I'm Chris, and I'm an ad addict.

The above headline sounds like a hook designed to gain attention.

Which it is and isn't.

It is a hook, as it's caught your attention (if you've read this far...).

But it's also true.

For the last 10 months I've been using Linkedin Ads as a way of increasing the reach of my organic posts. An expensive alternative to an engagement pod if you like.

But as a result, my posts have managed to reach tens of thousands of additional founders that may be able to benefit from the support I'm offering.

So far it doesn't seem like a big problem. I'm using the ad platform to achieve the exact thing that it was designed for. And it's worked. The only thing I'm currently selling, my 1:1 business mentoring (quick plug here) is basically over-subscribed. Meaning I have all the clients I can handle and a short waiting list in case anyone drops off.

So certainly doesn't seem like a problem. The ads have done the job of quickly growing my blog, which was a hobby, into a very nice income stream.

Or have they?

Because I'm tracking conversions on the ads, and actually very few of my current clients have clicked or even viewed an ad before booking a call with me.

Oh, OK.

So.... I've spent around ￡10k on ads this year and I'm not confident that any of them actually contributed to paying clients that I'm working with. Well, it was worth a test, but at least I'll have learned from it you may think.

There's no way I'll still be running the ads, even though I don't think they contributed to revenue and I'm at full capacity with a waiting list for my service anyway.

And the above sentence is where the problem lies.

I did turn them off.

And then instantly saw less traffic to my site, less profile views, lower engagement on my posts.

So I quickly turned them back on.

And then reminded myself that I don't need the traffic, because I currently have nothing to sell people.

So off they go again.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I turned the campaigns on, off, increased budget and decreased budget roughly once per day. Per day!!!! What's wrong with me.

I don't need the leads that the ads bring (if they even do bring leads) but I can't seem to cope with the fact that my traffic stats are reducing.

I further confused things by launching a new product.

FounderON ADVANTAGE launches in January and is a much more scalable product that doesn't rely as heavily on my own time.

Suddenly the ads are back on, and now directing people to the sign up page for that (here if you'd like to see!).

And people instantly started signing up ready for the launch. Amazing. But a quick check of the conversion data shows that actually all of the sign ups were from my organic posts. Plus, my goal is to launch with 40 members (plus existing esteemed mentoring clients!) in January. On the assumption that 20% of people are likely to convert from wait list to sign up, I just need 200 people by January. I have almost half that number already, after 2 weeks, just based on organic posts.

So the ads have gone off again.

And this time I've closed down the tab in Chrome. So it's very slightly more awkward for me to log back in.

You may be wondering what the point of this post is, and why you've wasted time reading all the way to the end. It's a fair point, and I'm not 100% sure of the answer.

I think I just wanted to share that despite the fact I've run a business employing 80 people and turning over millions of pounds in annual revenue. Despite the fact that I sold the business and now have the luxury of picking and choosing what I do. I'm still slightly crippled by vanity metrics, wanting people to like what I'm doing and not wanting the embarrassment of a flopped product launch.

Anxiety, imposter syndrome, crisis of confidence, what ever you want to call it, it effects all founders, no matter where they are on their journey, and what successes they've had in their past.

I'm now 6 days clean of ads. Thanks for your support in still reading my posts.