Creating a Better Facebook Ad
My last Facebook ad sucked.
Can you relate?
The goal was to test the new homepage on my website. I spent $99 to promote the ad, and then I was able to pull some traffic - even though the ad featured a confused woman from a stock image website. Not super great, but I thought it would be a good baseline.
It was.
It was a good sucky baseline.
I’ve started to chronicle the steps I’m taking so you can see the thought process and the changes that are taking place. Take a peek if you haven’t yet.
Since then I have made some edits to the site… I’ve incorporated heatmapping so I can see what my visitors are doing. I’ve adjusted my call to action. I’ve added some images and trust indicators. But… the site was not the problem.
My problem became apparent when I received an email from Kai Davis. Kai is a consultant for consultants and he has a great email marketing list that I subscribe to. I asked him for permission to share a snippet of it while working on this blog - he approved (thanks my dude!).
The problem… was that my ask was too BIG.
Now, remember that my goal was to test the homepage. I wanted to see if people interacted with it, but I was also hoping that people would sign up for my email marketing list AND book a call with me. Well, people aren’t going to jump at the chance to give me $$$$$ money. They don’t know me at all, they don’t know about my positive reviews, they don’t know that I’ve been working in the field for well over 15 years, they don’t know I am trustworthy, detail oriented, handsome… well… that’s what my Mom says.
I should be looking to start a working relationship, instead of jumping right for the sale.
People are busy.
They’re skeptical.
They’ve been burned in the past.
We just met.
Let’s take it slow.
Hi, I’m AJ.
*waves*
Now knowing this - do I regret the first test? Absolutely not! It was a good learning experience, and it also showed me that people interested in the help I can offer - I’m just offering it in the wrong way.
So back to Kai’s email, he said this:
“The quality and quantity of people who reply to your emails will be different depending on the size of your ask. Small asks are tiny things. Answering a question in an email. Big asks are big things. Having a phone call. Paying you money. Meeting. Many a potential relationship has been destroyed because someone made too big of an ask early on.”
There is more, and you can read the full email about small asks vs BIG ASKS on his site.
This really made an impact on me when I read it, it’s important, and it’s going to be at the forefront of the changes I’ll make to create a better Facebook ad.
Tips for Creating a Better Facebook Ad
Be mindful of your ask. Is it a BIG ASK, or a little one?
Make sure you present a compelling call to action
Make the ad itself more personal
Write great copy
Ok, so easier said than done, right? That’s just our really boiled down list of driving principles.
What is my ASK?
Like I mentioned already, I need to ask people to do something - but it needs to be small. I currently do not have any “freebies” or “special offers” that I can promote (although I do need to create these assets). The first book is currently being re-written, so I can’t promote that. I still want to test my homepage and see if people are using it now that I have HotJar heatmapping installed.
I’m going to ask people to visit the site again, and I’m going to ask them to sign up for my email marketing list. I have to come up with something that they will GET in return though… hmmm… and I know that the button on the Facebook ad will be generic. We have options like “Shop Now”, “Learn More”, and so on… so I’m going to need to make my copy for the ad really clear, to the point, and compelling.
Perhaps my ask for this round will just be “visit the site, and become aware of me… so that I can retarget you with ads about the assets I’ll create and promote in the future”.
Perhaps I can offer to do a 15-minute video review of their website absolutely free?
If I think about my target audience - which is currently still too broad, but essentially boils down to frustrated website owners - I think this would be a no-risk value to them.
What is my call to action?
Since my button - what people traditionally consider the call to action - on the Facebook ad is going to be as exciting as plain oatmeal, I need to rely on my title to get people’s attention. Well, the title and the ad image itself. Again, my goal is to raise awareness, and I’m just going to ask people to visit the site.
My CTA will need to start with a verb and use first-person text. I’ll need to create a sense of urgency and offer something with a time limit… and also consider the colors that are used in the image itself. I do not need to worry about shape and size aside from making sure the ad is sized properly, but I do need to make sure the text is easy to understand, minimized and direct to the point, offers something of value (or future potential value) and then try to bust objections or present a trust indicator.
Seems like a lot.
How can I make the ad more personal?
Last time we used a stock image.
Clearly, that lady was not me. She was frustrated, yes. You can tell though that the ad is definitely a stock image - and people are more and more turned off by these.
This is why I always laugh when I see ads for sites that offer “great, compelling video footage to create super-effective ads with”, and then you see a man squinting and fake steam coming out of his ears, or a lady jumping up with the sun setting behind her… just… whatever.
Anyway, I’m going to use a picture of myself that was an extra when I was shooting the thumbnail for the HotJar Heatmapping Installation Video. Now… there is no guarantee that I won’t turn people off more than the stock image. Maybe people won’t like my face. Maybe they won’t like the way that I write. Maybe they won’t like my cool Star Wars shirt. But at least they’ll see me instead of some random person.
Let’s try it!
How can I write great copy?
Finally, we need to write great copy that does a good job of explaining my ask, explaining the value I can offer people, incorporates a strong call to action, and finally - sounds personal. Here are a few other things that I will consider when working on my copy:
Even though my audience is very wide, I still need to write like I am speaking to one person.
Make sure that my image & text compliment one another.
We need to lead with the value, not the ask.
We need to stay hyper-focused on one offer or task.
Make sure it is easy to understand.
With these things in mind, I’m ready to get to work designing and then writing the ad.
Designing the new Facebook ad
We’ll be using Photopea to design this new Facebook ad. This will allow us to keep our costs down since it’s a free browser based tool that works like Photoshop (to a degree). I actually put together a video tutorial on using this tool so that you could get up and running with designing your own ads right away.
Make sure to check that out!
After that process, here are the new Facebook ads for this round:
Just for reference, here was my original photo before I dropped it into Photopea and went through the editing process:
Dreadful. OH - and here is the same image border applied to the main photo from this website - it made it really easy for me to create a second ad to test against my initial ad using the same text, just to see which image performed better. (Again, this is explained in the Photopea video tutorial.)
Writing better ad copy
Last time we ran a single ad with 3 different messages so that we could see which would resonate best with our audience. We weren’t really offering anything aside from help - and we made a point to emphasize 1-on-1 consulting because we wanted people to know that this was a small, dedicated, focused operation. Not some huge corporation that was going to assign you a customer ID number:
#1 - Frustrated your website isn’t converting?
It could be your design, code, copy or content. I’ll help you 1-on-1. Let’s figure out what the problems are and fix them.
#2 - Embarrassed by your website?
It doesn't have to be this way. I’ll review it with you 1-on-1. Let's discuss how to make it better - fast!
#3 - Want more website sales?
Competition is high. Ads are expensive. You need an experienced partner and 1-on-1 attention to succeed online.
These were good - but not great. This time I want to improve on a few things like I mentioned above. I want to speak to 1 person, make sure the image and text compliment each other, lead with value not the ask, stay focused on one offer and make sure it is very easy to understand. Now that I think about it... my previous 3 ads were kind of vague!
I also want to incorporate all of the elements of a great call to action. So I have to do all of this in… uh… very few characters.
Holy crap.
Writing CONCISE copy is HARD.
But worth the effort.
Let’s run with this:
#4 - Claim Your Free Website Review
Frustrated with your website? It happens. But good news! This week I'm giving away 10 website reviews absolutely free (limit 1 per customer). Click to claim yours. I'll record a video identifying issues & suggested improvements at no cost. You've got nothing to lose - just ask the happy customers listed on the site!
Still a bit more “wordy” that I’d like… but let’s see what happens!
Next Steps:
Now, we test. It’s time to run this ad for a week and see what we can do in terms of leads, clicks, all of that - and I will report back with the results.
Remember:
We have a sucky baseline from our first Facebook ad test.
We have heatmapping on our site so we can see what visitors do
It’s time to test, learn more, and then decide what our next round of improvements should look like. As soon as I know the results I’ll share them with you here. I’ll keep showing you successes and failures so that you can learn and grow. Make sure to sign up for email updates if you’re following along, and check out the YouTube Playlist for this series as well.
See you soon!
🍻 Cheers, - AJ
Interested in working together? Sounds great!
I help website owners like you turn window shoppers & tire kickers into paying customers. I’m also a partner and Senior Design Lead at The Hauser Design Group where we focus exclusively on premium website development.