HSH 147: Writing High Converting Facebook Ad Copy & Creatives
Zach Spuckler:
This is the Heart, Soul & Hustle Podcast, episode number 147. And on this episode, we're talking about how to create Facebook ads that convert. So if you've been trying to get your Facebook ads to get more leads, more sales, more growth in your business, this episode is for you. So stay tuned. Hey there, you're listening to the Heart, Soul & Hustle podcast. My name is Zach Spuckler. And on this show, we talk about how to go from passionate side hustler, to full-time online business owner with tips, tricks and interviews to help you take it to the next level. Let's do it. What is up hustlers? Welcome to another episode of the Heart, Soul & Hustle podcast.
Zach Spuckler:
Now, I really didn't know what I wanted to talk about this week to be completely honest with you. But I've been really diving more into Facebook ads lately for growing my audience, engaging my audience, reaching more people with my content. And I thought, why not share with you what's been working really well for us to get more people on our email list, to get more people buying our products and ultimately how to create Facebook ads that get more traction. Now real quick, I want to let you know if you're listening to this and you're launching a digital course, I want you to head over to launching.heartsoulhustle.com. That is a two and a half hour workshop I did that you can grab for 37 bucks on how to run your Facebook ads for a digital product launch.
Zach Spuckler:
To two and a half hour over the shoulder workshop with training on copy, creative, content, budgeting, all kinds of good stuff. So if you want to learn more about how to crush it with your Facebook ads in a launch, or just learn the fundamentals of launching with Facebook ads, go check it out, launching.heartsoulhustle.com. Now, with that being said, let's dive into this week's episode. So I currently have a number of different ads running, and I want to walk you through the two ads that we have running and the third ad that we're going to start bringing into the fold. So the first ad that we have running is a list-building ad. Now, if you'd have asked me a year ago, I would've said, "Don't worry about building your list, just launch, get a bunch of people on your email list, make some money and generate some revenue."
Zach Spuckler:
But I think that as things become more saturated and competitive, regardless of what market you're in, it really helps to be building your email list all the time. So we have a opt-in running for my ultimate guide to Facebook ads for digital course launches, which ultimately leads people through an email sequence to buy the $37 launching program where we're getting leads for like $3.21 at the time I'm recording this. We've had about 217 leads. So it's a pretty stable source of leads. And we've actually had a few people purchase the $37 offer on the backend, okay? Now the second ad that we're running is directly to our challenge launch toolkit, which if you've been listening to the show for any period of time, you know I have a toolkit.
Zach Spuckler:
You can go to toolkit.heartsoulhustle.com if you want to check it out, but it's basically how to launch with a five day challenge. So we're running traffic directly to that sales page. And we average anywhere from two to $400 in sales a day, I think over the last week. I'm literally going to pull it up while I'm recording so that you have accurate data. Our average daily revenue over the last seven days was about $293 a day. And over the last month we averaged about $344 a day. So we've been doing pretty darn well with that low ticket offer. It's been working really great for us and we're using it to grow our audience.
Zach Spuckler:
And then the last ad that we're not running, but we're going to start running in the next few days is an engagement ad with content, whether it be my Instagram content or my Facebook content. Just engaging my warm audience and reaching out to new cold audiences to get people listening to the podcast, following me on Instagram, connecting with me on Facebook and ultimately to grow my reach and influence. Now, for those of you who don't know, I have a program where I teach people how to launch their course. And one of the things that we've been teaching is that you should be priming your audience and your offer well before you get to the point that you're going to launch your course.
Zach Spuckler:
So what we do is we're growing our email list all the time. We're driving traffic directly to low ticket offers, and now we're going to run engagement ads to grow our engagement audiences, okay? Now why do I even lay out the three things that we're doing before I dive in? Because I want you to understand that there is this strategy to Facebook ads, which is that you've got to play the long game, okay? You've got to be willing to grow your email list over time so you have people to launch to. You've got to be willing to test things out, like we're testing out a low ticket product.
Zach Spuckler:
You've got to be willing to run some engagement ads, because that grows what I call your ecosystem of engagement. Which is basically you can re target anyone who likes your Facebook content, DMs you on Instagram, likes your Instagram content, saves your Instagram content. You can actually target all of these people with your ads when it does come time to launch, or when it comes time to promote like an evergreen funnel. So what I want you to know is that there's a really simple process that we go through to write our Facebook ads. And when I say write, I'm talking about the copy, and copy is quite simply the text that goes around the Facebook ad.
Zach Spuckler:
The creative, we also have a really simple process for it that we like to test. So I am going to share with you first, the creative that we like to test. So every time we create a Facebook ad, we do one or two sets of copy and we do a bunch of different creative. So there's four core creatives that I like to test out for my ad. And creative is just the imagery or video that you use. So one, I like to test out a still image of myself, especially if I'm leveraging a personal brand. I like to test out a stock photo. I like to test out a stock photo or image of myself with text over it. And then I like to test out a text-based image, is what I call it.
Zach Spuckler:
Very similar to like a quote that you would see on Instagram, but it would be promoting my freebie or my challenge or my webinar. I always create those four sets of creative. I might not test them all at first full, just for like insight. We find that the stuff with text on it is out converting everything right now. Like our ads are just crushing it when we have a highly text-based ad. And if you're going to do a video, I don't personally do a ton of video when I do a video. We have an ad running right now that's doing pretty darn well, it's actually a PDF that we're promoting. And it's just a video of me flipping through the PDF.
Zach Spuckler:
We have a little application called Designer, which I'll link up in the show notes, but we just run a video of me flipping through the PDF and it's been getting us really, really good cost leads. So those are the creative. And I always think people get tripped up on creative, because they're like, well, what do I do? Or what do I say? Just go to the fundamental for a stock photo, brand photo, photo or stock photo with text over it and a text-based image. Text-based images have been performing the best followed by brand photos or selfie style photos. Those have been working really well for us, but we just create those four images so we have them.
Zach Spuckler:
We generally only test two images at a time, meaning I'm going to test my text-based image. And usually either the stock photo or photo of me with text overlay, those are the first two that I test. If those don't convert, then I will bring the other photos in. And the reason for that is for most people listening, even myself, when I'm only spending 30, $40 a day on ads, and I know that's really silly to say only, but we're spending 30 to $40 a day on list-building ads. If I am spending that amount and I have four different sets of creative and two sets of copy, I'm basically spreading $30 across eight different ads. And ultimately some of them aren't going to get tested.
Zach Spuckler:
So you really don't want to spread yourself too thin with split testing. I recommend that you do two sets of images and two sets of copies so you have image one, copy one, image one, copy two, image two, copy one, image two, copy two. So you have four creatives that you're going to combine in each ad set that you test. Now, I know that I'm really diving into the logistics of Facebook ads today, and if you're like, I have no idea what's going on, head over to heartsoulhustle.com/ultimate. And I've got this entire guide that breaks down Facebook ads for launching that is really going to benefit you.
Zach Spuckler:
And you can check that out totally free. And I think that that'll help you get the lingo down and the process that I'm talking about down. So that's the creative side of things. For the copy side of things, I follow a pretty simple formula. First thing I do is I always start with a hook. What a lot of people don't think about is that when you're running a Facebook ad, the text above the image, you're only going to have one sentence before it says, see more. And you have to entice people before they click that see more, or they're not going to click it. And they're not going to read the ad copy, or they're not going to click on the ad.
Zach Spuckler:
So I always start with a hook. So for example, in my Facebook ads ultimate guide to Facebook ads for digital course launches, I start my ad by saying confession. I spend weeks in the ads manager when I first started Facebook ads, trying to figure everything out. That was seven years ago. And things have only gotten more intricate. Now, think about that. People are like, Oh my gosh! I feel like I'm spending stuff there. Or why is this guy confessing? So they want to read more. And then the second thing is I kind of meet people where they are. So I say, I know, I know it might sound like it's impossible to learn, but the good news is anyone can learn Facebook ads for their digital course business.
Zach Spuckler:
See, Facebook ads get a bad rap on these internet streets because they're hard to learn. But the truth is, Facebook ads are more of a science. You just have to know the formula to getting things running. So basically what I do is I get this really great hook and then I position it to be like, I get where you're coming from. I understand what you're saying, but there's a solution. So my copy goes, hook, connect, introduce solution. Then the next thing I do is I say, I like to do either authority or presence.
Zach Spuckler:
And what I mean by that is you may just be getting started. You may not have a ton of client testimonials. You might be like, I haven't been doing this for 10 years. That's okay. You can talk about your personal journey. You can talk about what you've achieved, but I like to say, this is your chance to connect and build authority with you as a person. So I say, hey there, my name's Zach and I've run ads for major course launches in the online industry with small and big budgets alike. And I'm here to tell you that the reason we get results for our clients like 8XROI, $2 leads and more is because we've documented and reuse a proven process for our ad campaigns.
Zach Spuckler:
Want a copy of this document? I got you. So I build authority. And then I like to ask a question to kind of get them nodding along. And then it's just my call to action. Snag the ultimate guide to launching your digital course with Facebook ads by clicking the insert link. And then I talk about the benefits or features of the offer. So the three primary campaigns we set up for every launch, a step-by-step illustrated guide to setting up your custom audiences, 5,500 words that break down our entire launch strategy for ads, all without making your head spin, promise.
Zach Spuckler:
So act today, learn our system and get your digital course launch off to the right start. Don't miss it and a link. So real quick, just to run through this again, this is a hook at the top, connect and introduce a solution, build authority, ask a question to get them nodding along, call to action, features and benefits, and then a final call to action at the bottom of the ad. Now you can also test out shorter form copy, and I always recommend that you do that where you just say like, hey, want to learn more about Facebook ads? Grab this ultimate guide on how to launch Facebook ads for digital courses. I just like to test a short form of copy as well, but I always test one with this long form flow because we find that they do really, really well.
Zach Spuckler:
Now, as far as the headline goes, and that's what shows up under the image of your ad, I like to do something kind of fun. I do one that's a curiosity of ochre, and I do one headline that's more of a, here's what you're getting. So for example, my one headline is, launching a course with Facebook ads? You need this. So they're like, Oh my gosh! If they read the headline first, what do they need? And then the other one I just say is, the ultimate guides to launching your course with Facebook ads. It's exactly what it is. So I always test out a curiosity piquer, and then something that's just very straightforward and to the point.
Zach Spuckler:
And then I pair it with those two images that we talked about first, so that I've got a short form of copy, a long form of copy paired with each image that I recommended that you create. So that's how I write my Facebook ads. I keep it really, really simple. And then I split test them to different audiences. And inside the ultimate guide to Facebook ads, which again, I'll link it up in the show notes, but it's heartsoulhustle.com/ultimate, I talk about the audiences that you need to test. And you need to test your warm audience, your lookalike audience and your cold audiences. So I just want to touch on this real quick and say, your cold audience is running ads to people who like Amy Porterfield, like James Wedmore, like Female Entrepreneur Association, that's cold.
Zach Spuckler:
Warm, is people who have engaged with you on Instagram. People who have engaged with you on Facebook. People who are watching your videos on Facebook. People who are on your email list. People who have visited your website. So basically like your ecosystem. And then the in-between is the lookalike audiences, which is basically people who look similar to the warm audiences that you created. So a lookalike audience, basically you can tell Facebook, hey, I want to target people who are similar to this audience that I'm going to give you. So we always do a lookalike of our email list, of our website traffic and of our highest engaged social media platform between Facebook and Instagram, which for me tends to be Instagram and we get phenomenal results.
Zach Spuckler:
So I didn't want this episode to be too long because I don't want you to get overwhelmed with the prospect of creating Facebook ads. So let's just run through everything that we covered today and then we'll wrap up. I'll give you a link to the show notes where we'll have a full transcription of everything that we covered today. But first things first, when you go to write Facebook ads, you always want to start with the creative. I like to start with the creative. And you're going to create four creatives. A text-based, a stock photo, a brand photo of you, and either a stock or brand photo with text overlay.
Zach Spuckler:
Then you're going to create two sets of copy, a short form copy, which is just really direct into the point, and a long form copy. And I gave you my formula for a long form copy, which is hook, connect, introduce solution, establish authority, ask a question, call to action, features and benefits, call to action again. And then we talked about how I always test two headlines, which is a direct headline that's very clear about what they're getting and a curiosity or introspective headline that gets them thinking like, Oh my gosh! What is this? I need more. I need more information.
Zach Spuckler:
Then we talked about where you're going to test it. So you're going start with two images and two copies. So you have four combinations and test it to your warm audience, your cold audience and your lookalike audiences. Now, if you don't have warm audiences or lookalike audiences ready to go yet, you can absolutely start with just cold. And over time by doing this work, you're going to grow. The last thing that we touched on briefly is the three types of ads that I'm running right now, or will be running, which is the list building ads, the sale generating ads and the engagement ads to make sure that my content stays top of mind as we lead into our upcoming launch.
Zach Spuckler:
So there you have it. I tried to keep this episode nice and tight so that you don't have to spend hours and hours and hours listening and learning how to write Facebook ads. Guys, I just want to encourage you that writing Facebook ads is an art and a science. And you're not going to get it right the first time, or you're not going to get it perfect the first time, but if you get out there and start running the ads and testing, you're going to start to see what works. You're going to start to see what connects with people. You're going to start to see what gets people engaging with your ads. So get out there and test, have fun, see what works.
Zach Spuckler:
Now, if you want a recap of the show, you can head over to heartsoulhustle.com/147. Again, that's heartsoulhustle.com/147. We'll have a full transcript of the show. I'll link out to the toolkit, to the launching program. And I'll link out to everything that we mentioned on the show today. So with that being said, I hope you got lots of value out of this short but action packed episode. If you take away one thing from this, it's go write and create your Facebook ads. Test them out. Test the engagement. Test the list building. If you don't have a product, that's okay. Run at least those two campaigns. Get out there. Create great content. And I cannot wait to hear how it goes for you.
