“Damn this ad grabbed my attention”
I’m in a handful on online “communities” full of Facebook advertisers and Ecom business owners.
Here’s a thing I see so often, that’s just plain wrong:
(And if you have someone in your team who does this, or maybe you do this, then stop! Right now!)
Okay so it goes like this…
Person says: “Look how creative this ad is!! Look how amazing it is, this ad really got my attention, let’s copy it.”
Or another fellow who is a video marketer “reviews” video ads based on their production, creativity and ingenuity…
“Yes this is a great ad” or “No this ad is terrible!”
Rating ads based of appearance, creativity or copy is erroneous! Stupid! Silly! Makes no sense! Incorrect! Wrong!
And more importantly, bad for business, it will cost you money. It’s just a very poor strategy.
Here’s why:
- You don’t know how well the ad performed, what are the metrics? How many SALES did it produce? Maybe the ad grabbed everyones attention and was “creative” but it sold NADA.
- You are not the desired audience for the ad, if the ad is targeting the fitness market, and you are not in that market, how can you possibly know the hot-buttons and desires of the market, to know if the ad connects or not.
- You probably didn’t buy from the ad. High-performing ads do not attract attention to themselves…they make people BUY! Most people DON’T think “I’m reading an ad”, but they ARE: engaged, intrigued, impulsed and thinking about solving their problems with that product.
- Each ad is made to solve a specific problem at a specific time for a specific market. So, even if it did work, it worked for X product at X time. If you mindlessly copy it, even word-for-word, it may lead to poor sales.
And in the words from Eugene Schwartz’s “Phillips Publishing” speech:
“Words in advertising are like a window in a store, you need to be able to see right through and see the product. If you see the window then it’s dirty. Don’t attract attention to yourself, people need to feel the right words not see them.”
But “words” here could easily mean video, creative, images – Facebook ads ads didn’t exist back in ’93.
So there you have it…
Don’t judge an ad by its “creativity” or it’s ability to stop you in your tracks.
What you can and should do, is “strategically” spy on your competitors ads to find their messaging, positioning and their offer. Use this research to get ideas, gather knowledge and position against them.
It will require you to innovate, work hard and actually think for yourself, though.
More on the “art of spying” in another article, but for now we’ll leave it there shall we.
More rants coming soon…
Cool?
If you need help with your ads, I’ve put together a training that will show you 3 proven ecom ad campaigns.
The link is below, get in before I take it down.
Jameel Paul