The return of the zombie ad 🧟

Use your braaaaaaaaains.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

​ Hey, Today is the holiest feast in an Irishman's calendar, celebrated in kind around the world by anyone fond of divilment. It also happens to be my partner's birthday today, so I'm going to give you just one handy tip for Facebook Ads today.. and then I'm on cooking duty. Don't worry, though, it's a good one. I'm talking about zombie ads today - and how you can resurrect your most successful Facebook Ads from the past to drive sales today. Hey, nothing says St. Patrick's Day like something old... and a bit green. First, a quick word from our sponsor. March Sponsor: Plottr In partnership with Plottr.​ Attention plotters AND pantsers! ​ ​ Are you looking for a better way to plan and organize your books? Look no further than Plottr, the popular book outlining and story bible software. Sign up for a FREE Plottr 101 webinar and Q&A on March 21st to learn how you can easily visualize your book and series arcs, track character and location details, avoid plot holes, revise existing projects, and more – no matter what or how you write. If you're ready to organize the story ideas rampaging through your head, then join the session, ask questions, and see why thousands of writers love Plottr. ​Sign up for free​ Zombie Ads FTW A popular approach with Facebook Ads, and book promotion generally, is to run seasonal campaigns. You might be a romance author who organizes something special around Valentine's Day. Perhaps you write historical fiction and get value from advertising your books around the anniversary of certain events. Maybe you wrote a holiday-themed novella a few years ago and see positive returns from giving it a bit of promotion every December. And then horror authors might be planning all year for Goth Christmas, aka Halloween. For me personally, I get some joy from pushing a Dublin-set novel around St. Patrick's Day, particularly as it has such a bright green cover which really pops in readers' Facebook feeds. One cool trick I like with seasonal campaigns is resurrecting my most successful ads from the past. These zombie ads don't just save me time – particularly important when you are on kitchen duties… but have a Facebook campaign to launch! Reusing graphics and ad text also means I know the campaign will perform well because my target audience has responded well to those exact images and that exact sales copy in past campaigns. In fact, the ads can perform even better the second time around. If I duplicate the campaigns in the correct way, I can keep all the social proof from those previous campaigns – so it's entirely possible the ads will start hotter and perform better, as all the likes and shares and positive comments underneath will only help to sway on-the-fence purchasers even more. Improved ad performance means cheaper clicks, better conversion, and more sales. And it's not just seasonal campaigns you can do this with – you can resurrect many of your older, successful Facebook campaign, with a few tweaks. Quicker, easier, and more productive – that'll do nicely, thank you. How To Resurrect Your Ads There are a few steps to this process to ensure best results, and to avoid a couple of pitfalls too. 1. Identify your most promising zombie. Obviously, you want to use an ad that was successful for you in the past, so you can be confident your audience will respond well to those same ad images and sales copy. But watch out for anything which might date you – if the ad text mentions 2021 or something like that, it's out. (Making ad text evergreen as a general rule can be handy in moments like this!) 2. Duplicate rather than Edit. For a few reasons, it's best not to make changes to the original ad – duplicate it instead. You might want to make some tweaks to this campaign but in case your changes result in a deterioration in performance, it's wise to keep the old ad intact – which can just be duplicated once more if the new version isn't cutting the mustard. Duplicating ads also allows you to test different variations, such as different targeting options, while leaving your previous winner intact. 3. Remove old interests. As soon as you duplicate your ad, Facebook might flash up all sorts of warnings – it might complain that your targeting uses interests which no longer exist (meaning your ad can't run), or it might give performance advice like telling you to add more placements to reduce your CPC, or to switch on "Advantage Targeting" (the new name for Targeting Expansion) etc. I strongly recommend ignoring all the performance advice. The warning about interests no longer being available for targeting is another matter though. Facebook removed another slate of interests around a year ago and your ad won't run unless you remove any interest from your targeting which is no longer available. This can be done easily by editing the targeting to remove the highlighted interests. In some cases, you will want a replacement. In others, you can simply delete – just keep an eye on that audience size. If your zombie ad hasn't run for a year or more, it's highly likely you will see this error – especially given that one of the removed interests was "Kindle," which Facebook felt was redundant when we already had Amazon Kindle and the Kindle Store. 4. Follow these steps to keep social proof. If you just duplicate your ad, Facebook will tell you that the likes, comments, and shares will be automatically carried across – but this doesn't always work. The steps I linked to there should ensure the social proof will be maintained on your duplicated ad – don't leave it to chance, it's crucial. 5. Go warm then cold. This isn't always possible, but if you can aim your ads at warmer audiences first, before rolling it out to colder ones, that will help you accumulate further social proof even faster, helping you achieve an improved performance with those newer, fresher, colder audiences who might need a little more convincing to click on the ad. 6. Rinse and repeat. If the original ad text is worded carefully, you can do this process over and over, layering more and more social proof on your ad every time you resurrect it. Again, keep this in mind when creating your ad assets so you don't accidentally date yourself and block off a campaign from being resurrected in the future. #zombies4life I hope you have fun bringing some of your winning ads back to life, pointing them at fresh readers, and reaping the rewards. If you want to explore more of my Facebook Ads resources for authors, you can catch up on all the previous emails at subscriber-only The Email Archive. There's also a video guide to Facebook Ad creation there on that page, and I'll have another video tutorial covering this exact trick of recycling and boosting social proof on your ads very soon – sharing my screen once again, so you can follow along too. Video production has been on hold for a little while. However, the builders finally finished remodeling our house yesterday, another reason to celebrate today! Dave P.S. Writing music this week is King Flash and the Calypso Carnival with Zombie Jamboree. Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin K36 AT04 ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile​