How many times have you seen a Facebook ad flash by in your feed and thought, “Geez, their Facebook ad copy sucks! That’s the most stupid thing they could have said to me?”
I expect it happens fairly often. I know I have that reaction regularly.
Now, how many times have you seen a Facebook ad and stopped to read it, because the words grab your attention and are actually relevant to you?
The difference between good Facebook ad copy and bad Facebook ad copy? Relevance to your target audience.
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What You Say to Your Target Audience Matters
I see so many Facebook ads out there that seem to go on the “If I advertise it, they will come” theory of marketing.
No, no they won’t.
You have to give them a reason to click on that ad. You have to pique their interest with your Facebook ad copy. You have to motivate them to say “yes” to what you’re offering.
Last year, I wrote a long blog post about Facebook ad copy. You can find it here.
I’m going to cover some of what I said in that post again in this one, but a bit more in-depth, so keep reading.
I also updated the Facebook ad copy templates we offered in that post, so they reflect the changes in FunnelDash and I made them more relevant to your target audience, businesses running Facebook ads.
However, and this bit is important, I can’t do the whole job for you! You know what niche your targeting, the types of clients you want and the personality of your agency.
You need to take these new Facebook ad copy templates and make them your own by making them relevant to your target audience.
Click on the button below to get your copy of the updated Facebook ad copy templates
Now…
Here’s How You Make Your Facebook Ad Copy More Relevant to Your Target Audience
I’m going to cover 4 simple tips that you can easily apply to any of our Facebook ad copy templates to customize them for your target audience. If you can add one or two of these ideas to your copy, it will work much better than it has in the past.
I’ll show you how to add this customization, using part of one of the new Facebook ad copy templates you can download at the top or bottom of this page.
Tip #1: Use Words, Phrases and Situations that Resonate with Your Target Audience
You’d think this would be a no-brainer, but I see a lot of ads that fail to directly address the audience they’re targeting.
When you choose a niche, you should know something about that niche. Perhaps you used to work in that niche. Perhaps it’s something that has always interested you. If so, you’re ahead of the game.
If not, you must research your target audience to understand how they talk about what they do.
Read niche related blog posts, magazine articles, forums, posts in Facebook groups and talk to people working in this niche. This will give you a better idea of the commonly used words, phrases and situations you should include in your Facebook ad copy to persuade these people to say yes to your ad.
For example, here is part of the text copy from our first Facebook ad copy template.
Do you have any idea how your Facebook ads are doing?
No?
Find out right now when you sign up for (Insert your agency name here)’s free Facebook ads audit.
You need to do more than throw money at your campaigns. You need to understand where that money is going so you can make decisions about how to make your campaign more effective.
When we audit your campaign, we’ll show you which audiences are responding to your ads and which are not. You’ll see what time of day your ads are most effective and which devices the most people are using when they click on your ads.
Right now, that’s pretty generic. It would work as is, but it isn’t relevant to any particular niche.
Let’s change this ad so it’s targeted toward real estate agents. All of my changes are in bold and italics.
Do you have any idea if your Facebook ads are bringing in the right leads?
No?
Find out right now when you sign up for (Insert your agency name here)’s free Facebook ads audit.
You’re a salesperson. You know you need to do more than throw money at your real estate lead generation campaigns. You need to understand where that money is going and who those ads are attracting, so you can make decisions about how to make your campaign more effective.
When we audit your campaign, we’ll show you which audiences are responding to your ads and which are not. You’ll see what time of day your ads are most effective and which devices the most people are using when they click on your ads.
We’ll also make recommendations you can use to improve your campaign’s conversion rate right away.
The changes here are not drastic. I didn’t rewrite the Facebook ad copy entirely, I just tweaked it a bit.
But you can see how adding a few relevant words and including the niche makes this ad more appealing to real estate agents.
Tip #2: Answer Your Potential Customer’s Constant, Underlying Question – What’s In It For Me?
You could get away with writing your ad using Tip #1 and that’s it.
If you want to make sure your ad gets that click, you have to answer the What’s In It For Me question, (or WIIFM, for short).
Why does this matter so much? Why do I (and other marketers) go on and on about answering this question?
Because it is the one thing every one of your potential customers really wants to know.
You have to tell them why they should turn over their hard earned cash in exchange for your fabulous product or service. In your case, that is actually their time and attention in exchange for a free Facebook ad audit.
You will still need to answer this question every time you run a campaign for one of your clients, so always ask your client to answer this question for you.
Let’s go back to our modified Facebook ad copy template and answer the WIIFM question. Again, my changes are in bold and italics.
Do you have any idea if your Facebook ads are bringing in the right leads?
No?
Find out right now when you sign up for (Insert your agency name here)’s free Facebook ads audit.
You’re a salesperson. You know you need to do more than throw money at your real estate lead generation campaigns. You need to understand where that money is going and who those ads are attracting, so you can make decisions about how to make your campaign more effective.
When we audit your campaign, we’ll show you whether the leads you want are responding to your ads or not. With the information we’ll give you in your customized report, you’ll be able to adjust your targeting so your ads reach qualified leads who are genuinely interested in buying a house soon and can afford what you have to offer.
We’ll also make recommendations you can use to improve your campaign’s conversion rate right away.
Tip #3: Know Your Target Audience’s Pain Points
Most people buy because they have a problem and they’re looking for a solution.
Yes, plenty of people buy on impulse. You’ve probably done it yourself. I know I have.
In all likelihood, when you do this, you are buying to solve an underlying problem or pain point that you may not even realize you’re trying to solve.
That new shirt may help boost your confidence for your upcoming date or job interview.
That energy drink may help you hit the deadline for the report that’s due tonight so you can ask the boss for a higher performance based raise during your next review.
That marketing course may give you the edge you need to get more customers in the door, keep your business afloat and prove to (insert family member or friend’s name here) that you really do have what it takes to run your own business.
These underlying pain points are what you need to appeal to, directly or indirectly.
You may not consciously realize that you want to show person X that you can succeed, because they scoff every time you mention your business and ask when you’re going to get a “real job.” But when you dig down deep and think about it, that’s a great motivator for buying that new marketing course.
This is the power of pain points.
If you don’t already know them for your niche, you can find them in the same places you looked for relevant words, phrases and situations.
Here’s how you would add a pain point to our already modified Facebook ad copy template.
Do you have any idea if your Facebook ads are bringing in the right leads for the house you’re selling right now?
No?
Find out right now when you sign up for (Insert your agency name here)’s free Facebook ads audit.
You’re a salesperson. You know you need to do more than throw money at your real estate lead generation campaigns. You need to understand where that money is going and who those ads are attracting, so you can tweak your campaign to get interested buyers in the door, not people who are just “thinking about moving.”
When we audit your campaign, we’ll show you whether the leads you want are responding to your ads or not. With the information we’ll give you in your customized report, you’ll be able to adjust your targeting so your ads reach qualified leads who are genuinely interested in buying a house soon and can afford what you have to offer.
We’ll also make recommendations you can use to improve your campaign’s conversion rate right away.
Real estate agents want to sell houses fast.
It’s good for their clients, because they’re freed up from the mortgage they currently have to move on to the mortgage and property they want to buy.
It’s good for them, because they get paid faster.
However, it’s not uncommon for real estate agents to show the house they’re selling to people who are only idly interested, not who want to buy right away. This is a waste of their time and effort, when what they want is someone (or preferably several someones) to make an offer.
Therefore, getting qualified leads who want to buy to click on their Facebook ads is definitely a pain point.
Tip #4: Use Benefits Driven Language
This goes along with answering the What’s In It For Me question. You need to show how a potential client would benefit from signing up for your Facebook ads audit. Or, if you’re running a campaign for a client, how their potential customers the benefit of purchasing their product or service.
There are two levels of benefits driven language:
- The Immediate Benefit – What a potential client will get right away if they say, “Yes.”
- The Deeper Benefit – What a potential client will get long-term if they say, “Yes.”
In the case of your Facebook ads audit, the immediate benefit for a potential client is they’ll find out how their campaign is running right now and get information on how to improve that campaign.
The long-term benefit is that campaign will run more efficiently, costing them less money and bringing in more customers, which improves their overall bottom line.
See how easy that is?
Now we’ll apply it to our modified Facebook ad copy template.
I tend to use benefits driven language when I write copy, so I’m going to highlight all of the benefits driven language in the ad with bold and italics. I will also change the last line to make it more specific and benefits driven for real estate agents.
Do you have any idea if your Facebook ads are bringing in the right leads for the house you’re selling right now?
No?
Find out right now when you sign up for (Insert your agency name here)’s free Facebook ads audit.
You’re a salesperson. You know you need to do more than throw money at your real estate lead generation campaigns. You need to understand where that money is going and who those ads are attracting, so you can tweak your campaign to get interested buyers in the door, not people who are just “thinking about moving.”
When we audit your campaign, we’ll show you whether the leads you want are responding to your ads or not. With the information we’ll give you in your customized report, you’ll be able to adjust your targeting so your ads reach qualified leads who are genuinely interested in buying a house soon and can afford what you have to offer.
Once you make these changes, you’ll see the showing appointments from qualified leads roll in and you’ll be attending the closing in no time.
You can see how the highlighted copy shows a real estate agent the benefits of getting their Facebook ads audit done soon, so they can get that house off the market and off their proverbial plate, which is probably always full.
Now that you understand how to take a Facebook ad copy template and customize it to your agency’s needs, let’s review the copy of a few ads I found in the wild.
Good Facebook Ad Copy Vs. Bad Facebook Ad Copy
I ran through my Facebook feed and found a few ads that demonstrated the difference between good and bad ad copy, in my opinion.
I don’t fall into the target market for all of these ads, but for those where I do, I find them very convincing. Or, not so convincing, as the case may be.
Take a look and see if you agree with my assessment.
Please note: I only reviewed the ad copy here. I didn’t click on the ad and go to the landing pages, so I have no idea if that copy is any better.
Here’s the first ad.
Wilco de Kreij of Connectio.io
Wilco is targeting people who are concerned about targeting their audience. A bit of humor right there.
However, I don’t think he did a very good job targeting his Facebook ad copy to his audience.
Yes, the content is generally relevant, and there are a few pain points in here, like “if you’re targeting the wrong people, it won’t work,” and, “Facebook kinda wants you to make that mistake.” But they don’t get to the deeper pain points of spending money you may not feel like you have and feeling like your business is going to fail if you don’t get some customers soon.
I don’t know exactly who Wilco is targeting. He may be targeting agency owners, like you, who want to know the ideal way to target an audience for themselves and their clients.
He does say, “this is a simple tweak that can be added to any of your Facebook ad campaigns.” This is a good immediate benefit, but he could have drawn that out a bit more by adding, “so they’ll perform better right away.”
He also gives the results of his experiment, which is another way of showing a benefit. It also shows proof that what you’re doing works, which is always a plus.
There are a few grammatical and spelling errors in the copy as well (which I always notice, as that’s my job.)
Overall, on a scale of 1 to 5, I’d give this ad a 3.5.
BookYogaTeacherTraining
I looked up some information on yoga retreats for a friend. Now I’m being targeted by this site, among others.
However, it does give me a good example of what not to do with your Facebook ads.
This is a retargeting ad, because I went to their website. Even so, it doesn’t tell me much of anything about what they do, how I would benefit, or what problems it would solve for me.
Yes, it does say I will acquire confidence and self-consciousness, but that’s pretty darn general. None of this is relevant to me, nor to anyone considering becoming a yoga teacher. (Which I am not.)
It also fails to answer the WIIFM question. There’s nothing about sharing your knowledge and skill with others, opening and running your own studio or teaching at community centers and increasing your income. Nor is there any information about the mental, physical and spiritual benefits of becoming a yoga teacher.
This ad gets a 1 in my book.
Vivian Lou
I used to dance a lot, for fun and on stage. However, I haven’t done it for quite a while. I expect I’m seeing this ad because I’m a woman and I’m in the right age bracket.
That being said, this is one of the best written ads I’ve seen in a while.
This ad makes the pain points clear, literally as well as figuratively. It talks about the problem the dancer was having and how this product solved the problem. It also answers the WIIFM question quite clearly, being able to spend hours in heels without paying for it the next day.
All of the ad copy is relevant to dancers and performers, but also to women who just want to wear their favorite heels without limping after a few hours.
The best part? They didn’t write this ad. One of their customers did. They just copied and pasted a testimonial into the text section, added a link and a headline, and hit “Publish.”
This ad definitely gets a 5 from me, plus a gold star.
And that’s another good place to find inspiration for your Facebook ads is in your own customer testimonials. Some of those can be copy gold, as in this case.
Now That You Know How to Make Your Facebook Ad Copy Relevant to Your Target Audience, Go Do It for Your Agency
Use these Facebook ad copy templates as the starting point to customize your next lead generation campaign. You’ll have clicks, potential clients in your Messenger sequence and Facebook ad audit appointments in no time.
Let us know which of these ads you used, how you customized them and the results of your campaign. We may use you in an upcoming case study, which will give your agency more exposure.
