Facebook Ads – How to Write Copy that Sells
One of the most important parts to Facebook Ad success is the copy. If it doesn’t appeal to your audience or grab their attention or convince them to click then your advert is destined to fail (and be expensive)!
Thankfully we are here to help! We have been researching and testing and refining and testing again and again, playing with Facebook ads to bring you a summary of all the best bits from the world’s leading experts. That’s millions and millions worth of money spent on Facebook ads, and we’re here to give you the low down. Sound good?
The most important thing you need to understand
…is that you are selling the click, not your product/service/lead magnet.
Think about it, you only have a small amount of space on your FB ad to sell, now compare that to a full landing page or website, or email series where you can write as much as you want and show examples and proof and all manner of things.
You’re putting the odds against you if you are trying to sell your product straight away.
Instead you need to do everything you can to get them to click to find out more.
Side note: When we say ‘everything’ we are not suggesting having click bait (misleading copy that doesn’t relate to what the person clicks through too), you want people clicking who have a genuine interest – otherwise it will be pointless them clicking, it will cost you money and Facebook may ban you from advertising.
Here is an example ad, so lets go through that with you now.
The text in the orange shows exactly what kinds of things that need to be incorporated in each section.
The ‘text’ at the top is perhaps the most important part as it is the first thing to read, and the audience needs to know right away if they should keep reading or not. So it is absolutely vital that after reading it they know whether this ad is for them or not. It needs to state either a problem to identify with, or it needs to identify with the target in other ways, such as their profession, or situation, or even their location. Notice how on this ad we did both using location first (“North East”) and then their situation (“nearing retirement”). Then we hit them with a problem they might have (paying tax on their pension) and offered a solution (“Find out how to pay less”). It is important not to just bring up a problem without a solution.
Mobile ad space is different which makes this top ‘text’ even more important, because you don’t get the ‘description’ text below. In fact most Facebook ad experts suggest setting up a new ad completely just for mobile because then you can make the text more concise, without relying on the ‘description’ text below, and you can also see if the ad is performing better or worse on mobile.
The image is the toughest part if you aren’t very creative or don’t have design skills but there a number alternatives (if you need help with physically designing the ads, check out this article). The image needs to be eye catching, and provoke an emotional response to inspire to action (click). You can actually use the ‘browse’ feature within the FB ads process to use ShutterStock photos for free, however we wouldn’t recommend this. If it is a last resort or if you find the perfect image then go for it, but it does have limitations. Not least that you can’t add text to the image or tweak it in any way. Quick tips for the image:
- Stay away from cheesy stock photos – it looks fake, and photos that look more ‘real’ tend to perform better.
- Use the Facebook Grid tool to make sure your advert doesn’t get rejected for having too much text.
- Pictures of people’s faces (looking at you), tend to perform better than cartoon faces and so on.
- Good graphics do help, don’t skimp on design!
- Show the benefits, not the issue. 80% of buying decisions are emotional so show the aspiration after receiving your offering rather than showing someone stressed out with their issue.
ACTION: It’s tough to think of the right words to say, and think what will work best so give it some time. Don’t rush it, really take the time to think about your audience and what they want.
ACTION: It’s frustrating when experts never give an answer and instead they just say, “test it” but annoyingly it is true. You never truly know what wording or what image is going to work best. So please do try to do as much testing as possible. What we mean by that is that you MUST try out different images, and different copy throughout. Try at least 5 different variations of the same ad, with a tiny spending limit just for a few days (literally £3/$5 per ad a day), and after a few days you can drop the ones that don’t work and keep/improve on the ones that do. You will be so glad you did this. Isn’t it great that you can instantly tweak, test and improve in real time to measure results?!