The 5 Ad Types to Sell Goods Online
I’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of my own cash running ads across almost every social channel; and I’ve created ads for billion dollars companies and my own brands. Creative is the new variable of success; but I hate wasting money — so I’ve tinkered with designs a lot of avoid it at all costs. These are the ad types I use to test the UVP’s (Unique Value Propositions) of my products or whether there is sufficient demand for my offering, ranked in the order in how often I use them. These ads work best for e-commerce (physical goods) but can be applied to any business model (and if you know someone who works for FB’s Portal or Smart Glasses teams, please share the article with them, I may be applying).
Difference: Before vs After
This is the king ad. If there is demand for your product, this ad will bring that to light. Show your customers life/situation before and after they use your product. Sometimes the best way to show your value is to show the actual value. Start your with the problem they were experiencing before your product, problems draw attention, and then show the results of your product.
Us vs Them
Show a comparison between your product and the competitor. Humans will always subconsiously compare you (the unknown) to the mental anchor they understand (a big competitor or product). Show them how you are different.
Lifestyle
Scenes from the lifestyle your product fits into. People will click this ad because it’s the quickest way to the lifestyle they desire. Keep it simple here — pick one emotion and show that.
Customer Facial Expressions — UVP
Everyone says create UVP, but not all of it works. Create user generated videos to show reactions from using your product. Dramatic faces are attention magnets — people click because they want to see what provoked it.
Education
These draw attention to the problem you are solving in an extremely blunt way. If you can’t tell, I’m a big fan of problems. Show your product in these videos, but make how to solve the problem the focus of the ad.
How do run tests for your ads?
Creative testing is more of a science than an art. Your only variable when you are testing creative, should be — creative. That means same copy, same headline, same audience. Each ad needs the exact same amount of money spent on it. When it comes to the creative though, big changes move the needle. Spend time comparing these ad types against each other before you start A-B testing characteristics in the ad. The message as a whole is significantly more important than any font, text, camera quality, or single clip in your video.
I’ve reduced by CAC by 2–3x with one new video, but editing text, sound, or throwing in a new clip doesn’t affect results more than 5–10%.
When you know a concept works, you can invest more money into building a higher production quality or more similar variations to that type of ad. Don’t build 50 variations of a difference ad before you know your audience likes the difference ad.
How much money do you spend to test creative?
The best ads will show good results within 2x–3x of your typical CAC. If you are short on funding or testing tons of new designs, use upstream metrics to cut testing early. Did you not receive an Add to Cart at your typical CAC — that could be an indicator to try again tomorrow. These rules are flexible at very high values ($500+ products) and low values (<$20 products).
Thanks for reading!
Do you work for FB and know a FRL Director? Please share this article with them (I may currently be applying).