7 Winning Facebook Ads Tactics to Get Your Results Instantly in 2023

What's up, Marketers! This is Aazar. 

This newsletter is about leveling up your paid growth marketing skills by analyzing the best brand’s paid strategy, tactics, positioning, and value props. 

This newsletter is divided into:

• Sharing learning from my experience (this issue) the performance marketers I admire

• And analyzing the best brands I admire to give you actional tips to apply in your business

If you are a new subscriber, then check out these three blogs to get value from this newsletter immediately:

• How an 8-Figure D2C Brand Runs Paid Social Marketing

• 10 Principles of Creating Thumb-stopping Ads

• The Paid Social Performance Battle – Masterclass vs Studio

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Have you heard about The Performers Mastermind Group?

For the last four months, I have been running a paid social mastermind group, and I have only accepted 20% of all the applications (because only the best can help each other level up). So, why do people join this group and pay €24/month for it?

They get:

• Exclusive live discussion with other paid social marketing pros (no more individual jumping on Zoom calls).

• Exclusive summarized tactical newsletter for those who couldn’t attend our session.

• Paid gigs: Agency, consultant, and job offers for the community

• Sounding board: They get landing pages, ads, and campaigns honest feedback

• Insiders' secret: They also jump on bi-monthly calls to learn what’s working for us on paid socials

• Extra support: Content, community, rant, and more.

So, if you are interested in our paid social marketing group, then I’d highly encourage you to apply where folks don’t just learn from me but from each other too. And the best part? They love it!

Here’s a tweet from our mastermind a few weeks ago:

Apply here if you want to level up (prices will increase to €29 after the 35th membership, at the moment, we have 25).

We had a session last week, and some marketers have a ton of experience. I am about to share it in a private newsletter.

And if you already know about the mastermind group and are still on the edge, check out why other marketers are loving this video.

_________

I invited Dara Denny to my podcast & mastermind group and we found some gems that are extremely relevant to paid marketers. 

This content ownership belongs to Dara solely. Do follow her Youtube Channel and Twitter. 

Tactic # 1 Brands should be doing format testing 

For example, If you are working with several UGC creators. Then, try different formats like three reasons why, problem solution ad, and before and after ads. 

Here are all the different formats with examples if you are curious.

First, concentrate on testing these different formats rapidly. Why? Because Facebook has now reduced the hook rate from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds.

Dara’s analysis is that people are just looking at the format first and deciding whether or not they want to continue watching.

When we say "format", we don't mean image or video. The format is the style. Green screen, IG stories, or TikTok. The key is to have raw videos, lean on the UGC creator's creativity, and edit.

Tried and tested: I have an account where the single image ads always outperforms videos. So, I focus on single-image ads for that.

Tactic # 2  Mobile app brands should test on Android 

This was mind-bending for me, at least. We have iOS issues with Facebook Ads tracking but no android issues.

According to Dara, Android users have similar AOV (not in my experience). Since you can literally track which ad converted, and you don’t need to wait 7 days to get results. She recommends testing ads on Android than iOS. I totally agree.

She says, “Android users aren't that much different than Apple users, which is like a big consensus that I had previously. So I would potentially try, if you're doing mobile app, to only advertise on Android Apple ads.” 

Tactic # 3 - Scaling with different budgets

Scaling is something I also personally struggle with. So, Dara’s thoughts were extremely useful.

There are different types of scaling.

Horizontal scaling: Test different audiences and creatives.

Vertical scaling: Add more budget but fewer audiences.

Insight: Use campaign budget optimization at this point with the best creatives and audiences.

She gave me scaling both vertically and horizontally. 

So here are her thoughts:

1. $10K->$50K/month ad budget scaling should be happening easily. If not, it’s a product-market fit issue.

2. $50->$100K/month ad budget scaling should have two creative tests every single week and get learning from those.

3. $100K-$250K/month – this stage requires a lot more creative testing. Probably 3-4 creative tests per week. 

The safest way to scale is that you should not probably increase 20% every three days. 

Check out this newsletter, I'm applying the psychological cues to my ads.

Tactic # 4 Don’t rely on UGC creators creativity only 

UGC at Thesis (her agency): 

First, create briefs and write scripts within the brief – but at the scale Thesis operates, they can’t give too much creative freedom. Creators are not great at editing, so better do that in-house. They are managing 50+  creators per month. They do focus on specific types of creators per niche.

I learned from Dara to always ask for “raw videos” so you can mash up what you want and need.

Hot take: Creators from TikTok and other platforms are better than those hanging out on Twitter. So, do look outside of Twitter. 

The best way to manage UGC creator: How Savvanah Sanchez does it. She only works with 20 creators; she onboards them then trains and works with the same creator repeatedly.

Tactic # 5 - How to test primary text copy?

In order to test different copy, you need to need decide what kind of copy will actually work.

There are different kinds of copy such as:

• Review testimonial: Take a review or testimonial of your customer and put the exact copy on your ad. Always remember, your customers have the best way to say it. Protip: Try different variations of it too.

If you are going with review testimonial copy, you should try multiple testimonials, one that high some value props, or different variations of it. And choose the most impactful ones.

• Bullet points copy with benefits: These are usually with emojis and they are easy to read. 

However, such primary text copy does not appear well on Instagram. 

• Short form copy:  So, I usually use this copy and this usually goes well on Instagram. What I have personally seen is that primary text copy does not make or break creative but it is still good to test. Here’s an example of copy from my ads.

But how do you really test the primary text?

First, analyze which copy you’ve already tested and pick the one that resonated. Then, analyze the ones that didn’t work and why they didn’t work. 

 Pick your best creatives and only use one ad with multiple ad copies to really see the best results. Later on, check which gets the most spending. 

The most important thing here is to remember that copy test should come after creatives and you should spend most of your energy on creative testing. 

Tactic # 6 - How to make winning Facebook Ads creative

This specific tactic wasn’t in my podcast, because we talked about more advanced topics. But I think this is the best way to find winning creatives so I thought about sharing it with you.

I’m basically summarizing this video for you but if you have time, check this video out. 

Let’s learn from Dara how she approaches it (because it worked for me too):

1. Determine who your competitors are: Find their ads or similar competitors (if you are small). See their ad accounts but also check their organic videos. Most importantly, check the “comments” and FAQs to learn from the users. 

   1. Check top ads from your industry on TikTok too

   2. And then make a note of what types of creators they are using, look at the hooks, how long the ads are, what is the flow and more

   3. Find out what “sticks” to you as a user, make a note of that and review later.

   4. Also, make sure to check out competitors ads’ landing page, website and messaging. 

   5. Find out how competitors are positioning themselves organically vs on ads. Save all of these ads, if you have nothing. Check Foreplay. I have a big discount if you reply to this email. I’ll share it with ya.   

2. Past performance analysis: If you have access to the platform. Analyze these metrics. But most important, CTR, hook rate, hold rate and conversion rate and obviously cost per purchase/lead. Then, find out what kind of hooks are getting attention and hold rate – what imagery works to retain customers. Then, further break down into gender, location, placement,  device or any other breakdowns you find relevant to understand ad account performance and take notes. For complete Audit, Khizer Abbas, has shared this checklist in my mastermind that I’m sharing it with you. 

3. User research (something she didn’t mention). I’d recommend checking out your reviews, what people say about you on different forums, social media and user interviews to find out your angle, hooks and messaging that works for you. Get Katelyn’s user interview cheat sheet or review mining system to do that well. Or you can simply use this thread to ask questions in your interview.

4. Create briefs, storyboards and scripts for your ads. Here’s a template from my mastermind member, Khizer Abbas (someone should hire this amazing marketer), for your UGC briefs, storyboard and script.

Here’s Dara’s recipe for UGC script if you are interested: Have an engaging hook> Agitate the problem> Introduce the product > Show some benefits > Give testimonials > end with eye-catching CTA 

Or check our my past issues, there are different recipes used by different brands: Magic Spoon, MasterClass, and Whoop.

Some tips to work with UGC creators from Dara:

1. Jump on a call with them, go over the briefs in depth and get their ideas (I do that too)

2. Relationship building is really important

3. Let them live with your product a little bit and then make the content

4. Get raw videos from them

5. QA the ad creative with critical eyes - ask these question: 

   1. Can you tell what the product is at second 1, 3 and 5? 

   2. When is the product introduced? 

   3. Does it show the “aha” moment as far early as possible?

   4. Can it be mistaken for some other brand? (avoid that) 

   5. Does the video look native? 

   6. To what extent are you using “brand owned” terms? (avoid that too) 

   7. What’s sticking the most? This was mind blowing to me, does seem obvious, but I loved this question because people won’t have time to remember everything. Make sure there is one key thing that sticks out most

   8. Are you making your user work? Don’t do that. Make it simpler.    

If you have answered all these question, you probably have an ad that should outperform.

And if you ever need a sounding board to give you honest feedback on your ads, share it with my mastermind group to give you some support.

Tactic # 7 How do you fight the low ROAS?

The way to fight a low ROAS is by asking these questions:

• How good are your creatives, really?

• Do you have full confidence on the format testing?

• You know what type of creators work for you? 

• How good is your offer? 

• And if your creatives are top notch then it’s probably a landing page issue.

For landing pages and CRO, you need a different set of questions to further dig deeper. 

Ask these questions to yourself when you are looking for a landing page issue:

• What is this product?

• Why does it exist?

• How does it benefit my life?

• How soon can I get it?

• Why is this product the best option in the market?

• How does it work? 

• What’s inside?

• How can I trust you? 

And if you have figured out all of this, and still seeing Low ROAS. Then, either you have a product-message market fit issue or a product market fit issue. 

For product-message market fit issues, listen to this pod to dive deeper or read this blog.

If you liked this content, please let Dara know on her Twitter and subscribe to her Youtube channel. 

That's all from this week. 

Newsletter of the week - DTC Examples

I love this newsletter because you get three curated content on social (if you miss out), 2 gems shared by Badal, and 2 ad examples. Most of the time, I save his examples.

Product of the week - Hyros

Post-iOS tracking in a pain but Hyros solved it for me. Google tells me a different conversion number than Facebook. I needed a single source of truth. So, now I have Hyros that helps me give exact data about how many users converted and from which add. It also shares the exact user journey.

When I first checked their website, I felt it wasn't legit (because the copywriting felt overselling). So, naturally, I asked my paid social mastermind community. 

But I was wrong, and the tool really lives up to the expectations.

They only take demos and upfront annual payments but I'd recommend doing it because they make sure you are set up for success and they have 90 days refund guarantee.

Happy Growing with Paid Social,

Aazar Shad

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