Ads Find Her, Your Content Convinces Her: The System That Fills Studios

Ads Find Her, Your Content Convinces Her: The System That Fills Studios

Do I run ads, or do I just keep posting organically?

It's the question every studio owner asks... and it's not the right question.

In this episode, I'm sharing the one number that should reorganize your whole marketing plan: people who see your organic content AND your paid ads are 61% more likely to convert than people who only see the ads.

Ads and organic aren't competing for your budget, time, or energy.

They're two halves of one marketing machine — and running either half alone is the expensive version of both.

In this episode:

• Meta or Google? My honest answer in about a minute — and why your ad budget starts with Meta
• The real reach of your organic posts (the average Instagram post reaches about 3.5% of your own followers — and what that means for your growth plan)
• Why referrals and organic are a bonus, not a marketing plan
• The 61% multiplier: what happens when someone sees your ads and your content
• The halo effect — how running ads makes your organic content work harder, including the study where searches for a brand's name jumped over 400%
• Why the first thing a curious stranger does is tap your profile (and what she needs to find there)
• Warm audiences: how the people your content attracts convert at 5–10% vs. about 2% for cold traffic — and how that quietly lowers your cost per member every week
• Your one action this week: the two-question multiplier audit

Ready for ads? 
The Studio CEO Ads Agency is enrolling a few new clients for August. 
We only run ads for yoga and Pilates businesses; we're built to fit your payroll, and when you apply, we'll tell you honestly whether you're ready. The application takes less than two minutes. 

Work with Jackie Murphy

• Say Hi on Instagram @studioceoofficial
• The Studio CEO Ads Agency: https://www.jackiegmurphy.com/agency
• Join The Studio CEO Program: https://www.jackiegmurphy.com/studioceo

Transcript

The 61% Conversion Multiplier

SPEAKER_00 0:00

People who see your organic marketing content and your paid ads are 61% more likely to convert than people who see just your ads or just your organic content. So you've probably thought to yourself, should I pivot and put money into ads or should I just keep posting and growing organically? Which one's gonna work best in 2026? Because we both know that you probably don't have the time, the energy, or the budget to go all in on both by yourself. And the truth is, this was never an either or this or that conversation. The best thing that you can do for your business is have both an organic marketing strategy running paired with a paid advertising strategy. So today I'm gonna break down what each half does for your business, organic and ads, why they fall apart and how to get them working together so that everything that you're already doing starts to bring you more new students. Let's go.

Why Paid Ads Month Matters

SPEAKER_00 1:31

If you are ready to show up with passion, take your business seriously, and scale to new heights without burning out, you are in the right place. I'm your host, Jackie Murphy, an award-winning certified business coach with over 12 years of experience inside the yoga industry. I have seen firsthand what it takes to build a profitable and scalable business. Join me as we dive into strategies, insights, and real-world advice that will help you grow your revenue, build a thriving team, and create a business that serves you as much as you serve your students. It's time to embrace your inner CEO and make more money without working more. This is just the beginning. Hello and welcome back to the Studio CEO podcast. We are in the middle of a whole month on the show about paid ads. And this is the second episode. But if it's the first one that you're catching, that's completely fine. You can always go back and re-listen to the episodes. Today, I promise to answer a question that I get all of the time. Where do you start with paid advertising? Meta or Google? And here's my honest answer. And it's the same answer that we tell people inside of our agency.

Meta Vs Google Where To Start

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Google is where people who are already interested in what you have to offer are searching for you. That means those people, those leads, convert really, really well, close to 7% because they have high intent. They typed Pilates near me because they already want it. But here's the ceiling on Google: it can only catch people in your town who are already warm, already searching for you. And in most markets, that is going to be a pretty small, fixed pawn. One of the biggest marketing mistakes that I see in our industry is that we only speak to people who are already interested in what we have to offer. They already know about yoga and Pilates and want it. So you cannot just spin on Google alone. This is where Meta, that's Facebook and Instagram, does the opposite job. It's going to put you in front of the person who isn't searching yet. It's the only channel where you get to decide how many new people find your business this month. Brand new people who are cold to you. The leads are brand new. And our industry is one of the best converting categories on the entire platform. So it scales when you're ready to scale. The answer is you start with Meta. That is what most businesses in the yoga implies industry need. You need a way to get in front of new people, use the engine that Meta has created, and bring those new students into your business. So that's where I would start. But the much bigger question, the one that decides whether your ads end up super expensive or actually a good investment, is what happens between your ads and your organic content. That is the multiplier, and that is today's episode. And let me give you a heads up right at the top because I'm all about full transparency with you all month long. I run an ads agency for yoga and Pilates businesses. This is what my team specializes in and does every single day. This month we are opening just a few spots because we want to bring you on to our ads agency. And I would rather serve a few people really, really well than a lot of people halfway. The application, if you are ready to hire someone with expertise in this area, is in the show notes of every single episode. And when you apply, we will let you know if we genuinely think you're ready to have ads running and if we're the right fit for you. More on that at the end of this episode, but let's dive into today.

The False Choice Ads Or Organic

SPEAKER_00 5:52

If you were going to start with meta ads, there's a question that pops up right away. Well, Jackie, if I'm already on Meta, if I'm on Facebook and Instagram to grow my business and I'm putting content out, do I need ads? Can I just keep going with organic content? Because it's the free path. And if I just post more, post better, stay consistent, get my referrals going, then I can scale this business without ever paying for ads. And there's the opposite point of view that says, you know, if I can just get ads running, then I can rely less on posting and thank goodness the ads will do all the work for me. Both of these can feel really reasonable at the time, but both of these beliefs or questions could be costing you money. So we're gonna break them down one at a time. First, the organic only plan. And I want to be respectful here because I know how much work it takes to grow an account organically on Instagram in 2026. I know that you put so much into it. And I'm about to tell you what it's reaching. The average Instagram post right now reaches somewhere around 3.5% of your own followers. Not of the people in your town, not of the people in your community, not the people you want to get in front of, the people who are already following you, the people who have already said, I'm interested, follow this account. On Facebook, it's closer to 2%. So let's make this real. If you have 800 followers and you pour your whole evening into a post, you are maybe looking at 25, 30 people seeing it, and most of them already know you, meaning they could have already heard your offer, already bought your offer, already be working with you. That's the structural problem with the organic algorithm as your growth plan. The places you're posting mostly talk to people who already know about you. And even when or if organic does reach someone new, a reel gets a little bit of reach, a member share something, you can't schedule that and repeat that. You can't say, I'd like 15 new students in September, and then have your posting on Instagram produce those 15 new students. It's the same thing that we say about referrals. And I'm gonna keep saying it. Referrals and posts that get more reach, they're bonus, but they're not your marketing plan because you can't predict them, you can't forecast them, and you can't scale them the way that you can scale an ad. So often a business growing on organic alone is essentially growing at the speed of luck. We want to compare that to the engine of meta. Meta ads puts you in front of a person you've never heard of. They've never heard of you, they're not following you, and they put you in front of the exact person who's interested in what you have to offer yoga, Pilates. You can break it down so much so that it's a certain zip code or a certain occupation or a certain stage in life, a certain interest. On average, meta returns about four dollars and twenty cents for every dollar a small business puts into it. That's on average. So that includes people running ads poorly. Our industry converts really, really well on the platform. A lead can run around $28. And I know these numbers feel kind of boring, and maybe some of you just checked out, but come back because what I'm trying to tell you is this meta ads machine is exactly that a machine, not a gamble. It's a machine we've used for our own businesses' growth and for our clients for years. But it's the reason that I say running meta ads to find new people every month is the growth engine of your business. It's funded on purpose out of the five to 10% of the revenue that a healthy business puts behind marketing. So we're really starting to see that you can't just rely on organic content alone. You are probably not gonna get in front of enough people for that to help you truly grow your business the way that you want to grow it at the scale that you want to grow it. I have to also be clear. I'm not talking about you boosting a post on Meta. I'm not talking about the meta subscription that now you can do to get your posting more. I'm truly talking about running paid advertising. Those things are different. But let's talk about where ads and organic also come together.

Dead Feed Costs You More

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Here's what the research shows about running ads without organic posting behind them, or what we could call a dead feed. People who see both your content and your ads are 61% more likely to convert than the people who only see the ads. When you are running the two together, so you have organic content going out and you're running ads, studies show about a 14% lift in overall performance and roughly 12% lower cost per conversion. So I want you to flip about how you think about this. The studio running ads, while the feed sits dead and organic posts aren't going out, is paying more for that new student to find them for worse results with the exact same ad budget. Let me just tell you a story from my own business. This past July, we opened up the studio CEO program. And because of where life was for me, prepping for maternity leave and being pregnant, I didn't have organic content running the way that I would want it to. So instead, I just relied on my ads. And what I know for sure, that the next time we open the studio CEO program, what we will do is probably double our sales because we'll have both the ads running and the organic content running. I am genuinely sure that just like this data shows, 61% more likely to convert when people see both. But here's the part that nobody measures the lift can run in both directions. It's not just that your content makes your ads cheaper and your ads make your content work harder. This is called the halo effect. It's been studied. When brands turn their ads off, it's not only the paid results that disappear, their organic traffic and their direct website traffic drop right along with them because the ads were quietly feeding everything downstream. And the search side of this is kind of wild. One study of video advertising found that running ads made searches for the brand's own name jump by more than 400%. So that means 400% more people searching your studio's name just because you have a video ad running. So think about what that means for you. Every single ad you run sends a little wave of local people to your profile, to your website, to your page, to your name, where your organic content is sitting there ready to do its job to show there what kind of values you have, what kind of services you offer. The ad isn't just buying you a lead, it's buying your content an audience as well. So the question really was never either or ads or organic. The ads will find new people. She will then go to your feed, she'll watch a few videos, she'll start to feel connected to what you offer and who you are. And then she opts into the intro offer and walks into your studio. That's the ecosystem that we're trying to create. So let's break down how you can start to set this up for your business.

Discovery Then Trust Then Opt In

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Number one, get the jobs straight because everything else follows from this. The ad's job is discovery. Somewhere in your town right now, there's a postpartum mom or someone with back pain or someone whose doctor just told her she has to start doing yoga and she's never heard of you. Your posts are not reliably going to reach her because your posts go to your followers and she isn't one. The ad running is the one tool that you have that can put your business in front of her tonight while she scrolls in bed on purpose. Think of it like this: an ad's job is to bring a stranger to your front step. And your content job is to get her to walk through the door. Because here's what she does the moment your ad makes her curious. And I really want you to think about this because you've probably done it yourself. She's not gonna fill out the form first. First, she's gonna tap your profile. She's gonna look around, she's gonna watch a reel or two, she's gonna see testimonials, read how you talk to people in the comments. She's gonna check is this business alive? Is there a human behind this business? And in those 90 seconds that she's perusing, she's deciding whether or not the studio that she's landed on is for her. The ad found her, but the content is what brings her in. That's the machine. Discovery, then trust, then opt-in. Ads do one step, organic does step two, and neither one gets to skip the other step, no matter how good it is. All right, so number two, what organic cannot do alone and what it's genuinely great at. We already did the reach math. A few percent of your followers per post. That means a few percent of your followers see your content per post. So I want to reframe what your organic is for because I'm not telling you that it doesn't matter. I am so big on reels, you know this. It matters enormously. It just has a different job than the one that you've been giving it. Your feed is your proof, it's your storefront, it's your environment, it's your ecosystem. Your stories keep you connected to the people who are engaged closest with you, who already love you. And reels are this warmest introduction to what it feels like to be a part of your world. What organic cannot do is guarantee that new people see it month after month. So expecting your posting content to be the way that you grow is like expecting your beautiful lobby of your hotel to walk around handing out flyers, getting people to book a room. It's a gorgeous space. It just was never meant to bring people in. Flip that number three, what ads can't do alone. Picture this the business that runs a decent ad with a dead profile behind it. The offer's fine, the ad is fine, someone sees it, she gets curious, she taps the photo, she taps the profile photo, but she finds three stock photos and a scheduled graphic from March and no human face, and she's gone in about four seconds. The ad dollar that you spent to find her is literally wasted. Multiply that across every lead, and you see where that 12% cost premium comes from. The engine keeps delivering strangers to a door that's literally boarded shut. And one quick honest thing while we're here, because someone will ask this, I would think.

Fix Your Online Footprint Fast

SPEAKER_00 17:48

When your lead gets curious, she might type your name into a search bar. So make sure what she searches and finds is perfectly set up. There are testimonials, reviews, right hours, current page. This is not talking about your ad spend or anything. This is just important for you to know that you have to keep your online footprint up to date so that you can build trust with people who are finding you. This means analyzing your website. Is it up to date? Are you selling an old discount on the pop-up? Can we change that? And then we want to run this as one system. And we're gonna talk numbers in both directions because this is where it really gets fun, in my opinion.

Turn Organic Wins Into Ad Wins

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Direction one: your organic feeds your ad two different ways. First, your feed is your ad research department and it works for free. Every reel that you post is a little test. Your own audience tells you which hooks stop the scroll, which stories move people, which videos get watched to the end and then sent to a friend. And the winners can become your ads. You're not guessing what creative will work, you've already watched it work organically. And the data says that the real stuff wins. The phone shot that you just put up in the studio, human, slightly imperfect, you, your teachers, your members converts at 29% better than a polished produced content. So all you have to do is show up. You don't necessarily need a professional videographer to come in and create content for you. What we want to do is make this feel like the real experience of walking into your business. Feed it real content, refresh it, and your cost is gonna stay down. And the second one, every person who watches your reels, engages with your posts, visits your page, Meta can track who that is. Meta remembers her. That group is what we call a warm audience, and we can run ads directly to them. So here's why that matters. Your warm audience is 70% more likely to convert than cold people, people who do not know you. They engage with ads up to three times the rate. So really think about this. If you want to retarget and get people who are already interested in your business, sell them a retreat, sell them a teacher training, sell them the next workshop. Ads are the very best way to do that. And you are going to be able to really see a return on that investment when you have that audience for you. Every single campaign is gonna send you new local people to your organic content. Your follower account will grow, your reach will grow, your search name goes up. All of that momentum keeps going after you run ads and when you run ads. So when someone tells you ads and organic, you have to choose one or you shouldn't do both at the same time. It's just not true. They compound each other, and that's the whole point of this episode. Let's zoom back out because I don't want you to think about building this whole machine right now.

The Scaling Question And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Here's what I want you to do: question this right now. Is anything in your business intentionally going out to find new people who do not know you every single month at a volume that you choose? Just yes or no. If you don't have that in your business, that is stopping you from growing. And if you're like, the answer to that question has been no for years. I've been relying on referrals and SEO and organic content. I don't want you to have to figure this out on your own. That is why we have our ads agency. Our ads agency specializes in yoga and Pilates businesses. We don't require a huge ad spend for you to get started. You can spend as little or as much as you want, and we will help you start to create ads that bring in those new people for you. So all you need to do right now is scroll to the show notes, click the link, and submit your application so we can let you know if you are the right fit for our ads agency, and we can start getting new students into your business and turning them into members before the end of the month. Next week, we're gonna talk about money, what you should be spending, what they cost, how long to turn on ads, and why so many people quit right before their ads start working. Do not spend a dollar before you hear this episode. Here's the summary of today in one line. Meta ads are going to find you new people. Your organic content is going to bring those new people in and build trust. Running them together is what makes both of them cheaper and work better.

One Line Summary And Teaser

SPEAKER_00 23:12

It's never one or the other. It's about building the machine so that you have both parts running. I will talk to you in the next episode.