What’s Working with Google + Meta Ads in 2026: Top Trends Freelance Marketers Need to Know with Danielle Migliaccio-Morse #278

Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 0:00 I am Danielle Migliaccio-Morse, and I help established business owners scale through digital advertising so that they can get off that content hamster wheel and feel like they have leads falling into their lap. Emily Reagan 0:17 Hey, welcome back to the show. I am your host, Emily Reagan, a fellow marketer, I’ve done work as a CMO to a Pinterest manager to a content marketer to building funnels. I love this work, and I love learning out on marketing and what’s working, and I feel like we can do such a better job within our scope when we understand the marketing ecosystem and when we talk to other service providers and figure out what’s working for them, whether it’s their client work, their management, how they deliver the service, how they operate, all of that, that’s exactly why I have a community called the digital marketers work group, which is a mastermind and community for other freelance marketers. Whether you’re a marketing specialist or creative specialist, a marketing manager, you’re running something specific, like our guest today, that is the community to come in, be among like minded service providers, and really have a meeting of the minds when it comes to our business. If this is calling to you, if you need a community to come to but you don’t need a 30k mastermind necessarily, you like being around smart people, get your application in the link is in the show notes. Today’s guest is nerding out with me on ads, specifically Google and meta ads. And what has changed in 2026 my guest is Danielle Migliaccio-Morse and she is a Google ads and meta expert, and she works with established business owners who are done with just doing social and content for the sake of content, she helps them increase their reach, cut through all of the marketing noise. It’s even doubling down and start showing up, and even showing up in some of the AI overviews on Google. And so today, we are really nerding out on what’s working, why we need to diversify our ad spending, and how everything works together, and she brought up some very helpful things that I think will help you in your client work. Before we go, make sure you grab her freebie. It’s a roadmap to add success. It’s really about the six crucial steps and numbers you need to be tracking for profitability to be ready for ads. So let’s jump in the episode. We are going to keep the trend going about talking about what’s working in 2026 today. And so I have my friend Danielle here to talk about ads, and not just Pinterest ads, or not just meta ads, just the landscape of what’s working with ads. And she is a fellow service provider and does this with her client work. So Danielle, tell everyone hello and a little bit about you and your business. Speaker 1 2:38 Hello. I am Danielle Migliaccio-Morse, and I help establish business owners scale through digital advertising so that they can get off that content hamster wheel and feel like they have leads falling into their lap. Emily Reagan 2:51 I feel like this is the like pedestal, or the pinnacle, or like an area a lot of us are working toward as marketers, as people who listen to this podcast like, we usually start off in organic and we’re doing a lot of content marketing, and then we kind of see his ads as, like, the holy grail to work toward. And so sometimes we’re like, diving in the back end and doing little things to our clients, but like, not quite there. So I think this conversation is going to be really helpful, and also kind of like, give us some confidence when we’re consulting with our clients or telling them, like, this is the next step. This is who you need to hire. This is what you need to do next to get prepared, because that moment is coming. So I would love to hear a little bit about your business and how that started, because I know not everyone who ends up in the online space providing a digital service started out with that. So what was your starting point? Speaker 1 3:38 So I started doing ads in the Broadway world. I’m based in New York City, so it was mostly ads, and then I slowly started to become more of a digital, general digital specialist. So I know a bit about, like, ads are my specialty, but I also know more about email and websites and how it all works together, and now that’s kind of informed how I’ve moved into my own service provider business, is that I understand how it all works together, because it’s great to get more traffic to your website. Like, of course, who doesn’t want more traffic on their website? But the whole thing is, like, then you have to take that traffic and utilize it and convert them. And okay, they sign up for a lead magnet. What are you doing next to actually get them to take the next step? Because, like, I can get them there, but if you’re not doing that follow up work with email and through your website, then it’s kind of a waste. Yeah, so do you provide that service now? Like the follow up? Okay, so I don’t usually do the actual like, I won’t write your emails for you, but I will always advise on them, because I want it all to work together, like I can see all the data in the ads platforms. Then we’ll go into Google Analytics. We can see what’s happening there. What’s happening when these people are getting to your website? What are they doing next? Where are they maybe getting stuck to? Like, are they landing on this page and spending a long time there and then not sure? What to do next. You know, there’s a lot of different steps to look at, and then, then you can start to tweak things. Tweak your landing page. Okay, people are signing up, but then they’re not taking a next step after that. Let’s tweak your emails. Let’s look at your subject lines to get more people to open the email. So it’s all those little data points along the way that are so important to look at once you’re getting this bigger traffic, because then you have a bigger pool to look at and you can see, like, you can really start to tell what’s working on the organic side, it can be hard, it can be hard to get that like, bigger pool of traffic all at once. I fully recommend people to start with organic so that you can know that what you’re offering is working before you start investing a lot of money in testing. Like, sure you can test ads whenever you want to, but, like, if you aren’t sure that what you’re offering is going to work or is what people want, then sometimes ads can be a bit of a waste. And I don’t want people to, like, waste their money trying to test things. Emily Reagan 6:00 Yeah, oh my gosh, you bring up such a good point. And I actually would love to ask you some questions, just providing this as a service as well. You know, a lot of people like, we hit some of this, but I just came back from a mastermind, and somebody was talking about ads, and she’s like, Well, I do it, and it’s hard. I was like, I know it is hard, because it’s not just putting some money in and getting money out. It’s all this, all this optimization that you are talking about, and it’s like, huge scope creep. We do so much more than ads, but like, clients come to us through that. And I actually just wrapped up an ads client in January, and it’s a client I work with every year, and it’s pretty easy, but, you know, in order for me to look better and get a better, you know, row, as I was, like, you should, like, look at the copy on this trip wire page. It’s not great. And, like me, kind of like giving a direction without doing all the work, and it comes with just experience. Otherwise you like, feel responsible for everything. So I’m gonna have a lot of questions about that, but I want to get into, like, what’s working in this landscape I know, like, Amy and Jenna Kutcher were on, like, a little thing last year, and I’m sure it was self serving, like talking about Pinterest ads being great. I’ve run LinkedIn ads. I haven’t done YouTube. I haven’t done I guess threads is a new thing, and Tiktok also newer. And, you know, we kind of have our traditional meta, but I even get pushback from clients, like, I want Facebook, but not Instagram. Like, I get that all the time. I’m sure you do. So I don’t even know where to start, but we’ve had such a big shift in the online space with like, courses changing communities being an emphasis. You know, we just had Sheri Moise on the podcast talking about more buyer discernment, and I have noticed a difference from a client that was serving other marketers versus the client that was in how much easier it was for the like, how do I say this nicely? Like, the people who aren’t marketing savvy, like, we’re signing up in drones, everyone else who knew and understood funnels are like, I’m not even signing up for this, because I know what’s going to happen. So anyway, where do you want to start here? Like, I think this is gonna be really fun conversation and insightful. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 8:04 Yeah, it is a very strange landscape right now. I think things that were working a couple of years ago might not be anymore. So I think one of the big things too, is like not getting stuck with what worked in the past, and like not feeling like you have to stick to the tried and true strategies. Some of those strategies absolutely still work. You know, I have smaller clients sometimes that you don’t. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel with the strategy all the time, and we just have new things. We put in some new creative and like, it’s still working. It’s not. I hear a lot of these people being like, you have to throw in 100 pieces of new creative, or always trust the like AI algorithms, and it’s like, hold up if it’s still working, if what you’re doing is working, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but we also need to, like, take into consideration the new like features that are out there, because, you know, meta Google, all of them are starting to incorporate more AI into their ads on Google. You can’t run ads in Gemini just yet, but you can run ads in the AI overview, in the search results page and in the AI mode, which is like another tab on the search results page. So that’s a new feature that they’ve added into their search campaigns, but it’s still kind of new, but it’s a great way to test things and see where you can show up. But like, the interesting thing is, now, like, our searches are two to three times longer than they were even, like a year ago. So, and this is coming from Google directly, like I watched a webinar where they were talking about how, you know, searches are a lot longer because people are utilizing it like they would AI, where there’s now, like, a much longer search term. So I think there’s something like 15% of searches every day are still something that’s never been searched before, which with like billions of searches every day, that is just absolutely wild to me, that there’s so many combinations of things that someone could be searching for. So the AI Max is a cool way to be. Able to show up for some of these searches, and they’re kind of figuring out how best to match those people. One of the examples they gave is like, if you’re looking up how to bring your dog on a plane with you, you know, like, what are the rules and regulations they might serve up an ad for like, an airline approved dog carrier, because they know Google understands the logic behind those things, doesn’t mean you also have to, like you do have to monitor it. It could go buck wild if you give it too broad of information. On the other side, on meta, I find sometimes their AI goes a little too crazy, so you kind of have to watch it and rein it in. They keep adding new improvements while you’re creating ads, and some of them are better than others. I’ve seen some randomly pull in old discount codes that came from another campaign, and if you read the terms and conditions, it says like we’re not liable if something is inaccurate. So you do have to monitor and be careful with what you put in there, because sometimes I’ve seen it go rogue, so I still don’t fully trust the meta AI, but it is there. So it’s like you have to find ways to start to embrace it, but also understand that it might need a little bit more hand holding at first, because it’s still learning too, and it’s trying to figure out who the best audiences are, and it’s slowly getting better at matching intent and matching the right people. It’s not fully there. But again, like embracing the biggest thing really is embracing some of the new features and not being like too scared to try them, because then you kind of get left behind, and now all these other people are going to show up in the AI mode and the AI overview, and you’re further down on the search results, or, you know, meadows not favoring your ad because it can’t change it as much with personalization. Emily Reagan 11:55 Okay Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 11:56 You know Emily Reagan 11:57 Okay, I have a specific question about Google ads. That’s something I’ve only played around with in my business. But can you just do, like, an ai, ai overview? Like, how do you just target that? Is that actually successful? Like, do people actually click on it? Can you, like, limit your placement? I guess I’m I guess that’s the question. And then, does it work? Or do people just go right over it? Because I think that’s the thing with Google ads is, sometimes you’re like, This is an ad. Skip over it. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 12:24 True. I think the one thing with Google Ads too is like, because of AI overviews, are getting pushed further and further down the page, especially on mobile, which is where a lot of people are searching. I think there is an importance in being able to show up higher up, because even the ads get pushed down because AI overview usually shows up first. So you kind of just want that that presence and being able to be in multiple places, even if you’re first in organic, if you’re at ads and an AI overview, that really starts to show that that trust and kind of pushes like, oh, this person is pretty legit. If they’re showing up in all three places, psychologically, it just helps your brand recognition, but so you can’t do it by itself. It is a, currently a feature within search campaigns. I have a feeling eventually it might become its own thing, as chat GBT is starting to test their own ads, so I have a feeling Gemini is probably going to be next, because they’re kind of neck and neck in that AI race. So I won’t be surprised, but for now, it is a separate setting within search, so you do have to run search with it. Okay, I’ve seen it. It just like it helps expand what you’re showing up for. So it really like it’s gonna take your core keywords that you’ve put in and help try to find more creative intent. So you’ll get more clicks, you’ll get more impressions. It hasn’t been running long enough. It’s only been the last few months to really have like, true concrete data of like, it improved conversions by X amount. But I have seen like in the accounts where it makes sense to use it, conversions going up and the cost per conversion going down, because we’re able to kind of just work more within the budget there. Emily Reagan 14:04 Oh, did you watch the Super Bowl? Did you see that commercial about AI popping in with ads? And do you know who they were making fun of? Because I meant to go Google that. And like, Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 14:14 My gut was Claude was trying to go after chat GPT, because chat GPT just announced their ads. Emily Reagan 14:20 That’s what I’m guessing with what you said. And I think I saw a second Claude ad that I can’t remember, but I do remember their logo really big on a blank a blank, like white, lots of white space. So, oh, that’s so interesting. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 14:33 I think chat GPT is also the one that everyone’s trying to catch up to. Emily Reagan 14:37 Yeah Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 14:38 because they were first Emily Reagan 14:39 Yeah, they were and they have the most brand recognition and, like, make it easier to share stuff interesting. Okay, so I’ve always heard with Google ads, and I would love you to, like, debunk this or say it’s true, and then tell me, like, what kind of Google ads are actually working this year. But I’ve always heard that it was better for people who are in, like. A very much picking a provider stage of the buyer awareness journey, like they like a plumber, like my house is leaking, the toilets overflow, me overhauling. I need a plumber right now. And so it’s like, got the sense of like urgency to it. It’s like high intent searches and all of that, do Google Ads work for people who are not that type of service provider? Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 15:25 They do. So two things we have on Google, you have YouTube ads. So that’s, I mean, I just saw something that I think it’s continuing to surpass Netflix and, like, minutes watched per month and streaming and all of that. So, like, YouTube is very much alive. I think it’s also a great it’s not a social platform, but in a way, it’s like a way for people to consume content where they get to choose, versus sometimes Instagram, where you feel like you’re bombarded with maybe bad news every time you open it lately. So I think it kind of feels a little bit more safe to go to because you kind of get to really curate more of what your content is being shown to you, and so you have YouTube, there’s also ads in Gmail and the Google discovery feed. So Google also has their larger display network, but that is definitely a much more like brand awareness, not as action oriented, but the Google owned platforms, the Gmail, YouTube and discovery, have a lot of potential, because it’s a better intent, it’s a better quality impression that you’re going to get. And the beauty of it too is because Google and YouTube are number one and two search platforms for everyone, it has so much data about what people are searching for, what they’re browsing so many people use Chrome you’re logged in, they know exactly who you are, what you’re doing. Well, scary, but they also it’s like it helps. And so the beauty on YouTube and on Discovery and all those other platforms, you can make custom audiences. So you can make these audiences that take into consideration what people might be searching they maybe they’re not directly looking for an ads provider yet, but they’re looking for a designer, or they’re looking for a photographer, or you can just tell that they’re, they’re watching Amy Porterfield’s content. They’re watching, you know, they’re watching, like, big name content. And so you can tell that they’re a business owner, hey, you might need ads. So you can kind of tell from the intent of what content they’re watching or what else they might be searching, and you can kind of put the pieces together and show up for them in other places, whereas, like, I might not want to show up for Google Ads specialists, because that’s going to be a really expensive keyword, but I can find other ways to show up on YouTube and discovery and Gmail, where I’m hitting the right people without having to spend $50 a click. Emily Reagan 17:44 Oh, that brings up a good question, because we have a the ads we run for clients, but then for ourselves as a service provider. So that would make sense, that that would be expensive for you. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 17:55 Healthcare is usually a very expensive one. Lawyers are very expensive, especially personal injury and, yeah, especially ads providers, but some service providers that can start to tick up just because you know, more and more people, the more competition, the more competitive the cost is. Emily Reagan 18:12 I love this conversation. So what’s, what’s, what’s considered expensive, like, what give it? Give us a frame of reference. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 18:18 I mean, I’ve seen clicks over $100 for lawyers. Emily Reagan 18:23 just to click where people- what works? Where are we clicking to I know it’s like going to be different, but like, what, what’s actually working with Google ads, because not everything is probably like an offer, like, do lead magnets or master classes or book a call, like, what, what works on Google? Speaker 1 18:41 So on the more display side, you can definitely do one more lead magnets or a webinar, because you have that opportunity to put images and more creative copy versus search, where, I think with search, it’s much more direct someone’s coming and searching for whatever it is that you provide. You want to bring them more directly to, like, a good quality page on your website. Okay, I wouldn’t necessarily go to the homepage, because that could be too many different things and not lead people in the right way that you want them to. The nice thing too is you can, you can categorize, like, say, you know, I do Facebook ads and Google ads. So I could do, I could send people to two different places on my website. So if they’re searching for Facebook ads, I might want to send them one place. They’re searching for Google ads, I might not want to send them somewhere else, just so it can be as relevant as possible to their search and make sense for what they’re looking for. But yeah, these general websites do really well on Google because they’re in more of a research mindset versus someone on meta, where you’re maybe clicking around and something sparks your interest, you want to go straight to a landing page, because you don’t want all the other information that could be coming up on a website to be confusing for someone. You just want them to take the action when you’re playing around on Instagram, you’re not like, in the mindset of like, oh yeah, I want to go sign up for. This lead magnet, yeah, but like, it might come up in front of you, and you’re like, oh, that’s actually really interesting. Let me go sign up for it. But if you’re actively in that research phase, when you’re on Google, you are open to more information and kind of poking around and making sure this person seems legitimate, and, you know, kind of finding out that full picture. Emily Reagan 20:22 So you’re saying a landing page with no navigation bar is better for a meta ad, and then Google, you might actually want the navigation bar, or like to send someone to a services page or something else, not just the homepage, but not a full landing page. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 20:37 Correct Emily Reagan 20:38 Interesting, is there anything that like works on? I’m just thinking in terms of the marketing assistants who build this. It sounds like it’s kind of like, it’s more about, like, the click through than the actual conversion. Speaker 1 20:51 The person clicking on Google is coming in with a higher intent, so they’re likely to be like, Okay, I just want to do my due diligence before I, you know, fill out that quick form, even if it is for a lead magnet. But like, yeah, you want to read that about page and make sure this person seems like a right fit for what you’re looking for, versus on meta, you’re like, oh, that sounds great. Let me sign up for that. Like, it doesn’t matter as much. Emily Reagan 21:16 And it makes me think about the different personality types who buy right and we have that DISC personality to see who is the researcher, who is more thoughtful. I mean, all of us are usually searching at some point or another, but they’re the person who’s really going to click around. Is there anything else that you would want a marketing assistant or specialist to know about Google ads? And I’m kind of just curious, like, who’s a good fit and which clients are a good fit to start? Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 21:45 So on Google. I mean, obviously, anyone, if you’re running any sort of business, where the product or offer you provide is something people are searching for, that is definitely a great place to be, because you’re capturing people right when they have the intent, versus trying to push in front of people and, like, remind them. But that’s not to say, like, I think meta and Google work really well together, because meta can be really helpful for just like, getting your name out there. You know, people don’t know who you are, and they start to see your face pop up a little bit more on their Instagram feed or their Facebook feed, wherever they are, and that kind of, like, gives that recognition so that when they do go search and you show up, they’re like, Oh, I’ve heard that name before. Like, it seems familiar to me. Another stat I know from dealing with Google for a long time as I think, like, 85% of the time people go in with sort of a list of providers or products or brands that they’re thinking of when they start to search, and 85% of the time, even after they do research, they’re going to stick with one of the ones they had in their head to begin with. Emily Reagan 22:49 It was like a confirmation bias Speaker 1 22:51 Yeah. So it’s helpful to know for them to know who you are, to like, see you on social media, and when they’re really ready to like, commit to something, taking that step on on Google, and then they’re like, that recognition really does matter. So, yeah, I think they work really well together. And whenever I see people running both, it usually like, the rising tide lifts both ships, and so it’s really helpful. But if you’re looking to like, Okay, I don’t know which one I want to start with. I’ve never run ads before. It does depend what type of business. So if you’re doing something where it’s not something people are searching for yet, you know it could be just something kind of new. You might want to start on meta and just push in front of people and make them aware of who you are, what you do, what you offer. And then you can also consider, like I said, YouTube ads and Demand Gen is a type of campaign in Google that includes YouTube discovery and Gmail. So those are your Google owned platforms. So it allows you to reach all those people. And like I said, you can create custom audiences based on other things they might be searching. So if you have some really good video content and you’re like, Okay, I want to push this out more. That’s a great way to do that. You can think about what they’re searching. I worked with a coach once, and their type of coaching, it was very niche down. And so the person they were trying to reach was not looking for this specific service via search. And we knew that we were like, Okay, we don’t want to show up for general coach, business coach, because that’s gonna be way too broad, but like this person is not searching necessarily for like business owner coach and like this exact business so we took their YouTube content and we were able to think about other things that specific type of business owner was going to be searching for and hit them up on YouTube with some content that then made them aware that this was even a possibility of someone that they could hire. So it’s thinking about what you offer and who your audience is, and that can help you determine where to start. Whether that even could be LinkedIn. It could be Pinterest, if that’s where you know your audience is. Like the biggest thing I’m going to say is understanding your organic numbers. If you understand where your audience is currently coming from and converting on your site, and how they’re converting and how well they’re converting, then that can translate to ads, because it also helps you set really realistic goals, so you’re not going in and like, let me just throw spaghetti at the wall and see what works. You can actually understand if it’s profitable, if it’s going to work long term, if your conversion rate numbers are similar to your organic So, okay, like, that’s a good sign that you’re getting the right people there. Or if normally you convert at 50% and all of a sudden you’re converting at 20% for like a lead magnet, that could be a red flag that maybe something’s off with the creative or the targeting. So it’s like, understanding your own business numbers before you even jump in is huge and key. Emily Reagan 25:51 And that’s awesome, because that’s what a lot of us can do as the marketer in the business, is track that use our UTMs, figure out what’s actually working. It’s funny where you’re saying that was, I can’t help but think about myself. I was like, I actually already was like, I actually already get a lot of SEO traffic people coming into my program there. So then I think about, well, what strategies are like, what, what type of content do I double down in? I mean, that’s like, my team is key for, like, putting that information in front of my eyes. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 26:17 Yeah. Emily Reagan 26:17 Have you ever seen blogs work for like, a Google ad? Does that work? Because we’re already playing like a SEO game. Speaker 1 26:24 I feel like less so, because if they’re in a high intent purchase mindset, not necessarily purchase, but just like I’m ready to hire someone or I am ready to purchase something, usually sending them more directly to like a service page works pretty well. I mean, I have seen blogs actually work decently on meta, too. Sometimes a blog can give more context to a new product. I remember an E commerce brand once I was working with and they came out with a line that was much more eco friendly. So we sent everyone to a blog page, or not everyone, we segmented it, but we sent some people to a blog page, and it actually converted really well, which we kind of weren’t expecting. We were expecting it to be a little bit more brand awareness, and all of a sudden we were seeing people read a little bit more about it and then decide to go buy it. Emily Reagan 27:10 Well, you think about the more discerning buyer, and I’m like, oh, that’s an interesting idea. I’ve done that with an ads client. A few years ago, we sent a lot of people to choose a coach, a time management blog that did really well, because it really hit the pain point of what she served, like Catholic moms specifically. So it really hit the pain point of what they were struggling with. And that blog did pretty good. So I was like, Oh, I’ve seen that on Google. But then Google, can you, I mean, I know we’re tracking everything. Can you do a retargeting audience? Like you said you could do custom audiences. So think about how dynamic that is. When you’re getting the click like, you’re getting that info for both ads to feed back into it. And I think that like awareness retargeting, game on meta so interesting. Like, I think about your general business coach who, like, people aren’t necessarily like searching that like, that’s so brilliant. Yeah, I bet you also like these strategies. I bet you really dive into the customer journey and your job more than you tell people Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 28:12 Yeah. So it’s a lot of like, really looking at Google Analytics, seeing where people are coming from. And because sometimes, you know, especially with a lead based kind of business. Maybe someone comes in from meta, but that’s their first touch point, and they’re not quite ready for something and then come back on Google. So it’s looking at what the touch points are to conversion. There’s a whole attribution section of Google Analytics, and it can be really helpful, because sometimes it looks like meta is not converting people, but actually it’s just the first step in their journey. And Google will sometimes, you know, look like it’s like doing really well, because it’s the last step in people’s journey. But I think people need something like 28 touch points. Now, it’s used to be seven years ago, and now it’s like, even more insane, just because we’re so bombarded with stuff every time we open our phones. So it’s also important just to be in multiple places, because people are distracted. So even if you do send that email, and then you want to remind people somehow that, like, you have this offer happening, you kind of have to be in multiple places to, like, spark that brain hit, where people like, oh yeah, I saw that email and I meant to do it, but I got distracted, see, let me go back to that happens to me all the time. Emily Reagan 29:23 Yeah. Speaker 1 29:24 So it’s so important. I think that’s another thing too. Is just like, it is really important to diversify spend. Because if you’re only on meta, only on Google, one, you know these algorithms, everything’s changing constantly. If something just suddenly stops working, especially on meta, sometimes there’s not a lot you can do. You just kind of have to, like, try some new creative and try a bunch of things and see what’s going to work. But like, sometimes it takes a little bit to get it back to where you want it to be. And so if you’re only relying on meta for all of your traffic, and something goes wrong, or they tweak something, and it’s something just not. Bringing the right people, you’re kind of stuck. So if you have a little bit of both, then you can at least move or even, you know, LinkedIn and meta, whatever your combination might be, that will work best for you, and it really is, individual per account. I’ve seen all sorts of different combinations, but I like there to be at least two platforms, because you’re not in control. You don’t have control over the algorithms, you don’t have control over the platforms. You’re kind of stuck. So I try to advise at least a little bit of diversification so you have some control and can move things around if something all of a sudden just stops working. Emily Reagan 30:37 I mean, how many times have I heard that about meta, it’s like the problem child, like people getting hacked, kicked out, ads not working Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 30:43 Or yeah that, like that even could be your ads are working fine, and something happens in the back end. You can’t get a hold of a person. I can’t even get a hold of a person. And I’m like, have been doing this for years, or you’ll finally find someone, and they’re like, Oh, I only represent this one account. I can’t help you with this other one. So yeah, meta is not helpful. It’s organic. It’s like, kind of how we talk about, like you don’t want to have all your eggs in one basket, because you just don’t know. The best you can do also is like getting their email address doing something to at least get them to give you their email so you have a way to contact them outside of all of this, everything else going on, I find the one thing in Google as a difference is like they give you a ton of data, which for some people, is a little intimidating. For me, I’m a data person. I love it. Clearly, I love going into analytics, all of that. So when you go into Google, there’s a lot more levers you can pull to kind of like, if something stops working, there’s usually something you can figure out of how to fix it versus another. Sometimes when, like, I’ve seen accounts fluctuate where, like, one week their leads are 250 the next week they’re $5 and like, yeah, not a lot you can do, other than maybe trying a couple of new pieces of creative to throw into the system. But yeah Emily Reagan 32:03 Oh my gosh Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 32:03 I love a mobile black box. Emily Reagan 32:05 Okay, so when we talk about like, different AI things with meta, are you talking about, like, advantage plus, are you talking about dynamic creative? Is there anything like new that has come out with meta when it comes to this, like, AI component, that it basically matches headlines and creative and like text, and sometimes it’ll write, like, what do we call that? Does it have a name? Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 32:25 I think it’s all just kind of lumped under Advantage Plus Emily Reagan 32:28 Okay Speaker 1 32:28 And then there’s some confusion, because they did update some of the back end, and it’s called Andromeda, but people are kind of confusing that as like, some new algorithm. But it’s really not. It’s actually just like, they improved its ability to pull from all the creative you’ve provided to like, put the right ad together. It’s just an improvement in some of the technology in the back end. But it doesn’t mean, like I said, you don’t need 100 ads. I would suggest, like, always at least a handful of different creatives, even if it’s like, just a couple different single images, a couple different carousels, or a couple different videos, because, I mean, I’ve seen in similar accounts, different types of creative will work. And, you know, your different audiences, so you always have to test. Because I would love to be able to tell you what’s going to work right right out the gate, but you really never know until you put it all in there and see what people are responding to and like we were talking about at the beginning, the market fluctuates so much so sometimes that, like, the messaging you’re putting out in 2024 no longer works in 2026 so you have to start to think fresh and start to think like, what are the pain points people are responding to now versus a year ago? So just like, like I said, don’t need 100 pieces. You need a handful of good ones, and you need to give it a little bit of variety so it can can test out different things. You can start to see, like, Is my audience responding better to a carousel, and the carousel maybe has more pictures versus more words. And so you can start to see what’s working for your audience and then iterate on that, yeah. Always give it some options, and the more specific your creative can be, I found, the better it will start to be even with the AI copy suggestions that it gives you when you’re creating a Facebook ad. I found, like when I put in a more clear image and it can tell who I’m trying to reach, it’ll now start giving you options and say, like, if it reaches this type of person, use this copy. If it reaches this type of person, use this copy. So it’s starting to get smarter and figure it out. You can kind of tell when you if it’s not quite the right image or creative, the copy is not as great to always like, always read through before you select anything. Also, like, double check it’s AI. I mean, we all know this. Like, if you read any AI output, sometimes it’s better than others. So sometimes I do like to go through and, like, click a few to try and then unclick a few, because I’m like, oh, there’s a little too, yeah, it’s a little too AI, like, we can tell, and we don’t want that because people are a little bit weird. Emily Reagan 35:03 It’s like, over convincing, like, jargony, not really Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 35:07 Too many emojis Emily Reagan 35:08 saying anything. Yeah, I love the creative part and coming up with the ideas. And I’m just a maximizer as one of my cliftonstrengths. So I love, like, going in there, and every year with my client, I’m like, How can I do better? And guess what? It’s like the old thing that always outperforms. And I haven’t finished my report for her, which I’m a bad marketer, but I can’t wait to go back in there, because I’m like, I think it’s gonna be as soon as the last year. It was like the standard one. But however, I had a friend. She had me look at her ads she’s like, Do you know why this isn’t working? I’m like, and every audience is different. Like, Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 35:43 Yes Emily Reagan 35:43 let me get you like, it depends, and you don’t know, but I’m like, my opinion, when I look at it, it looks over produced. It looks like I’m about to be sold to. I don’t want to click on it. And it was really that awareness of, like, where is the client? Like, what is the outcome? We’re truly selling as like, all these little things go into and it’s not just a simple, like, throw money at basic and, like, let it do it. It’s like, all these things, and you do have to get it right, but it’s fun because it brings all, like, the marketing talent together. And I Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 36:10 Use that, like, left and right brain at the same time, because it’s creative and numbers all together. Emily Reagan 36:14 I love that about our work. And then, like, you talk data to me, and I’m like, Yes, sold. Like, let’s do that. And there’s just so much out there. Okay, is there anything trending that we should be aware of in 2026 when it comes to ads? Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 36:28 Obviously, it’s hard to stay up to date on everything happening, but just trying to understand any new features that get released, kind of being on top of that so you can kind of understand what is out there to test. And things aren’t always going to work perfectly right out the gate, but it is good to test things and get in the door, because, you know, these platforms do favor when you test things, because they like people buy into their their stuff. I mean, don’t necessarily go full automation on everything, because I think it’s good to have some control still over things, and not just trust it all to, like, the black box algorithm. Yeah, but yeah, think that’s a big one. And I think going back to, like, diversifying spend and not, you know, okay, how people are using platforms is changing and morphing constantly. Sometimes people don’t really want to be on social because there’s a lot going on in the world and it’s anxiety inducing. And so it’s like, I’m gonna step back from that. So I’m going to go look at LinkedIn and said, because that feels a little safer, or I’m just going to be on YouTube because that also feels a little safer. And you know, we’ve seen a lot of fluctuation with Tiktok too, of how people are utilizing it. People complaining that the algorithm is changing new ownership. So there is that constant fluctuation of how people are utilizing platforms, and so that’s why I like having a little bit on at least two platforms, so that if you know something’s going on and or even just like, there’s random days where Instagram goes down or Facebook goes down, something happens, you have other ways to be driving traffic to your website. Yeah, I think that’s the biggest thing I want more people to do this year is not overly rely on one platform like I know it requires more attention, because you have to look at multiple different places, but it just like helps you, in the long run, to not be reliant on one thing. Emily Reagan 38:16 Yeah, and just hammers home why we need a specialist like you to manage it, because there are different parts and pieces. Do you do YouTube ads? I wasn’t sure if you did? Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 38:25 Yeah. So YouTube’s all included within the Google world. Emily Reagan 38:29 So are you giving like, creative direction or, like, with fresh ads? I know we talked about like repurposing content, but like, is that part of your service too? Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 38:37 Yeah. So definitely, like, look at what’s existing and start to give new ideas of, okay, let’s test out some different things I’ve seen, you know, also like testing out different lengths of videos, because I’ve seen a minute long video actually do really well sometimes, like, the way, like, it’s wild, but if it’s the right content to the right audience, they will stay and watch, like, they’ll have watched, you know, 50 to 60% of it. Okay, that’s 3040 seconds. That’s actually pretty good. And the nice thing, actually, on YouTube is you only pay when they hit 30 seconds or the full video, whichever comes first. So if it is 15 seconds and they watch all 15 seconds, you’ll pay for that. Otherwise, if it’s longer than 30 seconds, you only pay when they watch 30 seconds. Emily Reagan 39:22 Oh, that sounds Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 39:22 So that’s kind of a cool, yeah. And you know, even if they skip your ad, or they skip your ad, you don’t pay, but you get that five seconds. So that’s why that first five seconds and any ad, and I mean, this kind of goes for social too, because people’s attention spans are very short. So in that first five seconds, if you can do enough to kind of like, at least have your brand present, they know who you are, and give a call to action right away. That can be huge, because you don’t pay if they skip it, but at least you got that little bit of brand awareness before they skip it. Emily Reagan 39:59 I guess my resistance with YouTube is thinking it needs to be some over produced, like bro production. And that’s what I have heard. I have heard that it’s like a little bit under produced, more organic and natural. And I mean, again, it’s that it depends every answer, like the Mr. Beast audience might expect, like some sound effects and like weird transitions. But you’re saying, like our clients could show up at YouTube, and it doesn’t need to be, doesn’t need to be like a whole thing. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 40:28 Especially now with YouTube shorts becoming more and more popular, you know, and in essence, that’s basically like reels. So you can also just take the content you’re building for other platforms and test it. So if you’re already building content for either Tiktok or Instagram or both, take those vertical videos, throw them up on Shorts, put them on YouTube and test them as ads too, because it’s the same audience, but on a different platform, they’re going to respond differently and interact differently. So it’s always like, you know how you test organic content? I would also test it in ads. Emily Reagan 41:01 Okay, oh my gosh, that’s so insightful. So what have you learned the hard way by being an ads manager? Like, can we just talk a minute about the client management? Like, if I were thinking about going into ads management, like, what’s some like, wisdom we can glean from you? Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 41:15 I think a lot of it is really setting client expectations, because sometimes, and I’ve worked with I’ve worked with other agencies, I’ve worked with lots of clients, they come in with way too high of an expectation, like, overnight we’re going to have, you know, all this traffic and all these sales. Like, Emily Reagan 41:33 Yeah Speaker 1 41:34 probably not going to happen. Not going to say it. Like, can’t happen. Sometimes you turn on ads and things just click right away. But sometimes it takes some testing and iterating to like find that right rhythm and that right creative and all that right combination of things. So I think the biggest thing is setting expectations so that the client is ready for what’s coming and like, so that you say, Okay, I usually say 90 days, because 90 days is a good enough time to have, like, collected enough data and started to iterate and optimize, and then we can kind of tell, like, is this going to work or not? And being honest too, along with setting those expectations, like, sometimes things aren’t going to work, and it’s okay to tell a client that, because I’d rather they maybe go work on networking or organic or whatever it might be that might work a little bit better for them going to conferences, rather than wasting money on ads that just like aren’t clicking. Emily Reagan 42:33 Yeah Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 42:34 But yeah, setting expectations because it helps really build that client relationship, is what I’ve found. And so, because I bring this level of honesty, I come up front with, like, here’s what we need to do before we run ads. Here’s what I think you should do. Before you even sign with me, I will tell you, go make these landing page updates, do all these things, and then we’re going to start running ads. And here’s what’s going to happen, and we’re going to let it run for a week, we’re going to iterate, we’re going to test, we’re going to do all these things, and I’m going to be very honest with you, with numbers along the way, the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it, because that’s how we learn, and that’s how we kind of can help us figure out what to test next and what to iterate on. And I find that my clients really appreciate that. And so then when I if something does happen where maybe we do a launch and it’s or a new product or something, and it doesn’t go as well as we would like to, they still have built that trust in you, and they understand that you are the expert, and that that you really have their best interests at heart too, and they’ll usually stick through that I find when it’s clients that come in with Like, overblown expectations and things don’t go the way they think it’s going to that that’s when there’s a lot of friction really early on, and that doesn’t really make for a good client relationship. You know, I’ve had clients like, the results go up and down, but they’ve stuck with you for a long time because they’re like, I trust you. I know that you have my best interests at heart. I know that you’re looking at all the data and pulling all these numbers, and we’re going to tweak things to make it work as best as possible. And that matters the most if you want some longevity in your clients. Emily Reagan 44:10 That is so refreshing to hear, because marketing, all marketing, is testing. Clients hire us no matter what our service to be able to manage that lane and communicate and like, if we can take the lead from the beginning, I mean, I say this all the time on the podcast and in some of our training, but like, if you could take that lead in the beginning without, like, over promising something, then it works out, because we can’t, we can’t guarantee results. I think that’s the hardest thing about ads. Is like, put this pressure on ourselves. We have no idea what will happen, but we can just be there with them and communicate and then make those decisions together. So it really is quite simple. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 44:49 You’d be surprised how many times I hear from potential clients, new clients, how little data they received from a provider. And it boggles my mind, because I’m just like, how do you. What’s going on if you don’t have all the numbers and have all the context, and people sometimes pick and choose the numbers that they show because they’re trying to only show the good stuff. And unfortunately, that leads people to like, not trust you, because then they don’t have the full context. And they feel like, even if it’s going well, they feel like maybe some walls being pulled over their eyes because they’re not being shown the full picture, and it’s like, I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve heard it from, yeah, potential clients. Emily Reagan 45:27 I teach all of our marketing assistants in my school. I’m like, you send the KPIs, you send them metrics, you send the analytics relevant to your work, not just like number posted hours work. It’s like to go in that next step. So I love hearing that. Okay, one last question, because I do have a Packaging Workshop coming up, and I know there’s a lot with price perception, like, what are the going rates like for an ads manager of your caliber? Because we know if we see a Facebook Ads Manager for $250 a month, like, we know that person is not legit. So could you give us kind of like a Danielle like range that would like, tell us, of like, communicate somebody’s expertise level with their prices. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 46:07 Yeah. So I’d say anywhere from like that $1,500 up, it depends, to like, you know, client comes to you with $100,000 budget, you’re not going to charge $1,500 because that’s going to be a much larger scale of things that you’re managing and looking at and data. So definitely slide up if they are coming to you with, like, a huge budget. But, you know, I have some clients that are on the smaller side, and they just like, they want someone to be watching, flagging things, making sure things are running Okay, running smoothly. Like, you know, sometimes within six months, we get to a very smooth place, and you’re like, Okay, maintenance. We just need some maintenance. And I want to check in with you once a month, like, learn about anything new coming up, any new ads we might want to put into rotation. So, you know, on the low end, I’ve slid down to, like $1,250 if someone’s really in like, a pure maintenance mode, because I don’t need to make tons of optimizations. It just needs, like, an extra set of eyes and someone paying attention to it. That sometimes a business owner is like, you know what? I don’t want to handle that. I want someone else to do it for me. And that’s totally fine. Some businesses, like, have someone internally that can manage it, and so that can be sometimes when they fly the coop, but yeah, you’re providing a lot of value, especially if you’re looking at analytics and looking at other numbers and just numbers in general and helping to guide an overall marketing strategy, like you are basically a part of the team, so you should be compensated as such. Emily Reagan 47:34 You know, I love that. Okay. Thank you so much. This is so insightful, and those are the types of conversations we have over in our workgroup, like, what do you charge? Like, what should this be? How do we manage the client? Like, those, those type of things that really make a difference in our business. So, like, I love that you said that, like, that mattered the most. So you have a freebie for our audience. Tell everyone what that is, and we’ll put the link in the show notes. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 47:55 Yeah. So I call it my Roadmap to Ad Success, and I think this audience will really resonate with it. So it’s just six steps that you should take before you run ads, if you have already started to run ads, it’s still really helpful, because it’s a lot of just understanding those numbers, like I mentioned, you want to understand your KPIs, your goals, the benchmarks that you want to set before you start running ads, because that can help inform how much you should even spend. You know, if you come in and you’re going to spend $1,500 if you’re a lawyer, that’s probably not going to be enough to get 10 cases. So you have to understand how the numbers work in your business and what’s actually profitable before you run ads, so that it can better guide your decision making. So this freebie walks through a lot of those steps and will help you understand all those numbers before you dive in, so you’re not totally overwhelmed with like, what am I looking at? Where do I go next? How do I know what to scale? Once you understand the numbers, it becomes a lot clearer as to figure out, like, how do I move my budget? What should be good? More budget to where is there room to grow? And all of those kind of questions that you can potentially answer for your client. Emily Reagan 49:09 Thank you. That sounds like a really helpful asset for anyone who’s doing marketing in general with their clients and to set them up for success. So Danielle, thank you so much. We’ll put all the links to connect with you like over on Instagram to grab her freebie. And I appreciate you so much. Danielle Migliaccio-Morse 49:25 Thank you. Great talking to you. Emily Reagan 49:26 If you loved hearing about Danielle’s rates and packages, if you love getting insight to the client work, then you need to put your name in to our digital marketer’s workgroup. This is our community and mastermind for fellow marketers, whether you’re a specialist, a marketing manager, a CMO, if you’re fractional, if you’re doing marketing assistant work, this community is all about sharing that insight and getting better together, getting more successful, getting better at our craft, and nerding out on that. The byproduct of that is we get more client referrals, and we make. More money, quite simply. So get your application into the work group. I love having that ballpark price range of like, what’s fair, what’s normal, what to put up with, what systems do I need to be in place that I work with the best type of clients. But I love learning how Google and meta work together could help me a market my own business. But of course, I’m thinking on behalf of my clients, because I’m that type of service provider. So get your application into the work group if you want to join us. And please DM Danielle and I are on Instagram. Tell us your best takeaway. Download her roadmap so you understand what needs to be in place before ads when it comes to your own profitability, and hit subscribe so you don’t miss another episode. I’ll see you in the next one.