The Truth About Ads

You’ve seen those ads for courses that promise to teach you the magic formula for writing ads to get more coaching, consulting or product sales, right? If you’ve spent more than 10 minutes on Facebook you have!

They promise to teach you to write the perfect ad to bring an avalanche of customers.

They play on your hidden desires that if you could just figure out that one “perfect ad” to you’d make a pile of cash.

Their promises to deliver are even more enticing because you’ve probably failed more than you’ve succeeded in the past running ads withOUT their “magic” formula.

And, since we’re being honest here, you secretly hate themfor their “success” (or at least the success they show you in pictures on Facebook). But in the back of your head you also wonder, “Are they good at running ads for everything, or are they just good at running ads on Facebook for a high-priced course about how to run ads?”

If that sounds at all like your experience, trust me, you’re not alone. I’ve been there too! And because of that, I’d like to share with you a few thoughts I’ve learned over the last 21+ years of running ads online.

Truth #1. The only purpose of an online ad is to get the right people to click your link.

I’d rather have 100 of the right people click my link than 10,000 people who aren’t the right fit. That’s how you WASTE money on ads.

Truth #2. Curiosity is key.

If you can make someone curious with your ad, you’ll get the click.

Truth #3. If you don’t know where to start, ask a question.

Three basic questions have served me very well in this arena since before the turn of the century.

“Are you tired of ______?”

“Would you like to _____?”

“Have you ever wanted to _____?”

Ask them if they’re tired of being in pain or living with fear. Ask them if they’d like to get a powerful benefit or a cool payoff. These are the best places to start when writing ads.

Side note: I saw an ad on Facebook the other day that blew my mind. It was a white graphic with a one line question in black text. There was no image… the text WAS the image. It grabbed my attention so I clicked it. Turned out it was a friend of mine. I called him up an asked how the ad was doing. He told me he’s SLAYING IT!

Truth #4. A.I.D.A. is B.S.

A.I.D.A. was (and still is) the gold standard advice for offline, print advertising. It’s an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

It means you need to grab someone’s attention (usually with a headline), peak their interest (often with a picture), amplify their desire, and then get them to take action. Perfect formula when you have to get someone up off their butt, get in their car, and go to your store.

Online, you don’t need all that… it’s BS.

Remember I said at the beginning of this article the whole purpose of an online ad is to get the right people to click on your ad.

Well, to do that you only need 3 steps:

Step 1: Attention grabber
You typically do this with the headline (in a text ad), OR a picture (in an image ad or social media ad), OR the first you do or show on the screen along with the first words that come out of your mouth (video ad).

Step 2: Curiosity Body
Show them a picture and / or text designed to make them ask “What is it?” or “How can they do THAT?”

Step 3: Call To Action
Do THIS one specific thing (99% it’s “Click Here to ______.”)

Truth #5. It’s Just A Numbers Game

Selling more and making money with online ads is nothing more than a numbers game!

The truth is, from my experience, it can take between 10 and 50 ad tests to find one that works well enough to be profitable. (Which isn’t really the best thing for people selling courses on ads to tell you now is it?)

The best thing you can do is burn through those 10-50 ads as fast as you can to eliminate the poopers and find the few that convert really well and then scale those.

Nobody runs one ad and has an instant hit! That’s not how it works!

So if you’ve tried running ads in the past and failed… don’t feel bad. NOBODY knows (despite what they may tell you) which ads will work until they finish running all the ads that don’t!

Fail FAST. Don’t give up!
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WOW! That turned out to be a LOT longer than the little 200 word tip I set out to create. But I got on a roll. I’m sure there will be some who want to argue with me about some (or all) of these points.

And that’s cool.

One thing I know is true: Everything I’ve just share with you is based on my 21+ years of experience. The good. The bad. The ugly.

I hope it helps you save some money on ads, some headaches on creating those ads, and some heartache on running them too!

Oh, and if you’d like some help with your sales copy, make sure to check out https://FunnelScripts.com – it’s got over 40+ online scripts and 6 downloadable “wizards” to help you write amazing ads, emails, webinars, video sales letters and more! Enjoy!