Use This Information Responsibly
I'm kind of giving you the world on a silver platter with this one and I promise you won't find this type of real information anywhere else. So without any intention of being over-dramatic, I want you guys to use this information wisely and responsibly.
One of the first reasons people fail with Facebook ads is they fail to step back and understand the constant balancing act Facebook needs to perform every day form a business standpoint. Facebook needs to balance business/advertiser results, user experience and public perception on the edge of a knife.
Facebook's Big Balancing Act
As I write this, Facebook is going through a major shift. Whether you want to call it a public image crisis or they're taking the business to the next level and experiencing some growing pains. People have been brainwashed into valuing their privacy like their life depends on it and they're putting the blame on companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. Because of this, Facebook is making advertisers jump through some hoops to access the full database of information at your disposal. In this lesson, I'll show you some really simple steps on how to implement those changes in your ad account.
The Engagement Bias
Post engagement is not only the first but the most accurate way Facebook’s algorithm uses to determine the quality of a piece of content. Using engagement as the primary bias is the most efficient way to maintain a high-quality user experience. This seems obvious at first, but most advertisers still underestimate how important engagement really is.
Here are some tips on increasing your post/ad engagement:
• Look Like A Post From A Friend: People don’t like ads. So stop making ads that look like them. Create posts that closely resemble a post from one of their friends. Write your copy in a personal and conversational tone. Your ads should be speaking TO people and not AT people. Always use natural language and avoid red flags like loud calls to action or using over-produced media in your copy
• Stop Copying Others: Take a quick look at what everybody else in your space is doing, the ad copy their running and the tone of their copy then do the exact opposite. Use pattern interrupts to drive engagement. Over time people begin to associate a particular type of content with ads and triggers them to scroll past your post
• Controversial, Yet Truthful: Being extreme and controversial is an easy way to get attention and drive engagement on your ads. Highlight every differing opinion you have about your niche and use extreme language in your copy. People engage with content that either confirms or challenges their existing beliefs in a strong way. Just make sure you keep your ad copy honest and truthful to not sabotage your whole mission
• Always Advertise From Your Personal Fan Page: This should be obvious by this point. The best way to avoid looking like an ad is to not run your campaigns from a business Facebook page. Always create and use a personal fan page you’ve created for yourself with a high quality, natural looking headshot as the profile picture
• Use Pattern Interrupts: Break the normal cycle of a user’s news feed with something shocking yet relevant. Take advantage of GIFs and get very creative with the images you’re using in your ads
• Long Form Ads Work: Try using long-form ads. These are effective for many of the same reasons longer sales videos and webinars are. Make sure users need to click the “read more” button. Elaborate on your personal experience and your story or just offer a ton of practical value. Burry the pitch deep toward the end of your copy
• Stop Selling: The goal of your ads should be the same as email marketing. Get people to your sales page, watch your sales video or register for your webinar. Don’t sell people in the ad itself
• Use Loops: Tease something at the beginning of your copy and hold off the ending or the payoff until you get to your pitch. This keeps people reading and makes them consume more of your sales copy
Facebook's Lexical Sentiment Bias
Now we're diving deep into the brain of Facebook's algorithm and revealing just how advanced this AI has become after collecting and analyzing billions of user's posts and how other users interact with them. Every word of your ad copy carries weight in Facebook's lexical sentiment analysis. The more data Facebook collects, the more successful your business becomes. Facebook has the largest database of user interactions will billions of pieces of posts, images, videos, and ads and private messages from the past 10 years. The algorithm processes this information and creates an accurate picture of what users like and dislike.
After millions of emotional manipulation experiments, Facebook’s algorithm prefers content that conveys happier and more positive emotions in users. The better mood users are in, the longer they stay on the platform and consume content. Make sure your copy leans in a positive direction if ever possible. You also want to avoid using well known “trigger words” that Facebook’s algorithm avoids at all costs. Any content that can be considered hate speech, religious texts and specific phrases like “make money” will get your ads shadow banned, disapproved and place a permanent red flag on your ad account
To get a good idea of how your ad copy stacks up in the algorithm, you can use this tool to analyze individual words or your entire text
👉 https://text-processing.com/demo/sentiment/
Facebook's Graphical Sentiment Bias
Facebook’s graphical sentiment analysis is a similar pattern recognition system to the lexical sentiment bias, but for images and video. Understanding how users have reacted to billions of photos and videos shared on Facebook. Facebook’s AI is extremely accurate at determining the content of an image.
The same way Facebook’s algorithm favors certain words and phrases over others in the text copy of your ad, your ad images are just as if not more influential on your ad’s performance. images have a much bigger impact on a user’s engagement than text so for obvious reasons, the algorithm is more critical of them
Just like banned words with text, there are certain objects that Facebook will both limit and expand reach for. Objects like weapons, sex, nudity, violence, disasters, text overlays/watermarks will dramatically decrease your reach and hurt your ads. However, images conveying positivity/happy sentiments like cute animals, men and women smiling, romantic images, nature/outdoor photos and celebration images all perform extremely well. Facebook knows how positively people respond to these types of images vs others
GRAPHICAL SENTIMENT HACKING
To help you better structure your images I've compiled a little cheat sheet below of what Facebook likes and doesn't like to see in your ad images. You can also use this resource and the multiple tools they offer to deeply analyze your images before uploading them to Facebook.
👉 https://www.faceplusplus.com/
THINGS TO INCLUDE IN YOUR IMAGES:
• Young kids and babies
• Clear Faces
• Daytime and golden hour (sunset)
• Fun vehicles (bikes, cars, helicopters, boats, waterskis, etc)
• Food and eating
• Nature and outdoors
• People (Preferably multiple male and female individuals)
• Active people (standing, running, interacting)
• Smiling and happy expressions
• Bright and colorful images
• Luxury items (luxury cars, boats, watches, jewelry, etc)
• Tropical beach environments
• Holidays and special events
• Cute animals and pets
• Clear blue sky
• Eyes looking at the camera
THINGS TO AVOID IN YOUR IMAGES:
• Negative emotions and facial expressions
• Text overlay or watermarks of any type
• Any type of violence, blood, or conflict
• Any type of weapons including guns, knives etc
• Drugs, narcotics or smoking
• No people or faces (includes random crowds)
• Dark, unclear or nighttime images
• Generally low-quality images
• Any type of religious or political images
Actionable Steps To Increase Your Reach
• Stop Changing Your Landing Page: Once you have a sales, opt-in or landing page that converts, leave it alone and stop running “split tests”. Constantly changing the landing page from your ads sets off a red flag to Facebook of possible foul play. This used to be a common tactic used by scammers and blackout marketers to trick Facebook
• Verify Your Domain: Always verify your domain in your Facebook ad account settings before starting any campaigns. Once you’ve verified your domain make sure this is the only domain you’re driving traffic to in your call to actions. This one small trick noticeably increases your reach
• Stop Changing Ad Accounts: Nothing says foul play more than having to consistently change and create new Facebook ad accounts. Use one ad account consistently and if you’ve ever had an ad account banned in the past, start over with a completely new Facebook account
• Stop Using Multiple Pixels: If the goal is building trust with Facebook and staying consistent, splitting your time, money and data between multiple Facebook tracking pixels is not a good idea
• Stop Advertising More Than One Business: Nothing signals to Facebook how unserious and untrustworthy you are as an advertiser than running ads to multiple businesses, multiple domains and having multiple fan pages connected to your account. This tells Facebook you’re just playing games and don’t take the platform seriously
Facebook's Financial Bias
This is last on the list, but it's just as if not more important than everything else we've covered here. As big as Facebook may be, they have a limited amount of resources and processing power to dedicate to optimizing ads. This means they're not going to favor advertising who aren't serious or in it for the long haul. Below I've written some ways to signal the algorithm that you're a serious advertiser and get Facebook to allocate more resources to optimizing your campaigns.
• Facebook Is Bias Toward Deep Pockets: Facebook’s algorithm allocates more resources and processing power to optimizing ad campaigns that will generate more revenue for Facebook
• Turn Off Spending Limits: Facebook limits the overall reach of ad accounts with spending limits and ad campaigns with lifetime budgets. This signals the algorithm to reduce the resources dedicated to your campaigns. Facebook will not fully optimize an ad account with a history of low and non-consistent spend
• The More You Spend, The Faster You See Results: Not because increased spend increases your reach (which does not), but because Facebook can acquire data about your ads more quickly and optimize them faster
• Stop Using PayPal: Connect your ad account to a BUSINESS credit card or preferably a BUSINESS checking account to signal consistency the algorithm. Never remove or default on a single payment or your ad account will be flagged
• Never Start With Less Than $100/Day Spend: $100 is the minimum to signal the algorithm that you’re a team player and will be a consistent spender. This tells Facebook to start to quickly optimize your ads for better conversions and reach
• Consistency In All Things: Don’t turn campaigns on and off, change spend, split test landing pages or change ad copy every few days. Facebook favors consistency over everything. This builds trust and signals to Facebook to favor your ads in auction pools and increase your organic reach
I hope you guys find this useful and are able to take your knowledge commerce business to the next level!