing and it also is an app on your phone, so.

Mm-hmm. , you know, you can, you can use it as, you know, some people are like, well, I’d like to be able to text and all that, but you’re, you’re gonna get lost if you start to mix personal and business, I think. Right. .

Ameet Khabra: Yeah. And I’d rather have a channel for every single client and have everything like in one area.

So that’s almost like, um, like the running history of what’s been going on. So if any point I go, Hey, I need to take two days off. I’m really, really sick. I can’t function or home like that. Nobody has to sit there and be like, okay, well did this X, Y, Z get approved the this not get approved. It’s a quick, let’s go through the search history and just try to figure that.

Um, and that’s been actually pretty successful for us. So even when we had a project manager and there’d be a couple times where she’d have to take a couple days off, it was pretty easy for me to pick up what she was doing just based off of, um, what was written in Slack. I just read through the notes and went, okay, this makes sense, this doesn’t, and then, you know, if it didn’t make sense, then I just went back to her and went, can you please just answer these questions before I leave you alone for whatever X amount of days?

Yeah. Made life easy. Made life significantly

Tim Melanson: easier. Yeah. And then another thing I used too, a lot is, is loom. Like the screen, the screenshot videos. Mm-hmm , those things are fantastic cuz for something that you. Uh, they, they cut down the need for a meeting really is, is what it comes down to, because I’m the same as you.

I, I, I mean, it’s sitting there in a meeting, like half of it is like formalities and like yeah. You know, just wasting time really. I mean, hey, it’s not wasting time. Team building , but like a, a team building thing is, is for that purpose. But when it’s like coming to work, if you have to spend 10 minutes just to kind of, Hey, how’s it going?

Uh, okay, let’s get to work. . Whereas if you do a screen share video, it’s like, this is what I need send. Yeah. Off it goes.

Ameet Khabra: Right. But it also helps with like, especially on our end client reporting. Um, so there’s a couple clients who need a little extra handholding sometimes. Um, so what I’ll just do is a, a monthly video and I’m like, here, now you don’t have to call me.

Like, this is perfect, that in the 10 minutes that it took me to do this video, I avoided an hour long call. Yeah. So I’ve saved myself 15. . Um, and I’ve also saved them 50 minutes, which we could be doing, working on, um, their business, our business, or in our business, or however you wanna really allocate that time.

Maybe even sleeping if you want, like the time is yours. And I think that there’s so much power in that where I think a lot of people are like, no, we need to be in meetings. And I totally understand it. Um, but at the same time, if I could get 50 minutes back and be able to maybe sleep a little bit more or just hang out and chill, I, I would much rather take.

Tim Melanson: I agree a hundred percent. So time for your solo . Tell me what’s exciting in your

Ameet Khabra: business. Oh gosh. Google ads, as much as everybody else says it’s not, I think it is. I love it. Um, . , uh, yeah. So I run an online marketing agency. We specialize in paper click advertising, so that’s Google, Facebook, Instagram. Um, we’ve done a little bit of TikTok as well as that’s an emerging, uh, platform that coming out as well.

Um, but my core competency has been in Google Ads. I’ve been doing that for about 13 years now, running the agency for. . Initially it was just Google ads and eventually clients were like, we want you to do Facebook and Instagram. And then it just kinda, you know, snowballed into its own little thing, which is, um, a theme in my life is just things snowballing into something better.

Um, yeah, that, that’s kind of the spiel. I think that’s like the really quick spiel. We work with like small Tobi, medium side of businesses and um, yeah, it’s a lot of fun. We try to work as closely as we possibly can with every. , um, just cuz it’s kind of interesting that way you get to actually see the real effects of, of your efforts for that business.

Um, so yeah, we really encourage people who are at least working with us to actually really know their numbers. So, and share them, what are your margins? How much are you paying per cost for, uh, that product that you’re so selling? So that way we can actually really, um, Make that difference. And there’s been a couple of times where we’ve realized that clients aren’t charging enough for what they’re actually, uh, providing.

Um, and that’s been an interesting kind of conversation to sit there and be like, oh, we kind of have to fire you. Um, and not for the reason that you think , it’s, you don’t charge enough and you’re not making money, uh, even though it seems like you. . And oftentimes that’s like a really shocking moment for them cuz they’re just like, what?

And I’m like, yeah, you need to raise your rates. So until then, um, we’re gonna terminate the contract. Uh, and it, yeah, it’s been really funny just having this couple times happen. Cause I’m like, like do I think a lot of people when they go into business, especially when they’re not, um, especially product really at the point when they’re not well versed in it, um, they just attach a price to something and they go, yeah, this makes sense.

But they don’t really account for like the overhead. of everything else. So really at this point, like if it’s a $30 product, it might cost you $10 to make, in their minds, they’re making the $20 when in reality they’re not. No, they’re not software. There’s, um, even just your home office is costing you money.

There’s lunches, there’s gas, and you going and picking up product, um, there’s your own time to be accounting for as well, which is something that I’m notoriously bad. . Um, cause for me it’s like, oh, whatever. My time doesn’t count. And my director yells at me a lot cause he’s like, no, it costs money. It costs us money.

And I’m like, I understand, but it also kind of doesn’t. Right. Like , you’re having fun . Yeah, exactly. I’m like, it’s okay. It’s fine. Um, but yeah, I think a lot of people don’t really consider that part. So then when we start talking about margins and stuff like that, it’s almost like they, they’re a deer in headlights cuz they’re just like, what?

What are you talking about? I’m like, well, how much is your time? Is it $10 an hour? Is it $20 an hour? Is it a hundred? Like, that makes a difference in our margins. Um mm-hmm. . So it’s always an interesting conversation, but those are the kind of numbers that we wanna, we really do wanna know if you’re, you’re willing to tell us at the very least, um, because that’s what’s really gonna make your advertising efforts so much better.

And that was more, um, like, oh, what’s the word I’m looking for? I guess it’s just better, honestly, I can’t think of another word for it. Efficient, maybe.

Tim Melanson: Oh, there we go. Uh, so, okay, so then who would be like the ideal, like the ideal client for you or, or who would get the most out of working with you right now?

Like, uh, what would their numbers be I guess?

Ameet Khabra: Ooh. Oh, um, that’s kind of a little bit of a harder question to answer. I think it really kind of comes case by case really at this point. Cause like lead generation to e-commerce is completely different. . So with e-commerce, um, having healthy margins, which usually I would like to say is 40% or higher, is usually kind of where you wanna go.

Um, especially when you’re at, like, if you wanna start doing ads, just cuz it is um, a significant cost. Unlike web dev and social media and contact creation, you’re paying two fees essentially. Um, or if you’re working with an agency, I should, I should say, cause you’re paying. Their management fees. And then you’re also paying directly to the ad platform, um, for the ad spend that you’re putting into the, to, to promote basically, um,

And I think that’s a another reason why it’s so much harder to sell PPC sometimes. Cuz a lot of people are like, no, there’s two costs. Not one where social media, it’s like you pay a social media agency and that’s the end of it. Web dev, you just pay the web dev and that’s the end of it. Yep. Um, so there’s a, a little bit more consideration that used to be put in place on that one.

So, um, when you’re, especially for e-com, when you’re thinking about it, Adding both of those fees and being like, okay, what is my return on my investment down for that point? Or how does it add, or how much does it add to, to my mar or remove from my margins, I should say. Um, with lead generation knowing what the average order value is or how much you typically are charging people.

On average is a really great number to always have on hand. Um, but also knowing how many leads you need to close one person is a really good one. Do you need 10 leads before you close one? Because that’s information that I can go back and take and be like, okay, so if we got a hundred leads for you in that month, let’s say 10 of them close, and you’re spending, let’s say $2,500 or something like that, um, a month on your advertising.

Um, Now we know that we’ve made you about what? What, or hold on actually the math. And then if you’re charging a thousand dollars, then you’ve made 10 K. So now we know that you’ve made 7,500 off of our ads, and then we can calculate the ROAS off of that. Um, or the return on ads. Then I should say I have a tendency to use legal sometimes.

Um, So that way we could kind of go back and be like, this is what we’re projecting our growth to be, or what we’re expecting everything to be. Um, but having everyone just kind of very open and honest about what the, what their numbers actually really look like. Cause really at this point, like there’s no, there’s not really any judgment on our end.

It’s your business. Um, We’re not like, who are we to sit there and say that you have a good business or not? Literally, the only area we’re gonna sit there and be like you’re doing it wrong is if you’re not charging enough. And that’s only cause it actually directly affects you. Um, but any, on the other hand, it really doesn’t make a difference to us.

It’s your business. We just wanna care for it just as much as you do. . Um, and the only way to do that is to, to know those numbers. So for the most

Tim Melanson: part, do people like work with you long term or do they sort of like get some sort of platform set up and then they take it over? Like what, what, what normally, how does that normally work?

Ameet Khabra: Uh, typically they actually work with us, uh, on long term. So a lot of our clients have been with us for years. Actually most of our clients have been us with us for, for years. Um, and that’s simply because they just, they don’t wanna learn the platform, especially Google Ads. It’s. It’s pretty complicated.

It can get pretty complicated. There’s quite a few variables. Um, and a lot of, uh, business owners have tried and have somewhat failed, I guess, or have learned from their mistakes and realized that working with somebody who actually knows what they’re doing has been like the biggest, um, biggest learning for them.

Yeah. Um, So, yeah, A lot of times I think there’s a couple cases where, obviously like clients leave, and that’s just naturally how agency life is. Um, and sometimes ad campaigns don’t work, right? Like some, sometimes there’s, there’s something out there. Maybe it’s your website that’s just not that great that we can’t make changes to because you don’t have access to a lab developer.

Um, sometimes competition’s too high and your, your, unfortunately, your budget’s too small. Um, there’s a. Bunch of, there’s a number of things, um, that could cause for a campaign not to work. So then obviously those guys wouldn’t stay as long. But for the most part of our clientele, they’ve been with us. Yeah, I think three, four years averaging most of them are, yeah, still with us actually right now.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And, and I mean, the other thing with all that stuff is it changes quite often too. So if you were to sort of get things set up with an agency and up and running, then all of a sudden all the rules change . Like, whereas if you, you know, you know, hire someone like you to keep going, well then you’re gonna know when the rules change and, and you’ll be able to adapt to that, right?

Instead of having to, you know, relearn it all as an owner.

Ameet Khabra: Exactly, and especially with like new features and new platforms and stuff like that. So Google Analytics Universal is turning into Google Analytics four. Yeah. Which is complicated in its own self. Totally. Marketers like myself are refusing to learn it cuz we’re just like, please stop.

Like we don’t, we don’t want this. Yep. Um, or even like the introduction of new ad platform, not ad platforms ad. Formats within Google Ads and figuring out how to actually make them work versus, um, not spend a ton of money and lose it all, um, has been an interesting, um, challenge. And then especially with the privacy laws changing and stuff like that, there’s a lot going on and I just, um, if you have the means to hire an agency, I would highly encourage it just because like you already have your own business to.

And there’s, you know, you’re basically the admin person, tax legal, like really? Do you wanna be marketing on top of that? Nope. ? Um, yeah, that’s usually my answer for everything. Anytime somebody’s like, do you wanna do this? I’m like, I’d rather have someone else do

Tim Melanson: it. Yeah. So how do we find out more?

Ameet Khabra: Uh, two places.

Uh, our website is hops, skip news. media.com. And then Instagram, I would say is our best, um, education platform. So if you really wanna learn more about Google ads and how to improve performance and all that great stuff, uh, I am AdWords girl on the platform and um, actually I’m AdWords girl, literally everywhere else on the internet too.

I just don’t have a ton of content on any other platform other than Instagram right now. Just cause for some reason I chose Instagram and really enjoy it. So that’s where, uh, that’s where we’re staying for the foreseeable.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for rocking out with me today. A Edward Girl, .

Ameet Khabra: Thank you so much, Tim

Tim Melanson: and to the listeners, make sure you subscribe right and comment and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar podcast.