The GBP Method
Storytime: How 99ads Was Born
March, 2021
The entire advertising industry is talking about iOS 14 – “the ad killer.”
Thought leaders are explaining how this update could completely destroy social media
advertising.
Everybody is freaking out.
Some people want to call it quits and move to another industry. Crypto, perhaps?
Others are in a panic, rushing to build their own custom solution to avoid attribution
problems.
But we’re just chillin’.
Not a care in the world.
We believe in Zuckerberg. We trust his ability (and wallet) to hire the best engineers in
the World.
Plus, we’ve been around for almost 6 years - we’ve experienced many changes like
this so we have complete faith in our abilities.
We’ll survive.
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The GBP Method
October, 2021
Clients are dropping like flies, and we can’t sustain this pace.
Results have dipped by 30% on average and scaling campaigns has become extremely
difficult.
Sales are strong but churn rate is at its all-time high.
However, we can’t do anything about it right now.
Our clients need results and we have to be there for them.
So we’ll push through this trimester and reassess in January.
Hopefully by January Facebook’s engineers will find a solution.
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The GBP Method
January, 2022
I’m in beautiful Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
I came here to relax on the beach, sipping frozen-cold margaritas.
But instead, I’m analyzing the metrics from the previous year.
These numbers are absolutely horrible.
We’ve burnt a large chunk of our cash runway in the last trimester.
We didn’t want to let anyone go… but pretty soon we’ll have to.
Mexico just isn’t the same with this kind of stress.
I get on a call with the team to break the news…
...
Alessio: “Guys, I have bad news… If we don’t do some magic, we’ll have to fire half
the team. At least.”
G.: “What are the numbers?”
I share my screen.
G.: “Holy…”
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The GBP Method
Alessio: “We completely underestimated how impactful iOS14 was going to be. All we
can do now is look forward and try to find a way out of this mess… Does anything come
to mind? Any observations or lessons from the past 8 months? Please, give me
something. Anything.”
G.: “This is uncharted territory for me - I have absolutely no ideas.”
F.: “At this point I’ve spent hundreds of hours on courses, Facebook groups, blogs,
consultations, events, etc. No one has any answers. I don’t think there’s any ‘magic’ to
be done here.”
AR: “The thing is… The entire game has changed. The media buying techniques we
used to thrive on, our tricks to scale faster, all our targeting methods… They’re all
gone. The algorithm is taking care of everything. And as AI improves - it’ll be
impossible to outperform the algorithm.”
F.: “Exactly. Here’s the thing - you could probably get any random person to launch
broad campaigns… and as long as the creatives are good, you’ll get results.”
Alessio: “Wait, you’re breaking up. Can you say that last part again?”
F.: “As long as the ad creatives are good, you’ll get results.”
Bingo.
Everybody’s light bulb turns on.
If we want to improve our clients’ results, we need to provide them with the best ad
creatives in the game.
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The GBP Method
And just like that, we have our answer…
It’s time to pivot.
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The GBP Method
The Mission
At 99ads.com, we specialize in designing ads that convert cold traffic into paying
customers.
Cold traffic stands for people who have never heard of or interacted with your brand
before.
This is hands down the toughest segment to convert. There is no prior relationship
with the brand, and skepticism is at its peak.
Everyday, our team members wake up and they’re at war.
The problem is that they don’t have many weapons. All they have is 15 - 60 seconds to
convince a complete stranger to trust a brand they’ve never heard of.
And this is why we spent an endless amount of hours studying the data, analyzing the
patterns, and searching for a method that we could use again and again. Especially in
the ever-changing environment we live in.
The result of all our efforts was the GBP Method.
I’m not going to lie…
I didn’t want to share the GBP Method.
I tend to be jealous. It must be the Italian genes in me.
It took us so long to put it together, perfect it, and turn it into something replicable in
pretty much all niches.
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And after all that effort, I wanted to keep it for myself.
But then we had an internal call that changed my perspective. It went something like
this…
...
AR: “The GBP Method is working so well. We keep finding winning ads week after
week and our clients could not be happier with it.”
Alessio: “Hell yeah! We’ve finally found the competitive-advantage we’ve been
looking for.”
AR: “Competitive-advantage? I assumed we’d be sharing this method with others…”
Alessio: “What! Why would we? We’ve just spent low 9-figures to generate almost half
a Billion dollars. We could get so far ahead of our competition with this.”
AR: “That’s true, but isn’t our mission to become a household name in Advertising?”
Alessio: “Yeah, and we can get there by continuing to generate huge results for our
clients.”
AR: “But becoming a household name means impacting the entire industry, not just
the companies that qualify to work with 99ads.”
Alessio: “But this is the thing that makes us different. If everyone has it then we’ll just
be part of the pack instead of leading the pack.”
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F.: “I disagree. What makes us different is our ability to innovate and adapt. The fact
that we were able to come up with The GBP Method is what makes us different. And if
we were able to find such a great solution once, then we can do it again. And again and
again.”
AR: “Plus, remember how stressed you were that we’d have to fire half our team?
Well, keep in mind that by sharing the GBP Method, we’re not only impacting the P&L
statements of other companies, but also the livelihoods of the people who work there.”
F.: “Yeah, so many companies never managed to make ads profitable after the iOS
update. And so many went out of business entirely. This is our opportunity to help raise
the entire industry. The industry that we live and love so much.”
Alessio: “Hmmm…”
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The GBP Method
To be honest, I still resisted the idea.
But deep down, I knew they were right.
And when I finally accepted it, I was super glad that they pushed back on my thinking
(that’s the benefit of having a great team!).
So that brings us to today…
This book is intended to unveil for the first time the GBP Method. A method that we
use every single day to design new winning ads for the stores we work with.
If you live in a 1st-World Country, the likelihood that you have never bought a product
through one of the ads we designed thanks to this method is TI-NY.
We work with multiple 8 and 9 figure Companies that every day impact the World in a
positive way.
We are blessed with the opportunity to work alongside them and help them achieve
their own Mission.
This is our attempt to achieve ours.
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The GBP Method
Why Should You Care About Your Ads?
Before sharing the GBP Method, I want to make sure you understand how important it
is to invest your resources on ads.
It doesn’t matter how much money you make from your advertising efforts - you can
always get more.
Not only can a new winning concept get you more traffic for the same advertising
dollar, but it can also represent an inflection point for your growth.
I know you like numbers if you’re reading this. So let’s make it practical.
Here are two examples of how impactful a good ad can be.
Example 1 takes into account only the CTR (Link-Click Through) difference.
AD1 - CTR (Link-Click Through): 0.50%
AD2 - CTR (Link-Click Through): 2.50%
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Given:
-
an advertising budget of $100,000;
-
a conversion rate of 1.5%
-
and an average order value of $100
AD1 generated $75,000 whereas AD2 generated $375,000.
That’s the power of a true winner.
Here’s the catch - a good winner not only will have a different CTR (Link-Click
Through) compared to an average ad, but most likely it would also come with a lower
CPM.
Example 2 takes into account the same CTR (Link-Click Through) difference as in
example 1, but it also adds a CPM difference.
AD1 - CPM $10
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The GBP Method
AD2 - CPM $8
Given:
-
an advertising budget of $100,000;
-
a conversion rate of 1.5%
-
and an average order value of $100
AD1 generated $75,000 whereas AD2 generated $468,700.
That’s the power of a true winner.
These are two simple mathematical examples of what can happen when you find a
winner.
The question becomes… How do you find winners?
This is where the concept of Winning Force takes the field.
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The Winning Force
At 99ads.com, the Winning Force is our Holy Grail.
This is what we are relentlessly after every single day, and I would say we became
relatively good at generating it.
What is the Winning Force?
The Winning Force is an External Agent capable of getting prospects to stop by an ad,
desire whatever is promoted, and insert their card details. Profitably.
Ever since the infamous iOS update that almost took us down, the entire focus shifted
towards creatives.
And while 99% of advertisers think in terms of winning ads, we decided to coin the
expression Winning Force.
Ad fatigue kills your latest winning ad within 3 to 4 weeks maximum. Usually sooner
than that.
Winning Force defeats ad fatigue (if handled properly).
In this book, we will focus on the GBP Method → one of the methods we use to
generate new Winning Force from scratch.
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You can model Winning Force from your competitors’ ads, as well as you can recycle
the Winning Force you can find on your ad account.
Once you have some Winning Force in your hands, you want to multiply it. Here’s
what our standard process looks like.
First things first, we brainstorm our hypotheses based on the GBP Method.
Once we are happy with them, we design the first ads to see how the market reacts. At
the end of the day, you can be the best advertiser in the world - but the only way to
validate your hypothesis is listening to the market.
Once again, this book is about the GBP Method. We won’t spend any time discussing
how to analyze ads performance the right way, but let’s say two out of four ads turn
out to be winners.
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Now we have two different directions at our disposal to multiply the Winning Force we
just generated.
Assuming we are able to keep up with the same amount of winners per test, then you
can see how incredibly profitable generating Winning Force from scratch can be.
Enough theory, let’s move onto practice.
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The GBP Method
The GBP Method: Overarching Principles
The most popular framework out there when it comes to ads is AIDA.
It stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
This gives you an order of how you should structure your ad to grab attention, get
people interested in your product, get them to desire your product, and finally get
them to buy.
Another incredibly-popular one is the PAS, which stands for Problem, Agitate,
Solution.
I personally believe that these frameworks are still relevant, and for no reason you
should see the GBP Method as a better method.
They are simply different.
The goal of this book is to add one new method to your arsenal.
A method that is reliable, easy to understand, and most importantly field-tested in
pretty much every vertical.
From eCommerce products, to Tech companies and Financial Institutions.
Before getting into the nitty gritty of it, there are a few overarching principles we use
across the board with all our clients - and I want you to do the same.
These are guidelines that will help you think your ads through properly and also get a
proper understanding of what a good ad looks like.
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Overarching Principle #1
If you talk about it, you should show it. As simple as this sounds, you cannot unsee it
ever again. From now on, please pay extra attention to the ads you will get served on
your feed.
Often you will notice ads that talk about a specific problem, and rather than showing
you somebody who actually experiences the problem - they show you some b-roll of
the product.
Think about a supplement product that helps you suppress hunger.
The ad voiceover talks about binge-eating chocolate at 2am in front of some Netflix
show. While the voiceover plays:
-
Ad1 shows some b-roll of the supplement bottle;
-
Ad2 shows an actual person, sleep deprived in front of the TV with their mouth
full of chocolate and more chocolate bar wrappers on the dining table.
Which one will retain attention for longer and get better results?
We have noticed gigantic differences thanks to small details like this one.
Talking about your USP is one thing, helping your potential customers relate to the
problem and see that they are in a similar situation - is much more powerful.
If you pay attention to the ads you get served, you will notice so many companies
doing the exact opposite.
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Leggings brands that tell you about their squat-proof feature… While showing you a
lady taking a random selfie in front of the mirror.
Teeth-whitening companies that tell you of how hard it is to smile when you don’t
feel confident about the color of your teeth… While showing you a perfect Hollywood
smile.
Phone-cover companies that remind you how annoying it is to use a phone with a
broken screen… While showing you a brand-new iPhone with an incredibly solid
cover.
If you can talk about a problem, show what it feels and looks like.
Potential customers will have a much easier time relating to it.
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The GBP Method
Overarching Principle #2
Whenever possible, test Metaphors. As an advertiser, I personally love metaphors for
a number of reasons.
But if you ask me, the main one is that you can leverage the awareness of other people,
brands, and so much more.
Not only can you use this awareness to grab people’s attention, but also (and most
importantly) to get a point across faster.
To give you some examples:
-
XBrand, the Louis Vuitton of Socks
-
Budweiser, the King of Beers
-
It’s like a push-up bra, but for Men
-
Feels like a SPA, but from home
-
Nokia - Like the real thing, but in the palm of your hand
In the examples above, you can see how simple it would be for XBrand (just a mockup
name) to tell its potential customers that they sell luxury socks.
They could explain what makes their socks luxurious, as well as what materials they
use, why they are so expensive…
Or they can just leverage Louis Vuitton’s brand awareness and use it as a benchmark.
Think of a portable sauna.
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You can try to get technical and explain what a portable sauna is, how it works, up to
what temperature it gets…
Or you can just say: it’s like a SPA, but from home!
Concise and straight to the point.
A solid metaphor can completely turn around all your advertising efforts. Whenever
possible, test new metaphors - you will recognize the right one, when you see the
results.
PRO TIP: Hyperboles are great as well.
To name a few great ones:
-
Red Bull Gives You Wings
-
The Best a Man Can Get
-
Tastes So Good, Cats Ask For It By Name
The main difference between metaphors and hyperboles is that the latter always use
exaggeration, whereas the former sometimes do but can still be conceivable/possible.
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Overarching Principle #3
Open Loops Trump Curiosity. At 99ads, we believe advertising is nothing but
storytelling with a second end.
Not only do we want to retain attention, but we also want to inspire to take a specific
action (e.g. buy whatever we are promoting).
Open loops are my favorite storytelling techniques, and using them in online
advertising often leads to great results.
With the advent of short-form videos, and attention span touching the all-time
lowest, open loops have become an incredible weapon to get people to stick around
through the entire video.
Practical examples of how to use open loops:
-
3 steps to say goodbye to acne → #3 will surprise you
-
What I bought and what I got → I’m furious!
-
5 books to read to grow your business → and 1 to avoid
As a user, I want to know what book I should avoid if I want to grow my business.
I also want to know why you’re furious, as well as the third surprising step to say
goodbye to acne.
But in order to do so… I have to watch the entire ad/video.
Important: if you use this technique, make sure you actually deliver and close your
open loop, or you will get the opposite result.
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There are many ways to use open loops in advertising - I personally like using them in
the first 2 seconds of the ad just to give users one more reason to stick around, but I
highly recommend you search for more ways to use open loops.
Open loops have been around for hundreds (if not thousands) of years in copywriting,
there’s a lot of information out there - take advantage of it.
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The GBP Method: Gut, Brain, Pocket
At this part of the book, we can finally reveal that GBP stands for Gut, Brain, Pocket.
The GBP Method helped our team have a solid and consistent structure to work on
every time they had to come up with a brand-new ad for our clients.
The theory around the GBP Method is simple to understand: each person has a
built-in dual-systems perspective that is divided between impulse and self-control.
In this article, Princeton University affirms that the brain constantly battles itself over
short-term rewards and long-term goals.
I am absolutely sure that it happened to you to be on a diet, then walk into a room and
spy a plate of doughnuts dripping with chocolate frosting.
Your mouth starts salivating, and that battle within your brain becomes absolutely
real.
To make our life easier, at 99ads we labeled that instinctive and primordial part of the
brain as the Gut.
Whereas the Brain is the more rational part that is focused on long-term goals.
The way we work is the following:
-
First, we titillate the Gut - that’s what grabs our potential customers’ attention
and make them stop scrolling in front of our ads;
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-
Second, we convince the Brain - we all have a built-in copying mechanism that
wants to rationalize all the purchases we make. This is where we provide our
potential customers with rational reasons why our product is great;
-
Third, we get them to reach into their Pocket - this is where most of the job has
been done already. At this stage, it’s mostly about providing the potential
customers with smooth logistics and clear next steps.
Let’s go back to the plate of doughnuts.
What we are trying to achieve is getting people to experience the same internal battle,
but from an ad.
One of the strongest triggers for impulse purchases is the environment - you are
strolling at the mall, you see a beautiful pair of denim jeans and your Gut is on.
You enter the store, and the shop assistant asks you if you want to try them on, tells
you “they would fit you perfectly”, and oh, by the way, this is the last pair of your size.
You try them on and they actually fit you perfectly. Now the Brain is convinced.
Finally, the shop assistant folds them for you and walks you to the cashier. She lets
you know there’s also a 20% discount till tomorrow.
You reach into your Pocket.
The challenge is replicating the same dynamic online and at scale.
Being aware of how it works is already a great step ahead compared to most of the
online advertisers.
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In this book, you will learn how to switch on all the right buttons to replicate this
entire situation on autopilot - day in, day out.
You won’t need a physical store to titillate your potential customers’ Gut.
You won’t need a shop assistant to rationally convince your potential customers and
get their Brain on your side.
Finally, your CTAs and checkout process will make it a pleasure for your potential
customers to reach into their Pocket.
If you are 1/10 as passionate about advertising as I am - you can’t wait to learn more,
so without further ado… Let’s dive in.
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The Gut: All That Matters
You can have the best product in the market.
You can have the best videographers in the market.
You can have the best video editors in the market, as well as the best fulfillment
center.
If you don’t get potential customers to stop in front of your ads, your advertising
dollar will be wasted.
Grabbing your audience by the Gut is all that matters when it comes to online ads.
You want them to be intrigued by whatever you are promoting within the first 2
seconds.
Sounds difficult to do - it is, or it would be if you didn’t have access to this book.
I’ll walk you step by step through our entire process, so grab a highlighter and buckle
up.
Everything starts with defining the main Character of the first part of your ad.
You have three main options.
You can make your first part about the Problem your product solves.
You can make it about your Product directly.
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Or you can make it about the Persona you are targeting with your ads.
We call it the 3P Triangle.
Through this book, you will notice that I really like giving names to pretty much
everything - a framework, a triangle, a method, and so on.
I like doing it first of all because I tend to forget things quite easily, and secondly
because it makes things much more understandable for our team members during the
training period.
There’s one more decision to make before coming up with the advertising ideas (or
angles).
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We picked the main Character of our ad, now we need to pick the Concept (two words
that start with C, let’s call it the 2C Decision?).
Concepts.
If you look out there you can find hundreds of concept ideas.
And this is amazing.
We are all about testing new things and seeing if they work.
But when you are training a big team of people like we do at 99ads, you cannot tell
everybody just go online and find concept ideas.
It doesn’t work that way for many reasons, but the most important one is that each
client would get a different experience based on the creative strategist they get
assigned to.
Yep, not ideal.
So I personally looked through all the ads we delivered ever since we started offering
this service, as well as I looked through thousands of ad libraries to connect the dots
and identify patterns.
I came up with 7 high-level Concepts that include pretty much all the ads I’ve seen in
my life.
I am happy to get challenged on this, and if we can get it to 8 or 9 - cool!
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But I tried with all our team members, as well as many other agency-and-eCommerce
owners… All their ideas somehow fell into one of these 7 Concepts.
The way I look at this is pretty simple: when it comes to online advertising, there are
so many variables it’s not even funny.
Let’s keep it stupid simple (wherever possible).
Here are the 7 Concepts:
1. Old Way vs New Way
2. Demonstration
3. Transformation
4. Storytelling
5. Social Proof
6. Thought-Provoking Question
7. Platform Trends
I’m genuinely curious to hear your thoughts on this.
If you think there’s one more concept that somehow doesn’t fall into these 7, please
slide into my DMs on IG @itsalessio
Let’s dive into each one of them and break them down.
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1. Old Way vs New Way
This is personally one of my all-time favorites.
It works particularly well for products that represent a New Way to solve a specific
problem. If the problem is something that our potential customers experience every
day, even better.
When you pick this concept, the main goal is to show the New Way and compare it
directly to the Old Way.
You want to make it obvious that the New Way is levels above what they’re currently
doing to solve the problem. And feel free to bully the alternative.
The more you belittle the Old Way, the more likely you are to get people interested in
the rest of your ad.
Make it look/sound unbearable, almost nasty.
While again showing your New Way of doing things as the only option really left to
solve the problem.
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2. Demonstration
This is where you want to grab your prospects’ gut in a visual way.
It’s probably one of the most utilized angles you can find out there, and probably
around 40% of all the ads you see fall into this concept.
You have a few ways to go about it, and my recommendation changes based on the
product you are advertising:
a. You can go the “show off” route (think of clothing and luxury brands)
b. You can go crazy with bizarre shots, close-ups, and satisfying scenes (great for
products that solve a problem)
c. You can also show the product in use, ideally focusing on something that
prospects have never seen before.
The goal here is to get the user curious about what is happening - so much so that
they have to keep watching to figure it out.
Pro tip: if you want to get a high attention rate while also keeping a keen eye on
returns, make it about the product.
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3. Transformation
Important: this Concept deserves extra attention because it is so similar yet so
different to the first one The New Way vs The Old Way.
The New Way vs The Old Way is all about showing how the solution works, whereas here
we focus on the results.
Here we want to show the caterpillar that becomes a butterfly thanks to our solution.
Before and after pictures or videos fall into this Concept.
This Concept works well with products that require a longer time horizon to show
actual results - think of skincare products, supplements, personal care, and so on.
One final thing you might want to keep in mind is that in terms of the main Character
of this first part of the ad, focusing on the Persona works like a charm.
They say people buy people → I’m not 100% sold on that but I can confirm that
through the transformation ads we delivered to our clients some of the best
performing featured a Persona as main character.
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4. Storytelling
Storytelling is the OG of advertising.
Some of the best copywriters in history see storytelling as one of the strongest
weapons in their arsenal to grab people’s attention.
YET, it baffles me how underutilized it is when it comes to paid traffic.
Using storytelling in the very first part of your ads allows you to fly under the radar of
your prospects as you open loops that they can only close by watching the rest of the
video.
This Concept is absolutely amazing when paired with the right problem, as it gives
you the opportunity to drill on the pain while retaining attention.
Pro tip: if you pick this Concept, don’t hold back. Test as many alternative storylines
as possible, and drill on the pain as hard as you can.
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5. Social Proof
Hot take: online advertisers do not understand how to use social proof.
They focus too much on the nerdy stuff and forget to study and model the giants of
advertising.
If you talk to 90% of the media buyers out there, they will tell you that this concept is
there for you to share client reviews or hire some random person to speak highly of
the product.
There is so much more to it. A few ideas:
→ industry veterans explaining why your product is better than any other alternative;
→ doctors backing up your solution with facts and data;
→ back in stock alerts (a product selling out sounds like social proof to you?);
→ hundreds of thousands of happy customers;
→ University research backing up the solution you offer;
→ leaked chat screenshots between prospect and recurring client;
…and many more.
Understand the Concept and use your creativity.
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6. Thought-Provoking Question
This is another largely underutilized Concept, and I truly believe that old-school
advertisers would see it as one of the best options if they were to design ads for online
platforms.
We want to use thought-provoking questions to:
→ make prospects aware of a problem they might have but are ignoring for whatever
reasons;
→ make prospects rethink if what they’re currently doing is the actual best solution to
solve their problem;
→ make them understand at a deeper level what makes the solution you are offering
stand out.
Go through these three points while coming up with new ideas for a specific Product,
and ask yourself how you can leverage this Concept to grab people’s attention.
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7. Platform Trends
Last but not least, we have platform trends.
Trends are time sensitive and tend to come with a short lifespan. But this doesn’t
mean that you cannot make lots of money during that short period of time.
It’s important to notice that it’s up to you and the business owner to ask yourself how
aggressive you want to be with your advertising efforts.
There are companies out there that try to ride every single trend, and are more than
happy to force their products into the current trends.
If you want to preserve the long-term vision of your brand, you can still leverage
platform trends but make sure you pick and choose the ones that lend themselves to
your product the best.
You want to design ads that make you money, and you don’t want to design ads that
cheapen your brand.
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The Gut: Stitching It All Together
There is no conversion without attention.
Somebody says attention is the new oil, and I personally tend to agree with it.
In this chapter, you learnt how the Gut works and how we can titillate it in order to get
one shot at convincing the Brain.
From now on, I want you to analyze all the ads you get served in your feed - and the
ones you see on your competitors’ ad library.
Take note of the ones that grab your attention, and see in what category of Concepts
they fall into.
What is the main Character of the first few seconds? Is it the Product, the Persona or
the Problem?
Every time you do this breakdown, think about how you could reuse the same
structure for your brand - and most importantly, think about what you should do to
make it even better.
Once you internalize this approach and learn to analyze data, advertising becomes one
of the most addicting games you can play.
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The GBP Method
The Brain: The Rational Customer
We got the Gut to say yes.
We got a shot to get a new paying customer. Let’s continue.
The first part was all about getting the prospect on a primordial level. We wanted them
to be excited and shout “I WANT THAT” at their phone.
As soon as the Brain hears those words, it takes the field.
The Brain’s role here is to dissuade you from buying anything and everything.
In the day and age we live in, users get bombarded with advertisements every single
day, hundreds of times a day.
And one thing you probably know about advertisers is that they don’t stop until they
find what gets them sales.
For that reason, evolutionarily speaking, users had to develop a built-in defense
mechanism to avoid falling into all the ads they get served daily so they don’t go
broke.
So big difference between the Gut and the Brain:
-
The Gut is instinctive;
-
The Brain is rational.
Hence the question becomes: how do we make the second part of our ad rational?
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The GBP Method
Let me present to you another one of our very own, infamous, frameworks: PP - OO. It
stands for Present Product - Overcome Objections.
In the second part, we want to present our product and overcome objections.
If you want to do things by the book - you should allocate 20% of your attention to
presenting the product, and the remaining 80% to overcoming objections.
The reason why you want to stick to this ratio is simple: the product presentation
should be relatively immediate and straight to the point - whereas overcoming
objections tends to be more subjective as you can choose which ones to focus on.
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The GBP Method
PP - Present Product
Let’s get PP out of the way efficiently and avoid mistakes.
The way you present a product depends on what you are promoting, but the most
important part is getting the unique selling proposition across in the clearest way
possible.
One mistake I see many Companies make is overthinking the product presentation you want to avoid that.
If the product is positioned properly and the market-fit is there, you could even just
say that you exist and part of the prospects would buy either way.
At the same time, we want to make it sound like we are the only option available in the
market to reach a specific goal.
Finally, you must show the product while presenting it. Crucial piece: many more
companies than you think get this wrong.
Here’s a list of mistakes you want to avoid:
●
Using distracting footage
○
Think of jewelry stores promoting earrings with distant shots, or a
person testing a blender at a parking slot with cars moving around
●
Product in use > Still product
○
We tested this across pretty much every niche, product in use tends to
outperform still product
●
Getting nerdy about the features rather than focusing on the benefits
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The GBP Method
○
Explain what your supplement does rather than breaking down the
formula
Keep things simple, avoid these mistakes - and you are ready to move onto OO.
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The GBP Method
OO - Overcoming Objections
OO is the fun part.
This is what makes our ads stand out and print money. When it comes to convincing
the Brain rationally - it’s all about overcoming objections the right way.
Here are some of the most common objections your products can get:
-
I doubt this actually works!
-
Even if it does work… Would it work for me specifically?
-
How hard do I have to work to see results?
-
How long will it take to show results?
-
Does this work in my country? Do they ship here?
-
How hard is it to use?
Our brain is an amazing tool to prevent us from buying something.
Convincing it to play on our team is all about the likelihood of success.
As always, I spent quite a decent amount of time thinking about all the possible
scenarios - just so our team members could have access to a list of objection
categories and pick and choose the ones that were more relevant for the products we
were promoting.
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The GBP Method
I identified six macro categories:
1. Timeframe
2. Personal Features
3. Effort Required
4. Sophistication
5. Geolocation
6. History Track
Before diving into them, there’s one thing I’d like to address.
As you can see, none of the categories above includes the pricing - whereas the price is
usually one of the most common objections we get in eCommerce.
Well… As mentioned at the beginning of this book - the majority of the ads we design
target cold traffic.
People who have never heard of or engaged with our brands.
We did think about the pricing variable extensively in the past, but we came to the
conclusion that addressing the pricing reduces quite drastically the CTR of any ad.
We came to the conclusion that a large part of the prospects clicks on our ads to find
out about the pricing, so if we can keep some mystery especially on the first
interaction - we are happy to do that.
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The GBP Method
1. Timeframe
Imagine two claims:
a. Buy “Burner”, the supplement that makes you lose 20lb;
b. Buy “Fast Burner”, the supplement that makes you lose 20lb in 30 days.
Claim b outperforms claim a every day of the week.
Why is that? It’s because as soon as we attract the Gut, the Brain says “it would be cool
to lose 20lb… but how long is it going to take me? I can do it myself in 3 months”.
This is the first, most common objection we tend to see in the ads we design and
analyze.
When you want to overcome the Timeframe objections, my recommendation is to be
as precise as possible, while also testing several options: example “30 days” vs “1
month” or “4 weeks”.
See which one performs better and double down on it.
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The GBP Method
2. Personal Features
Imagine two claims:
a. Buy “Gainer”, the supplement that makes you gain 20lb in 30 days;
b. Buy “Skinny Gainer”, the supplement that makes you gain 20lb in 30 days even
if you weigh less than 160lb.
New layer of objections here - as soon as the Gut is on, the Brain asks: “will this work
for me though? I am probably way too skinny for it to work”.
We call this category of objections “Personal Features”.
Body type is just one of them, but it can be extended to age, race, sex genre,
background, country, and even diseases sometimes.
Overcoming this objection the right way can be incredibly profitable - some of our
all-time best performing ads touch on this.
Once again, test as many alternatives as possible then double down on the winner.
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The GBP Method
3. Effort Required
Imagine two claims:
a. Buy “Burner”, the workout plan that makes you lose 20lb;
b. Buy “Easy Burner”, the workout plan that makes you lose 20lb just by working
out for 15 minutes twice a week.
As soon as the Gut gets intrigued, the Brain asks: “Sure… But how long is this going to
take me? I don’t really have much time to workout”.
When it comes to effort, we refer to both the actual work volume required - as well as
the time they have to allocate to it.
In the examples above, we refer to workout plans but this can be extended to pretty
much all the niches.
Just to name a few: think of skincare routines, clothing that makes you look a certain
way, or muscle recovery products.
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The GBP Method
4. Sophistication
Imagine two claims:
a. Buy “ChatTPG”, the AI tool that finds an answer to all your questions;
b. Buy “Simple ChatTPG”, the AI tool that finds an answer to all your questions
even if you have no idea about what a language model is.
As soon as the Gut gets intrigued, the Brain asks: “It must be nice… But how hard is it
to use? I kind of have a hard time starting a computer, imagine using an AI tool”.
Learning how to overcome sophistication-related objections will help you make bank
if you sell to older demographics.
I am sure you know somebody who always asks questions that are incredibly simple to
just Google - that person’s Brain would definitely get more convinced by claim b than
claim a.
In the example above, we talked about a language model - but again, this can be used
in pretty much each and every niche to some extent.
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The GBP Method
5. Geolocation
Imagine two claims:
a. Buy “Whatever”, the product that gives you superpowers;
b. Buy “Whatever”, the product that gives you superpowers - we ship worldwide
for no extra fees.
Living in the EU, this is the main objection my Brain comes up with.
“This product would be great, do they ship to the EU though? How long does it take?
Am I going to pay customs on top of it? How much will that be?”
If I lived in a third-world country, I would be even more concerned about that.
Obviously, not everybody promotes their products worldwide - but if you do,
Geolocation is an important objection to overcome.
Don’t think of it just in terms of shipping, but also in terms of actual usage of the
product: what if I live by the mountain? Does the product still work for me?
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The GBP Method
Add Geolocation to your tests and see what happens.
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The GBP Method
6. History Track
Imagine two claims:
a. Buy “Burner”, the supplement that makes you lose 20lb;
b. Buy “Successful Burner”, the supplement that makes you lose 20lb - our
clients have been using this for 10 years with an outstanding 95% success rate.
The Brain says: “this would be great, but am I part of a beta test or this has been
around for a while? How many success stories do they have?”.
This is where you can use Social Proof in the second part of your ad - you can talk
about how many happy clients are still using your product, or how many success
stories you collected.
This objection is very common for two main types of products:
1. Products with a higher price point ($200+);
2. Products that show results over a longer period of time (3+ months).
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The GBP Method
If you are selling similar products, overcoming this objection the right way can help
you break through your revenue plateau.
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The GBP Method
The Brain: Stitching It All Together
There is no conversion without attention.
That’s what we solve at the Gut level.
Once we have their attention, we have to provide them with the right information to
get convinced that the product we are promoting is the best product for them.
We do that by presenting the product the right way, and then by overcoming
spontaneous objections the right way.
You learnt how to do both in this chapter → the next step is all about getting them to
reach into their pocket and insert their card details.
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The GBP Method
The Pocket: Show Me the Money
We got the Gut’s attention.
We got the Brain convinced.
It’s time for our prospects to reach into their Pocket and complete the purchase.
This is the final step of our GBP Method, and it is kind of an interesting one because
although it should be smooth sailing - most of the ads you can find online feel almost
rushed towards the final part.
Thought leaders and course creators focus exclusively on making sure there’s a Call to
Action (CTA), but that’s pretty much it.
They don’t pay too much attention to the CTA itself.
Ever since we started scaling the amount of ads analyzed on a weekly basis, we
realized that there are good CTAs and bad CTAs.
Good CTAs add value to the ad, and get even more people to click on it.
Bad CTAs get people confused, and confused people don’t take action.
The question becomes - what makes a good CTA?
Let’s start from what makes a bad CTA and reverse engineer that.
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The GBP Method
When it comes to CTAs, it’s pretty straightforward - it’s more about not getting it
wrong than getting it right.
A bad CTA gives misleading orders.
Images are cluttered, videos are noisy, and the actual CTA is all over the place.
Think of something like: “Click on the link down below, check out our products and
pick the one you like the most. Then use code - badCTA10 - at checkout to get 10$ OFF
your first purchase. You won’t regret it!”.
How many people do you think would take action on this? And more importantly, how
many people do you think can follow through the entire process?
Then the second common mistake is stopping to sell too early.
Clear CTA, but rushed.
Think of something like: “Buy now, bye!”
We noticed that most of the best-performing CTAs are the ones that last anywhere
between 3 to 7 seconds.
Our hypothesis is that people need some time to process what’s happening and if we
cut it too short, they just forget about your product and keep scrolling.
Remember: getting attention is hard, retaining attention is even harder.
And finally, lack of urgency.
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The GBP Method
This point might be a bit controversial when it comes to social media ads, as urgency
has been abused in the past and when forced → people get switched off by it.
Think of something like: “buy now, landing page available only for the next two
hours”.
And obviously no countdown anywhere, ads running for days, etc.
Not only will this cheapen your brand, but you will also lose clients that don’t like
similar gimmicks.
So - what makes a bad CTA is clear… Shall we reverse engineer it and discuss what
makes a good CTA?
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The GBP Method
1. Clear Direction
A good CTA gives a clear direction and goes straight to the point.
It leaves no room for doubts, and the prospect knows exactly what the next step is.
Please, notice: next step → it’s not next steps.
Also, a good CTA starts with a good landing page.
Although we are stepping into new territories for this book - we want our landing
page to be not only relevant to our ad, but also clear and simple to navigate.
We want to do all the heavy lifting for our prospects, so they only have to reach into
their pocket to complete the checkout.
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2. Keep Selling
I’m not saying you have to do this all the time, but I’m saying you should at least give
it a shot.
As mentioned above, a bad CTA sounds rushed and people tend to forget relatively
easily whatever happened prior to it.
Some of our best-performing ads often drill one more time on the prospect’s desire
we are fulfilling.
Imagine something like: “Click on the link below and finally get back to your
high-school weight”.
Right at the end, we added one more reason why they should take the next step and
they immediately got reminded about all our product features, objections we
overcame, etc.
Again, you don’t have to do it all the time - but give it a shot.
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The GBP Method
3. Genuine Urgency
Everybody knows how effective urgency can be when it comes to advertising. You can
find landing pages with never-ending countdowns, as well as time-limited discounts
that refresh once a day.
I love adding urgency to my advertising strategies, but when it comes to social media
ads - we need to find ways to make urgency feel genuine. If they are forced, prospects
can smell it and they end up losing trust in your brand.
There are several “right ways” to do it, here are my personal favorite:
-
New limited-time offers: running the same limited-time offer forever
cheapens your brand, but running a new (and different) limited-time offer
when the first one expires is absolutely fine;
-
Limited stock available: this is one of our best performers, especially is part of
your SKUs are actually out of stock - it gives a sense of urgency and social proof
at the same time;
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The GBP Method
-
Won’t restock: this is a great one as well, particularly if you sell products like
clothing and change SKUs based on the season.
Important: never lie to your prospects when it comes to urgency.
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The GBP Method
The Pocket: Stitching It All Together
There is no conversion without attention.
There is no conversion without convincing the Brain.
And once we do both, we need to get our prospects to reach into their pocket. This is
what you learnt in this chapter.
The GBP method is a powerful tool you can use anytime to promote your business, as
well as help other people promote theirs.
As mentioned at the beginning of this book, this method helps you design new
winners from scratch.
Once you understand how it works, you can create winning power out of nothing.
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The GBP Method
What’s next: Multiplying Winning Force
In the previous chapters of this book, you learnt how to create Winning Force from
scratch.
At 99ads.com, we see Winning Force as an entity that we must create, recognize, and
multiply.
The GBP Method is all about creating Winning Power.
The next step is all about recognizing and multiplying it.
We need to learn how to analyze our ads performance the right way.
You can find many courses and lessons on how to analyze ads, but the way we do it
here is directed to recognizing that Winning Force as soon as possible.
That being said, there’s no ads performance analysis without ads.
Before moving onto the next chapter, I would recommend you implement everything
you’ve learnt in this book.
Start looking at ads with your new set of eyes - look at how other advertisers titillate
the Gut, convince the Brain, and get prospects to reach into their Pockets.
Use all those ideas to come up with hypotheses on what could work for the products
you are promoting, and work hard to create your own Winning Force.
Multiplying it will be a piece of cake once you get access to the right information.
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