I never thought I’d be writing a post about Facebook Ads of all things, yet here we are. 🙂
We’re currently mid-launch for the Experience Product Masterclass, and I knew months ago that I was going to run Facebook ads to my opt-in pages (you can see it here), but if you’ve spent any time on Facebook lately, you know that the newsfeed is just wall-to-wall wth ads, ads, ads. Everywhere you look, there are ads. So I knew that whatever I did was going to need to REALLY stand out.
And so that’s why in this post, I’m going to show you the 3 ads that we made, and dissect them a little for you, so you can apply the principles in your own marketing to get better results.
So, here’s the deal: if YOU’RE running Facebook ads, or you’re thinking of it, then:
– if you want to stand out, you MUST be using video, BUT:
– unless your video has a couple of really important elements I’ll reveal below, you’re at risk of wasting a LOT of money
I’m going to show you the three ads now, and then break it all down for you at the end. Go ahead and watch them now, they’re all just 30-40 seconds long. 🙂
Go to the Experience Product Phenomenon page
Go to the Viral Product Checklist Page
The results?
It’s a little too early in the campaign to tell, however, these ads are already over-performing on every expectation I had. Thousands of clicks, and the kind of commenting that I’ve never seen before!
Here’s a taste of the hundreds of comments we’re receiving, and keep in mind that “normally” you don’t see comments like this on advertisements…
So here’s what we did in these 3 ads that really worked…
Don’t look like anything else
The biggest reason someone won’t watch your ad is “I’ve seen this (or something like this) before”. So if you start your video like a million other promotional videos, then they’ve seen your video before, and they won’t stick around. You must get their curiosity right from the start, which is what we’ve tried hard to do in all 3 of the videos you’ll find on this page.
Start with a “pattern interrupt”
A “pattern interrupt” is anything that changes someone’s state or energy. A good example of that is using humor in a serious situation, which interrupts the pattern and can lead to momentary confusion while the brain tries to “catch up” to what’s going on it wasn’t expecting.
So, once you have their attention, you need to keep it.
If you want to keep someone for the 30 seconds of your ad, it will need to to be an experience. Mix it up and keep them guessing. Have fast cuts and don’t be afraid to throw “b-roll” footage, which is industry speak for footage that’s NOT of you delivering your message. We’ve done a LOT of that as well, too, especially in video 3.
Have some FUN!
You’ll notice that 2 of the videos below are me in Katniss costume from The Hunger Games series of movies. I really enjoyed throwing off “Marisa as usual”, and hamming it up a little in front of the camera.
And finally, make sure you give them a link to go to at the end, in case they want to just type in the address into their browser.