We covered a lot of ground in Module 5, Part I. That may have seemed overwhelming, but don’t let that bother you. Keep doing the work and moving forward.
Part II focuses on writing a compelling ad, and I’ll share my thoughts as well as Loren’s in the same format as Part I.
Before I do that, however, I want to emphasize that there is no single ‘right way’ to write a Facebook ad. There’s also no inherently ‘wrong way’ (other than deliberate non-compliance).
For example, I have friends and colleagues who have successful businesses built on monetizing cheap Facebook leads from curiosity-based, big-promise lead generation. That model can (and does) work in the right circumstances.
However, in my experience it’s not optimal, and I don’t think it’s a viable, long-term approach with Facebook. Rising costs, greater attention to enforcing written and unwritten policies, and the potential for losing access to the Facebook advertising platform for perceived violations all point to a better way to write ad copy.
More importantly, this approach is better for prospects and better for you as the advertiser.
The key ingredients for writing excellent Facebook ad copy are tone, transparency, and strategic intent.
Tone — Shawn
I think about tone in two ways. First, Facebook is a social platform that is dominated by conversation and dialogue. Scroll through your Facebook feed and you’ll see friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances communicating informally (or less formally).
Maintaining that same conversational tone in your ad copy is more congruent than writing polished, formal, sales-oriented copy. That style feels out of place and it’s a bright red flag that says ‘hey, this is an ad’.
Images convey tone too. How often have you seen a friend share a perfectly gender-balanced, ethnicity-inclusive image on Facebook? I’m guessing never. Instead, we share images (and video) that are congruent with the message of the content we’re sharing. We seem to sense, intuitively, that ‘this goes with that’ — i.e., this image makes sense with this thing I’m sharing with my friends.
It’s truly not more complicated than that. We make it complicated when we think about what we want the prospect to think/feel/experience when s/he sees our ads.
In fact, the real danger is thinking about the image being part of an advertisement. Instead, imagine it’s an entry point into a conversation (which is how we would naturally use images in our social posts).
Keep in mind that the primary job of an ad’s image is to stop a user from scrolling long enough to read the first two lines of your ad, preferably in a way that’s congruent with the primary message you’re sharing. That’s it. Interesting, but not distracting. Again, don’t overthink it.
Second, every audience has its own ‘vibe’ / style, which shows up in its language (what is said, what isn’t said, and how things are said). Speak the language of your audience, not a more formal (or formulaic) language of copy or advertising.
This applies to imagery as well. For example, Internet marketer / influencer Tai Lopez appeals to a mostly male audience that skews younger. His ads often show him in a big house with one (or more) Lamborghinis in the driveway and garage.
If you’re new to Internet marketing, young, male, not married, and don’t have children, the big house and Lambo in the driveway represent the dream. That’s 100% congruent with the way his audience defines success.
However, ten years later, married, 1-3 kids, with a decade of life experience, definitions of success often are quite different.
Grant Cardone has a similar vibe. His ads often show him approaching (or seated in) a private jet. What’s the implication? That he’s incredibly successful and incredibly wealthy (and if you follow him, you can be too).
Does his audience imagine they’ll someday travel by private jet too? Maybe. But, more likely, his audience values his advice more because he deliberately signals that he’s phenomenally, over the top successful. He has ‘made it’ which implies, to his audience, that he’s the person to trust to learn how they can make it too.
Imagine how out of place a Grant Cardone or Tai Lopez approach would seem in a market of young home-schooling parents. Does a private jet, Lamborghini, or big house in the hills suggest someone is an authority for teaching young children at home?
Of course not.
However, that audience has its own language, its own signals of authenticity, authority, and legitimacy. Every audience does, and it’s critically important that your Facebook ads reinforce the signals that are important to your specific audience(s).
- What do people inside the tribe say that people outside the tribe don’t?
- What are the subtleties of language used?
- What’s the core desire?
- What are the taboos?
- What are the inside jokes / references?
We do this naturally when we communicate with friends and family. Many of the best Facebook ads I’ve seen do this naturally as well.
Transparency — Shawn
Loren and I use different terms to explain the same concept. I’ll describe what I mean by transparency, and Loren will continue with his thoughts on pre-qualifying. We’re talking about the same underlying idea and there’s benefit in seeing both perspectives.
I’ll start by defining what I mean when I say transparency, and then describe how my rationale for this has changed significantly recently.
A transparent Facebook ad helps the right and wrong prospects self-identify accurately so each can act accordingly. It does not try to convince the wrong prospects to engage with an ad deliberately or covertly.
Traditionally, Facebook (and other) ads persuade, coerce, ‘ethically bribe’, and occasionally trick people into clicking on the ad. Curiosity and over the top promises are two of the most powerful levers in this arsenal.
The formula is easy to spot. There’s an intellectually interesting, curiosity-creating ‘big idea’ that reveals or implies a ‘secret’ bold promise.
For example, two high-performing front end offers for a well-known financial newsletter publisher were ‘railroad across America’ that promised untold wealth for investors, and the potential devastation for the American economy (and how to thrive instead) because of ‘Obama’s mistress’.
What is this new railroad across American, you might ask? And who is Obama’s mistress?
The ‘railroad across America’ was fiber optic cable. President Obama’s ‘mistress’ was the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Each (and many others like it) is anything but transparent. The goal is to get prospects to engage with a very long sales letter (or VSL), and the entry point generally is copywriting sleight of hand.
Other examples (all available on Swiped.co) –
Urgent Health Bulletin — Discover why one M.D. says ‘I haven’t had a glass of water in 20 years…’ And why you don’t have to gulp it down by the gallon either. (Agora Publishing)
Five Hidden Dangers of Your Morning Shower (Agora Publishing)
You’ll Never Believe What We Found Buried Inside Donald Trump’s 2014 Financial Statement (Agora Financial)
The Death of Wal-Mart. The reign of the ‘King of Retail’ is over. (Motley Fool)
Buffett Admits This is a ‘Real Threat’. One emerging technology has Warren Buffett himself admitting that there’s a serious threat to his empire… (Motley Fool)
Warren Buffett Reveals How Anyone with $40 Could Become a Millionaire (Motley Fool)
4 in 5 Americans Are Ignoring Buffett’s Warning (Motley Fool)
I’m not suggesting there’s anything inherently wrong with this approach. Curiosity is a powerful response and, if it works in your market, attracting the right prospects for the right price, use it.
However, in my experience, this method does not work well on Facebook because of the signal to noise ratio it creates. More on that in a moment.
In addition to messaging transparency, I also advocate process transparency too. (In the spirit of transparency, I just made up that term.)
Let’s consider a couple of examples.
Example #1 — Facebook ad to landing page to phone consultation.
There are people, like me, who will not book a phone call, no matter how compelling the offer. If the ad mentions only the potential outcome (‘land your dream job in three easy steps’), there will be prospects who click to learn more who will not take the next step (i.e., scheduling a phone consultation).
Process transparency, in this example, would include ad copy that says ‘land your dream job in three easy step’, and ‘schedule a call with a resume advisor today’.
That extra information will discourage clicks from prospects who will not become leads and that is exactly what we want our ads to do.
Example #2 — Facebook ad to webinar registration page to live 60-minute webinar every Thursday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Just like there are people who won’t schedule a phone call, there are also people who will not opt in to watch a webinar, won’t watch a 60-minute webinar, and / or aren’t available Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Rather than hide those details to get more ad clicks, I suggest including the relevant details in the ad copy to inform prospects earlier in the process. I’m not suggesting every ad includes a lengthy disclaimer — instead, weave the details into your ad copy.
‘Land your dream job in three easy steps…in our one-hour resume-writing masterclass every Thursday from 8:00 — 9:00 p.m. ET (replays available)…’
Don’t overthink this. Start by identifying the actions a prospects needs to take after s/he has clicked on an ad, and then weave references to those actions into the ad copy.
Transparency is a 180-degree mindset shift that you may resist unconsciously (especially if you’re working with clients or reporting to someone who believes in the quantity vs. quality model of digital marketing). We’re deliberately engineering our ads to get fewer clicks and, on the surface, that seems crazy.
If we were having this conversation a year ago I would have told you that the reason to be transparent and pre-qualify traffic was primarily for cost reasons. However, Facebook is overwhelmingly a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) environment, and cost is not a decisive factor.
The better reason, which Loren discussed in detail in Module Five, Part I, is that we want to give Facebook’s algorithm the clearest, cleanest signal possible and pre-qualifying prospects to discourage low-quality clicks is our highest-leverage opportunity to do that.
A clearer signal for Facebook’s optimization engine (algorithm) leads to better results for us as advertisers. It’s also a better experience for prospects. Win-win-win.
Pre-Qualifying — Loren
If you’re reading this, I don’t need to educate you about copywriting being a true art. I don’t need to remind you of its depth and complexity.
So rather than a futile attempt at anything comprehensive, let me offer one bit of insight that will yield great results.
In Facebook, it is very important to prequalify as much as possible in the few lines of copy users see before having to click the ‘See More’ link, all while attracting them to click.
We want to generate enough interest to get people to click ‘See More’ and start reading our copy. But the key is that we only want this interest from the right people … the people who are good candidates for our offer.
When writing Facebook copy, I easily spend two or three times as long writing my introductions (the part seen before the “See More” link) than I do any other part of the copy. It’s that challenging and that important.
The way to attract the right people and repel the wrong people is to use as much context as we can. We want the copy to be specific to the group we want to attract.
We want people to read our intros and know 1) what our ad is about, 2) who it’s for, and 3) why our product/service is different.
For a Facebook ad intro, you may intrigue people with the benefits of your product. Or you could bring to the reader’s mind a pain or problem in their life that your product can fix. Really great Facebook copy does that while also getting people to self-identify, to know the ad is speaking to them … or to skip over the ad because they know it isn’t for them.
A powerful way to do this is to think of what contextual words would make it clear what group we are speaking to (preferably in as few words as possible). This doesn’t have to be advanced. Natural is often best.
If you are writing ads for busy mothers, don’t be afraid to start a first-person story ad with something obvious like: ‘As a busy mother,…’
That’s not going to win any creativity awards, but you’d better believe busy moms have their ears perked up. And everyone else scrolls on by.
Think of the key words or phrases you could use that would clearly identify your market. Think of the jargon your market uses.
Also spend some time thinking about ways to quickly rule out those who aren’t in your market. For instance, an intro that speaks about a small business growing from five employees to twenty employees would attract businesses of that size while repelling small, one-person businesses.
Once a reader has an idea what our ad is about and who it’s for, now we can communicate why we’re different. If you had 5 seconds on an elevator to explain why your product was different from others in the marketplace, what would you say?
“This is a way to lose weight… without counting calories or starving yourself.”
“This is a way to lose weight… even if you’re a picky eater and can’t stand ‘healthy food.’”
“This is a way to lose weight… in the absolute fastest (yet safe) manner so you can be bathing-suit-ready in 6 weeks.”
Don’t think of how your business is different, like how you give superior service or you’ve been in business for 50 years. Think primarily about how your product is different.
Combine those ingredients (what it’s about, who it’s for, why it’s different) into a powerful copy intro to prequalify and attract people. Any time spent working on powerful intros is worth it.
Strategic Intent — Shawn
Why are you advertising on Facebook?
Can you answer that question in one, concise sentence? In my experience, most advertisers can’t. Or, their answers are not meaningful.
This is where everything starts, and it’s critically important to get this right. Ultimately, the ad copy that you write serves a larger purpose. You’re paying for attention and, in exchange, you’re expecting something of value in return (attention and money being two obvious examples).
Before we begin to craft our ad copy, let’s take a high-level view and understand what we’re trying to accomplish. To explain how to do that, let’s consider some examples.
Example #1 — a proven offer with known metrics.
If you have a proven offer, and you have CPA, AOV, and LTV metrics (or you have calculated ROAS) from other sources of traffic, then ‘why are you advertising on Facebook’ is reasonably easy to answer.
Let’s assume your funnel is a free + shipping book offer with one upsell, followed by a week of daily emails that leads to a webinar with your core offer. CPA and AOV are calculated from purchasing the free + shipping offer and upsell, and LTV is calculated by including the core offer.
That’s simple and straightforward.
The strategic intent for Facebook advertising is to acquire customers at break even or better, and then make your profit from the sale of your core offer. That’s why you’re advertising on Facebook.
Yes, there are nuances. The first campaign will be very different than the tenth campaign. Overall, however, the strategic intent does not change. It’s the primary definition of success for your Facebook advertising. If it’s not accomplished, Facebook advertising is not working for your business. If it is accomplished, Facebook advertising is working for your business.
We need to start with this level of precision and simplicity. If we don’t, then fuzzy goals often turn into sub-optimal results.
Imagine, in this first example, that we focus only on the free + shipping offer and upsell and we achieve the Holy Grail — customers for free (i.e., average CPA is less than or equal to average AOV). However, no one buys the core offer — ever.
Is our advertising successful? No. The strategic intent is to acquire customers that generate profits, and we’re only generating customers, not profits. We might discover ways to monetize those customers differently, but we would have failed based on our definition of success as expressed in our strategic intent.
Knowing that — and being honest about it — is important. That clarity leads to action which ensures we’re always iterating our way to success.
We might, for example, realize that our ad copy speaks only to the benefits of the free + shipping offer, and we’re not building a case early enough for the core offer. (That is a very common mistake.)
Example #2 — an unproven offer with unknown metrics.
At first glance, it seems like the strategic intent for an unproven offer with no data would be different than example #1. We need to test, acquire some data, and adjust accordingly.
However, the strategic intent is exactly the same — to acquire customers at break even or better and make a profit on a core offer (or, if you’re selling a high-ticket offer, to achieve some multiple of ROAS you have defined as your goal).
The process to get there is different, but the intent is the same. This is important because it ensures that we don’t lose sight of the overall objective we’re always working toward with paid traffic, which is profitably monetizing attention.
This leads me to the second part of strategic intent. The first question answers ‘what’, this second question focuses on ‘how’.
Question #1 — why are you advertising on Facebook?
Answer: to acquire customers at break even or better and generate profit within the first 30 days following customer acquisition.
Question #2 — how, specifically, are you pursuing that goal?
A word of warning — this is where everything can go off the rails if you’re not careful.
Imagine you have a website with 5-7 different products from $47 to $497 each, a blog, and a PDF ‘special report’ lead magnet with corresponding opt-in form.
Your answer to question #1 is to acquire customers at break even or better and generate profit within the first 30 days.
Your answer to question #2 is by sending traffic to the home page of your website.
What is the likelihood you’ll achieve your goal of acquiring customers at break even or better when there are 5-7 product options at wildly different price points, blog content, and a lead magnet? Rounded up to a whole number, probably zero.
Compare that instead to a Facebook campaign promoting one of the 5-7 products, hyper-focused on that audience (and that audience’s needs), without the distractions of other products, other content, and lead generation.
That approach is far more likely to produce customers at break even or better. Your ad copy can speak to the needs of a smaller audience with clarity, and match those needs to the benefits your offer provides with precision. (And, of course, you can pre-quality your prospects more effectively.)
The nuances of your answers to question #2 will vary based on your offers and your business model. However, it is important that you’re able to answer question #2 clearly and succinctly before moving on to question #3.
Question #3 is where we check our thinking and, if we’re brave, where we get input from others to check our thinking as well.
Question #3 — what is the likelihood that my answer to question #2 will get me the results identified in my answer to answer #1?
This is the most difficult of the three questions. At its worst, it’s an opportunity to engage in magical thinking. At its best, it’s an opportunity to view our methods with dispassionate, rational thought. Simple, but not easy.
A variation of, or addition to, question #3 is to ask ‘what would have to be true for my effort to achieve my strategic intent’ (i.e., do my answers to questions #2 lead to the results I identified in question #1)?
I suspect some of you reading this are wondering if you really need to ask and answer these three questions and the answer is an unequivocal, resounding yes. You want these questions to become habits of thought:
- What am I trying to accomplish?
- What actions am I taking to get there?
- What’s the likelihood those actions will produce the results I want?
This takes practice, and there are many opportunities to skip these steps, fill in the blanks, and rely on hope, sunshine, and unicorns as a strategy.
For example:
- What am I trying to accomplish? I want to generate five new clients per months to grow my agency business.
- What actions am I taking to get there? I’m generating leads with Facebook advertising for a free report.
- What’s the likelihood those actions will product the results I want? I have no idea because I don’t know if there’s a relationship between free report leads and customers.
Compare that to:
- What am I trying to accomplish? I want to generate five new clients per months to grow my agency business.
- What actions am I taking to get there? I’m generating 30-minute, one-on-one strategy calls using Facebook advertising.
- What’s the likelihood those actions will product the results I want? Unknown initially, but I’ll assess lead quality in real time as calls are scheduled.
From a 10,000′ viewpoint, the second version is far more likely to produce actionable insights quickly. And that’s an overly simplistic example. We could keep refining our answers to question #2 with better options, increasing the probability of success. (Remember Fundamental Reality #2 — Results are not guaranteed, so we need to think in probabilities, not absolutes, from Module 1.)
Strategic intent is particularly important for Facebook advertising because it’s very easy to forget what we’re really trying to accomplish. There are many convoluted advertising models on Facebook and it’s easy to get confused and forget what you’re trying to accomplish and how what you’re doing relates to that.
For example, a simple Facebook strategy might include showing high quality content for top of the funnel cold traffic, and then retargeting anyone who engages with that content with middle of the funnel lead generation. Later, unconverted leads (i.e., leads who have not become customers via email within 14 days from opt in) could be shown ads for a different offer or a downsell for the original offer they chose not to purchase.
If the economics work, that strategy could make sense in total, and parts of it might work on their own. However, parts of it don’t make sense without the others, and this is where people get confused.
I’ve worked with many clients who have top of the funnel campaigns that generate enormous audiences they never do anything with. Hundreds of thousands of video views for the sake of hundreds of thousands of video views. That’s an expensive hobby.
A question I ask — a lot — is ‘what are we really trying to accomplish?’ For example, client A tells me ‘we’re getting 100,000 95% video views per month’…(this is when they pause, knowingly, waiting for me to acknowledge how impressive that is).
My question to client A is ‘for what?’, which usually results in a blank stare. The subtext of the reply usually is ‘apparently you didn’t hear me so I’ll say it slower…I said we’re getting one-hundred-THOUSAND 95% video views per MONTH…’
Again, ‘for what?’ (Or, if I’m not careful, ‘who cares?’)
What are those 100,000 95% video views in service to? That’s the question to be asking yourself all the time and, if you can’t answer it clearly, that’s a signal to be very concerned and take a step back and ask why.
I’ve also had this same conversation with very sophisticated advertisers. Those conversations sound more like this:
‘We’re getting 100,000 95% video views per month…over the next seven days everyone in that audience is shown three variations of a lead generation ad, and we’re getting a 35% opt-in rate…and in the first 14 days after someone becomes a lead 7% buy our core offer…’
That’s what understanding strategic intent looks like in practice. ‘I’m doing X and Y to achieve Z…(and Z is meaningful to how I have defined success for my business)’.
Unicorns — Shawn
In Day 5 of the free paid traffic training series (Ads Should Provide Standalone Value — Especially Facebook), I mentioned ‘unicorn’ ads. Before we proceed I want to explain what those are and why they’re important.
I have run a lot of paid traffic and worked with many clients, and every once in a while I’ve seen ads with such high-performance that they’re almost not believable. I don’t mean 3-4x better performance — more like 20-50x.
In general I’m fascinated by performance well beyond the norm, especially if that performance provides clues I can reverse-engineer.
And, to be clear, when I say ‘better performance’, I don’t mean that the ad metrics were better (although they often were) — I mean those ads contributed to almost unbelievable outcomes (e.g., $700 in ad spend that generated $42,000 in sales).
The most interesting aspect of ‘unicorn’ ads, however, is not their performance — it’s that they all had one thing in common. Each one was written by someone with little or no copywriting experience, and little or no Facebook experience.
How is that possible?
The key ingredient I have observed in each of these ads is that they’re authentic. The tone and language is a perfect match to the audience. There’s also accurate, speaking to the deep, felt needs of that audience in ways that are credible without seeming like the writing is trying too hard.
Before we work on your first ad, let’s discuss the three most important components parts — the theme, lead, and hook.
The theme of your ad is the organizing idea that informs the majority of your ad copy. Legendary American choreographer Twyla Tharp calls this the ‘spine’, which she defines in The Creative Habit as ‘…the statement you make to yourself outlining your intentions for the work. You intend to tell this story. You intend to explore this theme. You intend to employ this structure.’
Common themes include good vs. evil (often expressed as us vs. them), love, redemption, courage and perseverance, coming of age, and revenge.
Wall Street vs. Main Street is a David and Goliath theme that’s very common for financial newsletter publishers, for example. The publishers help the ‘little guy’ (i.e., the Main Street investor), not the ‘fat cat’ Wall Street investor.
Theme answers the question ‘what is this ad about’? If it takes longer than 2-3 sentences to explain, the reality is you don’t know what the ad is about (which means it will be really hard to write good copy).
Don’t overthink this. However, don’t skip this step. Fill in this sentence: ‘my ad is about … and that’s important to my audience because…’
For example, ‘my ad is about investing in small, start up biotech companies and that’s important to my audience because those investments can generate enormous profits compared to traditional investing.’
Simple. Clear.
Once you have the overall organizing idea for your ad, move on to writing your lead.
The lead is the first 20 — 25% of your message (approximately). It is the hook that captures your audience’s attention and begins to engage their imagination. Ideally, it speaks to a deep desire or significant fear.
Paraphrasing Michael Masterson and John Forde, great leads move prospects emotionally and persuade prospects intellectually. Leads ‘intrigue, build curiosity, create anticipation, open the reader’s mind, build trust, create a bond, and in a myriad of ways lay the ground for (and magnify the effectiveness of) the persuasion to follow’, in the words of master copywriter (and all ’round wonderful human being) David Deutsch.
Your lead can be a story, an example, a way of seeing the world you’ve developed with experience — anything that speaks to something important to your audience where you can contribute value.
For example, if you are a digital nomad who has spent ten years traveling to exotic places and earning income writing about your adventures, your lead could be a story that represents what your ideal prospects really want (making enough money while they’re traveling that they don’t have to rely on a savings account or winning the lottery).
‘Four years, six months, and twenty-one days…that’s how long I waited before I finally had the courage to pack all of my belongings into one backpack and start exploring the world.
Why did I wait so long? I always thought I needed tens of thousands of dollars in the bank to pay for plane tickets, hotels, and restaurants. I had no idea I could pay for all of my expenses, and set money aside in savings, while I lived the life of my dreams.
Let me tell you what I learned…’
Your lead will be unique to your offer. Perfection is the enemy of progress. Set a timer for thirty minutes, brainstorm ideas, pick one and write.
The hook is the first two or three lines of a Facebook ad. That’s my term — I’ve heard that called by many names. Loren mentioned above why those first two to three lines are so important.
My two favorite hooks are dialogue and questions (which can be combined too).
‘You’re never going to believe what my accountant told me about the Payroll Protection Loan…’
‘I’m sorry Shawn, I talked to your attorney and there’s nothing we can do to help…’
‘What if everything I believed about gaining muscle after turning 40 was wrong?’
‘Three things I wish every digital marketer knew about paid advertising on Google and Facebook…’
The opportunities are endless.
As Loren mentioned, the first few lines pre-qualify, so be careful about who and how you attract. At the same time, remember that the first lines ‘sell’ the rest of the ad. A little conversational curiosity to get a prospect’s attention is OK, in my opinion, if the ad copy is transparent.
For your first attempt at writing a long-form Facebook ad, don’t get too caught up in these three elements. Perfect is the enemy of good. This is something you’ll want to practice.
(Pro tip: if you see an ad you really like, that’s engaging and captures your attention, take.a screenshot of the ad, and then copy all of the text into a document. Then, copy the ad, word for word, exactly as it’s written. You can do this analog with pen and paper, or retype it digitally. Keep your own file for great ads, and rewrite them repeatedly. It may sound crazy, but something about the act of writing / typing the ad copy repeatedly will help internalize the structure and rhythm. I know many writers who copy work they admire to better understand it. I have no idea why this works, but it does.)
Writing Your First Ad — Shawn
I explained a process for writing conversational ad copy in the free paid mini-course. Start by creating the three lists mentioned in lesson three, Just Say No to ‘Media Buying’ (Traffic is Part of the Funnel).
Those three lists are:
Pick one offer you’re running or planning to run (or a client’s offer if you’re a freelancer or agency), and make three lists.
List #1 is all of the reasons someone might benefit from your offer. Be very specific, and ask (and answer) ‘why’ several times for every item on the list. Write out each answer (yes, you’ll have a long list), and then put an asterisk next to the top 5-7 when you’re finished.
List #2 is harder — believe me, it’s worth it. Make a list of all the reasons why someone might not want to engage with your offer (not your product/service — the offer itself). For example, if you require an opt-in for a 45-minute webinar, your list would include reasons like ‘prospects don’t want to give their email address’, ‘prospects don’t want to sit through a 45-minute webinar’, and ‘prospects don’t want to watch a webinar on their mobile phone’.
List #3 is even harder (remember — we’re friends — you can trust me). Make a list of all the ways in which someone could sabotage / undermine the value your product/service provides. For example, if I were making this list for my agency business, I would include the following:
- ‘Second guessing decisions because of something they read/heard online’;
- ‘Focusing on methods instead of results’;
- ‘Micro–managing the process’; and
- ‘Relying on opinions instead of data for decision–making’.
Once you have those lists, we’re going to move on to the outline from lesson five, Ads Should Provide Standalone Value — Especially Facebook, to write out ad copy.
Your total word count should be somewhere between 650 and 1,000 words.
Start with the list of 5-7 benefits your product or service provides and choose the one that you think is most important to your prospects. What gain does that provide and/or problem does that solve? Don’t rush this — really think about it.
For example (fear) — ‘Ever woke up in the middle of the night wondering about this week’s payroll?’ (That’s a classic fear of small business owners.) Or (greed) ‘Are their secrets Wall Street traders know that main street American investors don’t?’ (That’s a very common perception among individual investors.)
The question is an opportunity to connect — viscerally — with your ideal prospect. You want to ask the question that they’re asking themselves over and over again. It’s very difficult to get this right on the first try, but don’t let that stop you. (It’s also easy to test variations later.)
Now you have your ideal prospect’s attention. Instead of writing an ad, I want you to imagine the following scenario. You’re on a plane sitting next to someone who you have just realized is your ideal prospect. They have seen the question you formulated a moment ago, and they mention that they have been asking themselves that exact question for years.
What would you say? You’d probably start by making it clear that you’ve thought about the question professionally for a long time to so you could make that connection, establish credibility and demonstrate authority.
Imagine, for example, you and I were sitting next to each other on a plane and I wrote down the following question:
‘Ever wondered how to create a steady stream of customers using Google Ads and Facebook advertising?’
I wouldn’t beat you over the head with credentials, but when I realized you were interested I might say something like ‘I’ve been thinking about this question a lot too. I’ve run a digital marketing agency for twenty one years, worked with more than 165 clients, and managed tens of millions of dollars in ad spend and I can share a few ideas I’ve found valuable.’
I wouldn’t list all the awards I’ve won, name-drop all of my high-profile clients, or recite a testimonial from an authority.
(My father used to describe the former as commanding respect, and the latter as demanding it. In my experience, commanding respect is far better. At the same time, don’t be unnecessarily humble. One of my good friends occasionally reminds me that ‘it’s not bragging if you can do it’.)
Once I established my credibility / authority, my first priority would be to tell you a few things that are critically important about the question I asked initially that made the connection (creating a stream of steady customers on Google Ads and Facebook). I wouldn’t get into the weeds, but I would share what I think are the 3-5 most important things you would want to know.
Then, I would show you where the quicksand is by explaining the most important reasons this might not be a good fit. For example, if you’re not interested in paying for traffic, your customers aren’t easily accessible online, you don’t have a web presence, etc.
Remember that this has to be genuine. I see this done wrong a lot where objections are set up specifically to further the sale. For example — ‘But, if you’re not interested in making a ton of money effortlessly on the beach and don’t have enough garage space for all of the exotic cars you can buy, then this isn’t for you…’ Give me a break.
Finally, you need to give someone instructions about what they need to do next, and be very clear about what they will need to do when they take that action. Let’s assume that you sell by live webinars every Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET, and someone needs to opt-in with a valid email address to watch that webinar. Instead of waiting until the landing page to reveal that, include it in the ad copy.
Why? Because some people don’t watch webinars, they aren’t available at 8:00 p.m. ET Thursdays, and / or they don’t like to share their email address. By being clear right up front about what happens next, the people who won’t take action don’t click through (which keeps your data cleaner and is better for everyone).
Again, I don’t like templates, but this should be the outline to get you started.
Ask a powerful question that is deeply important to your ideal prospect.
Quickly (and with appropriate humility) explain your experience and expertise relative to that question.
Share your top 3-5 insights without getting deep in the weeds. Remember the person you’re talking to doesn’t know what you know, so use clear, conversational language.
Then, be honest about any factors that would disqualify someone from benefiting from whatever you have to offer.
Finally, tell them what to do next and what will be involved. Don’t justify or sugarcoat anything — if someone needs to watch a 90-minute webinar to understand your offer, tell them that.
My advice — use the three lists you created in lesson three for reference, and record yourself going through this outline like you’re having a real conversation. Even better, record the actual conversation with a prospect, transcribe it, and then edit lightly.
Do whatever it takes to write a complete ad following this process. Don’t second-guess yourself, and don’t get mired in the details. Read this module 2-3 times, then write (or record and then write) your first draft.
Then let it sit for 24 hours. Don’t do anything with it. Don’t think about it. Just leave it alone.
When you return to it a day later, go through the ad from beginning to end once, correcting anything you notice. Then, do the same thing again, except this time you’re going to read it out loud (to yourself). You’re listening for tone — does it sound like a conversation? Does it ‘feel’ like your voice?
Finally, triple check your work. What’s the overall theme (describe it in a sentence or two)? What’s the lead? (Read the first 20 — 25%, by itself — does that make you want to read more?) Finally, what’s the hook? If you only read those first two lines, would you reallyclick on the ‘see more’ link?
Remember to think like your prospect when you answer the second two questions. The theme is less obvious — it’s a way for you to organize your ideas.
This will seem like a lot of work (and it is). However, by writing your first ad you have accomplished more than you realize. You have:
- Created an asset that will send qualified traffic to an offer;
- Written a base ad that can be modified for testing purposes (which will be discussed in module 6 and bonus module 6.5), and
- Taken the first step toward iterating your way to building a Facebook traffic engine for your business.
— Shawn & Loren
NEXT: Module 6: Facebook Metrics and Performance