Copywriting is king in the world of digital marketing. It’s the craft of writing persuasive messages that prompt people to take action (buy something, inquire about a service, download a free eBook, donate to a cause, etc.). When it comes to marketing and advertising your business, copywriting is the single most important skill you should learn to master; whether you are doing it yourself or outsourcing it to a professional. When combined with Facebook Ads, great copywriting is a one, two punch that will have your schedule booked and products flying off the shelves. But how do you combine the two?
Components of Facebook Ads:
Hook
The hook is what starts off an ad, it’s where you grab people’s attention, make them want to keep reading your copy. You need to think about what’s going to grab a person’s attention as they’re scrolling through the feed. This could be a great photo or some catchy opening text or it could go even deeper. For example, if you’re targeting rollerbladers in Milwaukee wi you could through an opening line like “What’s Up MKE Bladers?!” Something that instantly qualifies a reader and makes them say “Hey, that’s me, I want to check this ad out.”
Pain Points
Pain points aren’t always necessary in every ad but they do help. A pain point is a general problem or annoyance that your targeted customer has, which is great because your product or service is going to be able to fix that. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer, maybe even ask them what they struggle with in regards to XYZ. This will foster great feedback if done correctly and highlight some major pain points they may be having.
Solutions
How are you going to fix the reader’s problems? Why is your product or service better than the competitors?
Offer
Offer your solution in a creative and valuable way, make sure it alleviates the user’s pain points and is the only one of its kind.
CTA
Your call to action, what you want the reader to do once they read all of your excellent copy. Download the solution.
Putting these components together will be sure to drive great results for your business!
Goals of your Writing
1) Take Action
It’s important to set goals for your writing or anything in life for that matter. Without clear goals how are you going to know if you’re progressing in your craft or not?
A very common goal of almost any advertiser is to get the target customer to take action. Period.
If your target customer isn’t taking action on your advertising efforts you need to button up your advertising efforts.
So, what can I fix if my customer isn’t taking any action?
Start with your offer. This is going to make the most difference right of the bat, the offer and the headline are what people STOP for, what people take ACTION for. Think about it, would you stop on scrolling through your newsfeed for a complimentary estimate or a FREE gutter guard system with a new roof installation? One offer is clearly better than the other and will most definitely push more people to fill out that form and give their valuable information.
“But Nick, I don’t want to offer something of value, I can’t afford it.”
This is a bad mindset to be in as a business owner. Business isn’t easy, it’s pay to play in many aspects. Sure, your margins might be a little tighter after a job with a free gutter guard but think about the valuable data you’ve gained from the customer that just took that deal. You now have your ideal customer and what they look like, and thanks to the Facebook Pixel you’ll be able to advertise to other customers that look just like him. In other words, you took a little less of the top of a job but gained the knowledge of exactly who to advertise to in the future to get even more sales.
2) Have people read all the way though
Unless you’re a godsend copywriter it’s going to be tough to have a person take action on your ad from just a sentence.
They’ll probably need a little more persuading.
Contrary to popular belief your Facebook Ad copy doesn’t have to be short and sweet. You have a lot of space to tell a story and really sell what you’re offering.
Keep the first 4-5 lines hard-hitting and to the point, enticing the reader to click that “see more” button, then once they do go wild and explain everything you need to.
So how do you get a person to actually read the whole thing once they click “see more”? You have to evoke emotion.
People are incredibly impulsive and emotional, use that to your advantage and sell sell sell. Tell a story that relates to the person you’re targeting and hit the paint points we talked about. Try to get them to keep agreeing to what you’re writing.
“Are you noticing it’s harder and harder to keep fat off” YES
“Do you wish you could get back to that body you once had” YES
“Are you tired of bogus diet plans that never seem to work” YES
“Do you hate wasting time in the gym with your busy schedule” YES
THEN YOU HAVE TO BUY THIS.
Other sometimes overlooked aspects that affect how far people read are the readability itself and how easy it is to understand. In the world of 240 character tweets and Instagram captions, our attention spans are at an all-time low, people are too lazy to read whole paragraphs, split that stuff up!
Could a 5th grader understand what you’re writing about and why they need to take action? No? Dumb it down a bit, not everyone is as smart as you are, meaning they probably don’t know as much about your product or service. Make it easy to understand and easy to digest.
Common Facebook Advertising Mistakes to Avoid
1) Grammar Mistakes
Facebook ads are pretty easy to get up and running once you know what you’re doing, I could easily get one live in less than 20 minutes. While this is awesome, it’s not perfect. Rushing through something quickly can lead to mistakes, most commonly grammar.
Make sure you slow down and re-read your copy a few times, make sure everything is perfect. If you’re not comfortable, have someone who is looking them over! Even if you’re grammar is perfect, it’s always a good idea to get other opinions on your copy in general.
If you do make a mistake, it’s not a huge deal, you can always edit the ad on the fly. Gone are the days of 6-month planning phases for a billboard.
2) Not Clear
Back to the are you smarter than a 5th grader, can I digest the information quickly and accurately? Does it make sense? Will I understand it fast without wanting to keep scrolling through my newsfeed?
People’s attention spans are so short (I’m honestly surprised you made it this far into my post), you have to make it something they can make a decision on within 10 seconds and take action.
3) Overly Wordy
Make it quick, make it fast. Condense, condense, condense.
Try splitting things up into lines rather than paragraphs.
They’re easier to read and people are more likely to move onto the next one.
See?
Persuasion Tactics
The most important part of advertising. Persuading someone to take action with you, buy your product, or sign up for your service.
Scarcity
This is one of the top tactics, getting people to take action now since it won’t be available tomorrow. Things that work include “1 Day Only” or “Only X Spots Left” anything that can rush the process in a person’s eyes. Make them think they’re missing out if they don’t buy now.
Asking Agreeable Questions
We touched on it before but the more you’re able to make a person say yes to something the better. It will subconsciously validate you as they’re answering.
Answer the Possible Questions Before They’re Asked
A person will always be hesitant and always have a few questions, try to answer them in your copy before they even know.
“They’re just going to use my phone number for sales”, “What’s the catch”
Now it’s your turn
As with anything, you’ll never really start learning until you try. Facebook Ads are a relatively cheap option for any small business to build its brand and gain new customers. The options for targeting and exposure are second to none. Do not overlook this in your marketing strategy, it’s vital for you to be advertising where your customers are, and that means Facebook. I hope this guide helps get you going, it was never meant to be about the technicals of setting up ads or targeting, rather what will help those ads perform the best.