The offer comes first
Most campaigns fail before anything is built, because the thing on offer was not interesting enough to interrupt anyone for. The usual fix is a smaller ask.
Most campaigns that fail here fail before anything is built. The targeting was fine, the budget was reasonable, the creative was competent, and the thing being offered was not interesting enough to interrupt anyone for.
This is uncomfortable because the offer is the one part that cannot be fixed inside the advertising platform. It is much easier to test another audience than to admit the product page is asking for too much too soon.
What makes an offer work on a feed
- It is understandable in one line. If explaining it needs a paragraph, the paragraph will not be read.
- The next step is small. Somebody who met you nine seconds ago will not book a consultation. They might read one page, take one quiz or watch one thing.
- The risk sits with you, not them. A guarantee, a trial, a first piece of work at a low price: anything that makes saying yes cheap.
- There is a reason to act now, and an honest one. A real deadline, a limited run, a seasonal fit. Invented urgency is noticed and it costs you more than it gains.
The ladder of asks
Most failing campaigns are one rung too high. The ladder, from easiest to hardest, is worth having in front of you because the right rung is usually lower than instinct suggests.
- Read one page. Costs nothing, commits nothing, and tells you whether the message lands.
- Watch or download one specific thing. A checklist, a template, a two-minute explanation.
- Give an email address for something concrete. Not a newsletter: a thing.
- Answer a few questions about their situation. Higher friction, much better qualified.
- Book a call. A real commitment of their time.
- Pay. The top of the ladder, whatever the amount.
You do not have to start at the bottom. You do have to be honest about where a stranger nine seconds into knowing you actually is. If the campaign is not working and the creative is competent, dropping one rung changes more than anything you can do inside the ad account.
Three offers, one product
An offer is not the product. It is the product plus the terms, framing and next step. One product can carry several offers, and they perform very differently. The stock ordering service again, as three offers.
- The full setup at a fixed price, with a page and a booking link. Highest value per sale, smallest number of people willing to take it from an advert, and the slowest to learn from.
- A paid stock audit at a fraction of the price, which ends in a written finding and an option to continue. Lower ask, qualifies hard because money changes hands, and produces a warm list of people who have already paid once.
- A free stock count template, in exchange for an email address, with the setup offered afterwards. Lowest ask, most volume, worst qualification, and useful mainly if you will actually follow up.
Same work underneath, three different adverts, three different costs per response, and three different kinds of client arriving. Note that the middle one is often the best starting point and the least often tried, because it does not look like either a proper sale or a proper lead magnet.
This is where testing effort actually pays. Three offers for one product will teach you more in a month than thirty creative variations of one offer.
Test the offer before the advert
If you have an audience anywhere, use it first. Put the offer in front of an email list, a community you belong to, or your existing customers, and see whether anyone takes it. That costs nothing and answers the expensive question.
- Write the three offers as three short messages, each with the price and the next step.
- Send them to people you can already reach, a different one to each third of the list if it is big enough, or in sequence if it is not.
- Count replies that ask a buying question, not replies that say it sounds good.
- If none of the three gets a buying question from people who already know you, do not pay to show them to strangers.
An offer that nobody takes when it is free to show them will not start working because you paid to show it to strangers. Paid traffic amplifies what is there; it does not supply what is missing.
Work to do
- Write your current offer in one sentence, including the price and what happens next.
- Find it on the ladder above, then write the version one rung lower.
- Write two alternative offers for the same product, changing the terms and the size of the ask rather than the product.
- Show all three to people you can reach for free, and count buying questions rather than compliments.