Best Practices for Facebook Ad Copy for Authors: Episode 4 in the Facebook Mini-Series

In episode 4 of the Facebook mini-series, Facebook expert Stacy Kennedy breaks down the best practices for creating ad copy that connects with your target audience.

Transcript

Aryn: [00:00:00] Welcome to rock your book launch. My name is Aryn Van Dyke. I am joined by my friend, Stacy Kennedy. We are in the middle of a Facebook series. So today in this episode, we are going to be talking about Facebook ad copy. So in a previous episode, we talked a little bit about ad creative. So that's that visual piece that goes along with an ad.

Aryn: So today Stacy is going to be talking about some of the best practices of how you can utilize ad copy to be promoting your books and growing your author brand. So Stacy, I'll kind of hand it over to you. Let's let's talk a little bit about some ad copy best practices. 

Stacy: Sure. This is, I mean, I love talking about Facebook ads.

Stacy: I think partly just because They're hard to nail down. I'm always testing and, testing this against this. And I can't tell you how many times I've worked really hard and I think [00:01:00] this is gonna do it. And then I just throw in this other thing as like my B test so I can AB test and this one takes off.

Stacy: And this one that I worked so hard on. So I think it's really important at first to realize there's more than one way to do this. There are lots of different options for you and test, test see what works for your audience and Work hard on all of it, but don't be surprised if the one thing you threw in at the last minute just to see ends up being the thing that takes off.

Stacy: For Facebook ad copy, you've got a couple of different parts of the ad when you're building your ad. And so one is the headline and that's short and sweet, and we'll get back to that in a minute, but let's just talk about the actual copy of the ad. Okay. When you keep that copy, that primary text box.

Stacy: Yeah. Nice. And clear, you want to hit that felt need what's in it for me, the person who's seeing the [00:02:00] ad. And, people call it like the value proposition, make that really clear. I, you feel this, and this is what I have to help. Yeah. So don't, you, you have very little real estate in that ad copy before somebody can click the word more and then see all the things you have to say.

Stacy: Yeah. When I say concise, you can make your ad copy really long, but really click that advanced preview button when you're creating your ad and see what your ad looks like in all the different 20 something placements. Because that very beginning is really what's going to catch them or your headline. And so your headline is going to look different in different placements.

Stacy: And so make sure that it's short enough that it's not going to get cut off at a weird spot. Sometimes your headline is just going to be long. And so it's just going to cut off in a certain place and that's okay. But just make sure that it's [00:03:00] compelling. Maybe you're asking a provocative question. Maybe you have something free to tell them an intriguing statement, something that pops up, that's your headline.

Aryn: Yeah. Amazing. So with I guess as, as we're thinking about call to actions, like whether this is in somewhere in the headline or the copy, or maybe even in that like button space what would be some of the. What are some of like the call to actions that you've tested out in the past that you see convert on a, I guess, maybe more consistent basis?

Aryn: Statistically, 

Stacy: I mean, I've taken a lot of Facebook ad courses and been told almost consistently across the board, that learn more is the button that will convert the most for you. So a lot of times that can even be the default, but learn more. You have something for them. If your ad is for something, [00:04:00] especially like something for free, learn more about it.

Stacy: Click here to learn more. If you're trying to sell which that does work sometimes on social media, but I would say for authors. Trying to sell your book on social media just straight out is a little bit tougher, but you can try the shop now button. For the most part, I recommend learn more unless maybe you have a video course that you're offering or a free video for someone to watch, you could choose the watch more button as well.

Stacy: There's a lot of different choices and what's going to work for you. You might have to just test. 

Aryn: And I have 

Stacy: to, you know, duplicate your ad and one use learn more and one use something else and see which one is converting, which one is getting people there, which one's costing you less money. 

Aryn: How many I mean, as we're thinking about testing, how many like versions do you typically test out when you're starting an ad campaign?

Aryn: I'm always testing 

Stacy: two [00:05:00] at a minute. Always. And sometimes I have more that I can test. It just depends on the objective of the ad. Yeah. And so since we're talking about authors, I would say most of the time, the objective of the ads I'm running for authors would be for some sort of free offer. So if I have, if I don't really have a lot to go off of for one reason or another, I'll make a still graphic that has that felt need really clear, some book.

Stacy: Something that's going to grab their attention like the word free or some sort of felt need. And then I'm going to make sure that that that button is clear. And my headline is concise. If I'm using text. I can't remember who said who said this phrase, but really you just want to try to help people use as few brain calories as possible.

Aryn: Yes, that's that's amazing. 

Stacy: Yeah. If you're an author, you have a lot of words. You love to read and you don't [00:06:00] mind something that's wordy, maybe, but when you're interrupting someone's social media experience. As few brain calories as possible. I need to know what I'm looking at in a half a second and want it.

Stacy: And that's really hard to do. So the more concise you make everything, your headline, your call to action, whatever's on your graphic, the harder that is to do, but the more it's going to convert. And then I tested video if I can, if I have some, so if I don't, let's say the author, that's my ideal. The author talking about and explaining what it is that they want someone to do is my favorite thing.

Aryn: Yeah. But 

Stacy: if I don't have that, I can use, we talked in another episode about Canva. I can use Canva to make a video. I can use an app. I've got probably 15 apps on my phone. Yeah. That. You know, I can, you, I can pretty easily create video content that, you know, whether it's a text video or whatever. So that's what I'll test.

Aryn: Awesome. [00:07:00] Amazing. Well, we've still got more to come. I mean, diving into ad targeting, which I think is Kind of its own little beast to, to tackle and figure out. So again, over the course of this Facebook series, we've talked about the Facebook basics. We've talked about how to use Facebook for organic content.

Aryn: You know, Facebook ad creative Facebook ad copy here in this episode. And then, yeah, we'll, we'll be, we'll be talking in the next one about ad targeting. So thank you, Stacy again. And let's let's dive into the targeting piece. All right, I'm ready.

Aryn: All right. Well, we are in the middle of a Facebook series with Stacy Kennedy. So go ahead and check out the other episodes in this series. So you can have a full understanding of how you can be using Facebook to promote your book. Now I want to talk a little bit more about the company that Stacy works for, Redbird Social.

Aryn: They are a marketing agency out of Nashville, [00:08:00] Tennessee, and they work with authors on full book covers. Book launch implementation. So if you are an author looking for done for you services for your book launch, make sure you reach out to the Redbird team. They do a free consultation, which you can book on their website, redbirdsocial.

Aryn: com. So I highly recommend reaching out to them. They do great work. Excellent work. They understand the whole aspect of the strategy behind book marketing and book launches, which is something that you don't get out of done for you services from other partners. So They really understand the best practices and the strategy that's needed behind book marketing and what it takes to get your book out in front of readers.

Aryn: So I highly recommend going to REDBIRDSOCIAL.COM and clicking that free consultation button and talking with someone on their team. I'm so, so thrilled that Stacy said yes to doing this this series with me. Stick around for more episodes all about Facebook and how you can use it to promote your book.[00:09:00] 

Aryn: If you're looking for other book marketing resources, make sure you head to BOOKROCKSTAR.COM. That's bookrockstar.com for additional book marketing resources and tools.