Great Ads Start With This
Feb 10, 2024"I've run out of ideas to test with my Facebook Ads". This was me just a few months back.
But as I shared in a recent newsletter, I now have a process to make sure I have a steady stream of ideas coming to me.
This process I run through also helps me craft better Ads.
Anyway, I digress...
Earlier this week, I was researching other Ads inside the Facebook Ads Library (part of my process), when I came across an Ad that had it all backwards.
The Primary Text and the Headline were captivating and made me want to click.
But the image was far from that.
It was a generic image of a forest.
What was being advertised? A book.
I'm not saying you need to put an image of a book into your image; strangely enough, I often find that images without books work better.
But there wasn't even any text in the image.
When 80% of the success of a Facebook Ad comes down to the image (or video), I'd have been amazed if the advertiser was getting any traction with this Ad.
The image (or video) is where your stopping power is.
The power to stop the scroll.
When an average social media user scrolls the height of The Eifel Tower each day, an image of a forest just isn't going to cut it.
On top of that, your image (or video) has one more critically important role:
Call out your ideal audience
As a simple example, rather than using "Best Book I've Ever Read" as a review quote in your image.
Look for a review quote that mentions your genre, such as "Best Fantasy Series I've Read In A Long Time".
Just that subtle switch could make all the difference because you're calling out fantasy readers in this example. Not just any book in any genre!
And because your Ads create their own audience, using words that are related to your books in your images, videos, etc, will help the algorithm find your ideal audience.
You could have an amazing image, and beautifully crafted text on that image, but if it's speaking to the wrong audience, that Ad is going to be next to useless in most cases.
If your Ads are attracting the wrong audience, sure, this audience might engage with the Ad and click on it, so the Ads get some good CPC (Cost Per Click) and CTR (Click Through Rate) metrics.
But when these folks land on your book product page, what are the chances of them actually buying your book?
The moral of the story...
Focus on creating images (or videos) that speak to and call out your ideal audience FIRST, before you work on writing the Primary Text and the Headline for your Ads.
Have a wonderful weekend.
To Your Success
- Matt
