I launched Facebook ads on Monday and they were performing well and my opt-in rates were near 40%.

Now my opt-in rates are close to 20%, sometimes lower. I don’t understand what is going on, I start to feel frustrated, and I take urgent anxious action to try and fix things. I also tell myself stories like “FB ads won’t work” and “I’ve put in all this work for nothing,” having built a whole funnel around this. I also start telling myself that “something is wrong.” This fluctuation in results has been going on for a while, and I’m aware that my thoughts are creating this rollercoaster.

What I want the result to be is that I have high-performing Facebook ads.

Here I think is my unintentional Model:

C: Conversion rates on FB ads dropped 20% and no changes were made to landing page
T: Something is wrong and I don’t know how to fix it (It’s the “I don’t know how to fix it” part that causes stress, because as soon as I come up with something to test, I feel better)
F: Scarcity (Is this a feeling? It’s an urgent feeling of “omg I have to fix this or bad things are going to happen” feeling. It’s a tightness in the back of my neck that comes from believing I’m doing everything wrong and am just a giant fuckup.)
A: I analyze the stats on my ads with this urgent panicky energy, I watch some YouTube videos, I check my landing pages to see if something is wrong, I don’t focus on other areas of my business, I obsess over ads and compulsively check their performance
R: I don’t know what my R is here…

Is it possible that nothing has gone wrong and I DO know how to fix it? It’s certainly a better-feeling thought.

I don’t totally believe it though. What feels true is that something is wrong and I don’t know how to fix it.

I think the first thing I can do before an intentional Model is to neutralize and normalize my thought.

It makes sense that I’d have the thought that something isn’t working and I don’t know how to fix it. It’s something I haven’t done before. This is a programmed thought and behavior that I’ve practiced before. It’s possible that every entrepreneur who has tried to run Facebook ads has had these thoughts. It IS possible that something has gone wrong, and it’s also possible that nothing has gone wrong. Part of what freaks me out is I tell myself that this shouldn’t be happening. That thought keeps me stuck. Maybe it should be happening, it’s part of the process. Okay, that thought unties the knot.

C: Conversion rates on FB ads dropped 20% and no changes were made to landing page
T: The obstacle is the way – nothing has gone wrong here
F: Relieved
A: My body relaxes, my mind settles down, the compulsivity relaxes, I start to think of other ways I can grow my business and audience
R: Nothing has gone wrong

Still though, I think I should do something to fix the funnel. But that’s weird wording if the funnel isn’t broken.

My pre-frontal brain is telling me that I need to let the funnel work for a few more days before deciding it’s broken. Through Sunday. So, I think I need to simply manage the urges to check and the urges to change things until then. Perhaps, I don’t even check the funnel until Sunday evening, and then I decide what changes to make. I’m wasting a lot of time checking and it is truly making me crazy.

C: Conversion rates on FB ads dropped 20% and no changes were made to landing page
T: I need to let my funnel work through Sunday night before making any more changes

There are a whole bunch of obstacles that come up with that thought. My brain hates it:

So, all very familiar urge thoughts.

I guess this is my work. I have to think myself out of the urge thoughts, and feel the urge to check without satisfying it.

I guess it’s now decided. No checking until Sunday at 8:00pm. I will manage the thoughts and urges until then, and work with those urge thoughts I listed above.

Open to feedback.