Meta Advertising Improvement & Capability Transfer

# Request for Proposal ## Meta Advertising Improvement & Capability Transfer ### About School of Ranch School of Ranch is a Central Oregon nonprofit adult education organization offering hands-on workshops in practical ranch, homestead, farm, artisan, land, food, and self-reliance skills. We have a strong and growing audience, a proven workshop model, and an established Meta advertising program. Meta is currently our primary paid acquisition channel, with annual ad spend of approximately **$20,000**. Our Meta advertising works, but it has evolved primarily as a way to promote individual workshops and sell tickets. Creative has become repetitive, testing is inconsistent, and campaigns are not yet organized around a deliberate funnel. We want to take the next step—without building a monster. --- # Project Objective We are seeking an experienced Meta advertising consultant to help us: **Build a simple, effective, repeatable Meta advertising system that helps School of Ranch market its ongoing workshop catalog, develop its audience, and ultimately increase participation.** School of Ranch maintains an evolving catalog that includes: * workshops currently open for ticket registration * workshops in pre-registration, where we are measuring interest before scheduling * new and returning workshops added to the catalog over time Our current Meta activity is weighted heavily toward advertising individual workshops and asking people to register. We want to develop a more intentional funnel-oriented approach in which Meta can potentially help us: * introduce relevant new audiences to School of Ranch * generate interest in our practical learning experiences * grow our newsletter and owned audience * generate pre-registration interest * retarget people who have demonstrated interest * sell tickets to workshops currently in registration * learn which audiences, messages, creative approaches, and offers produce meaningful downstream behavior We do not assume we already know the right mix of these activities. Part of the assignment is to help us **test, learn, and establish a practical operating model based on actual performance.** This is explicitly a **capability-building and knowledge-transfer engagement**, not an ongoing outsourced ad-management relationship. The consultant should improve the system with us, document it, train us, and ultimately hand operation back to School of Ranch. **If the system only works while the consultant is running it, the project has failed.** --- # Current State Our Meta program currently has several strengths: * an established audience and brand * meaningful historical campaign activity * approximately $20,000 in annual Meta ad spend * a substantial and changing workshop catalog * Meta Pixel in place * an internal team accustomed to promoting workshops Known weaknesses include: * heavy reliance on direct workshop promotion * repetitive creative * heavy reliance on carousel-style ticket advertising * inconsistent testing * limited funnel-stage diversity * limited audience testing * relatively unsophisticated retargeting * inconsistent learning from campaign to campaign * limited use of Meta to build an owned audience * campaigns that operate more independently than as parts of a coherent system We are not looking to throw everything away. We want someone who can determine what is working, improve what isn't, identify worthwhile experiments, and create better operating discipline around the whole program. --- # Scope of Work We anticipate three primary phases. ## Phase 1 — Audit & Operating Design Review the existing Meta advertising operation, including as appropriate: * account and campaign structure * historical campaign performance * audiences and targeting * retargeting * creative formats and variation * messaging * budget allocation * workshop and catalog promotion * pre-registration advertising * newsletter/audience acquisition * Pixel and tracking configuration * reporting and decision-making practices Deliver a prioritized assessment that distinguishes: 1. what should remain 2. what should change now 3. what is worth testing 4. what is unnecessary for an organization of our size Then recommend a **simple operating model** for how Meta should support School of Ranch's broader marketing funnel and ongoing catalog. We are specifically interested in simplicity and maintainability. We are not trying to replicate the advertising infrastructure of a national ecommerce company. --- ## Phase 2 — Implementation & Live Testing Work with us using our **actual active workshop catalog and ongoing Meta campaigns** to implement and test the improved approach. The implementation period should provide enough real campaign activity to test and refine how Meta can support different stages of our funnel. ### Audience Development Help us test how Meta can efficiently introduce relevant people to School of Ranch and give them reasons to remain connected. This should include testing appropriate ways to grow our newsletter or other owned audience rather than requiring every new prospect to immediately purchase a workshop ticket. We do not assume newsletter acquisition is automatically the correct answer or that every subscriber acquired through Meta will be valuable. We want to test whether we can acquire people who demonstrate meaningful subsequent engagement. ### Catalog Marketing Help us determine how to market a changing catalog containing multiple workshops without simply running an endless collection of disconnected workshop ads. This may include testing the appropriate roles of: * individual workshop advertising * groups or themes of workshops * broader School of Ranch messaging * creative that communicates the range and value of School of Ranch * retargeting based on demonstrated interest ### Pre-Registration Help us improve how Meta supports workshops in pre-registration. We use pre-registration to measure audience interest before scheduling some workshops. We want to understand how paid media can generate and measure meaningful interest at this stage and how those audiences should subsequently be handled. ### Registration Improve the effectiveness of advertising for workshops currently selling tickets. This should include appropriate improvements to: * targeting * creative * messaging * campaign structure * timing * retargeting * budget decisions * optimization ### Funnel Movement Help us understand how these activities should work together rather than as unrelated campaigns. Our marketing funnel is: **Discover → Learn → Engage → Pre-Register → Register → Return / Advocate** Meta does not need to perform every function in that funnel. Part of the assignment is determining **where Meta adds meaningful value and where it does not.** We do not want an elaborate automated funnel. We want a practical framework that can be tested against actual audience behavior and improved over time. --- # Testing & Learning A major objective of this engagement is establishing a repeatable testing discipline. We want to move from: **running ads and looking at results** toward: **forming hypotheses, running bounded tests, observing behavior, and applying what we learn.** Tests may examine questions such as: * Which creative approaches generate meaningful engagement from new audiences? * What messages or offers can efficiently grow an owned audience? * Do Meta-acquired newsletter subscribers subsequently engage with School of Ranch? * When does advertising an individual workshop outperform broader catalog or thematic advertising? * Which audiences respond to different types of workshop offerings? * Which retargeting approaches produce useful downstream behavior? * How should paid activity differ for workshops in pre-registration versus ticket registration? * What role should awareness and engagement campaigns play relative to direct-response advertising? * Which approaches are worth repeating, changing, or abandoning? We do not need statistically pristine experimentation. We need disciplined experimentation that produces useful operational learning. For meaningful tests, our team should ultimately be able to identify: * what hypothesis we are testing * what variable is changing * what outcome we're watching * what happened * what we learned * what we will do differently as a result --- # Phase 3 — Capability Transfer & Handoff Transition operation of the improved Meta program to the School of Ranch team. Expected handoff materials should include, as appropriate: * Meta campaign operating playbook * recommended campaign structures and templates * catalog advertising framework * audience-development framework * creative testing framework * audience-testing framework * retargeting approach * pre-registration advertising approach * ticket-registration advertising approach * budget and optimization decision rules * campaign naming and organization conventions * simple measurement and reporting framework * testing and learning process * campaign review checklist * written SOPs * recorded walkthroughs where useful The final portion of the engagement should involve **School of Ranch increasingly operating campaigns while the consultant coaches and reviews our work.** Watching a consultant share their screen is not capability transfer. --- # What We Are NOT Looking For This project does **not** include: * permanent outsourced Meta management * redesigning School of Ranch's overall marketing strategy * redesigning our lifecycle marketing strategy * a new CRM or marketing platform * elaborate attribution infrastructure * enterprise marketing technology * large-scale marketing automation * complex audience taxonomies * social media management * organic content management * SEO * Google Ads * complexity for complexity's sake We are also not looking for someone whose primary recommendation is simply to increase ad spend. Meta is an important part of our marketing system. **It is not our entire marketing system.** --- # What Success Looks Like At the conclusion of the project: ### 1. School of Ranch has a documented Meta operating model. Our team understands the different jobs Meta can perform and how campaigns should support our catalog and marketing funnel. ### 2. We have a tested approach to audience development. We have tested ways to use Meta to develop an owned audience and have a framework for determining whether those audiences produce meaningful subsequent engagement. ### 3. We have a clearer approach to catalog marketing. We understand when and how to advertise individual workshops, groups or themes of workshops, pre-registration opportunities, and School of Ranch more broadly. ### 4. Our direct-response advertising is stronger. Advertising for workshops currently selling tickets uses more disciplined creative, targeting, retargeting, budgeting, and optimization practices. ### 5. We have substantially improved our testing discipline. We know what we're testing, why we're testing it, what happened, and what we will do differently as a result. ### 6. We have clearer decision rules. Our team knows which metrics matter for different campaign objectives and when performance warrants action. ### 7. The system has been tested against actual School of Ranch marketing activity. This isn't a strategy deck sitting in Google Drive. ### 8. School of Ranch can operate the system internally. This is the most important deliverable. --- # Ideal Consultant We're looking for someone who: * has strong hands-on Meta Ads Manager experience * has worked effectively with relatively modest advertising budgets * understands acquisition beyond immediate purchase conversion * understands both awareness and direct-response advertising * understands retargeting and funnel-oriented paid media * knows how to structure useful creative and audience tests * can distinguish meaningful optimization from Meta-advertising voodoo * communicates clearly with non-specialists * documents their work * enjoys teaching * can simplify rather than merely add sophistication * is comfortable eventually making themselves unnecessary Experience with local, event, adult education, nonprofit, experience-based, or catalog-oriented marketing would be useful. Experience transferring paid-media operations from consultant or agency management to an internal team is particularly valuable. --- # Engagement Structure We anticipate a **fixed-fee, milestone-based engagement**, likely lasting approximately **8–12 weeks**, depending on the implementation and testing approach proposed. Meta advertising spend is separate from consultant compensation. We expect implementation and testing to occur against our actual active catalog and advertising activity rather than hypothetical campaigns. --- # Proposal Requirements Please keep your proposal relatively short. Include: ### 1. Relevant Experience Briefly describe your Meta advertising experience, particularly with organizations with modest budgets and with audience development, local/event marketing, education, nonprofits, or similar organizations. ### 2. Your Approach How would you approach moving School of Ranch from its current workshop-focused Meta advertising toward a stronger funnel-oriented, internally operated system? ### 3. Testing Approach How would you help us establish a practical testing and learning discipline given our relatively modest advertising budget? ### 4. Capability Transfer Describe how you would ensure our team can operate the system without you after the engagement. If applicable, provide an example of a previous engagement where you successfully transferred advertising capability to a client team. ### 5. Proposed Scope Describe the major phases and deliverables you recommend. Please identify anything in our proposed scope that you believe is unnecessary, unrealistic, or missing. **We appreciate consultants who tell us not to do things.** ### 6. Timeline Provide your estimated project duration and availability. ### 7. Fee Provide a proposed **fixed project fee**, including any milestone structure you recommend. Please separate consultant fees from advertising spend. ### 8. Work Samples / References Provide relevant examples, case studies, or references where appropriate. --- # How We Will Evaluate Proposals We will prioritize: 1. ability to build a simple, maintainable Meta operating system 2. demonstrated Meta advertising expertise 3. understanding of funnel-oriented paid media 4. strength of testing and learning methodology 5. ability to teach and transfer capability 6. experience working effectively with budgets comparable to ours 7. quality and practicality of the proposed approach 8. communication clarity 9. documentation discipline 10. cost We are **not** selecting primarily on who promises the highest ROAS. We are looking for someone who can leave School of Ranch with a substantially better advertising capability than we have today. --- # One Final Note School of Ranch has no interest in marketing sophistication for its own sake. We want a Meta program that is smarter, more disciplined, more creative, more funnel-oriented, and more effective—but still simple enough that a small organization can actually run it. We expect some of our current assumptions to be wrong. Finding that out is part of the assignment. If your preferred outcome is a client who needs you forever, we're probably not a fit. If your preferred outcome is leaving a client noticeably better at the work than when you arrived, we'd like to hear from you.