When a student walks into my classroom, their first question is usually: “Sir, when will we learn how to hack the Facebook algorithm?”

My answer is always: “Never. Because algorithms change. People don’t.”

Teaching digital marketing is tricky. If you teach tools, your curriculum is obsolete in 6 months. If you teach theory, your students can’t get jobs. Over the years, I have developed a “Psychology-First” approach that works for everyone, from college students to business owners.

Step 1: Forbidden Laptops

For the first 3 classes, I ban laptops. If you give a student a laptop, they obsess over buttons. “Where do I click?” “What is the pixel size?”

Instead, we use whiteboards. We map out user journeys. We discuss why we bought the last pair of shoes we own. We analyze our own behavior.

  • The Lesson: Marketing is not about what you do to a screen. It is about how you make a person feel.

Step 2: The “Lemonade Stand” Simulation

Before we touch Google Ads, we play a game. I divide the class into teams. Each team has to sell a hypothetical glass of lemonade.

  • Team A has a budget of NPR 1000 but a bad product.
  • Team B has zero budget but a great story.

They have to pitch. They realize quickly that throwing money (ads) at a bad product doesn’t work.

  • The Lesson: Content and Offer > Ad Spend.

Step 3: The “Live Fire” Exercise

I don’t believe in dummy accounts. Midway through the course, I make students spend their own money. I ask them to spend NPR 500 (about $4) on a real Facebook boost post for a personal project or a friend’s business.

The emotional stakes change everything. When it’s their money, they care about every rupee. They check the analytics every hour.

  • The Lesson: You only learn by losing money.

Conclusion

My goal isn’t to create “Facebook Ads Experts.” It is to create “Problem Solvers.” I can teach you how to use a tool in 2 hours via YouTube. But it takes months to teach you how to think like a marketer.