Keep it lean... or get the guillotine 🔪

(we're doing ad text, people)  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Hey, It's a bit cheeky to email on a Friday evening but I promise this is light work - which is all anyone can do in this weather. I was thinking earlier, everyone talks about Facebook ads like they are just leaves in the wind, blown around helplessly by relentless winds. I hate that. Or they speak about the algorithms like they are capricious Greek gods, determining your destiny on whim or thirst. The truth: a Facebook ad lives or dies on three things all of which are under your control. Ad image Ad text Targeting It's a little more complicated than that when you zoom in - what isn't? - but this is a helpful way to build your foundation. Hopefully, my continuing series on YouTube - the Image Workshop - is helping you with the first of that jazzy trio. As for the last, we've spoken about targeting a lot over the last three years in response to Facebook's painful changes, which really wiped out authors in certain niches - and you'll have more help coming on that front too. Today, we're talking about the middle child - ad text - but this one doesn't need to be difficult. Despite how it sounds. You may be accustomed to the challenge of seducing someone over three hundred pages, but can you do it with 125 characters all at once? I remember Churchill once apologizing to someone for the length of his letter as he, "didn't have time to write a short one." This will make sense to anyone who regularly wrangled with Twitter back in the day - when the character length was much shorter. We all gained some respect for the challenge of writing anything snappy in a line or two, and stopped mocking the Hallmark guys when we met them in the canteen. Our book advertising challenge is greater again because we only have 125 characters - including spaces! - to grab readers' attention, convey the essence of an entire goddamn book, while also crafting an effective piece of sales copy in our deeply cynical age. You can spend a lot of time workshopping the perfect bit of text - a LOT of time, especially when you count in revisions, and going back to the drawing board when test ads flop. Which is why I developed a simple formula for coming up with the starting point for a winning bit of ad text. How To Write Winning Ad Text My formula is simple: Tagline + CTA = winning ad text CTA being Call To Action - that snippet of marketing text when you tell customers explicitly to do something, like click here, buy now, act fast, and so on. But let's trot out an actual example, and admire it's powerful haunches. You might remember the lava-fetishing 1997 summer blockbuster Volcano - which had the gloriously efficient tagline "The coast is toast." Well, if that was your tagline, then the Facebook ad text might read something like: "The coast is toast. Download Volcano on Kindle for just 99c." What if you were lucky enough to have a tagline like 1985's extended hairspray commercial, Mad Max: Thunderdome? "Two men enter. One man leaves." Applying my radical and elaborate formula, your ad text might read something like: "Two men enter. One man leaves. Out now on Apple Books." You get the idea? I hope so, it's not rocket surgery... once you have the tagline, which is the tricky part. If you have greedily consumed all my resources like it was an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, then you know I urge writers at various stages of the writing and publishing process to come up with a good tagline for their book, which can help you in so many ways, not least if you end up in an elevator with Reece Witherspoon. Back on Planet Reality, a catchy, hooky tagline has plenty of uses from cover to blurbs, social bits-and-bobs, branded graphics for your website and everywhere else, and then your ad images and ad text too. You might be sold on the idea already but if you're just not convinced maaaaan, let me break down exactly why short is the new long when it comes to Facebook ad text. Because you might have a question at this point. Didn't you hear from somebody that you can actually put in much more text than that? The Limit Might Be Soft ...but the logic Is rock hard. Yes, granted, you can put in much more ad text than when I started advertising on Facebook over a decade ago - i.e. when the 125-character limit was most certainly hard. Several years after that - I'm talking maybe 2018? - those hard limits became soft ones and the new trend was for a really long piece of ad text. Kinda like old school copywriting, drown them with words then fish the wallet out of their pocket while they snooze it off. Authors were basically using a modified version of the entire blurb as their Facebook ad text... and there was some logic behind it. Long sales copy can work really well if the text is good. And your blurb is - or should be!! - a workshopped and/or road tested piece of sales copy which perfectly captures your book and which is aimed solidly at your target reader. So why not put it in as the ad text, and capture the readers on Facebook too? Indeed, I had some success with this approach at the time, but these days I follow a much more streamlined and efficient approach. If you enter more than 125 characters, any subsequent words will be gated behind a little "See More" kind of link - which looks kinda messy - especially so if the rest of your ad looks super pro. But that's not the only reason I keep it short. Aside from looking neater, it forces you to be really lean and efficient with your ad copy, boiling your book down to its essence. Not only that, each of these reader clicks on that "See More" link counted as actual clicks in my stats, which made my data muddy and messed with testing and optimization. I also often wondered if these clicks - which were clearly being tracked and collated - messed with your custom audiences too, or even the algos. I don't know for sure, but don't think it's a huge stretch. Anyway, if any of the above is overblown, it doesn't matter. I go short because it's more effective. It makes me more money. Easier, quicker, more lucrative. My kind of win. Before I roller skate off into the distance, let me gently suggest that you shouldn't take this formula too literally. It's a starting point. You don't even have to use your tagline, or you can modify it a bit. You can also make it more personal. "Two men enter. One man leaves. My new post-apoc thriller is out now. Download on Kindle today!" Or go in a different direction altogether! Just ensure the bit before the CTA is something that helps square the genre or otherwise reinforce the themes in your ad image (which I always do first, so I can riff off it). Your tagline should be perfect for that job, and then you just need to add your call-to-action. Which is simply where you tell the reader what you want them to do – i.e. buy the bloody book. Ad text, done. Now you only need to worry about... everything else. Dave P.S. Writing music this week is Grandaddy with He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot. Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin K36 AT04 ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile​