Paid Ads 101 with Alvaro Berrios Artwork

Marketing Sucks

Marketing Sucks is the podcast for business owners who are looking for practical, fun, and strategic ways to get noticed online, and don’t want to sit through 30 minutes of filler to get to the good stuff.

Each week, Grind Social Media + Co founder Amanda Casinha sits down with the industry’s most interesting and unconventional ad experts, funnel developers, content creators, and changemakers to explore their off-the-beaten-path strategies and experiences in the world of marketing and business — and dig into real stories of failures, strategies, and how they got their jaw-dropping results.

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Marketing Sucks

Paid Ads 101 with Alvaro Berrios

February 11, 2025 • Amanda Casinha-Ginther • Episode 46

Thinking about taking the plunge into paid ads? Wondering why your current campaign is falling flat? I got you. In this episode of Marketing Sucks, I sit down with Alvaro Berrios, founder of the digital marketing agency Alvaro Berrios Digital. As a leading expert in ad management, Alvaro helps his clients get mucho bang for their ad spend bucks.

Tune in as we discuss ALL things paid ads — when to use them, how much to pay for them, how to know when you’re ready for your first campaign, and how to avoid unethical ad agencies. Along the way, Alvaro shares his wild trial-by-fire intro to the world of Google and Facebook Ads, his #1 piece of advice for setting the budget of your first ad run, and why he turns away a TON of potential customers. This conversation is a value-packed paid ads primer that ALL business owners can learn from — don’t miss it!

Marketing sucks. Let’s learn together. Hit play to discover:‌ ‌

How to know when you’re ready for paid ads — and two things to have in place FIRST
The key components of a successful campaign (and the metrics you’ll want to track!)
Your best-bet paid ads platform as a service-based business

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Guest bio: Alvaro Berrios is the founder of Alvaro Berrios Digital, a leading digital marketing agency. He's an expert in ad management across major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube. Alvaro excels at creating strategies that boost audience engagement and drive sales.

Timestamps:‌ ‌

00:12 Intro

01:00 Meet Alvaro Berrios

02:05 Alvaro’s intro to ads

06:19 Prepping for paid ads

09:42 Start slow & set a budget

12:39 The right platform & mindset

16:17 Ethics in marketing

18:57 Successful campaign components

24:08 Boosting v. actual ads

28:10 When to hire an ads manager

31:31 Unethical agencies