Few days back I got invited to Meta’s office where they shared with advertisers how to prepare running ads for Q4.
Why is Q4 significant?
Because these 3 months are where advertisers will spend heavily due to the shopping season.
We have Black Friday/Cyber Monday (happens more in the US).
We have 11.11 (in SG/asia).
We have the Christmas season.
So in today’s letter, I’ll give you first hand information about what was being shared.
I’ll also add my own insights after each point.
Because honestly, real-life experience in running ads can really differ from the theoretical concepts.
Some of the stuff might be complex if you haven’t run any Meta ads before, but will just share it anyway.
(If you’ve got any questions just email me and I’ll respond soonest.)
Tip #1 – Start running ads early
This applies more to eCommerce businesses selling products.
Don’t wait till Black Friday itself (or any of those big dates) to start launching your ads.
Most of the time, because of the huge amount of advertisers running, if you launch only on that day, a few things might happen.
Your campaign may not be published.
Your ad creatives can’t even be uploaded.
You won’t be able to hit the right audience (since it will still be in learning phase)
So start early (run in Aug/Sep).
Additional insights:
They didn’t really share in depth why we should run our ads early.
Let me tell you why.
In Q4, the CPMS will be higher than usual.
(Meaning you have to pay more to get the same amount of people to see your ads)
Cost per click will go up.
It means your cost per purchase might also increase.
But here’s why you should run the ads early:
Because once the big day comes (say 11.11)…
You run a retargeting campaign and drop a discount (for e.g. 20%) – and that’s how you can get 10x return on the campaign itself.
And that will bring down your overall cost per purchase.
I’ve done this many times over the years, so I usually start running my ads in Sept, and I do my retargeting on 10.10, 11.11 and Black Friday Cyber Monday.
Tip #2 – Run reach/traffic campaigns if you want to hit new audiences
The Meta rep said that if we keep running conversion ads (sales ads), we will run out of audience.
Same for leads/messaging campaigns.
While I agree this is true…
I personally have not done this before.
Why?
Because as a small business, I need buyers and leads.
I prioritise having more purchases over having people being “aware” of my brand.
Things will be different if I’m a big business (like Mcdonalds, Starbucks, BMW)
Big brands can afford to spend huge budgets on reach and traffic campaigns because they are playing a different marketing game altogether.
They just need people to remember that they exist.
For small businesses like us, we need to both know we exist AND buy from us.
That’s why for me, 100% of my budget still goes into sales/leads campaigns.
However, if you would like to try running reach/traffic campaigns…
Here’s the recommended way to split your budget:
90% on conversion campaigns.
6% on reach campaigns.
4% on traffic campaigns.
Additional insights:
Instead of worrying about not hitting new audiences…
I’d spend more time creating content that can convert the current audiences that I’m advertising to.
That means more ad creatives.
Creatives that show proof that my product works.
Creatives of users giving reviews on my product.
Different creatives/hooks to hit address different target audiences.
Which leads us to the next tip
Tip #3 – Prepare more creatives
In particular, Reels. (FB/IG reels)
Reels is one of their products that allow you to have a better and wider reach.
So you want to make sure your video creatives are in the 9:16 dimension.
Which is why these days my ads are all in the 9:16 format.
But please make sure when you create reels, you don’t want to put any important info on the top/bottom part of the video.
Important info should be in a safe zone of your video.
Took a picture of this to help you better understand what I mean:
The safe zone is in the highlighted area.
I just filmed a new product ad, and you can see my subtitles are placed pretty high.
I also drew the green area to show you where to NOT place your text:
Additional insights:
Most people drop off after the first 3-5 seconds of your video.
So in your first 3 seconds of your video, you need to come up with a really strong hook to capture people’s attention.
A great hook should connect your product/service to a consumer need or benefit.
Or addressing a problem they face.
Not sure how to write a good hook?
You have ChatGPT that can churn it out for you in seconds.
Just type in a simple prompt:
I am selling (product) and would like to advertise it to (target audience).
Can you write me an attention-grabbing hook?
Example:
My advice to you would be to create several hooks and test them.
Let’s say you have one video ad.
But you came up with 3 different hooks.
You can use the same video, but at the front part of the video you write the different hooks.
That means you will have 3 videos, which mostly are the same content except the first 3 seconds where you test the hook.
Run those ads and see which one gives you the best results.
After running so many ads, I’ve learned that Facebook or Instagram advertising is really a creative + copywriting game.
(Assuming you are already selling a product that solves a need and has demand)
You just need to be more diligent in creating more creatives.
And run at least 3-5 creatives in your campaign.
This way, you should see better results compared to just having 1 creative in the campaign.
That’s it, a quick summary of the important key points I’ve learned.
Nothing too new for me but it’s a good reminder to start doing more creatives (that’s why the next day I shot a new creative).
Prep well and all the best if you are planning to scale your campaigns this Q4!
