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Finding Your Perfect Hook: Testing for Video Content Success
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Ever wondered if there's a smarter way to figure out what content truly resonates with your audience before investing significant time and money? We dive into a game-changing content testing strategy that could revolutionize your approach to video marketing.
The conversation begins with an intriguing method using Facebook "dark posts" to test video content—specifically different hooks and openings—for just $5 per test. This data-driven approach provides a retention line showing exactly where viewers drop off, allowing creators to refine their videos before wider distribution. According to one successful marketer, this testing method has "made millions" by ensuring content is optimized before scaling up investment.
We contrast this with Gary Vee's more shotgun approach of posting everything and seeing what sticks organically. For small business owners with limited budgets, we break down which strategy might work better for your specific situation. We also explore Dan Martell's TikTok thumbnail testing technique and discuss important platform differences between Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok—including audience demographics, caption space, and how these factors should influence your testing methodology.
Whether you're working with a substantial marketing budget or bootstrapping your content strategy, this episode provides actionable insights for maximizing your content's impact through strategic testing. Subscribe now and check out launchingpros.com for free resources and courses designed to help grow your business online.
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Testing Video Content Strategies
Speaker 1So I came across this video and I thought her perspective was pretty interesting on figuring out what content is resonating with people , and it's a different way I've never thought of before and I'd like to hear your take on it , okay .
Speaker 2Let's watch it , let's hear it .
Speaker 3Gary Vee and Hormozy will talk about split testing by just throwing every video up there and then deleting the ones that are underperforming . We've never done that . We run Facebook dark posts $5 on each version of our video and so we would test different edits , most importantly , different hooks . To see , man , was that first five seconds stronger or was this first five seconds ? I don't know the best way to start this video . Cool , you don't have to shoot both . Throw $5 on Facebook ads as a dark post , meaning it's not going to show up on your page on Facebook . It'll cost you about five to seven bucks . After a thousand views you're going to get a retention line and you're going to be able to see where you lost people in the first minute of that video and then go back and edit accordingly . When I say that has made us millions of dollars just by testing our videos before we put them out .
Speaker 2I mean it Interesting .
Speaker 1That is interesting right .
Speaker 2So it reminds me we've talked about Dan Martell in the past . He does something similar on TikTok , to where he'll post several different thumbnails . He'll use it to test thumbnails . He'll post the same video content but with different thumbnails to see which one has higher engagements .
Speaker 1He mentions that TikTok won't penalize you for doing that , for doing the same content over and over .
Speaker 1Yeah , and this one's interesting because they're trying to figure
Cost-Effective Testing Approaches
Speaker 1out like I kind of view it as a video that they're going to really push in the ad side of things , and what they want to do is figure out like curate the entire ad to make sure the retention is as long as possible so you convert people . And so instead of like just putting it out there , putting hundreds of dollars behind it , thousands of dollars behind it , and then being like okay , that one didn't work as good , let's do something else or let's tweak it , it's like you can just do $5 at a time and look at the analytics and adjust . And she compared it to Hermosi and Gary Vee , where they just say just start throwing stuff out and you'll see what sticks . Well , I think , as a new business owner or small business owner , that's probably the better move , because most people don't have $5 a day on multiple different things , so you're spending like 15 bucks a day on , like just to see on a video , just to see where you're losing people .
Speaker 1It feels like for a small business like that's a lot , that's a it's kind of a lot of sure investment into a one video that , like I hope , pops off right , and so the better of the two , if you're a small business , makes sense to just okay , I'm going to put a bunch
Platform-Specific Testing Considerations
Speaker 1of videos out and start seeing where people connect and then from there I can kind of just choose the one that's really popping off to kind of push for an ad or like change my style . So most of my videos are like that um , but the I do like the idea of that . Like I like the idea , if you have the money to , okay , let's put a little bit of money behind it . Five dollars , fifteen dollars , see what's working , okay , okay . Oh , this one really was good at the beginning but fell off . It's like these were terrible at the beginning . Okay , now let's take that beginning and now do three other kind of middle areas and change the copy or the hooks or whatever , and see how long we can keep people before it just drops .
Speaker 2Yeah , and so we're talking about cost effective ways to do this , and so if we wanted to add on to that , try to test it out on tiktok post a couple different ones that are testing different hooks yeah , and then take the one that's the most popular , and then try it and test that , then then test that on facebook and see , yeah , I think it's a , I think it's an interesting way to do it .
Speaker 2Um , you just have to have the capital to do it right and you have to have the patience to do it , because you know , yeah , and keep it in mind there's gonna be different audiences on different platforms too , so what might work well right may not work the best on the other right so kind of keep that in mind as you're testing . But yeah , if you do have the capital to be able to test it out via ads , by all means test away and then post organically , whichever one performs better .
Speaker 1And not just the hook . She mentions the hook mostly , which I think is probably the most important because you're trying to keep people in and watching . But , like you said , thumbnails , hooks , the copy on the actual text . If it's Facebook , I think the video is more important on the Instagram side of things than it is for Facebook , because Facebook , if you're doing an ad on Facebook , you have a lot more , uh like , real estate to put copy on , because they show more versus instagram . That shows a lot less in your caption . So it just depends on who you're trying to reach . Like we said , demographic wise , facebook's going to be an older demographic .
Speaker 1Typically there's still a lot of people on facebook like I'm on facebook , but I almost exclusively use it for facebook marketplace , right , you know , and I think a lot of people do that like I don't get on very much um outside of that , and so it's like my like .
Speaker 1If they're trying to target people like me and a lot of people are like me , I'm saying if they are like me , it's like maybe instagram is going to be better , which is going to change your holes , like how you test , right , and she might be saying facebook , but she really means meta , she could be like . She could be like oh , she's testing on facebook , but facebook owns instagram , so maybe she means meta like meta , as in both . So that could be the thing , but I think you could use it across both and see how it tests . And the way is she's saying dark post is you're not posting
Best Practices for Content Posting
Speaker 1it on your feed , you're just running as an ad and then eventually , when you get the one you want , then you post it on your feed . I'm not sure if it matters that much , though .
Speaker 2Like , like for what do you mean ? Like ?
Speaker 1as in like she's so worried about not posting on her feed . It's like why , like , you could just post it again . Like even the instagram business guy . He's like oh , I gotta let it breathe . And he's like you know , he's like no post . More more often is the better , and if something's successful , post it again . He even said that , so it's like okay , so maybe after like a week , you post in the same one that you posted last week or the week before .
Speaker 1It's like that's probably beneficial if he's saying that it doesn't dock you , then why does it matter to be that specific ?
Speaker 2yeah , about that , you know what I mean that being said , I'd always make sure that your intentions are not to be spammy . If you're , if your intentions are to test , I don't see you getting flagged as easily as if you're just trying to be spammy yeah , you know , yeah because like you're going to post at different times , different days , like and , and you're gonna get different people yeah right , and there's nothing wrong with that .
Speaker 2But if you're like just trying to like post , repost the same thing over and over and over again , like yes , yeah that's not gonna work .
Speaker 1No for sure they're not gonna like that . Thanks for listening
Episode Wrap-Up and Resources
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Speaker 2Check out our website at launchingproscom , where you get access to a bunch of free resources and courses designed to launch and grow your business online . Check out the links below .