I will conclude this 3-part special on Facebook ads by sharing other people’s experiences.
David Penny’s Experience
I recently came across a great post by British author David Penny. Here are my most important takeaway from it.
- Keep it simple. Don’t complicate your image. Don’t add more than one point of focus.
- Don’t try to explain your book. Instead, sell it. People make a decision in an instant. If an image grabs them and the words don’t put them off, they might click on your ad. Too many words and they’ve already moved on.
- This worked:
Adding the word “fabulous” didn’t – it actually lowered conversions.
So, don’t let your text get in the way of your sale!
Mark Gillespie’s Experience
Author Mark Gillespie has shared his experience in a wonderfully detailed way that serves as an excellent A-Z on Facebook ads.
Mark stresses the importance of right target audience and offers some great tips on achieving that, going into as much detail as anyone could hope for. He advocates aiming at an audience of 500,000 people, and describes how to choose the right Campaign Objective.
He then offers the following tip, which perfectly describes where I went wrong with me ad:
Scaling your ad
IF your Ad Set is performing well and you want to add more money to the budget, DO NOT just triple or quadruple your budget in one go. This can really screw up Facebook’s algorithm, and your performance could suffer accordingly.
It’s a real problem and a mistake people make all the time.
To get round it, scale your budget by around 50% every few days. So if $5 works, then go up to $7.50…measure performance…and if all is ok, scale up to $11.25 and so on.
Keep an eye on your performance data to make sure the numbers remain consistent. Once you hit a point where your metrics start to suffer, scale back down and leave it at the daily budget amount that last worked best.
Writing the perfect ad copy
Mark then explains how to go about preparing your ad blurb using the example of his book, Fab.
and offers this great tip:
A question is always a good one to use in ads as no one can ignore a question!
Further tips
He finishes his post with a few words on the Power Editor, A/B testing and data reporting. If all that sounds daunting, it isn’t – not really.
The Power Editor is an alternative way to design your ad on Facebook, but you don’t have to use it.
A/B testing simply refers to running a variation of your ad, and seeing which one performs better.
And data reporting simply refers to seeing how many people clicked on your ad, how much it cost you etc.
Know your numbers
His final tip has to do with something I, too, have stressed in my posts: it’s very hard to make money on a 99c book. In a “measure twice, cut once” kind of way, be sure you know your numbers and know how much an ad should cost for you to make money.
Tweet This
Interesting, and some good advice. But really, they are just saying what worked for them, not what will work for us. It all seems so hit and miss. If fb wanted us to sell successfully, they wouldn’t make it so hard. This way, they make the most money out of us, but we get little in return for our ‘investment’.
That’s an interesting point, and I can’t really disagree. It’s all very trial and error, and what works for one may not for another.
Yes, but some clever and persistent people manage to buck the trend and make it work for them, and my hat goes off to them, because I believe it is designed for one thing only, and that is to line FB’s pocket. You put so much into your campaign, used all the info available, and it didn’t change your life. I have a feeling you’re made of stronger stuff than me, however, and that you’ll try again with a new set of criteria. I’ll raise a glass to your success, but I’m done with fb. I only use it cos I have to.
And I say, good for you. As for me, in the words of Gonzo the Great, “if at first you don’t succeed, fail, fail again” 🙂
Lol! I don’t think so. Those who keep trying succeed. Those who don’t even try never succeed… the wise words of Ali! ???
I bow to your wisdom… and pray to God you’re right 😀
Interesting advice, Nicholas. Did you use the FB campaign/ad creator? There are a number of ad creation sites and I’m wondering if one is recommended over another. Thanks 🙂
Erm, for what? For designing the ad, you mean? I did that myself, and used FB’s default ad engine (not even the Power Editor) to launch it.
Thanks, just wondering. Yes, that’s what I was asking…erm…I think. Ha ha 😀
😀
Well, this covers exactly what I was going to write. LOL IMHO, targeting can make or break your book’s discovery (learned that the hard way). Thanks for sharing the link.
A pleasure! I hope Facebook ads work as well for you as they did for these two 🙂
David’s ad is a brilliant example of a teaser that works. Great image, and just enough text to draw you in. I would buy it! (At least I would go and have a look…)
Best wishes, Pete.
Now, all I have to do is find the best way to mimic his success… 🙂
I would just copy the idea!
Insert your own photo and reviews, and go for it.
You’re in my head… 🙂
Good to know. Thank you.
🙂
Thanks again for sharing. 🙂
Thanks for reading 🙂
Very useful – thx for sharing
Yay! Let’s hop you find it useful when the blessed time comes 🙂
Simplicity is always the key…
Aye, it usually is 🙂