What the Heck is Facebook “Ad Scent” and How to Use It to Get More Leads and Sales
Written by MATT BARAN
Question…
Ever ran an ad that got clicks, but not any sales?
Hey, it happens to the best of us.
And honestly, there are quite a few things that can go wrong.
But there’s one BIG mistake I constantly see people making over and over, and it will cause your ads to bomb each and every time.
This problem is easy to overlook and hard to recognize to the untrained eye, but luckily the fix is simple.
So if you’re actively using Facebook ads in order to build your businesses, generate leads, and generate sales, then you bes’ listen up.
Because with a few quick tweaks, you can easily boost your sales overnight.
Figuring out Facebook advertising
Lately there’s been a bit of a trend where I’ve seen folks in our community saying:
“I spent $50 and got 37 clicks, two leads, and zero sales. What did I do wrong?”
Now, right off the bat I can tell you this isn’t enough information for me to provide a helpful analysis.
To figure out what isn’t working, I’d need to examine the following:
The ad in question
All associated metrics (such as cost per click, click-through rate, and Relevancy score)
Which interests were being targeted
What overall strategy you’re using on your Fan Page
All these elements are important, because I obviously don’t want to give you bad advice.
As much as I’d love to say it’s possible to predict what’s going to perform, even our ads don’t win 100% of the time either.
More than anything, advertising comes down to testing and tweaking to figure out what works.
Read of my thoughts on strategy here:
The Right Mindset for Paid Advertising
The BIG mistake most marketers make
One thing to ALWAYS keep in mind is this…
When you’re advertising anything, including blog posts, landing pages, videos, etc., there is a tendency to forget that every single click you get comes from a REAL person with real feelings, emotions, and interests.
And if someone clicks on your ad, then your ad got them interested in some way.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a star copywriter or you’re just starting out.
If somebody clicked on your ad, then you said something that got them genuinely interested in what you got on the “other side” of that click.
And here’s the thing…
If you’re getting clicks, but not sales, then the problem might just be what happens after the click.
And perhaps less intuitively…
It probably doesn’t have anything to do with what you’re selling, but instead how you’re selling it.
The all-important “Ad Scent”
When your ad campaign is underperforming and you aren’t getting any sales, the issue tends to be what we call “poor ad scent.”
Basically, ad scent is the congruence (or similarity) between what your ad promised and what the person who clicked your ad receives when they get to your page.
Let me give you a very basic example…
Let’s say that you’re a “Paleo” person and eat a Paleo diet that’s FULL of meat.
All meat, all the time!
Then you create an ad promoting the vegan diet.
Now, if somebody scrolls through their News Feed and sees your vegan diet ad, they might think…
“Animals! Awesome! I LOVE animals and totally don’t want to eat them!”
So let’s say they like your Page and click on your ad.
Inevitably, once they get to your website and find information about the Paleo diet, they’re going to get pretty peeved, because the ad had NOTHING to do with the site they landed on.
Makes sense, right?
People HATE feeling “bait and switched”
Now let’s take that example and directly relate it to advertising Elite Marketing Pro’s content and offers.
Let’s say you’ve created an ad that’s all about your story, your journey, and where you are sending people.
For example…
“My life was a wreck. The bills were piling up. My family was growing, but my paycheck wasn’t. I was down and out with my luck and didn’t know where to turn. I wanted more, but was lost. Then, incredibly. I found this one awesome thing that completely changed everything. Now I’m livin’ large, working at home in my jammies. Click here to learn more!”
Then you send them to an Elite Marketing Pro blog post (kinda like this one), which has absolutely NOTHING to do with the story you just told them.
See the issue?
Basically that person saw your ad, read your story, and decided…
“Oh man, I want to learn more about what’s going on here and what they have to say about this.”
So they click, but arrive at a blog post that’s completely different.
The tone of the blog post is completely different, the author is different…
It’s all different!
That’s going to turn whoever clicked off!
They’re going to think…
“This isn’t what I expected. Now there’s this long blog post that doesn’t have anything to do with the story I just read, and I don’t know why I’d want to stick around and read this.”
That’s ad scent!
You always want your ad (including your copy and image) to directly relate to what’s on your landing page (which was a blog post in this example).
Because if their experience isn’t congruent, your prospects are not going to be interested in sticking around.
I mean, sure, you might get a few people who are like…
“Okay, maybe this sounds interesting. I’ll read on.”
But most people are going to click “back,” get on with their day, and find the next thing in their News Feed.
When your ad and landing page aren’t congruent…
It will drive up your cost per click
It’ll also impact your Relevancy score
And you’ll start getting those ‘fun’ comments that really make you question whether this whole entrepreneurship thing is worth it or not
Another way to look at ad scent
Everybody’s looking for the next new Facebook “trick” and wondering why kind of audience they should be advertising to.
Daegan Smith came up with a perfect analogy of a little deer sipping water at a bubbling brook.
Say you’re walking along through the forest and you come across that particular deer.
Any sort of rustling or quick movement is going to scare that little deer away.
You got to think about your prospects in the exact same way.
For example, if they click on your ad and the landing page doesn’t appear to be what they signed up for, they’re probably going to get scared and question whether you’re legit.
At the worst, they’re going to report your ad as spam (which you don’t want).
Otherwise, they might get on with their day.
Ad scent is a fundamental marketing principle
It’s really not a ‘trick’ at all, but it’s something you always want to keep in mind when you’re advertising blog posts, capture pages, videos, and pretty much everything else.
You need to ask yourself…
“Does the language in my ad match where the prospect will land when they click the ad? Is it creating a natural progression toward my landing page”
…which would be your blog post.
So look at your ads and ask yourself:
Does the the language on my ad match the language on my landing page?
One last tip:
When you’re creating your ads, make sure you’re unclicking the “Audience Network” box in your placements.
I still see a lot of people forgetting to do that, and frankly, Facebook doesn’t make it easy.
They don’t make it stand out, so when you’re creating your ad always make sure you’re unchecking that box.
Because, and just trust me on this one, your results, in most cases, are not going to be as good if you use Audience Network.
And finally, one more time, always be sure to…
Question whether your ad matches your landing page!
Overall, just remember that if you’re not seeing the conversions that you’re looking for, then it could very well be your ad scent or congruency.
Start there.
And one last tip…
As you can see, it can take a fair bit of trial and error to figure out what works.
However, I do know a shortcut that’s helped dozens of marketers quickly create profitable campaigns (often within just a few days).
And that’s taking us up on an over-the-shoulder tour of…
Our highest-converting ads (and their most congruent landing pages)
Here at Elite Marketing Pro, we’ve put together a point-for-point tutorial revealing our exact advertising process in a 100% FREE traffic workshop…
Which is hosted by none other than Tim Erway, our CEO and co-founder.
Simply pick a time and register right here.
You’ll discover how you can put together a profitable ad campaign in just 10 minutes a day with as little as $10 in initial ad spend.
And build your team.
In fact…
We’ve used the exact formula to turn a $10 test campaign into $141,246.30 in sales.
Those are 100% real numbers, and Tim will show exactly how we did it.
Hint: mastering ad scent is a big piece of the puzzle.
So if you haven’t registered yet, what are you waiting for?
Pick a time that works for you to attend Tim’s traffic workshop right here.
Until next time,
Matt Baran
Traffic Specialist
Elite Marketing Pro
