Finding enough freelance writing clients to stay busy can feel like a full-time job on its own. While networking, writing proposals, and maintaining a social media presence, you’ve probably wondered if there’s a better way to land gigs.
Spoiler alert: there is (sometimes).
Paid advertising can be a powerful tool for growing your business. But do paid ads actually work for freelance writers? More importantly, is running them worth your time and money?
As someone who’s experimented with paid ads both as a freelancer and for my agency, I want to share my perspective. Here’s the good, the bad, and the surprising about running paid ads as a freelance writer.
Understanding Paid Advertising for Freelancers
Paid advertising at its core is pretty simple. You pay a platform like Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn to show your message to an audience you choose. That’s it.
Whether or not those ads work is up to you. Either way, the platform is happy to take your money.
Ads come in many different forms, including promoted posts in a LinkedIn feed to sponsored search engine results in Google.
For freelance writers, the appeal is obvious. You pay money and clients come to you (and then pay you more money than you spent). Sounds great, right?
Paid ads allow you to target clients directly instead of waiting for them to find your portfolio or website. With precise targeting options, you can zero in on decision-makers or founders at businesses you want to work with, startups, or even niche industries you specialize in.
But simplicity on paper doesn’t mean simplicity in practice. I quickly learned this lesson when I started running paid ads and threw hundreds of dollars out the window. I want to help you avoid making the same mistakes.
The Benefits of Running Paid Ads
There’s no denying the incredible advantages of running successful paid ads. You can put in $1 and earn $10 on the other end when your ad lands you a high-paying client. If you set your ads up correctly, they can be an investment that’s like printing money.
That’s a pretty big “if,” though. Paid ads are a difficult nut to crack. Large agencies and individuals with much deeper pockets are playing the same game as you. They want to land the same clients and have a bigger budget to play with. So how can you win?
I’ll share some of my more successful approaches below. But for now, here are the benefits I’ve observed while running paid ads as a freelance writer:
1. Expanded Reach
Paid ads put you in front of people who might otherwise never hear about you. For me, running targeted ads on LinkedIn helped me connect with decision-makers in the healthcare space who needed someone to write case studies for their organization. While I might have stumbled onto these connections organically by investing a ton of time into posting content on the platform, paid ads let me reach these potential clients overnight.
2. Controlling Your Audience
Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn offer robust targeting tools. They let you target your ads to specific job titles, locations, or even interests. This allows you to get pretty creative with who you want to reach. When you have a clear picture of your ideal customer, you can use it to create hyper-targeted marketing messages that speak to their unique needs and pain points.
For example, I aimed my ads at marketing managers and founders at mid-sized medical device companies. I knew competing with larger bidders to get in front of massive medical organizations was a losing strategy. So I focused on smaller firms that might get overlooked at first glance. This specificity made my ads feel less like a shot in the dark and more like a heat-seeking missile.
3. Scalability
As your business grows, paid ads can grow with you. In the leadup to slower months, I increased my ad spend to bring in more leads. When referrals are slow, paid ads can fill the gaps and bring you valuable clients.
If you’re very successful, you might even end up with more leads than you can actually serve. This is what led me to create my own agency, World Tree Digital Marketing. With plenty of leads to work with, I can outsource projects to a team of trusted writers while still making a cut of the project’s total cost.
4. Testing and Feedback
One perk of running paid ads you might overlook is the data they generate. Organic content takes a long time to deliver results, so you might not know if your strategy is working. By contrast, paid ads give you actionable insights you can use to adopt a more flexible strategy right away.
For instance, I noticed early on that my ads with copy reading “case studies that build trust with patients” performed much better than anything else. So I doubled down on those, and eventually started landing clients because of them.
Running paid ads is a numbers game. You might need to run 50 ads to find one that works. But when you find the winner, the dividends can be massive.
The Risks of Running Paid Ads for Your Writing Business
As great as all of these benefits sound, paid advertising isn’t all positives. There are some significant downsides. In fact, paid ads are the WRONG answer for most freelance writers. Ignoring the risks can leave you feeling frustrated—and worse, out of cash.
1. Costs Add Up Faster Than You Think
Paid advertising isn’t cheap. If you’re in a competitive niche, it can cost a fortune. Even with a modest daily budget, you can easily spend hundreds of dollars without seeing real results. This is where you need to get honest with yourself. Can you afford to watch $500 go down the drain with no results? Are you willing to risk $1,000 for the possibility of landing a client that pays $5,000 a month?
2. There’s a Steep Learning Curve
Running successful ads isn’t as easy as hitting publish. The key word here is successful. You can certainly run ads with a single click. But those will rarely (if ever) deliver results.
If you can’t create compelling copy, set up tracking pixels, or analyze performance metrics, your campaigns will probably flop. Without these skills, paid ads are a huge trap. If you want to run them, you’ll need to invest time into learning the basics first. Even then, expect to make mistakes as you go that cost you real money. Don’t get down about it. Learn from them, and move on.
3. Market Saturation
Depending on your niche, paid advertising platforms can be incredibly crowded. With so many writers and content agencies running similar campaigns, standing out requires creativity and a strong unique selling proposition (USP). In some markets, your budget simply can’t compete with bigger players. If this is the case, you’ll need to either drill further into your niche or prioritize organic growth until your ads budget gets bigger.
When Paid Ads Make Sense for Freelance Writers
Running paid ads for my business has taught me a lot about what works—and what doesn’t—for freelance writers. The biggest takeaway? Ads can work, but only if you approach them with the right plan.
You’re probably wondering if paid ads make sense for you. The answer depends on your goals and resources.
Paid ads might be a good fit if:
- You have a clearly defined niche. The more focused your niche the better. You’ll be able to compete much more effectively in a small niche compared to aiming at a wide audience.
- You’re ready to invest time and money into testing and refining your campaigns. If you can’t stomach the thought of losing money or aren’t willing to work through several unsuccessful campaigns to find one that works, paid ads probably aren’t the answer right now.
- You want to scale your business by attracting clients outside of your immediate network. Okay, this one is kind of obvious. We all want more clients. The question is more about how long you’re willing to wait for them.
- You’re okay with the risk and uncertainties that come with paid advertising. See point two above.
- You have a dedicated budget for marketing that you’re willing to spend. Paid ads should be considered an investment, but not one without risk. Don’t spend your rent on paid ads. Do set a budget for your marketing that you can afford to take out of your “living” money.
If this doesn’t sound like you, focusing your energy on organic client outreach is likely the better route. Paid ads might be the solution in the future, so be sure to revisit the idea. But don’t put yourself in a hole by investing money you can’t afford to lose.
Best Practices for Freelance Writers Running Paid Ads
If you think paid ads are a good investment for your business, here are a few tips to set you up for success:
- Start Small: Don’t blow your entire budget on a single ad. Start with a smaller daily spend across several ads and audiences to see what works. When you find a winning strategy, double down.
- Target Strategically: Use your platform’s targeting tools to find the exact audience that matches your ideal client. The more targeted the better.
- Track Everything: Set up tracking tools like Google Analytics to measure your return on investment (ROI). Knowing which ads perform well helps you avoid wasting money on those that don’t.
- Focus on your USP: Your ads should highlight what sets YOU apart as a writer, not just sell your services. Whether it’s your experience in your niche, your process, or your measurable results, show potential clients why they can’t afford not to hire you.
Conclusion
Paid ads can be a powerful tool for freelance writers, but they aren’t a magic bullet. If you’re running an agency, then they should almost certainly be part of your strategy. But for solo freelancers, the decision to invest in paid ads is more nuanced.
For some, they can be a game-changer. For others, the costs might outweigh the benefits.
Ultimately, the decision to use paid ads comes down to your goals, your budget, and your willingness to learn. And remember, if ads aren’t the right fit for you, there are plenty of other ways to market your freelance writing business and land clients.
PS: Want to dive deeper into organic marketing strategies? Ways to make paid ads more effective? Keep an eye on the Ravenwood blog for more content to help you level up your writing career!