- When it comes to Facebook ad copy, two to three sentences are responsible for about 80% of your copy's performance. On Instagram, it's even less. One to two sentences make up the bulk of the performance of your ad copy.
Why, because on Facebook, when somebody sees your ad, all they can see is the headline and the first few lines of your copy, and that's it. If they wanna read the rest of your copy, they have to click a See more button. And on Instagram, it's even worse.
They can only see the first sentence, if that, before they have to click that more button. So if that first part of your copy isn't really good, then the rest doesn't matter at all, because no one's gonna see it anyway. All right, so let's talk about how to optimize that headline and the first few lines of your ad copy, also known as the know as the hook.
To quickly and easily improve the performance of your ad copy without you having to become a master copywriter. Think of this as the 80/20 of copywriting. It's the 20% that you can do that's going to get you 80% of the result.
Now let's start with the first and most important thing, which is tapping the Like button below this video. Now, obviously I'm just kidding, but if you do enjoy this video, please tap that Like button. It makes a huge difference in the channel.
Helps get this video out in front of more people. And it also tells me what type of content I should be creating for you. Okay, so seriously, let's talk about your headline now, because this is a really important piece of your ad.
And so many advertisers use really generic, boring headlines like this, which is a total waste. So I'm gonna give you a couple of my favorite ways to craft a really effective headline for your ad. Okay, so the first one we'll talk about is the curiosity invoking headline.
So it's pretty self-explanatory. The goal of this headline is to create curiosity within the reader. But the key isn't just to create curiosity, it's to also be very specific.
Take a look at this example. You'll notice it speaks directly to the target audience, freelancers. But it also generates a ton of curiosity, which makes the reader want to keep reading the rest of the ad, so they can learn more about what this is all about.
Now let's apply this to some previous examples. So if we see this one, it just says Ad World Conference, pretty generic, right? But if we apply this formula, we get something like this.
Find out how Rand gets detailed behavioral data about audiences without large scale surveys. So that's something that's only going to appeal to a very specific audience because we're talking about behavioral data, but it's also something that generates curiosity. Rand is a well-known figure in the industry, and people are going to wanna know how he's doing this because it's something that everybody wants to do and no one's really cracked.
Here's another example we could use here. Rand Fishkin shares his secrets to uncovering detailed audience behavioral data without surveys. Now, sometimes, the curiosity approach doesn't work for every product, or service, or offer, so here's another one you can use.
And that is the big promise headline. Now, again, it's pretty self-explanatory. I'm not super creative with these names, but all you do here is your offering something big that the reader really, really wants.
Now there's one caveat that I have to mention here, and that is, this has to be something you can actually deliver. So you'd be surprised how often I see things that get written in Facebook ads, pretty obviously can't be delivered on. There's a big promise, but it's an empty promise.
So make sure you're not doing that when you create these ads. So again, the keys are just that it's really specific, okay? You don't want something that's kind of wishy-washy and vague.
It's gotta be very specific in terms of what the promise is, and it has to be something they really want. So take a look at this example. 300 to 500 appointments booked on autopilot.
This fits all of those criteria that I mentioned before. It's very specific, and it's something that anybody who's trying to book sales appointments and calls is going to be really interested in. One, because that's a lot of appointments.
And two, the autopilot part is really appealing as well. If you can create a machine that generates booked appointments for you, and you're a salesperson, or you're an organization that generates revenue through sales calls, then this is super appealing. Now here's another example.
Now what I like about this is, one, it speaks very directly to the target audience. It actually calls them out, physical therapists in the headline. And it actually has a huge promise there as well.
So it fits all of the criteria of this particular headline framework. Now let's apply this same framework to the Peloton ad that we saw earlier, which just said, Try Peloton. We could take that same headline, rework it using this formula, and get something like this.
We'll give you a Peloton bike free for 30 days. No strings attached. You can see how that headline offers so much more than just Try Peloton.
Another way we could do this is, Click to get your free Peloton bike. 30 day trial, no strings attached. So it's not overly complicated, but you can see how applying these simple frameworks dramatically improves an ad headline in just a few seconds.
Now let's have one more look at an example. We'll apply this headline formula to the Ad World example that we saw earlier. We go from this to Learn how the world's best advertisers get 800% ROAS with Facebook Ads.
So again, it's a big promise. They're going to teach you how these big advertisers are getting huge return on their ad spend using Facebook Ads. Okay, so once you take these formulas, you apply them, you've got a great headline.
But you're not done yet. If that headline does its job, then the user's going to read it, they're going to be interested, and they're going to go up, and they're going to start reading the rest of your copy. And that starts with those one to two sentences that are 80 cents of your dollar when it come to optimizing your ad copy.
The first thing is, this should be a continuation of your headline. They should all work together and flow together. And that includes the creative as well.
So your headline, your copy, and your creative should all be working together to create a great ad. In other words, they should compliment each other. You don't want 'em to feel like a mismatch, for obvious reasons, it feels disjointed.
And one thing that I see really often that you wanna avoid as well is repetition. If these things are just repeating each other, then you're just wasting space. Take a look at this example where the image and the headline say exactly the same thing.
That's a missed opportunity to actually give the reader more information in that valuable real estate that they can see upfront when they first see your ad. So you wanna make sure you're not making that mistake as well. When it comes to the first few lines of your ad copy, it's really easy to do something like this.
This is an Instagram ad, and as you can see, the only thing that's visible here is two single words. And it doesn't tell you much about the product, or the offer, or what makes it special. Or take a look at this example on Facebook.
It's Imagine this, and then we've got a little bit of a sentence, but it's cut off before it actually gets to the point or actually hooks me in. Now, both of these ads can be improved in a big way pretty quickly just by changing those opening few lines in the copy. And I'm about to show you how, including my favorite formulas for doing that.
And you'll be pretty surprised at the transformation in these ads with just a few little tweaks. But before I do, I just wanna take a quick moment to tell you about the sponsor of this week's video, Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for anyone who wants to learn new skills.
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To redeem that free month, make sure you use my link in the description, or you use my unique code, andrewhubbard, when you sign up, and you'll get 30 days totally free. Okay, now back to our copy. There are two things you really need to do in the opening few lines of your copy.
The first thing is to hook the reader. You need something really juicy that's going to keep them there, wanting to continue reading. The second thing you wanna do is create an open loop.
If you can create an open loop that makes people really wanna click that Read more button so they can continue reading the text, because they need to know the answer, or they need to know the conclusion to what you've started in those opening few lines of copy, then that is another fantastic tool. Or another way to say it is the goal of those first few lines of your ad copy is really simple. It's to get the reader to click the More button or Read more on Facebook.
If it does that, it's done its job. Now, if we go back to this example, you can see it doesn't really do either of those things. There's no hook and there's no open loop that makes me want to click that button to keep reading.
We've got, Imagine this, every single bit of marketing content you'll ever need. And then it just kind of ends. But if we expand the text out, we actually see this.
We've got a lot of copy, and it's pretty good copy. And it's nicely spaced out, which usually is a great thing, because it makes readability even easier, which means people are going to read more of the copy itself. And that's smart, but they've just overlooked the impact that all of this pretty spacing has on the first few lines of their copy, and how that appears at first on Facebook and Instagram.
If we simply remove a few of those new lines, an empty space at the top, and move things around a little bit, we could create something like this. Every single bit of marketing content you'll ever need, handed to you on a silver platter. 100 plus templates for just, and we deliberately would create a new line there so that it just leaves dot, dot, dot, and the More button.
And what that does is it creates our open loop. So as you can see, this is a much more juicy opening line. It tells you exactly what you're going to get, and the sentence is complete, it's not cut off.
And it also cuts off just at the right time when we're about to tell them the price. So there's an open loop there. People want to see that price, so they are going to click the More button.
A few tiny little tweaks and it makes this copy much better. Well, does it, I don't know. Let me know in the comments.
The thing here is with the opening first lines of your copy, it's not the place to beat around the bush. Get to the point. You need to clearly articulate what it is you're offering, why it's great, and give the user a good reason to want to keep reading.
Now here's a great example of this done really well in a Facebook ad. So I saw this ad straight away and I noticed, boom, great hook, and you can see how they've created that open loop. So ask yourself, how can you do something similar for your own ads?
Here's another example, free beer. All right, I'm reading. But I read that first line and it says, How does a fully stocked beer fridge sound?
Well, yeah, I mean, of course that sounds great, right? That sentence in itself is actually completely useless and unnecessary. You don't need to have it there.
We're wasting our most valuable real estate when it comes to our copy with a question that's kind of benign. If we just change that a little bit to be more direct, more to the point, and just say something like, Purchase a new beer fridge this summer and we'll fill it to the brim with free beer. Here's how to take advantage of this limited time free offer, dot, dot dot.
Then you can see we're doing both of those things. Much more direct, we're telling them exactly what the offer is, and why it's amazing. And then we're creating an open loop, so they wanna click, and learn how to actually get the offer.
You'll notice something else I did there was I added limited time, because I really want to stress that there is urgency here. So if you want the free beer, you gotta get in quick. Let's take a look at another example from a local government ad that I spotted.
Not as exciting as the beer, but it's still a good example that we can go through. So you can see that first sentence, Keeping your kids busy during the holidays can be tough. It's like, yeah, it can.
What's the point of telling me that? If I'm a parent, I know that, right? Again, it's wasted real estate.
And then it says, Kids week is here to help with child, and then it cuts off in a really weird spot. What if we change it to something like, We've got the best way to keep your kids busy these school holidays. It's outdoor, educational, and it's free.
All you need to do is, and then dot, dot dot, So we're creating that open loop. So you can see the change in that headline there, we're speaking directly to parents in ways that appeal to them, so it's a really powerful hook. We're saying, "Here's how to keep your kids busy.
" And I've also managed to squeeze three things in there that are important to parents. Outdoor, educational, and free. And then I've created an open loop so they're going to wanna click it, and find out exactly what I'm talking about.
A few small tweaks, but a massive impact on how that ad looks in the feed. Okay, so here's another cool formula that I like to use here. And what I like to do is point out an opportunity that they're missing out on or a loss that they're experiencing that they maybe don't even know about.
Now, if we take a look at this ad, it says, As a busy entrepreneur, you spend hours crafting emails for your business. It's another one of those sentences that like, "Yeah, I do, so what? " right?
But I noticed further in their ad copy, they really talked about how a lot of emails that you send actually go to spam or they don't end up getting opened at all. Now that gives me a great idea to apply this formula. Now, if we change it up and say something like this, Up to half the leads in your inbox never see your emails.
The way to avoid hitting the spam folder is, dot, dot, dot, and then we have the More button. Now that is way more appealing because you're telling them, "Hey you've got a problem that you might not know about. And that is that up to half of your leads aren't even seeing your emails.
Got the solution. You need to stay out of the spam box, and here's how to do it. " So we've identified a problem that they maybe didn't know they had, and we've done it very, very clearly, and in just one short sentence.
And then we've started to tell them how to fix it, but it cuts off at just the right point that they need to click that More button to keep reading. So we've got an open loop there as well. Very simple, I took that from the existing copy that they had.
So, I mean, they had the right bones there, but just making this small change, again, huge difference to the app. Still with me? Okay, let's look at another really good example and a really cool formula here.
And this one's actually my favorite. But before I do, I'll just mention, if you wanna get stuff like this, like these kind of examples, and what's working and what's not, and how to do these things with your ads, make sure you sign up for my newsletter. Because I send out tons of stuff like this, plus a bunch of other exclusive content that I don't share elsewhere.
If you're not on the newsletter, you're not gonna get it. So make sure you click the link in the description box and sign up if you haven't already. Now, onto this next formula or framework that I like to use.
And that is contradicting a commonly held belief. So we wanna be contrarian or contradictory of a commonly held belief that your audience holds. Because what happens when you do that, is it triggers this reaction where they're instantly curious.
If you just believe something is true, and you've thought of it that way your whole life, or as long as you've been in your particular industry, and you've never really questioned it, but suddenly you see this ad and it's like, "Hey, you know, what you think is wrong," then, of course, you're going to wanna keep reading. That's why this is so effective. So let's look at that previous example.
Something that's generally accepted in the email marketing world is that email open rates are quite low. So if we now apply this framework, we could spice it up a little just by doing this. 20% email open rates are not normal.
You can do much better. We know because we hit 50% open rates regularly. Here's how, dot, dot, dot.
Now, that opening contradicts that belief that, "Ah, 20% is great. It's industry average," And tells them, "No, no, no, you can do much better than that. We do 50%, and here's how we do it.
" They're gonna wanna click that. They're gonna wanna read more. They're either going to want to argue the point with you or they wanna learn so they can do it themselves.
But either way, you're going to get great engagement, you're gonna get lots of people reading, and the ad is going to perform much better than the previous version. Now, one thing we haven't talked about is how to improve the rest of your copy. The bit that's below the fold or below that See more button.
If you wanna learn how to do that, check out this video next. That goes into how to improve your copy in general, and goes into all of those other components as well. As always, thanks so much watching.
I'll see you in the next video, bye.
