Trying to decide between an online Facebook ads course and a 1-day in-person workshop? Both have their place, but they deliver very different results. Here's an honest comparison to help you choose what's right for your business.
Online Courses: The Good and the Bad
The Good:
- Learn at your own pace: Watch videos whenever you want
- Lifetime access: Go back and rewatch content
- Often cheaper upfront: Some courses are £200-500
- No travel required: Learn from your sofa
The Bad:
- You probably won't finish it: Industry average completion rate for online courses is under 15%
- No accountability: Easy to put off "until next week" forever
- Outdated quickly: That course from 2022 is already teaching old strategies
- No personalized help: Stuck on something? Good luck finding support
- Theory-heavy: Lots of watching, not much doing
The Reality:
Most people buy online courses with good intentions, watch 2-3 modules, get stuck or distracted, and never finish. The course sits in their bookmarks making them feel guilty. Sound familiar?
1-Day Workshops: The Good and the Bad
The Good:
- You actually finish it: One day, done. No dragging on for weeks.
- Hands-on practice: Build real campaigns with expert guidance
- Immediate feedback: Questions answered in real-time, not days later in a Facebook group
- Accountability: You've booked it, you show up, you learn
- Current strategies: Learn what's working right now, not what worked years ago
- Network with peers: Meet other business owners facing similar challenges
- Focused intensity: One day of deep focus beats weeks of distracted learning
The Bad:
- Requires travel: You need to get to the location
- Fixed schedule: Can't pause and come back later
- Higher upfront cost: Usually £500-800 for a quality workshop
- One day to absorb everything: It's intensive
The Reality:
Workshops force you to commit one focused day. You can't procrastinate, you can't skip ahead, and you can't quit halfway through. You show up, you learn, you leave with campaigns set up and a clear path forward.
Which One Actually Gets Results?
Here's the uncomfortable truth: the best training is the one you actually complete and implement.
An online course might have 50 hours of content, but if you only watch 3 hours and never implement anything, it's worthless. A 1-day workshop might be "less content," but if you actually show up, learn, and start running campaigns, it's infinitely more valuable.
When Online Courses Work:
- You're extremely self-disciplined
- You have a specific, narrow question to answer
- You're supplementing existing knowledge, not starting from scratch
- You genuinely prefer learning alone at your own pace
When 1-Day Workshops Work Better:
- You've been "meaning to learn" Facebook ads for months
- You've started and abandoned online courses before
- You learn better with hands-on practice than watching videos
- You want to actually launch campaigns, not just learn theory
- You value real-time feedback and personalized support
- You're tired of bumbling around online trying to piece it together
The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About
Online Course Hidden Costs:
- Time: That "self-paced" course takes months because you keep putting it off
- Opportunity cost: Your competitors are running ads while you're on module 7
- Wasted ad spend: You implement something wrong from a video and burn budget
- Course stacking: You buy another course because the first one didn't click, then another...
Workshop Hidden Costs:
- Travel time: Getting to the location
- One day out of your schedule: Though this is also a benefit - it forces you to commit
When you factor in the hidden costs, that "cheap" £300 online course often ends up costing more in time and wasted ad spend than a £650 workshop that gets you running campaigns immediately.
What About Hybrid Approaches?
The best training often combines both: intensive in-person learning followed by ongoing support.
At The Online Lab, our approach is:
- Start with a 1-day intensive workshop: Hands-on training in small groups with 1:1 support. Build real campaigns, get immediate feedback, leave with clarity.
- Optional follow-up training: Many students do another full day (1:1 or small group) to go deeper into advanced strategies.
- Ongoing support based on your goals: Hourly 1:1 sessions, regular check-ins, support when you need it - not when a course curriculum says you should.
You get the focused intensity of a workshop plus the ongoing support of a course, without the "lifetime access" you'll never use.
The Honest Recommendation
If you're the rare person who actually finishes online courses and implements what you learn, go for it. They can be great value.
But if you're like most people - you've bought courses before that you never finished, you've been "meaning to learn" Facebook ads for months, and you're tired of piecing together contradictory advice from YouTube - a 1-day workshop will get you further, faster.
Why Our Workshops Work:
- Small groups with 1:1 support: Personalized attention throughout the day
- Hands-on setup: Build campaigns with expert guidance, not just watch demos
- Current expertise: Learn from someone running high-performing campaigns right now (10+ years experience)
- Flexible progression: Follow-up support options based on your goals and pace
- One focused day: No dragging on for weeks, no modules to finish
- Local training: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle
- Honest approach: We won't promise overnight success, but we will show you the clearer path forward
Make the Choice That Actually Gets You Running Ads
Stop collecting courses you'll never finish. Stop watching YouTube tutorials from 2020. Stop bumbling around online hoping you'll figure it out.
Take one focused day to learn from someone who's been doing this successfully for over a decade. Get the practical skills, the current strategies, and the ongoing support you need to actually run Facebook and Instagram campaigns that work.
Our 1-day workshops are £650. Limited spaces available in cities across the UK.
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