After managing millions in ad spend for coaches and course creators, we live and breathe ad creation. So today we want to share a few of our tricks of the trade that can make a HUGE impact in your ad performance.
Plus, we’ll explain every part as simply and quickly as possible so you can learn, apply, and scale each tip.
Today we will be breaking down each part of the ad from a VIEWER’S perspective on Facebook, Instagram, and the Audience Network.
We will outline what it takes to create an ad that will be irresistibly clickable.
These techniques will work whether you are promoting your new course, webinar, event, program, workshop, challenge, lead magnet, eBook, guide, podcast, or product.
So let’s get started!
Part 1: Foundations of a Badass Offer
To create an irresistibly clickable ad, you need a few things lined up first, namely a BADASS offer that you want to get some eyeballs on.
This is the foundation for your ad creation and is honestly the most important part. Even an amazing, Hollywood budget ad can’t save a lackluster offer.
Before you start paying for traffic, it is best to test your offer organically with fans of yours before paying for cold traffic. This way you can really NAIL your messaging, your niche targeting, and test your sign-up process before paying for every click.
Shit gets real when you start paying for traffic.
So here’s a quick checklist we run our clients through before we start writing and designing ads.
Do you have…
1. A Proven Offer with Testimonials?
Making sure that you already have purchasers who LOVE your product, offer or service isn’t absolutely mandatory to start running ads, but it makes it 100x times easier.
Having purchasers already means that you are communicating your value in your messaging, your checkout process works, and hopefully, that you have those gold testimonials that can be used while creating your ads.
2. Conversion-Friendly Landing Page?
Great Facebook ads should be paired with GREAT landing pages. In fact, did you know that Facebook AI will scan your landing page as well as your ad for compliance?
Even Facebook itself knows the importance of a great landing page for the customer experience. Your landing page should be easy to navigate, crystal clear on what you are offering, and mobile-friendly.
Having a landing page first also makes ad creation so. much. easier.
In fact, you can take a lot of the same content and repurpose it when we get to writing the ad copy.
Plus, you will be able to match your ads to the look and feel of your landing page for a consistent viewer experience.
No one likes clicking on one thing and being redirected to something totally different. Your target audience will feel like they’ve clicked on those spam pop-ups rewarding you for being the 1 millionth visitor.
Don’t be like that popup. Match your ad copy to your landing page.
Badass Note: Did you know that 80% of website visitors ONLY read the headline?
If you’re going to update your landing page, we would suggest starting with the headline since that’s where the majority of people stop reading.
3. Mobile-Friendly Checkout Process
79.9% of Facebook users ONLY access the platform via their mobile devices. This means that your entire funnel MUST be optimized for mobile in order to convert via Facebook ads.
So while you are testing a new offer, it may be important to use heat maps like Hotjar to see where new traffic may be dropping off.
This is especially important for your checkout pages.
Make the purchase as easy as possible since the majority of your audience will be using their phone to do so.
4. Tracked Thank You Page + Sales Process
Before iOS14 and ever-changing pixel guidelines, this used to be as easy as adding a Facebook pixel code to your thank you pages and calling it a day.
Now pixels are just ONE of the tools that we suggest using to track and optimize ad performance.
If you’re just getting started, having a Google Analytics and a Facebook pixel on every page of your website is a good place to begin.
If you’ve been running ads for a while, we would suggest using pixels as well as any Audience Integrations and Conversion API options that might be available with your given marketing systems and tools.
Now that we have the foundational elements ready to go, let’s get started creating the ad itself!
Overview of Ad Copy
As odd as it sounds, there really is an art and craft to writing strong Facebook ads.
Your ad has to be both compelling to the reader and compliant with Facebook’s Community and Advertising Guidelines.
Just reusing the same copy that you use organically or on your emails isn’t always the best bet.
That’s why we’ve broken down the ad copy formula into 3 easy-to-write parts. Plus, we would suggest writing them in this order:
- Write the hook of the ad
- Write the rest of the text of the ad
- Write the CTA
- Edit, cut, and rewrite.
Following them in order is an important part of the art form.
The key to writing great ad copy is to write terrible copy and then edit it with fresh eyes.
But always first with the MOST important part of your ad, the hook.
Part 2: Ad Hook
Just as you’d bait and catch a fish, you want to capture your audience’s attention right off the bat. The hook of an ad is defined as the first sentence or two of your ad. For some short-form ads, the hook might actually be the entire ad.
Since this is generally the first part of the ad that your audience will see and potentially read, this sentence or two has to do two things: Catch their attention and entice them to read more.
Brainstorm a few statements related to your offer that are short, bold, and shocking.
This could be a shocking statistic that you relate to your business or show what the deep benefit is if they use your product or service.
You never want to call someone out by any personal attributes per Facebook’s Ad Policies, but you definitely want to draw them in and HOOK their attention to continue reading on.
Here are a few examples of hooks that WORK:
- “If new lingerie, a different position, another Cosmo article, or a spa day WORKED it would have already.”
- “I want to work 80 hour weeks. Said no business owner ever.”
- “80% of people only read the headline of your landing page, so why are you redesigning the whole thing?”
- “Book your pet a stay at the AirBnB for reptiles to experience the peace of mind that a 5-star pet hotel can bring to YOUR vacation.”
Part 3: Ad Text
Now that you’ve hooked em, it’s time to get into the details of “WHY THEM” + “WHY NOW” + “WHY YOU”.
- Why should they keep reading or click the button?
- How can you help them right now?
- What transformation or change can they get only with your product or service?
- What are some struggles they will have if they DON’T use your product or service?
This is your opportunity to shout it from the rooftop, in detail, why your offer is the perfect thing for them RIGHT NOW to get them where they want to go.
The Story or Transition Section
During this section of the ad text (which is basically any text after the first line), you need to connect your captivating hook with what you want them to do. This is sometimes called the “STORY” or “TRANSITION” part of an ad text.
Some advertisers use a customer’s story to illustrate the struggles of their target audience and then the glorious transformation.
Other ads list the benefits in easy-to-read bullets that the reader can expect from taking an action.
And other ads just keep it short and sweet with a few clarifying statements after the Hook.
We would suggest testing multiple lengths of copy as different hooks and lengths may resonate with different sub-groups of your target audience.
The Offer or CTA Section
Now that you’ve hooked them, engaged them with a relevant story, it’s time to present them your offer.
This can be where you ask them to sign up for a newsletter, sign up for a webinar, or make them aware of a sale you are having.
You can do this by telling them exactly what to do next like “click here” with a link or “click below” with emojis pointing down.
Present it in a way that is applicable to them, without being too salesy. If your offer is free, make that crystal clear.
If your offer is costly, be sure to include relevant details to justify the value and encourage them to learn more on the sales page.
With these 3 steps, you have pulled them in, related your message to them, and showed them an avenue to fulfill a part of their life they never knew they needed to be filled.
This structure absolutely works for our clients and testing various hooks and lengths will be the key to finding winners in your campaigns.
Plus, now that you know this structure, keep an eye out for ads on your timeline and you see if you can spot examples of how other advertisers are targeting you with this “hook, story, offer” method.
Part 4: Ad Lower Third
Now that you’ve hooked them, engaged them with a relevant story, it’s time to present them your offer.
This can be where you ask them to sign up for a newsletter, sign up for a webinar, or make them aware of a sale you are having.
You can do this by telling them exactly what to do next like “click here” with a link or “click below” with emojis pointing down.
Present it in a way that is applicable to them, without being too salesy. If your offer is free, make that crystal clear.
If your offer is costly, be sure to include relevant details to justify the value and encourage them to learn more on the sales page.
With these 3 steps, you have pulled them in, related your message to them, and showed them an avenue to fulfill a part of their life they never knew they needed to be filled.
This structure absolutely works for our clients and testing various hooks and lengths will be the key to finding winners in your campaigns.
Plus, now that you know this structure, keep an eye out for ads on your timeline and you see if you can spot examples of how other advertisers are targeting you with this “hook, story, offer” method.
In addition to the Ad Hook and Ad Text, there are a few more pieces to an irresistibly clickable ad that can be optimized for conversions.
And these pieces live in what we refer to as the “Ad Lower Third.”
In television production terms, a lower third is a text title or graphic overlay placed in the lower region of the screen. (Like what you commonly see at the bottom of the screen during the evening news).
When it comes to Facebook Ads, we are referring to everything on your ad under your Ad Creative.
The Ad Headline
When you are building the ad in Ads Manager, there is a section that calls for the headline.
This is different from the hook or the text on the ad.
Facebook will give your ad a headline when there is a link attached to your ad (which we suggest for almost all ad types).
This headline needs to be short, action-packed, and straightforward on what the viewer will be getting by clicking on the ad.
Great headlines should be between 5 to 6 words and should be clear in what the viewer should do next.
Ad Description (Optional)
Depending on the ad placement, only some of your audience will see the ad description, while others won’t.
The ad description is an additional few words underneath the Ad Headline on the lower third of the ad. But it is even listed as optional since it is being shown on fewer and fewer placements.
For this reason, it is important to only include non-essential or previously mentioned information in the ad description. As a general rule of thumb, this source says to keep the description under 30 characters for best results.
Call to Action (CTA Button)
The call to action is a button that sits on the lower third of your ad and can increase the CTR for your ad substantially.
Facebook has a predetermined list of call-to-actions to choose from but the majority of advertisers use “Learn More” or “Sign-Up”.
While we suggest having a CTA on almost every ad, make sure to check what your headline will look like once there’s a CTA on the lower third as well.
Social Proof
The final part of your ad isn’t actually something that you can control but it is an important part nonetheless. Building a bank of likes, engagements, shares, and comments on your ads is critical to the lifetime value of an ad.
The more social proof or stamped interactions on your ad, the lower your ad costs can be over time. People like to interact with things that are popular and social proof is a quick visual way for people to gauge popularity.
As much as possible, reuse the same Ad ID when running the same ad to different audiences and try to keep your copy as evergreen as possible to be able to reuse high-performers over and over again.
Part 5: Ad Creative
So now you’ve crafted some beautiful ad copy written, now you need the ad creative to complement your ad angle.
Creating ad creative like images, gifs and videos can be an absolute blast.
This is a time to get visually creative and brainstorm scroll-stopping imagery that will be impossible to ignore.
Ad Creative Secrets
Ad Creative includes any image or video that accompanies your ad and gives every viewer an exciting visual experience.
As you pick your ad creative ensure each image or video is relevant to your business while enticing your customers to click further. You can do this by using nontraditional stock photos or taking some photos of your own.
Test a mixture of native-looking images versus formatted images with text. We’ve seen success with both types in the same campaign.
Here are some advertisers industry secrets when it comes to ad creative design:
- Color: Facebook’s color scheme is blue and white, so it is recommended to avoid using those same colors boldly in your images/graphics
- Brand awareness: Including your logo in your creative is not necessary but maintaining a consistent look and feel across your brand is a must.
- Happy people: At our core, we love happiness and positivity. Playing into these emotions with your ad creative is a great way to attract users. Using images and videos with smiling
people seem to perform better than images depicting pain or discomfort. - Children and Pets: Yet again, people love all that “feel good” stuff. Use it and fully embrace it, if you can find a tie to your products.
- FUNNY or weird: Who doesn’t love a good laugh? If your brand voice allows it, get creative and goofy. This can increase the interactions and social proof that your ad gathers.
- Mobile-friendly: 80% of people who see your ad will do so on mobile. Make sure your text is concise with large enough fonts that it is easy to read on mobile.
- Text on ad: If you do include text on your ad design, remember that no one is looking for a guide, webinar, or training. Make sure to highlight the “WHY” of the ad, i.e. the transformation or benefit, as the main text on the image. You can include the “WHAT” or the details of the offer in a CTA on the ad or in the ad headline. Bad example of text on an ad: “Join my Free Group NOW.” Good example: “My business tripled its revenue because of this Group.”
- 3-Second Rule: If you use a video as your ad creative, the first 3 seconds are your most important focus area. Add movement to this section to make sure that it catches and keeps attention. (Also, every video should have captions since the majority of social media users will watch it on mute)
We live in a world that is very visual. Make sure each ad has a creative that is just as good as your ad copy. And don’t forget to have fun with it!
BONUS: Done-for-You Badass Ads
If you have an offer that you are ready to test with ads or you have ads that could use a tune-up, we would encourage you to check out our Badass Ad Bundles.
Creating scroll-stopping ads for course creators and coaches is what we do day-in and day-out.
We’ve created ads for:
- Fertility coaches + courses
- Business coaches + courses
- PR + Marketing coaches + courses
- Sexuality coaches + courses
- Mindset coaches + courses
- Tarot coaches + courses
- And so many more.
We know EXACTLY what can scale and what can fail when it comes to ad copy and creative.
Now we are offering all-in-one CUSTOM ad bundles (with over 16 versions) starting at $159!
If you’re a coach or course creator looking to promote your next offer with paid media, save time and money by purchasing a bundle now!
Looking to start badass ads?
You’ve grown your business this far and you are ready to scale with paid ads. What if someone could handle everything for YOU? We eat, sleep and breath paid media . . . it’s kind of an obsession!
