15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Nine - Getting Your Ads Approved Fast
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Viral Marketing/Social Media on September 3rd, 2010
By this point in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series you should:
- Know how to design good landing pages
- Be able to create compelling ad copy
- Target the right demographics
- Choose the right images
- Know to rotate your ads
and more!
Now for getting your ads approved…and fast!
Well the first key is to follow Facebook’s advertising guidelines and rules. Some of the key points that would pertain to our products are:
- Don’t use pop-ups or similar things on your landing page.
- Don’t harass or insult users.
- If you mention “free” something must actually be free.
- Don’t violate our trademark.
- Make sure to check your spelling and grammar, including punctuation, spacing, and sentence structure.
- Don’t use excessive repetition (buy, buy, buy).
- Don’t use repeated punctuation (!!!).
- No exclamation points in the title.
The next key, especially early on with a new account, is a bit of a trick: Bid really high and set a high budget.
Facebook tends to approve ads that bid high much quicker, so bid really high, on the high end of their suggested bids. Then once it is approved, ramp it down to your chosen level.
This is really only applicable for new accounts, for about 3-4 weeks. Then they start to catch on. But, by that point your account is seasoned and you should be approved for higher limits and your ads will be approved quicker anyway.
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Temporary ShareASale Error Yesterday
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Affiliate Marketing News on September 3rd, 2010
You probably got the email from CEO Brian Littleton yesterday, but in case you missed it, here is an email from him regarding a temporary error on ShareASale yesterday.
This afternoon we launched a new “Get Links” page that was to make downloading links from the ShareASale interface easier.
Unfortunately, there was a bug that affected some Text Links. If you did not download any new Text Links today - this issue will not affect you.
If you did download a new Text Link today, please make sure that the URL given to you contains traditional ShareASale tracking information and is in the format of Http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?u=111&b=111&b=111 as opposed to a direct link such as http://www.shareasale.com
If there is any doubt about links that you downloaded today, please contact me directly or simply download a new version of the link from our interface.
I apologize for the unfound bug - and will make sure that the next time we release this page, it is certified 100% bug-free.
Thanks for your understanding,
Brian Littleton
President/CEO ShareASale.com
brian@shareasale.com
Before You Write Your Next Headline, Take a Breath
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Web Design on September 1st, 2010
Long or short?
Your headline that is. Whether you are a blogger or an article writer or writing good headlines for your site, Sean D’Souza over at Copyblogger recently reminded me of a great way to test your headline length: the breath test.
It’s easy to test your headline length by simply taking a normal breath and then saying your headline out loud at a normal pace.
So, let’s say that my headline is:
Great Lessons on How to Learn to Play Barre Chords on the Guitar from the World’s Top Instructors.
Odds are that you ran out of breath during that one.
He points to some of the most lasting and effective headlines of all-time in his post, such as:
How to Win Friends and Influence People
I would suggest some others might be:
The Secret of Making People Like You
How I Improved My Memory in One Evening
You Can Laugh at Money Worries - If you Follow This Simple Plan
They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play! (Sean uses this one as an example)
Those last two are not exactly short though. But as Sean points out, they use punctuation. In other words, they pause. You CAN say each sentence or each part of the sentence in one breath.
Anyway, I strongly suggest checking out his post. It will definitely help you write better headlines!
Great Frank Luntz Affiliate Summit Keynote Recap
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Affiliate Tips, Web Design on August 31st, 2010
Courtesy of Affiliate Summit
For those who follow our blog, you probably know that I am a big fan of Frank Luntz, particularly his book, Words that Work.
Recently he delivered one of the keynotes at Affiliate Summit and I missed it. That sucked.
But I was able to read numerous recaps of the speech and get some of his valuable insight anyway.
Trisha Lyn Fawyer had the best recap that I have seen so far and she shares a ton of information from the speech, including a picture of the “21 Words for the 21st Century” slide.
She lists about 20 great bullet points focusing the importance of words, targeting males and females, targeting based on age, etc.
Go check out her post and start putting Luntz’s brilliance to use as an affiliate.
All I can really add is to check out this post as well: Language Lessons from Orwell and Luntz
Podcast Episode 23 - This Title is Too Long!
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Podcasts on August 25th, 2010
So…
Episode Twenty-Two of the Legacy Learning Systems Affiliate Podcast is ready for your listening pleasure. 
You can listen or download below and you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. You can also listen to past episodes in our Podcast Archive.
The title of said podcast is the longest ever:
Facebook Landing Pages and Ad Copy, Ballroom Dance videos, September bonuses, and ShareASale ThinkTank…oh yeah and a baby on the way!
Yeah I needed a nap after that one.
This week’s short show notes are:
Landing Pages | Ad Copy and Landing Pages
Learn & Master Ballroom Dance Videos
15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Eight - More Ad Copy and Landing Page Suggestions
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Viral Marketing/Social Media on August 25th, 2010
It’s been a while since our last installment in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series.
Last week I gave you five tips for better Facebook landing pages and before that we learned how to write compelling ad copy on Facebook, how to choose the right images, how to rotate your ads, and much more in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series.
So previously I listed six tips for writing good ad copy on Facebook and talked about a specific ad I did for Jimmy Buffett Facebook fans. Well it turns out I left out a few tips that really apply to both landing pages and ad copy so I am listing them here.
1. Mention “Facebook” and Facebook-specific terminology. This is a tip I got from Brian Carter. He gives examples like using the words fan page, wall posts, likes, and groups. This, as I mentioned in the ad copy post, worked very well in promoting our guitar course to Jimmy Buffett Facebook fans.
2. Address their common situation. I mentioned targeting middle-aged, married women who like Dancing with the Stars in part two on demographics. The more I thought about it, I realized a common situation for this highly-populated group: they usually have husbands who refuse to take dancing classes. So, we addressed that situation with a headline, ad copy, and landing page that focused on this general theme: “Wives, get your husbands to dance!” We asked them “are you tired of sitting on the sidelines at weddings and parties?” and “does your husband refuse to take dance classes?” Well, “we have the answer!”
Consider their situation and ask them about it. Then give them the answer.
Side note: to some extent the reverse can be true. One ad that was mildly successful targets men who are middle-aged, married and have a certain set of likes. Odds are their wives nag them about things like this. So we targeted them from a gift-buying perspective. It’s not the best campaign ever, but worth a shot.
3. Be timely. Speaking of Dancing with the Stars, one lesson we learned is that targeting a group like that is 3-4 times more effective when the show is actually airing. Duh! If you are targeting affinity groups that are seasonal, such as television shows or the like, make sure to target them in-season, not out of season.
4. Don’t be TOO targeted. We have all see the ads that say “find such-and-such in YourTown.” We all know they are targeted and they come across disingenuous. So don’t mention things like their age, specific location, or things like that. Unless it really does make sense and it is a truly local campaign (car dealer, dentist, etc.).
September Bonuses on ShareASale
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Bonuses on August 25th, 2010
We have some awesome bonuses on ShareASale next month!
Don’t forget that from July through September, you can earn the special 35% commission on sales of Learn & Master Painting. Just use the link from our July Bonuses post.
We have three great bonuses in July alone.
The first bonus is for all sales. If you double August’s sales in September (minimum three sales in August), you get a $25.00 bonus per sale over that amount. So, for example if you had ten sales in August and make twenty-five in September, you will earn a $125.00 bonus!
The second bonus is a 50% commission on all sales of Learn & Master Ballroom Dance. Just use this special link (replace the !!USERID!!) with your ShareASale ID:
http://www.shareasale.com/u.cfm?d=39846&m=22286&u=!!USERID
Check out the new Ballroom Dance Sample Lesson videos to use!
Thirdly, any affiliate making more than five sales of Learn & Master Drums has a chance to win some huge bonuses. If you make 6-10 sales, you will earn a $5.00 bonus per sale. The more sales you make, the higher the bonus per sale is:
| Sales | Bonus |
| 6-10 Sales | $5 per sale |
| 11-20 Sales | $10 per sale |
| 21-30 Sales | $15 per sale |
| 31-50 Sales | $20 per sale |
| 51-75 Sales | $25 per sale |
| 76-100 Sales | $30 per sale |
| 101-150 Sales | $35 per sale |
| 151-200 Sales | $40 per sale |
| 201+ Sales | $45 per sale |
As always, all of our bonuses and promotions are listed on our ShareASale Bonuses and Promotions Page as well as on our iPhone App.
Coming Soon…Fatherhood
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Fun Stuff on August 24th, 2010
Last week my wife, Tara, and I found out that we are expecting our first child. Here is a picture of the ultrasound, which is to date the coolest thing I have ever seen!
Learn & Master Burping anyone? 
Our 110th Video on ShareASale - New Ballroom Dance Lessons on Tango and Waltz
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Video Marketing on August 23rd, 2010
We now have 110 videos on ShareASale after I just added 12 new videos.
I just added lessons four new lessons from our Learn & Master Ballroom Dance course, each in three sizes, small, medium, and large.
There are two lessons on the Tango in the three sizes and two lessons on the Waltz in three sizes.
Videos are easy to find and easy to add from the ShareASale interface. And they track to your account!
Just login to your ShareASale account and go to “Get Videos” or go directly to this link
Do a search for “Legacy Learning” or our merchant ID “22286″
Click on “Get Video Code”
Click on Get this Video Code - Notice how ours are organized with titles such as “Ballroom Dance Sample Lesson - Waltz Part One Medium”
We give them titles that are user friendly (the people viewing them) but the last word is always the size so they are easy to find.
We have three sizes: Small, Medium, and Large.
Copy and paste the code from ShareASale
15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Seven - Landing Pages
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Viral Marketing/Social Media, Web Design on August 18th, 2010
Five Tips for Better Facebook Landing Pages
Alright so far you have learned how to write compelling ad copy on Facebook, how to choose the right images, how to rotate your ads, and much more in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series.
So what about once they click? How do you design an effective Facebook landing page?
Here are a few tips. Some may not be relevant to our affiliates, but most can be if you ask me to help you.
1. Design a specific landing page for them. Don’t send them a generic landing page. Send them to a page that mentions their likes, interests, groups, etc. I mentioned in the ad copy post an ad targeted to Jimmy Buffett Facebook Fans. For that ad, I want to send them to a page about Jimmy Buffett Facebook Fans. Use imagery that Jimmy Buffett fans would like…tropical sunsets, beaches, etc. are good starts.
2. Give them a special offer. Give them a discount code or some sort of sale that is targeted to them. “Special Offer for Homeschool Channel Facebook Fans” or something similar works great.
3. Try to mirror the ad content. As simple as it sounds, I have found a significant increase in conversions by simply repeating the question I asked in the ad or repeating word for word the content of the ad at the beginning of the page. If I asked a question, I ask it again, then I answer it and give them the solution (buy our course). If I made a statement, I repeat the same statement. If I included sale dates, I repeat those exact sale dates.
4. Mention our payment plan as an option. Learn & Master Guitar normally sells for $149.00. Our payment plan is $49/month (there are two $4 service charges). In all of our ads, about 40% of the Facebook population takes the payment plan. Odds are that almost all of that 40% would not buy at the full price (no payment plan). So make sure to pump that up more than normal. $49/month is a much more likely impulse buy than $149.
5. Get to the point. Typically, what as worked best for us is getting right to the point. Here’s the course, here’s a button where you can learn more, here’s the price (with payment plan of course), and here is an Add to Cart button. Long sales copy has not worked, at least on the landing page. Give them a link to Learn More and they will if they want, but so many people just decide to buy quickly.
So there you have it…five tips for better Facebook landing pages. I hope they help!
More on Facebook Ads and new Pay Per Click Rules - Podcast Episode 22
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Pay Per Click (PPC), Podcasts, Viral Marketing/Social Media on August 13th, 2010
Episode Twenty-Two of the Legacy Learning Systems Affiliate Podcast is ready for your listening pleasure. 
You can listen or download below and you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. You can also listen to past episodes in our Podcast Archive.
This week on the Legacy Learning Systems Affiliate Podcast, I talk more about Facebook Ads, rotating your ads and writing compelling copy. I also talk briefly about our new Pay Per Click rules.
There was not much news to cover, but I did talk about the latest two topics in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series and the email I sent about the new Pay Per Click rules. If you did not get that email, please let me know.
This week’s short show notes are:
15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Five - Rotate Your Ads
15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Six - Compelling Ad Copy
15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Six - Compelling Ad Copy
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Viral Marketing/Social Media on August 12th, 2010
Earlier this week in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series I encouraged you to make sure to rotate your ads.
Part of that is rotating the images you use. The other part is writing the actual text of the ad itself. So, how do you go about that?
Well first, again consider your target market. Read up on Facebook demographic targeting first and then we will apply a lot of the same rules as when choosing the right image for our ads.
Some basic tips for writing compelling ad copy on Facebook are:
- Ask Questions - in the title if possible. Or in the body of the ad if not. You don’t always have to do this, but it does work well. Even without the question mark, ask the question! In fact, sometimes a question with the “?” works well, because it just looks kind of funny.
- Use Special Characters - such as the trademark symbol ™ or something similar.
- Use words that reference their demographic, like “Hey guys” or “Wives, do you want to…”
- Tell them what to do - Click here. Use promo code “XYZ.”
- Use testimonials - from a similar person. “John in Arizona says…”
- Speak to their dreams - this is tough, but if you can target the right group and speak to their dreams (i.e. learning guitar at the age of 55) you have them.
So, for this example, let’s say that we are targeting 35-60 year old males who are fans of Jimmy Buffett. How might we target them? What ad copy can we use?
Well, here is one ad that did amazingly well.
Of the six tips above, I think it hits squarely on 1 and 2 and to some extent 3, 4, and 6.
It asks a question…twice actually. Once with a “?” and once without.
It uses the trademark symbol, something that makes it stand out a bit and gives authority.
The ad DOES speak to their demographic and dreams, because it talks about their favorite artist and asks if they want to play like him. And lastly, it sort of gives them a call to action in that it mentions a sale and says when it will end. Note: It also makes a pun, using the song title “Come Monday” in the last sentence. Bonus points for creativity!
So there you have it…six good tips for writing ad copy. When combined with the right images and demographics, you should have a killer ad!
15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Five - Rotate Your Ads
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Viral Marketing/Social Media on August 10th, 2010
Last week in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series we covered how to find demographic information, using demographic information to create the right images, using CPM bidding, and statistics to motivate you to get started.
I mention in that last post about the shear volume of people on Facebook and of course reiterate the need to target small groups. I encourage you to get started. As you read this, consider what I think is the most important thing you need to commit to: writing a lot of ads, testing them, and rotating them.
Facebook advertising is not like search engine Pay Per Click. This is not a thing that people will search one time and then move on. This is something that they might see five, ten, or twenty times in a week. Ads grow old very quick. This is known as “ad exhaustion.”
People who see the same headline, image, and ad copy over and over will eventually grow tired of it.
So you have to commit right now to spending the time each day or week to writing a lot of ads. Each group might have 3-10 (or more) ads. Most of the time the changes are simple. A different headline, a different image, a tweak to the image, slightly different ad copy, etc.
Sometimes you can simply run an ad on Friday that a sale is Friday-Sunday, an ad on Saturday that says “This Weekend Only,” and the ad on Sunday says “Sale Ends Sunday.” Often, those subtle changes are enough to drastically increase the click throughs in the latter stages of an ad.
Other times some simple image tweaks do the trick, such as these four images:
I am not suggesting that such a single change only is enough, but it can easily turn five ads into twenty and offer enough of a change to reduce ad exhaustion and increase your click through rate (CTR).
The more you target, the more likely it is that people will see the same ads over and over, so you have to make minor tweaks like this all of the time to keep CTR high.
I suggest following some formula like this (and keep in mind that I don’t follow this exact formula every single time, but you get the point):
- Week One - Ad One (A1) / Picture One (P2)
- Week Two - A2 / P2
- Week Three - A3/P3
- Week Four - A 1 / P4
- Week Five - A2 / P5
- Week Six - A3 / P6
- Week Seven - A4 / P1
- Week Eight - A1 / P2
- Week Nine - A2 / P3
And so on. And when you think of a new ad, throw it into the mix. Maybe you will use more pictures. Maybe you will just tweak the headline or a few words or punctuation even. OK, cool.
One thing you MAY notice when you do this (cycle your ads) is that Ad A1 does better in the beginning of week Eight than at it’s peak of week one or four. Often, when you bring an ad back from the dead (sometimes exactly as you had it before) it will do even better than it was before. Why? I have no idea. It’s just a trend I have noticed. I am sure there is some psychology to it. If you know why or think you know, I would love to hear!
So, that is a basic model, but the summary is: write a lot of ads, use a lot of pictures, tweak them often, and rotate them.
Until next time…
Our iPhone App, a New Guitar, Contest and Bonus Winners, and Facebook Advertising - Podcast Episode 21
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Podcasts, Viral Marketing/Social Media on August 6th, 2010
Episode Twenty-One of the Legacy Learning Systems Affiliate Podcast is ready for your listening pleasure.
You can listen or download below and you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. You can also listen to past episodes in our Podcast Archive.
In this podcast Matt talks about the first four tips in his 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series, the new Affiliate iPhone App, the new guitar on the site and contest and bonus winners in July.
Here are these week’s show notes:
Legacy Learning Systems Affiliate iPhone App
July 2010 Affiliate Insider Newsletter
Silvertone SD50 Guitar Information
Creating a Custom Link in ShareASale
Part Three -Images & Demographics
15+ Facebook Advertising Tips - Part Four - Just Do It!
Posted by Matt McWilliams in Viral Marketing/Social Media on August 5th, 2010
Yesterday in our 15+ Facebook Advertising Tips Series we covered using demographic information to create the right images.
The day before we covered how to find demographic information and how to target effectively (gender, age, Likes & Interests, location, etc.).
And on the first day I encouraged you to use CPM bidding in your Facebook ads.
It dawned on me this morning that I never really actually addressed the concerns that a lot of people have about Facebook advertising. And I never really ever actually said to “Do it!”
That is the critical first step…doing. Set up an account, follow a few of these guidelines, read up on other blogs about it, and then start creating ads.
Here are the three most common holdups that people have about doing Facebook advertising in my experience:
- There’s not enough volume. Really? Facebook just passed 500 million users. There are 1.8 billion internet users, so that makes up almost 30% of the internet population.
- Yeah, but what about if I target small? Then the volume is almost non-existent.
- Conversions are too low. How can I ever make it work from a ROI perspective?
To put this into perspective, Facebook is approximately twice the size of the adult population in the United States.
It would be the third largest country in the world, behind only China and India.
It has 357 times more users than New York Times subscribers.
The volume is there.
See yesterday’s post about the number of people who list “learning something new” or similar phrases in their likes and interests. Certainly targeting certain demographics is wise. In fact, my average ad group has about 15,000 people in it. But I have 500 ad groups. Even with 50% overlap (a very high estimate) I am still reaching almost 4 million very targeted people. Start small and expand your targeting…I think you will be very surprised at who you can reach and what will be effective.
Keep reading…we will address conversions and ROI soon. But, if you want a quick glimpse, here it is: create specific landing pages for each large group. Apply the same rules of targeting to the landing page and mention Facebook on the page. Notice the plural…landing pageS. Test, test, and test some more. OK, you get the idea and there is so much more to cover on that.
But for now, just get started. Even if it’s $0.20 a click (or $0.20 CPM) or whatever. Even if it’s $20.00/day. In the words of Nike, just do it!
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