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Maria Wendt · YouTube

When Should You Run Ads To Your Digital Products?

Maria Wendt's case for running $5/day paid ads from day one instead of waiting for an organic-sales milestone.

Posted
9 months ago
Duration
Format
Talking Head
educational
Views
5.4K
216 likes
Big Idea

The argument in one line.

Waiting for organic proof before running ads costs creators money, because a $5/day ad buys the traffic that organic content would otherwise cost in time and effort, and can turn profitable within 24 to 48 hours.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…
  • You already have a digital product (course, guide, template) with a checkout page and just want more consistent sales.
  • You've been relying only on organic content (reels, email, YouTube) and traffic is the bottleneck, not the offer itself.
  • You're hesitant to run ads because you assume it's expensive or technically complicated.
  • You're already running ads but unsure how fast or how far to scale spend.
SKIP IF…
  • You don't have a product or checkout page live yet — there's nothing here about building the offer itself.
  • You're looking for a step-by-step ad setup walkthrough — this video only makes the case for timing; the setup is promised in a follow-up video.
  • You want platform diversity — the examples shown are all Facebook/Meta ads.
TL;DR

The full version, fast.

Maria Wendt's advice: stop waiting for an organic-sales milestone before running ads to your digital product. Her old benchmark was 100 organic sales first; her current advice is to run a $5/day ad as soon as you want more sales, because most students see a first sale within 24-48 hours. The mechanism: ads buy the traffic that organic content otherwise costs you in time and effort ("elbow grease"). She backs it with student results (a $1M/year course creator, a $5/day launch pulling four sales in hours) and her own numbers — about $800K/month revenue, roughly 60% from ads. The scaling path is gradual: $5/day, then $20, then $100, then $1,000/day, reinvesting profit as spend grows.

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Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:00 – 00:41

01 · Cold open: the $1M testimonial

Brooke, a painting-course creator, hits $1M in revenue in year one and credits running ads almost immediately.

00:41 – 01:16

02 · Framing the question

States the core question the video answers and previews the answer: run ads as soon as you want the next level of success.

01:16 – 01:52

03 · Debunking the fears

Addresses cost, control, and complexity objections to running ads: $5/day, you're in control, and it's as simple as posting a photo.

01:52 – 02:57

04 · More proof points

Testimonials showing same-day sales after turning on ads; a $22 art course picks up four students in hours off a $5/day ad; notes students span many niches beyond art.

02:57 – 03:32

05 · The old benchmark

Introduces the previous, more conservative rule — 100 organic sales before running ads — as the cautious fallback.

03:32 – 04:30

06 · Why the old rule is outdated

Ads used to require deep technical/marketing skill; now anyone can publish a $5 ad and see results within 24-48 hours.

04:30 – 05:35

07 · The core argument: traffic vs. elbow grease

Most people's bottleneck is traffic, not the offer. Ads buy traffic instead of requiring organic 'elbow grease.' States her own revenue mix: ~40% organic, ~60% ads, ~$800K/month.

05:35 – 06:10

08 · Screen-share transition

A brief comedic webcam mishap before switching to a live screen share of her ads sales page.

06:10 – 07:15

09 · Screen-share: day-by-day example

Walks through a student's first four days running ads: 1 sale/$17, then 2 sales/$34, then 2 sales/$34, then 3 sales plus an upsell — alongside a results wall of dozens of named students.

07:15 – 07:54

10 · The scaling ladder

Ad spend climbs from $5/day to $20 to $100 to $1,000/day, reinvesting profit at each step; states she's now spending just over $200,000/month profitably.

07:54 – 08:11

11 · CTA to next video

Points viewers to a follow-up video that walks through actually setting up the first ad.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

  • The old benchmark of getting 100 organic sales before running ads has been replaced by a simpler rule: run ads as soon as you want the next level of success.
  • A $5/day ad is positioned as a direct substitute for the 'elbow grease' of organic content — you're paying for traffic instead of earning it with time.
  • Most students see their first ad-driven sale within 24 to 48 hours, and some see one within two hours.
  • Roughly 40% of the presenter's own revenue comes from organic content and about 60% from ads, at close to $800,000 a month.
  • The recommended ad-spend ladder climbs gradually: $5/day, then $20/day, then $100/day, then $1,000/day, reinvesting profit at each step rather than jumping straight to a large budget.
  • The presenter frames accessibility as the biggest shift in the ads space over the last decade — what once required 'marketing bro' technical skill is now a single graphic ad anyone can publish.
Takeaway

Ads replace the effort organic content demands.

WHAT TO LEARN

A cheap, simple ad can substitute for the time and effort organic content requires, and most of the risk people associate with ads no longer holds up.

  • The biggest bottleneck to more sales is usually traffic, not the offer itself — a checkout page with no visitors won't convert no matter how good it is.
  • Paying for ads is a direct trade against 'elbow grease': money spent on a $5/day ad buys the traffic that organic content would otherwise cost in time and effort.
  • Waiting for an organic-sales milestone before running ads is a more conservative approach, but it delays results that could otherwise arrive within days.
  • Ad accessibility has changed dramatically — what once required deep technical or marketing expertise is now achievable with a single simple graphic ad.
  • Scaling ad spend works best as a gradual ladder (small daily budget, then incrementally larger), reinvesting profit rather than jumping straight to a large budget.
  • Fast feedback loops matter: seeing a sale within 24-48 hours of turning on an ad is a realistic benchmark to expect, not an outlier result.
Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

Elbow grease
The presenter's term for the time and effort organic content (reels, email, YouTube) takes to generate traffic, contrasted with paying for that same traffic through ads.
The 100-sales benchmark
An older, more conservative rule of only running ads after a product has made 100 sales organically — described in this video as outdated advice.
Resources

Things they pointed at.

06:13productMaria Wendt's ad course / $1K Every Day Implementation Program
Quotables

Lines you could clip.

00:15
“I hit $1,000,000 in revenue at the one year mark.”
concrete, big-number proof point with no setup needed→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
03:28
“Ten years ago when I started, you had to be a marketing bro. You had to be really tech savvy. It's just not the case anymore.”
clean before/after framing, quotable as-is→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
04:54
“The money that you pay is essentially replacing the elbow grease you'd need to give.”
the video's core metaphor in one sentence→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
07:27
“It's a little over $200,000 every single month. That's insane. And we're very profitable doing it.”
big specific number stated plainly, strong social proof→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
The Script

Word for word.

Read-along

Don't just watch it. Burn it in.

See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.

metaphorstory
00:00My students who run ads through their digital products are thriving. A lot of them are at 6 figure businesses, and a few of them are at 7 figure business. Here's one.
00:09Um, Brooke, she says, I followed the five ones for an entire year, which is what I teach in my inner circle, and basically right on target to hit 1,000,000 right on target, I hit $1,000,000 in revenue at the one year mark.
00:22May was my one year anniversary. And so you can see her in the screenshot. It's two of her different payment platforms.
00:27Added up together, it's slightly over $1,000,000. She teaches people how to paint, in case you were wondering. Um, but here's what I wanna point out about her testimonial.
00:36She posted this to my inner circle, and she said I started running ads almost immediately, so I know that's what led to my fast track success. And that is basically the thing I wanna walk you through in this video is that I now have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of successful students come through, and they all start ads sooner rather than later.
00:58And so really, when I when I get asked the question, okay, when should I start running ads to my digital products? The answer is as soon as you wanna start seeing the next level of success. I I always like to point back to if you do it, then we'll get into the details.
01:14But if you run ads the way I teach you to, you all of the fears you have around running ads are not valid anymore. It's not expensive.
01:23We teach our students to run ads for $5 a day. You get sales within the first twenty four to forty eight hours, so you're immediately profitable. Again, more on that.
01:31Um, you are in the driver's seat, so you're in control. You do it very easily. I always tell people, if you can publish a photo to Facebook, you can publish an ad to Facebook.
01:40It's very simple. We don't do any techy, complicated stuff.
01:44It's just an ad. Very, very simple ad, like a graphic, literally a graphic.
01:50It could not be easier. So as soon as you're and I wanna show you another example.
01:57This is a really good example. We get testimonials like this all the time. If you go to really, just any of our, like, ad course checkout page, you can see more like, ton more testimonials on that page.
02:08But it's like this. This is very typical. This is what we we will typically see.
02:13Turn on ads at eight a 6AM, first sale from ads at 8AM. Or I pulled up another one here just so you can kinda see.
02:19This stuff like this is what we typically will see.
02:23We launched today with a $5 per day ad. Again, it's $5 per day. It's not $30,000.
02:29It's $5. $22 course for amateur artists. Um, I don't specialize with artists.
02:35I have people in literally all different kinds of industries. These testimonies just happen to be from artists, but I have people who make money with gardening guides. Have people who make money with musicians.
02:43I have people who make money with other courses. I have people who make money with parenting stuff, like, anything you could think of, relationship coaches, fitness coaches, anything. Anyway, she says we've got four new students in a few hours.
02:55So it's really, when do you wanna when should you start running ads to digital products?
03:01As soon as you are ready for that next level of success for predictable sales, for it to be a little bit easier. And this is why.
03:12So I wanna add one thing, and then I wanna tell you why I think you should start running ads right away. So some people are extra, extra, extra cautious, and they prefer my older benchmark, which is after you've made a 100 sales.
03:25So I have this rule where it's kind of like if you wanna be extra extra cautious, get a 100 sales of your product organically before you start running ads.
03:34And for the longest time, that was our only benchmark. That was what we told our students to do. But what happened what's happening is the more I see students getting bigger results and better result and faster results from ads right away, and I'm seeing students who might be more technically challenged, easily able to do it, the more I'm like, just run ads as soon as you wanna make sales.
03:58I think one of the best things we've contributed to this marketplace is making ads seem very accessible and very simple to everyone. Ten years ago when I started, you had to be a marketing bro. You had to be really tech savvy.
04:12It's just not the case anymore. Anyone can publish an ad, spend $5, and see results from it, typically within forty eight, even twenty four hours.
04:23Two hours, that testimonial I showed you, that's like crazy good. But within twenty four to forty eight hours is not unrealistic. It's not unreasonable.
04:30So here's why I think you should run ads sooner rather than later if you wanna make sales. Most people's issue in order to get more sales is lack of traffic.
04:42You don't have enough people going to your checkout page. You don't have enough people seeing your offers. Ads solves that.
04:47That's what I wrote down here. I wrote, when you run ads, you're essentially paying to avoid having to generate that traffic manually with organic content.
04:56You can. So you can do elbow grease and do organic content and get the views and get the traffic that way.
05:03About 40% of my revenue, so I'm almost at $800,000 every single month, um, very consistently at 600,000, and about 40% of that for me is organic.
05:13So reels work amazing. Email stuff works amazing. Um, YouTube works amazing, but it's definitely elbow grease.
05:21You put blood, sweat, and tears into all of your organic stuff in a way that you don't with ads. And I wrote here, the money that you pay, again, $5 a day, this isn't a ton, is essentially replacing the elbow grease you'd need to give. So you're paying for the traffic, but what you're paying is avoiding the elbow grease.
05:41And what my students will do is they'll spend that first $5. There's another testimonial. Let me just quickly share my, um, ad screen here.
05:50Hold on. I just wanna, like, show you, um, kinda like the numbers on it.
05:56Think you would like to see oh my god. That's my other webcam. I want you to see this.
06:02Let's do this. Let's make it a circle. Oh my gosh.
06:07Don't click away. I'm gonna show you it's worth it. Okay.
06:11Okay. Perfect. Okay.
06:13So, um, I was pulling testimonials from here because I wanted to show you. This is the page where we show you how to do ads. Although I'm gonna show you how to do it in a second, how to set up the $5 a day ad.
06:22I'm just gonna show you how to do that here in this video just because I'm nice, I guess. Um, but let me show you.
06:29Here's what I no, I think it's this one. Yeah. Okay.
06:33So this is what I want you to pay attention to. This is one of my students, and she got a a sale on her first day and made $17.
06:43Then the second day, she got two sales at $34. Then the third day, she got two sales at $34. On her fourth day, she woke up to three sales with an upsell, which is even more money, and the day was just getting started.
06:55So, basically, you spend the $5, and you can put some of the money into the next day of ads.
07:03And that's what we've done up to the point where now we are profitably spending about I think it's almost it's a little over $200,000 every single month.
07:14That's insane. That's insane. And we're very profitable doing it.
07:17So you work at your way up slowly. We started with, like, a $5 per day in ad spend, then we turned that into, you know, $20 a day, then a $100 a day, and you work your way up to a thousand.
07:30Like a lot of my students right now are spending profitably a thousand dollars a day in ads, but they started with $5, made money from it, and, you know, made sales, made profit, and then they did that.
07:41So that's how that's how the pros are doing it, um, but it's just not complicated. You should start running ads to your digital product as soon as you are ready to have consistent sales. So like I said, I'm gonna show you, um, how to run your first ad.
07:56I wrote it's really easy. If you can publish a picture to your Instagram or publish a picture to your Facebook, you can run an ad. And this video, the one that I'm gonna put somewhere on here, it literally walks you through how to set that ad up.
08:09Go watch that next.
The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

Maria Wendt opens with a student who crossed $1,000,000 in her first year selling a $22 painting course, crediting one decision: she started running ads almost immediately instead of waiting.

CTA Breakdown

How they asked for the click.

VERBAL ASK
07:54next-video
“This video, the one that I'm gonna put somewhere on here, it literally walks you through how to set that ad up. Go watch that next.”

Soft CTA pointing to a follow-up tutorial rather than a hard sales pitch in the video's own close, though a sales-page CTA ('I'M READY TO START ADS!') is visible mid-video during the screen-share segment.

FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Storyboard

Visual structure at a glance.

cold open testimonial
hookcold open testimonial00:00
question stated
promisequestion stated00:46
why ads are accessible now
valuewhy ads are accessible now03:28
screen-share transition
valuescreen-share transition06:13
scaling ladder
valuescaling ladder07:15
CTA to next video
ctaCTA to next video07:54
Frame Gallery

Visual moments.

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Products?07:12Frame at 07:18 from When Should You Run Ads To Your Digital Products?07:18Frame at 07:24 from When Should You Run Ads To Your Digital Products?07:24Frame at 07:31 from When Should You Run Ads To Your Digital Products?07:31Frame at 07:37 from When Should You Run Ads To Your Digital Products?07:37Frame at 07:43 from When Should You Run Ads To Your Digital Products?07:43Frame at 07:49 from When Should You Run Ads To Your Digital Products?07:49Frame at 07:55 from When Should You Run Ads To Your Digital Products?07:55Frame at 08:01 from When Should You Run Ads To Your Digital Products?08:01CTA to next video08:07
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