[Issue 42] An Advertising Masterclass
I watched this 2-hour video (so you wouldn’t have to).
[Photo by C D-X on Unsplash]
The Idea: Success in advertising (and everything else in marketing) is defined by the levers you pull, not the tactics you fiddle with.
Dive Deeper: The source for today’s idea is from a Facebook ad agency owner. His content is phenomenal: you can get all the “how-to” advice you need for a Facebook campaign you can handle.
But what sets him apart is that his content also teaches “how to think” about Facebook ads. These ideas are not limited to paid ads - they’re applicable to anything you do in marketing.
Today’s article covers a few of his most important takeaways, but if you want to go deeper, watch this video distilling his top 39 lessons after 11 years of running Facebook ad campaigns:
The Problem: Most people treat their marketing like a grab bag of tactics: they tinker & tweak, slinging stuff against the wall to see what sticks. The result is a lot of time spent trying to gain a 1% improvement.
Instead, they should be targeting the handful of levers that can significantly move the needle.
Here’s what those levers are, based on Facebook ads agency owner and strategist Ben Heath’s 11 years of running ad campaigns.
The Application: “Campaign structure, targeting, and settings are less important than you think.”
This quote was Ben’s intro to his third lesson - that the most important part of any Facebook ad campaign is the offer (followed by ad creative).
Most people get lost fiddling with these when they’re struggling to make Facebook ads work for them. Instead, Ben presents a hard truth (in lesson #25): if your ads aren’t working, it might just be that your product (or service) isn’t good enough.
Zoom out, and these lessons become immediately obvious to anything you do in your business:
Pay attention to the biggest levers in your business and marketing - and ignore the rest, until these are dialed in.
A few more lessons on levers from Ben’s video:
#1) Most Facebook ad campaigns, like most businesses, fail. Winning comes from sticking it out.
#2) Amateurs focus on reducing the cost to acquire a customer. Experts focus on increasing lifetime customer value (so they can afford to spend more per customer - we talked about this in-depth in Issue 35).
#4) Only test the most important things. Offers, creative styles, hooks, promises, guarantees, etcetera. Before any experiment, ask: “If this works, will it make a substantial difference to my results?”
#8) The only two metrics that matter: Cost per conversion and Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). Everything else can be a distraction or lead you to the wrong conclusion. Not running paid ads? Apply this to anything else you do: pick one or two key metrics that create the most strategic impact for whatever it is you prioritize, and optimize for those.
#12) Your brand is the greatest Facebook ad hack by far. You don’t normally expect to find a lesson on brand building in a video about Facebook ads. But the principle goes way beyond paid ads: in anything you do, establishing a strong brand can accelerate and strengthen your growth.
Ben says there are two ways to leverage this: either invest the money and time in building one, or borrow someone else’s (to accelerate your own brand awareness and reputation).
#23) There’s no “one size fits all.” Always ask, “will this work for my business?” This idea has come up often throughout The Odysseus Files.
And finally,
#32) The most expensive part of your marketing is NOT ad costs, content creation, or hiring influencers. It’s the sales you miss out on because your marketing isn’t good enough.
Maybe - just maybe - you’re not getting the results you want in your marketing (and business) because you’re spending more time flailing away at tree after tree instead of taking the time upfront to sharpen your ax.
Use these nine lessons to step back and sharpen your ax. Then come back and see how much easier the trees go down.
P.S. - Which lesson was most surprising to you? Hit “reply” and let me know.