Best Practices for Facebook Ad Creative for Authors: Episode 3 in the Facebook Mini-Series

In this 3rd episode of our Facebook mini-series, Stacy Kennedy shares the best practices of ad creative and how authors can determine what type of creative/content is best for them. 

Transcript

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Aryn: [00:00:00] All right. Welcome to rock your book launch. My name is Aryn. I'm here with my friend, Stacy Kennedy. We are in the middle of a Facebook series. And so we have talked about some of the basics of Facebook. We've talked about using Facebook on an organic marketing level. And we're going to dive into Facebook advertising and the different components that fall into the ads.

Aryn: So Stacy, again, thank you so much for Sharing your expertise on all things Facebook. So let's let's talk a little bit about Facebook ad creative and what authors should be considering when they're, you know, starting a Facebook ad campaign, they're wondering, what should I be, you know, actually using for my ad itself?

Stacy: That's such a good question. So my first question is going to be, what's your objective? So you're running an ad, what do you want people to [00:01:00] do? I would say that a lot of authors are like, I just want them to buy the book. And Of course we do. We want them to buy the book. But what are the chances that you're going to interrupt their social media scrolling with, and they've never heard of you, they don't know your book, they don't know anything about you, that they're going to leave and just go buy your book because you said go buy my book?

Stacy: Yeah. Probably. Even the people who know you. May or may not just do that straight from social media. Yeah, probably unlikely. Highly unlikely. Statistically. I've been doing this for, I've been in this. I've been in this position like managing social media, running ads, doing all of this since 2010.

Stacy: So I'm on year 15 and statistically across the board with dozens and dozens and dozens of book launches I've worked on. Those book sales come through emails. They don't come straight from social. So when we think about our ad creative, we're thinking what can we do to interrupt [00:02:00] it. Someone's social media scrolling experience to get them on the email list so I can build that relationship with them via email as well as social media.

Stacy: So I'm just going to assume that this ad creative that we're talking about is something that I have to give you for free. So we, in our agency, we call it a freemium. I don't know what you'd call it when you like a free offer. 

Aryn: Lead magnet, freebie, freemium. I think there, it can take on many different I think many different names, so we can go with freemium for the purpose of this conversation.

Aryn: Great. Okay, perfect. 

Stacy: So I am random person scrolling social media. And when I see your ad, the first thing that I'm going to think is what's in it for me. When you think about what your creative is. Hopefully, you'll have maybe a, just a plain graphic. And a video that you can test against [00:03:00] each other. I would say statistically a video is going to win.

Stacy: It might, it's going to be cheaper. You're going to have video views, but you never know. A graphic could be just as compelling if you have something for me that I want. And so that's the hardest shift for many authors because they think I have something for, you know, I want you to do this. No, it's all about your generosity.

Stacy: And so how can you utilize a video or a single image ad to be generous to the person who's scrolling, you're meeting some, somehow this has to convey that you are meeting a need that they have a want they have, and you've got that. So how can your creative. Make that emotional connection With the felt need that they have love that also how can your creative?

Stacy: Very clearly give them a call to action Click [00:04:00] here to get this thing that I have for you. So be very direct with I have this go here to get this. Don't be vague about the call to action. If you're offering as an author, we're talking, you know, mainly we're talking to authors here. So let's say your author, your offer to your audience would be some free chapters from your new book.

Stacy: Because really your emails are going to encourage them to pre order your book or buy your book. Why these chapters? So again, what's in it for the reader? Why did you pick chapter 15? It doesn't have to be the intro and chapter one. Maybe the most compelling chapter of your book is chapter 21. And that's the one you picked because when someone reads that chapter, they're going to want to buy the book.

Stacy: So you've got to be strategic about that as well. And in your creative, For your ad, evoke that emotion as much as you can with the person who is Seeing your ad and they are much more [00:05:00] likely to click on it. 

Aryn: Yeah so I guess some like Maybe more like the technical questions. So like with video, is there like a length that you suggest if someone's going to do a video?

Aryn: Is it five seconds? Is it like 30 plus, like what, what's like a length that you would recommend authors testing out when it comes to video, I would say that 

Stacy: you got to grab them in the beginning. Yeah. And then the length doesn't matter quite so much. Don't be boring. In the very beginning, you've got them for like one or two seconds.

Stacy: I mean, don't do anything crazy, but hit that emotional felt need really quickly so that they'll keep watching. To me, what's more important with a video ad creative is making sure that you have captions. Because default setting in social, you know, on Facebook and Instagram is mute. People are reading videos.

Stacy: They're not listening to them. [00:06:00] And so make sure that that those captions pop up and that people can see what it is really quickly as well. 

Aryn: Yeah, that's great advice. I know when I'm on Facebook or Instagram, it's either like late at night when my partner's gone to sleep before I have, or in the morning when I've woken up before he has.

Aryn: And so I'm on mute all the time because I'm like, I can't wake him up. So I am definitely a silent video watcher. So captions are a huge, kind of a huge piece of it for me. 

Stacy: I feel spoiled because like sometimes if I'm scrolling and then I see a video and it doesn't have captions and I really want to watch it, but for some reason I'm in a place I can't, like I just get frustrated.

Stacy: So you don't want to frustrate your people. Help them watch your video in any way that you can for sure. The other thing I'll say about video is just Make it visually appealing, even if you're taking, even if your video is just you, you know, if it's going to be [00:07:00] an ad, you know, look nice, have a, some kind of a decent background and good lighting so people can actually see.

Stacy: See you, 

Aryn: so, yeah. And then another thing too that, I mean in terms of like testing out different types of like, of creative or content what do you think about like reviews or endorsements? Is that, would you say that's worth like testing out as well? For sure. I think, 

Stacy: Telling people that other people liked what you have made and telling them why, like showing them that, I think reviews are really important.

Stacy: Whether the review, you know, one of my favorite things is when people post bad reviews and make fun of them. But that's just gets me curious. Use reviews to your advantage. Now, if you're running a pre order campaign, you might not have those reviews yet. You might have them on Goodreads instead of Amazon, but you might have testimonials and you might have endorsements.

Stacy: And so [00:08:00] definitely test out all different ways of, either having video or those could go on a single image graphic or even on a carousel ad, which is basically you have picture and then you swipe and then another picture. I think testimonials and reviews work really well on carousels.

Aryn: Amazing. Awesome. Well in our next our next episode in the series, we're going to dive into ad copy. So if you're again, an author looking to utilize Facebook advertising for your book promotion stick around for the Facebook ad copy episode. Thank you so much, Stacy, for talking a little bit more about Facebook ad creative.

Aryn: My pleasure.

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 [00:09:00] are a marketing agency out of Nashville, Tennessee, and they work with authors on full 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, 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. 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 thrilled that Stacy said yes to doing this series with me. Stick around for more episodes all about Facebook and how you can use it to promote your book.

Aryn: If you're [00:10:00] looking for other book marketing resources, make sure you head to BOOKROCKSTAR.COM. That's BOOKROCKSTAR.COM for additional book marketing resources and tools.