Strategies to Offset Your Pre-Launch Webinar’s Facebook Ad Costs
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Mastering the Art of Membership Launch Ads
Well, look at what popped up in my Facebook feed today!
There are two launches I get excited about every year…
One is Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula, and the other is Stu McLaren’s Membership Experience.
Now other launches may make more money, but these two are by far and away the best to learn from when it comes to applying the principles of launching.
Stu’s TME Launch is not scheduled until 20 April 2023, so imagine my surprise when an ad popped up on Facebook today.
Now before I delve into the ad and landing page there is a massive learning straight off the bat.
It’s 9 March today. The launch is not until 20 April. Stu isn’t focused on signing people up for his launch this early. No, he has created a long runway to test his ad copy, creative, and opt-in page conversion rates.
There are big challenges when it comes to running ads for a launch. By the time you have figured out your winning combo of ads and creative, the launch is over. It is incredibly hard to scale quickly and hit an attractive Cost Per Lead.
For any fixed-date event, there is an optimum window of time where you can start promotion and keep early registrants engaged.
Open registration too late, and you won’t have enough time to fill the event. Open it too early, and people will forget they have registered.
2 weeks tends to be the sweet spot. But it is hard to scale an ad campaign to tens of thousands of $’s a day in just 2 weeks.
My reading of Stu going so early with his ads is to figure out the winning ads and run a couple of rounds of optimizations on the opt-in page.
This means when it comes time to scale the campaign, they can do so cost-effectively.
Just to give you an idea of the scale of this campaign….
In total, there are 27 variations of ads in the Facebook Ad Library, which include the url membershipworkshop.com. These ads appear in between 4 and 15 ad sets. This is a significant test.
The best part of all is you have a ring-side seat for the next month and a half.
Ok let’s dive into the ads:
Ad Version 1 – Medium Form – TME Launch
3 Elements To Inspire Your Ad Campaigns:
- This is such a simple ad. Simple is beautiful. Simple is effective. The ad targets one pain point and one pain point only. Cashflow and business stability. This is always a top 3 problem for an entrepreneur. Something that keeps Stu’s perfect-fit client awake at night. So here is my question for you. What is a “top 3” problem that keeps your perfect-fit client awake at night that you can help them solve? The bigger and more painful the problem you can solve, the quicker people will flock to you for a solution.
- Hooks don’t always have to be crushing pain points or wild promises. Sometimes a simple pattern interrupt can do the trick. The simple “Hello there” is an interesting approach. Other ads published for the Membership Workshop open with “I’m Stu McLaren”… “What time is it???”…. “Patty started with a super simple idea.”. It will be interesting to see how these opening hooks fare over the duration of the campaign.
- The image is what drew me to review this ad. I love the screenshot approach. Almost everyone can test this option in their campaigns – My To-Do List – Complete the thing on offer. For an event / date-based launch, it also gives you an opportunity to prominently include the date. Notice how the action is transformative. Don’t just say download the lead magnet or register for the workshop. Paint the transformation someone will achieve when they take the action you prescribe. Oh, and a sneak two-for here! Notice the “all caps” FREE X 2. Free sells…
3 Elements We’d Test:
- The URL in the body copy is formatted in bold and italics to draw attention to it, which is great. I would want to test if there was any uptake in the outbound click-through rate if this was entered as a live link. I always include at least one live link in the body of every conversion ad.
- The headline Stu, Stu, Who The Heck is Stu? While interesting will possibly only resonate with people who know Stu. Now this version of the ad could be to warm traffic. It wasn’t one of the ads which appeared in 15 ad sets. However, I would test this ad with a headline that was focused on the avoidance of pain or attainment of pleasure. In this case, something like – Looking for more stability in your business? [FREE TRAINING] Proven Path To Membership Success
- While the single line “hello there” is a pattern interrupt partially due to the empty space, I would test including more text directly after it. You only have 140 characters to convince people they should click on the “See more” and read the rest of your body copy. You want to make sure it packs a punch and gives them a reason to read on.
Facebook Ad Swipe Files
- SWIPE FILE – 00039 -Stu McLaren – Ad to Workshop Opt-in Page
- SWIPE FILE – 00039 -Stu McLaren -Membership Workshop FB Ads Library
Crafting Effective Launch Opt-In Pages with an Upsell
TME Launch Opt-in Page
TME Launch Opt-in Page Pop-up
TME Launch Opt-in VIP Upsell
3 Elements To Inspire Your Landing Pages:
- TME Launch Opt-in Page – Single page, everything above the fold, opt-in page here for Stu. If it’s good enough for Stu with a launch he will be hoping will bring in over $5mill, it can work for your launch. Brilliant use of scarcity and deadline – This live training only happens 1X a year. Notice FREE Workshop. Despite being a multi day training only the first date is mentioned. This keeps it simple and doesn’t drive people into overwhelm.
- TME Launch Opt-in Pop-up – Notice the inclusion of the phone number. Text message marketing is extremely powerful. Yes, there is a cost associated, but with Twillio’s low rates and high text message engagement rates, you will get a positive ROI.
- TME Launch Opt-in VIP Upsell – An upsell is powerful from several perspectives. 1) it gives you an opportunity to scale your ad spend. At $47, it is somewhat realistic for Stu to break even on the costs of ads for his launch. This gives him massive confidence to scale his ad spend. 2) People who purchase a VIP package will be more like to engage with the launch. People who are more engaged will be more likely to buy. 3) The psychological principle of consistency means that people who have already paid an amount earlier in the process will be more likely to feel internally compelled to purchase when the primary offer is made for TME.
3 Elements We’d Test:
- Paid launches are steadily rising in popularity. Those who have tested the model have seen far a far lower number of people partaking in their launch but get a far higher conversion rate during the launch and are reporting higher launch revenue. People have become used to opt-in for launches and then not taking part. It is a big scary test but one I would love to see on a launch of this scale.
- I always test the text on the left and right sides of the page. There are two entrenched schools of thought on this. 1) your eyes always end up on the right side of the page, and this is where you should place the text. 2) your eyes scan the top of the page, hit the right side, and then travel diagonally from the top right-hand corner to the middle right in a Z pattern. Therefore your should place your headline along the top and your important text on the right side of the page. I have tested both and don’t have conclusive evidence for one approach or the other. I have seen switching sides, either way, result in a big jump in conversions, so it is always worth testing.
- Getting a phone number is a good idea, but I would like to know how much it hurts the overall conversion rates. I would run 3 tests over a limited period of time: 1) no phone number collected 2) phone number on the secondary screen after opt-in 3) Phone number not optional. The real test is the impact on purchases for The Membership Experience. As a result, we want the opt-in sample sizes to be around the same size and be able to calculate the total spent per test.