P R O G R A M 1 : HOW TO GENERATE YOUR FIRST MILLION FOLLOWERS How to A/B Test Headlines and Hook Points Report INTRODUCTION As a strategist for Fortune 500 companies, brands, and celebrities I’ve helped individuals and companies such as Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Adriana Lima, Lionsgate, MTV, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Yahoo!, Katie Couric, Vice, Viacom, and more unlock value and amplify their businesses’ growth. I created the Growth Masters Series to provide access to the best digital and business strategies from the brightest entrepreneurs and marketing experts in the world. The information in this series helps cultivate credibility that will pave the way for new opportunities—whether that means scaling your business by building on the momentum you’ve already created, or gaining visibility to explode your growth. This guide, compiled of strategies from the Growth Masters Series and from my book “One Million Followers”, will teach you what it takes to reach your first million social media followers. If you would like to learn more about the Growth Master Series please visit www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS To your success, Brendan Kane INDEX Find Your Hook Point 5 Find Your Headline 6 How to A/B Test Your Headline 8 Step by Step Guide to Tes ng Headlines and Hook Points 9 Step 1: Create a Facebook page 9 Step 2: Create a Facebook ad account 9 Step 3: Create a new campaign 9 Step 4: U lize the Quick Crea on Guide 10 Step 5: Save to dra 12 Step 6: Set up the ad set 12 Step 7: Determine your Ad set focus. 13 Step 8: Create the ads 23 Step 9: Create duplicate ad sets 36 Step 10: Publish and launch 39 Step 11: Review the performance and op mize 39 The FInish Line 03 45 Find Your Hook Point To share compelling information, you have to find a unique hook point — something that makes you stand out, grabs your audience’s attention, and leaves it wanting more. It’s an essential exercise in understanding the value of what you have to offer. A great example of a solid hook point is Tim Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Workweek. Ferriss knew he could offer value, but he needed to grab attention. His book was a bestseller because of his succinct, thought-provoking message. His concepts were nothing revolutionary, but he sparked interest by packaging them with the idea of only working four hours per week. A title such as The Tim Ferriss Guide to Working Fewer Hours wouldn’t have been as captivating. Rather than simply promoting himself, Ferriss thought about what would resonate with his target audience. By explaining this material in a catchy way and creating an image of a lifestyle choice, he grabbed attention. It’s not enough to simply talk about yourself and explain what you do. Many others have the same skill sets. Find what makes you and your product or information unique and relevant to other people’s lives. Develop a succinct, attention-grabbing way to relay your information. Associate yourself with timely, interesting topics that meet your audience’s needs. People will stop and pay attention. 04 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Find Your Headline Here is an exercise I like to use to help clients discover their hook points: Imagine you’re given the cover feature article in a major magazine or newspaper publication. Now imagine a potential customer walks down the street and passes a magazine stand. What headline would grab the person’s attention and make him or her stop, buy the paper or magazine, and read your article? Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Remember — more than 60 billion messages are sent out every day. Your hook point must help you stand out. Headlines are important in every industry. The 1999 movie The Blair Witch Project was a huge success because the marketers understood how to choose a headline. They based the campaign around the idea that the story was real, which grabbed attention and made people want to learn more. These were the headlines the marketers created: • “In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, • Maryland while shooting a documentary . . . A year later their footage was found.” “Everything you’ve heard is true.” • “The scariest movie of all time is a true story.” These headlines (or “taglines” in film lingo) captivated viewers’ imagination. Many wondered if the movie was actually true, which enticed them to watch it. Also, the idea of the disappearing filmmakers moved people on an emotional level, provoking fear and curiosity and making them feel invested in the story. Another movie with a good tagline is Paranormal Activity (2007): “What happens when you sleep?” Most people are curious about this question and have asked it of themselves. If your headline asks questions that your audience already asks itself, your headline is strong. An example of a great news headline is “The Truth Hurts: The Million-Dollar Video Game Competition.” It attracts attention because “The Truth Hurts” is specific, is succinct, and evokes an emotional response. Combining it with “The Million-Dollar Video Game Competition” piques interest because most people have never heard of a video game competition that offers a prize of one million dollars. With this headline, many 05 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS people would watch at least five seconds of the video or read a bit more about the article. It’s relevant to people’s lives and taps into their needs, wants, and desires. Another strong news headline is “Buckingham Palace: Police Injured Arresting Man with a Sword near Buckingham Palace.” It’s not every day that a man with a sword attacks people. It’s unique, it has a royalty/ celebrity angle, it taps into people’s fear of the unknown, and it sparks interest. In short, it grabs attention. Now that you’re becoming familiar with headlines that work, here is an example of an ineffective headline: “Trump Under Fire.” It’s too vague and doesn’t entice you to click it (unless you’re obsessed to know anything associated with President Trump). It could easily be improved: • “5 Reasons Trump Will Be Impeached in the Next Year” • “New Details of Mueller’s Investigation Point to Trump’s Eventual Impeachment” • “Mueller’s Investigation Reveals Shocking Details on Trump’s International Business Dealings” To learn more about creating effective hook points, headlines, and social media marketing messages, read my book, One Million Followers: https://www.amazon.com/One-Million-Followers-Massive-Following/dp/ 1946885371/ 06 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS How to A/B Test Your Headline Once you clearly know what you want to share, use A/B testing to find the most effective way to communicate your message. Maybe you know the value of what you have to offer but aren’t sure of the catchiest way to grab people. Through my system, you can test your core messages against each other and, in real time, determine which one performs best. To be sure your headline is captivating, test variations against each other on Facebook. The quickest, most effective way to A/B test headlines and hook points is to leverage the Facebook advertising platform (which also extends to Instagram). There are other ways to test, but I’ve found that Facebook’s targeting and data set, along with its ability to scale and launch hundreds of variations within minutes, is unmatched. This process will work every time if you simply follow the instructions and keep testing. http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ Watch Video http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-5/ 07 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS For testing, this process can be used for (but is not limited to): • Tactics for increasing word-of-mouth sharing and content virality • Videos and commercials • Direct response ads • Print ads • Creative direction for Instagram posts • Creative direction for Facebook posts • Titles for books, ebooks, podcasts, events, shows, etc. • Blog post titles Step by Step Guide to Testing Headlines and Hook Points Step 1: Create a Facebook page. You must have a Facebook page, not just a personal profile. To set up a Facebook page, go here: https:// www.facebook.com/pages/create Step 2: Create a Facebook ad account. To learn how to create a Facebook ad account, we recommend this great resource: https://adespresso.com/ guides/facebook-ads-beginner/setting-up-your-facebook-ads-account/ Step 3: Create a new campaign. To learn how to create a Facebook ad account, we recommend this great resource: https://adespresso.com/ guides/facebook-ads-beginner/setting-up-your-facebook-ads-account/ 08 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Step 4: Utilize the Quick Creation Guide. In the “Quick Creation Guide,” follow this procedure: • Enter a campaign name using your desired title (e.g., “Hook Point A/B Test”). • Leave the “Buying Type” as “Auction.” • Select your “Campaign Objective.” Your choice will impact how Facebook will optimize your campaign, as well as your cost in the auction. Consider these things when selecting a campaign objective: - Conversions and store visits objective: Are you testing different hook points that lead to some form of conversion? If so, I generally recommend you start testing with the conversions or store visits campaign objective. With that said, if you feel you have highly sharable (viral) content, also test the post engagement and video views (if you have videos) objectives to see which drives the highest performance. - Video views objective: If you have a video, always use the video views objective (unless it is a direct response campaign), as noted above. The video views objective will optimize toward the lowest cost per view and put your videos in front of more people. - Post engagement objective: If you have image-based creative (photos or quotes with photo backgrounds), always use post engagement unless it is a direct response campaign, as noted above. This will optimize your creative against the audiences that will engage at the highest possible level. - Traffic objective: If you have a text-based article or content that is meant to drive people back to your blog or website, I recommend the traffic objective. Facebook will help you autooptimize the audiences most likely to click on your content. Sometimes you will see more success with post engagement for driving traffic, but this will ultimately be determined by how shareable your content is. 09 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS For the purposes of this exercise, I will select “Post engagement.” I use this objective when trying to A/B test photo quotes, headlines, hook points and overall trying content go viral. 10 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS • Create an “Ad Set Name.” Be sure to create a naming convention that makes sense to you. I generally name my ad sets as follows: - Geolocation Targeted — Title I Come Up With for The Ad Set — Interest Level Targeted (this will be explained in more detail further down in the report) - For example: USA — The World Motivational Quote — Inspirational Quotes • Create an “Ad Name.” Use whatever ad name makes sense to you (e.g., “The World Motivational Quote with friendship photo”): Step 5: Save to draft. Simply click the “Save to Draft” button: 11 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Step 6: Set up the ad set. Click here (the second one down): Or on this tab here: Then click here (it will be on the far right and side of your screen in a dark grey bar that stretches the edge of your screen): 12 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Step 7: Setting up your Ad Set: In the ad set focus on these key areas: Daily budget: We always leave this as whatever Facebook recommends. If anything, spend less rather than more. Spending less will increase your cost in the auction. Just remember — the higher your bid in your ad set, the higher your cost will be in the auction. Start Date and End Date: Always schedule for midnight the next day or a few days in advance. We have seen better performance in terms of auction cost when we start campaigns with a fresh 24 hours. Sometimes launching in the middle of the day can throw off the auction and skew results. A fresh 24 hours always gives the best shot at clean data. We don’t schedule end dates for our campaigns because doing so can negatively impact our cost in the auction. We simply turn an ad off when we have hit our goal for a test. As we will discuss further, by the time you wake up in the morning, you will usually have enough results to determine which ads are producing good results. We only recommend leaving a non-performing ad running longer if you are using a conversion or store visits objective. In those scenarios, we recommend giving Facebook 24 to 48 hours to optimize the campaigns. 13 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Location: When you’re launching campaigns for performance purposes, this is where cost really becomes a factor. Normally we run campaign hook point and headline tests to learn how to better drive virality / shareability around our content. When starting out, we go a bit wider in our location settings. In other words, we include more counties to help drive down the cost in the auction and identify which audiences will share our content at the highest velocity. However, if you’re simply trying to A/B test headlines or hook points against a very specific target audience, put in the exact location in which your audience resides. You can even list a zip code if you’re a local business or trying to launch a product or event in a specific geolocation. The most expensive countries, cities, and zip codes in the auction are in the USA, the UK, and Canada. If your core audience is the entire USA, one growth hack I use is setting the target for the USA, the UK, and Canada because Facebook typically pushes most of the traffic to the USA, anyway, but you will receive a lower cost in the auction. Regardless, I always test to see where Facebook’s auction pushes traffic based on the parameters we set up. The system is constantly changing. As you will learn later, testing all these variables is worth it and very easy with Facebook’s duplicate feature. If you just want scale and generate very cheap engagement (e.g., video views, shares, and likes) for validation purposes, I recommend selecting “All Countries” for your location settings. Click “Browse” then “Select All.” This will cause Facebook to push your audience to the parts of the world where inventory is underserved. You will generally see engagement from Bangladesh, Indonesia, and India for a fraction of the cost of the USA, the UK, and Canada. This is a good option for two reasons. 14 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS 1) You will gain engagement, traffic, and followers quickly and cheaply. Once you have built validation and credibility, you can go back and build an audience in your desired country. You can also try other parts of the world, like South America and certain parts of Europe. Don’t feel bad about having followers or engagement in these countries. Every Facebook page has them. Among the 2.2 billion people on Facebook, roughly 214 million are from the USA, while more than 370 million are from India and Indonesia alone. There is tremendous scale on the platform of users from outside the USA; it is almost impossible to ignore or avoid international users. You can also test entire regions, such as Asia, North America, South America, etc. These regions tend to further drive down costs. 2) You can drive cheaper engagement and/or views around a specific post. If you originally target a specific piece of content to less-expensive parts of the world to build engagement, you can later launch a new campaign with the same post to hit your target market. By the time your final target audience sees the post, it will look more credible and draw more attention due to the already builtup engagement from other countries. We often see a notable increase in performance with campaigns for our clients’ target audiences/markets when significant engagement (e.g. thousands of likes, hundreds of shares, or hundreds of thousands of views) is already associated with their content. Facebook success is highly correlated to social proof; someone will more likely act on a piece of content if others have already done so. Here is a video that talks about how to leverage emerging markets to achieve massive scale quickly: http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ Watch Video http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-8/ www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Again, test different parts of the world and see which generates the lowest cost. Age and gender: This is another area in which cost is a factor if you’re launching campaigns for performance purposes. Again, we generally run the campaign’s hook point and headline tests to learn how to drive more shareablity and virality around our content. Just as with the location, when starting, broaden your gender and age categories to drive down the auction cost. This will allow you to identify which audiences will share your content at the highest velocity. However, if you’re simply trying to A/B test headlines or hook points against a very specific target audience, enter the exact age and gender you’re trying to reach. We have also found that honing in on interest level targeting (outlined below) can automatically drive age and gender. For example, if you select “fans of Oprah Winfrey” as your interest level, you will likely receive traffic and engagement from females ages 35+ without even changing the Age and Gender settings. With that said, always test. In several instances, we have extensively tested different age and gender variables, and have seen success in driving down cost. Languages: If you select “All Countries” or countries that don’t predominately speak English and most of your content is in English, be sure to enter English as the language. Detailed targeting (or what we call “interest levels”): This is where most of the magic happens — where you can select what type of people will see your ads based on their various interests. For example, you can choose people interested in motivational quotes, specific types of sports, movies, or entertainment — essentially, anything you can think of related to interests and behaviors. 16 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS I recommend making a list of everything your potential fans or customers are interested in. For example: • The brands or products they buy • The types of music, movies, and sports they like • The types of cars they prefer Basically, think about anything related to the behaviors and preferences of your ideal customer, then type it in the search bar and see if it shows up. If it does, test it. Typically, we only test one interest level per ad set. We do this for two reasons: 1) It helps us scale the traffic, engagement, and/or views we can generate in a day without impacting our cost in the auction (more on this later). 2) It tells us which interest levels are working. Unfortunately, when you lump interest levels into the same ad set, Facebook does not report which interest levels drive which performance. In other words, if you input your interest levels as “Fans of Lebron James,” “Fans of the NBA,” “Fans of the Avengers,” and “People interested in personal development,” Facebook will not tell you which interest levels created which likes, comments, shares, and/or views. This is why we recommend creating a separate ad set for each. We only group interest levels if the potential reach of a single interest is too small. We typically don’t go below a potential reach of 500K people, as this drives up the cost in the auction. If a specific interest level is below 500K, I suggest layering some additional interest levels to increase the potential reach. Please note: At the time this report was created, the feature of seeing Potential Reach for interest levels was available, but Facebook is talking about removing it. If they do, use common sense to determine a potential audience 17 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS size. For example, a brand, celebrity, or product (such as the NBA, LeBron James, or Louis Vuitton) with millions of Facebook fans will have a large audience size to target. An obscure interest level with a small or nonexistent online presence will likely have a potential reach that’s too small. With that said, you can always launch a test to tell how big the audience size is within the first five to eight hours. Just look at the number of impressions being served. When you’re making major hook point or headline decisions, this is an important metric regarding whether the test results are statistically relevant. For example, if you’re testing titles of a book, I would recommend testing it against tens of thousands of impressions/people before choosing a winner. Editing placements: You can distribute ads in various places through the Facebook Ad Platform, such as different sections on both Facebook and Instagram, Facebook Messenger and Audience Network. This is a very important feature when you are A/B testing and driving performance-based campaigns. You can find this option at the very bottom of the ad set controls. 18 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS When you click “Edit Placements,” these options will appear: 19 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Here are the rules of thumb I follow when using placements: • If you are testing on Facebook, only select “Feed.” We rarely run on Instant Articles or In-Stream Video Ads. In-Stream Video Ads strip away all engagement from a post (I’m not sure why). Also, the post will show up in Instant Articles, which will impact the velocity of sharing and other engagement metrics. • I generally segment Instagram and Facebook into different tests. In other words, I create an ad set that tests Facebook and a separate one that tests Instagram. If you select them together, you can’t control how much traffic Facebook sends to each platform. Also, Facebook and Instagram have different behavioral usage patterns, so lumping them together will not offer a true A/B test. When testing on Facebook, I try to convince people to share my content at the highest possible velocity, so measuring shareability is critical. Instagram, however, is not an inherently shareable platform — it’s more focused on likes. Thus, looking at data from an ad set that combines these platforms will not give you accurate results. I would combine Facebook and Instagram in the same ad set only if I was running a conversion-based campaign and wanted to see if combining the two would bring down the overall cost per acquisition. However, even in that case, it would be extremely valuable to know how Facebook and Instagram performed individually. • I don’t have much historical data about Instagram Stories, a newer feature. If you email me (b@OPTin.tv), I can update you as to whether we see success. • I never run Audience Network. If you’re not familiar with Audience Network, you can read about it here: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/audience-network. I don’t use it for the following reasons: - We’ve never seen great performance from an engagement or direct response perspective. - You can’t control where your ads appear on the page. - We rarely see our content shared at a high velocity (which is really important to us). 20 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS To recap, our edit placements for Facebook tests generally look like this: 21 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS The video below also explains more about the information in step 7: http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ Watch Video http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-6/ Step 8: Creating the Ads After you have filled out all the ad set information, it’s time to create your ads. You can do this by clicking here: 22 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Or here: and then here: You can test several types of content when creating ads of headlines and hook points for A/B tests: Video: You can test multiple videos against each other or multiple versions of a single video. Different versions of a video could be as follows: • Test the first three seconds (i.e., different intros). The first three seconds of a video are critically important when testing videos on Facebook and Instagram. People constantly scroll through endless content; you must stand out. Even movie studios create five-second mini trailers before starting actual trailers to test different introductions. • Look at different entry points to your video. Ask yourself these questions: - Can I start the video from different places or time codes? - How can I get the point across as quickly as possible? - What is the most compelling three-second introduction to the video? 23 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS • Use meme or headline cards to create different variations of the video and as an A/B test for headlines in and of themselves. Below are a few examples from tests I ran on my page, where we tested different headline/meme cards against the same interview someone shot with me. These headline/meme cards can make a huge difference in performance and teach you a lot about which messages are resonating. Please note: Facebook has been cracking down on the amount of text allowed on a video. You may need to reduce the amount of text on the screen. Also, we generally ignore Facebook notifications warning that too much text decreases the performance of a video. We actually see an increase. Only pay attention to messages stating that Facebook’s system will shut down your image ad because of too much text. In that case, you’ll need to create a new one. 24 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Image posts: You can test many variations with image posts. Here are some different ways we test images: • Upload an image with no text and test different headlines against the same image. • Take one headline and test different images with no text. • Test different headlines over the same image (see the example below). 25 • Test different images for the same headline (see the example on next page). Text-based headlines: We rarely test stand-alone text with no image or video asset attached. If you want to test text-based headlines, I recommend (as mentioned above) testing the headlines above one specific image or video. Run separate tests with the headlines on top of the image or video to see which is the clear winner. Inserting your headline as a meme card on top of a video is also a very effective way to determine which one is the strongest hook point. Articles: If you’re running headlines against a specific article to see which drives the most traffic, I recommend testing the headlines, post description, and image. Interchange these elements to see the combination that drives the most cost-efficient results. Below are a few examples of the same article tested different ways. This article and website gave people information, resources, and hope regarding the disease of addiction. I tested more than 500 variations of this article. (See more below on how to quickly scale to this many variations.) 26 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS 27 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS The following are the main sections regarding the creation of an ad: The “Ad Name” labels the ad: Be sure to select your page. If you’re running tests on Instagram, as well, you will need to link your Instagram account to your business manager or ad account, then select it: 28 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Next, move on to the image or video and text portions of the ad: In the text portion, insert your inspirational or motivational quote. For this example, we will use the following quote: “This world is only as good as the people you share it with.” Next, select the image or video. We’ve seen that images typically work better than videos for shareability and engagement, while videos are far more powerful to convince someone to take a specific action (such as registering or buying a product). Click “Clear Images”: 29 Click “Select Image”: www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS A pop-up will allow you to upload your own image or find a stock image by selecting the “Stock Images” tab: We recommend using your own images and videos, but if you don’t have any, Facebook’s stock images option is a useful tool. Find an image that best represents your quote. For the quote in this example, I uploaded an image I had already created. Once you’ve selected your image, you can preview your ad on the right side of the screen: 30 When the image looks the way you want it to, it’s time to create your first A/B test! As I mentioned above, there are several ways to A/B test content — from testing various images to swapping headlines. In this example we are going to test different images using the same headline over it. To create new variations, first click the “Close” button at the bottom of the screen: 31 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Next, click the “Duplicate” button. This button will become your new best friend. It will allow you to scale ad variations and ad sets very quickly. You can duplicate individual ads or individual ad sets. After clicking the duplicate button, make sure it keeps the ad in the same campaign and ad set (it will usually be preset to do this): After duplicating the ad, you can swap out the image, headline, or description text (whatever you want to test). For this exercise, we will swap out the photo. 32 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS First, change the title (we will add “photo #2” to the original title): Next, swap out the image with another image (you can also swap it out with videos on this screen): Once you find the image, click the “Confirm” button on the bottom right hand corner of the pop up. 33 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Once you do this, You will have the second variation for the ad: Again, you can preview the ad at any time by clicking this icon on the right and selecting the type of preview you would like to see: 34 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS We recommend A/B testing anywhere from four to seven variations for each ad set. Remember — a simple image, video, or headline change can go a long way for performance. Step 9: Create duplicate ad sets. Once you’ve built out all the ads in your first ad set, it’s time to create more ad sets. This may sound like a lot of work, but it’s not. You simply have to go back to your trusted friend — the “Duplicate” button. This tool will allow you to scale from four variations to hundreds of variations for A/B testing in no time. 35 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS This video further explains scaling mass variations: http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ Watch Video http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-11/ To duplicate an ad set, go back to the “Ad Sets” tab: Click the “Duplicate” button: Facebook will have made a complete copy of your ad set, along with the ads in that ad set. 36 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Here are some strategies to implement when duplicating: The easiest is to duplicate while keeping everything the same and only swapping out the interest level. Remember, we segment out interest levels partly because it allows us to scale and learn; we never want to increase our daily minimum budget. Instead, we duplicate the ad set and swap out interest levels, which increases our daily spend by $25 with each duplication without impacting our cost in the auction. Depending on how many relevant interest levels you have, you could generate 5 to 25 ad sets without ever creating a new ad. Another way to use duplication is to duplicate and then change the country or geolocation. Test different countries, regions, and parts of the world. In addition, you can duplicate and swap age and gender. However, be careful — this may impact your cost in the auction. A/B tests are extremely powerful for scale with each slight tweak to geolocation, interest level, or demographic area. By tweaking these elements into different ad sets, you can segment them into separate stand-alone tests. In other words, you can learn how headlines or hook points perform among specific ages, in different parts of the world, and among people with different interests and behaviors. Once you have exhausted all these options, create a brand new ad set with new ads, then repeat the process all over again. We typically don’t recommend launching any more than 20 ad sets per night because doing so will likely increase your cost in the auction. However, again, always test and see how far you can push the limits. 37 Step 10: Publish and launch. Once you’ve built out all the ad sets, click the “Publish” button either in the lower right-hand corner: Or the upper right-hand corner: Step 11: Review the performance and optimize. If you’re scheduling for midnight, you will probably review data when you first wake up, like I do. If you choose to stay up, however, I recommend waiting an hour or two before you start optimizing. I like to look at performance by first checking the ad set level, then checking the performance at the individual ad level. You can view the ad set level by clicking the “Ad Set” tab: You can view the ads for any ad set by simply clicking the ad set’s blue link: 38 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS You can view the ads for every ad set by using the check mark and select all ad sets: Then click the “Ads” tab: The campaign objective you chose in the beginning of the process will determine which metrics you see on your screen. Below is a brief guide. To learn the definition of each term, visit https://www.facebook.com/ business/help/447834205249495/?helpref=hc_fnav&bc%5B0%5D=AHCv1&bc%5B1%5D=Ads Help&bc%5B2%5D=Advertising Basicsh • If you selected “Conversions” or “Store visits,” pay attention to website conversions, cost per website conversion, and ROAS (return on ad spend). • If you selected “Video views” and are focused on shareability, social engagement and/or visits to your website, pay close attention to CPS (cost per post share), CPL (cost per link click) if you embedded a link in the video, and CPV (cost per view). 39 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS • If you selected “Post engagement,” pay close attention to CPS. • If you selected “Traffic,” pay close attention to CPL and CPS. • No matter the campaign objective, I always look at the CPS because it gives an indication of the velocity at which people are sharing my content. Always aim to improve this metric. From my experience, when you’re running “All Countries” campaigns, a great CPS is $0.20 or less, while for the USA, the UK, and Canada, it’s $0.30 or less. Anything below that indicates highly viral content. Anything above that indicates you should continue to optimize and see how low you can push it. Please note: The more granular you get with your targeting (e.g., selecting a specific city, age, gender, etc.), the more your cost in the auction will increase and impact your CPS. Set your own baseline benchmarks with initial tests based on your targets, then try to beat those benchmarks. You can customize your reporting dashboard by clicking the “Columns” drop-down button: 40 Select “Customize Columns.” This will allow you to select whatever attributes you want to track. I recommend customizing these settings to the metrics that are most important to you. 41 As an example, let’s look at one of my A/B tests in which we measured the virality/shareability of different image-based quotes. In this case, I looked specifically at the CPS. As you can see below, “Love Yourself” was the winning variation, coming in at $0.14 per share. I generally don’t look at the number of shares but, rather, the CPS. The number of shares can be skewed by the amount spent on an ad set if you launch different ad sets on different days. Additionally, if you launch multiple ads within the same ad set, Facebook will not equally distribute the budget between each one, which can throw off results. The CPS is more accurate within an ad set and for comparing ad sets (as long as your targeting doesn’t change drastically from one ad set to another). To turn off an ad set or ad, simply click Until it looks like this: the blue button to the left of it: 42 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS Once you start seeing results, you can optimize by duplicating new ad sets, creating new ads, and seeing how you can drive the lowest cost to hit your goals. Keep testing, learning, and repeating. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t achieve the exact cost you’re looking for in your first campaign launch. Sometimes I launch hundreds or thousands of variations to find the ideal creative that will generate the most costefficient results. This video explains how you can use these metrics from your tests to predict performance: http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ Watch Video http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ http://gms.brendanjkane.com/growth-masters-series-interviews/brendan-kane/bk-video-7/ 43 The Finish Line I know I just threw a lot of information at you. It may be overwhelming, but if you do these things a few times, I promise it will get easier. You can use this same process to scale as many followers as you want on Facebook. We have another report on how to generate 25K followers in 48 hours. If you haven’t seen that report, feel free to email me: B@OPTin.TV. I’ve generated nearly 87K in a single day with this process. I also plan to run an experiment soon to see if I can generate one million followers in 48 hours. Keep in mind that the followers you generate in this process will only be valuable if you build a relationship with them. Your job is not done once you get someone to follow you; you must then cultivate a meaningful relationship. Send your followers great content and build a strong communication line. Again, at OPTin.tv, we offer additional strategies on how to further build with purely organic methods. Use this guide as a starting point, not the finish line. 44 www.BrendanJKane.com/GMS
