| Hey, Facebook does a great job of confusing everyone - including experienced advertisers, so don't feel bad. Last week I gave you a simple method for generating effective ad text... and then the questions rolled in. "When you say 'ad text' do you mean what Facebook calls the 'description' or the 'primary text' or what?" Facebook's official terminology is so unhelpful - quelle surprise! - that experienced advertisers often use their own terms. Even what Facebook calls the "headline" is kinda misleading. Let's clear all this up, right now, and give you some useful tips on what to put in all these boxes - and why - and also when to leave them blank. A visual will serve us best so here's the official example from the Facebook Help pages - which isn't that useful but it will at least clarify the terminology before we dig deeper and break down the anatomy of a great Facebook Ad. Now you know which is what, I'll explain the role of each and also how to optimize it to maximize your results. Primary Text Most advertisers refer to this as "ad text" but Facebook calls it "Primary Text" instead - hence the rather common confusion. Last week's newsletter covered how to write effective ad text - giving you the handy formula of Tagline plus CTA (link to that up top, if needed). Anyway, this is where you input that ad text we spoke about last time. It's the most important of all these text boxes - by far - so spend time here. This little bit of text will do all the heavy lifting in terms of convincing readers to click... if the ad image hasn't already done the deal. I always think of it like this: the ad image stops them scrolling and the ad text closes the sale. They should both pull in the same direction - a theme I will repeat! Headline This is the bolded piece of short text just under the ad image. It appears just above the Display URL (which you should leave blank - it will pull through the Amazon domain for you automatically). There's no point entering as much text as Facebook permits - anything above 40 characters will be cut off and no one will see it. I recommend doubling down on genre here or reinforcing social proof. Can be a good spot for something the "#I Bestseller" or whatever if you have actually hit that mark on a real list and not some obscure sub-category. But mostly I just double down on genre here. Don't know what to write? Literally just input your genre: - "Political thriller."
- "Tudor detective novel."
- "Urban fantasy."
- "YA space adventure."
- "Second chance romance."
- "Time-travel mystery."
...you get the idea. This might seem simplistic but it's surprisingly effective! Description I'm going to go against perceived wisdom on this one and suggest you leave it blank. Why? Facebook has reduced the real estate this box gets and now if you enter anything at all it can truncate the Headline - which is much more important and just makes the ad just look messier. As a result, a few years back I started leaving this blank and use that approach all the time now. If you don't enter any text, it just puts in a bit of text from the destination URL - i.e. Amazon in most cases - and I actually think that looks better overall. Especially when paired with a genre-reinforcing Headline. CTA Button Including one of these is optional but it has such a positive impact on ad performance I strongly recommend you do it. But what should you choose? I don't recommend going with "Download" as it seems Facebook users then think it's something they can download on Facebook itself and/or that it's a freebie. Either way, I definitely see conversion impacted negatively with this choice so these days I avoid it. Use "Shop Now" instead - at least for ads selling books. If it's a lead generation campaign, or something more informational, then choose "Learn More." I should mention that there is a school of thought which suggests you should always use "Learn More" as it's softer and friendlier and might work better with colder audiences or readers who aren't yet convinced to purchase. I fundamentally disagree. Well, my data disagrees to be more accurate. But I also disagree on a theoretical level. A call to action is always more effective when it is aligned with your overall goals, and your goal here is to sell books. Telling readers directly to buy the book is always going to work better if you actually want to sell books. You might be able to convince me that "Learn More" might have a place in an initial pre-order campaign or something like that... but that's as far as I would go. But, as with everything, test it if you like. I wouldn't be surprised if you see slightly better CPC/CTR but conversion takes a hit. Everything Pulling Together Facebook Ads work best when everything is in alignment: - Selling books is the aim so choose "Traffic" as your campaign goal and tell the system to optimize for link clicks as that what you want: clicks on your link to Amazon.
- You must explicitly tell readers what you want them to do (or they'll probably do something else) so put your CTA in the ad text too – i.e. the Primary Text.
- Include the book cover in your ad image so everyone is clear this is an ad for a book – and it's a further opportunity to double down on genre because your book cover should attract readers in your target market (and if it doesn't… fix that before you spend any money on marketing). I get that this is a strangely spicy topic, but at least test the book cover ad image approach and compare... and then follow your own data. But please factor in conversion!
- Reinforce the CTA in the ad text with a CTA button under the ad image - and choose an appropriate goal like "Shop Now."
This way, everything is aligned, readers are clear that it is an ad for a book, they know exactly what the genre is, and what kind of book you've written, as well as what you want them to do (get out their wallet and buy the blasted thing!). Might sound like small beans but that's the nature of Facebook Ads – marginal gains at every point in the chain can revolutionize your results. When readers click through to Amazon, they then see the same book cover they saw in the ad. They get the same vibe. They know they are here to shop, thanks to our CTA, and any potential friction or confusion is minimized. Which is important as that can be death to conversion with all the distractions on your typical Amazon page. In other words, readers are primed to hit that Buy Button – the entire point of this elaborate dance, remember? Dave P.S. Music this week is Sabine McCalla with Roads We Wander. | 
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