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6 Proven Facebook Advertising Offers You Can Use to Attract More Business No need for guesswork here: Use one or more of these Facebook ad strategies to grow your business.

By Perry Marshall

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The following excerpt is from Perry Marshall, Keith Krance and Thomas Meloche's book Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | IndieBound

We've identified six proven Facebook offers that have worked across the board in multiple industries for our agency clients. Before I get into these respectively, I want to mention that they're listed in reverse order of commitment. This means that No. one takes the least commitment while No. six takes the most.

1. Coupon, sweepstakes or blog

There are three ways you can craft these ads:

  1. Video ad to coupon. This offer is the one with the least commitment. The offer could be a coupon for a product or service, and it works wonders with local businesses.
  2. Short copy ad to coupon. You can also write a short copy ad, which can work just as well. What happens with coupon ads is that you'll get massive organic brand exposure because people really engage with this type of ad content. They don't just come into the store to redeem their offer, but they also share the coupon with their friends.
  3. Short copy ad to blog post. This is an ad to "ungated," or free, blog content. Ungated just means that the visitor isn't required to give anything in exchange for consuming the content, like their email address, their money, etc. This works very well in the short-term if you come up with the right hook, so a prospect clicks on your ad, reads your blog content and gets indoctrinated with your brand. If properly done, this can easily lead to a sale either directly or indirectly.

Related: 14 Ways to Increase Your Facebook Page Engagement

2. Checklist, swipe file or cheat sheet download

This type of ad has slightly more copy than other short copy ads, but it's still considered short. The offer should be something that allows prospects to improve their lives or their businesses in some way. If you offer a downloadable PDF checklist for a lead magnet, you should also have a webinar registration page right that hits on some desires and pains. But, the first step, which should be a simple opt-in to get a free download, is a simple ask, so the ad and landing page copy shouldn't be very long.

3. Quiz/survey funnel

When it comes to using a quiz or a survey funnel, the key is really to have a great curiosity-driven hooks that reels your prospects in and immediately engages them. By using a hook that leaves people wanting more, they'll want to take the quiz or fill out the survey. Then, through a series of strategic questions, you take your prospect down a path where they're telling you, based on their answers, what their problem is and then you can prescribe a solution to solve that problem, which in this case, is a free downloadable report. People have to opt-in to be able to get their results, and the prescription can be a free or paid product. Even if they don't buy, you have an incredible amount of data that you can use to discover your customer avatar's greatest fears and desires.

Related: Top Tips to Create Facebook Videos to Market Your Business (Infographic)

4. Webinar or event

Many people value their time much more than their money, so the level of commitment for a webinar or event is high -- you're essentially asking people to spend at least 90 minutes with you -- so you have to pre-commit your prospects with long copy. One way I've successfully done this is by using a short 30-second clip with a text overlay highlighting the hook, and then elaborating a lot more in the long copy.

What's important to know here is that each step in the ad is seeding the next. Once they read your copy, you want them to register and then show up to the webinar, but you need to deliver value throughout the ad.

5. Free plus shipping for physical products

For this particular offer, there's a very clear distinction from the level of commitment of offers one through 4. Now you're asking people to pull out their credit cards so the upfront value needs to be that much more.

I had a successful and long-running campaign promoting a free plus the cost of shipping offer for the second edition of one of my books. To pre-frame prospects into buying my book in the next step, I made a video where I taught them the number-one lesson learned after spending an average of $600k a month on ad spend.

Once I educated my prospects and elevated their status -- because now they're smarter and more informed because of what I just shared with them -- I invite them to buy my book so they can learn even more. By delivering value in the form of content that speaks to their desires and pain points, I created a greater desire within them to meet those desires and pain points and to find a solution for them. I then offer my solution -- to get a free book so they can learn more.

This type of ad works very well with cold audiences because it lowers the barrier of entry at a very minimum in order to convert your prospects to qualified buyers.

Related: The Starter Guide to Facebook Groups for Business

6. Product sales page

There's no doubt video ads are the most powerful ad type, which is why I would encourage you to create a video that leads to your product sales page. When you're running traffic to people who are unaware of who you are or the solution you provide, a great way to build authority, credibility and rapport is to educate them.

But, if you're thinking about just putting up a video with a straight call to action to buy your product, don't do it because it won't work. There has to be a whole lot more to it than just a CTA. You have to provide them with really valuable information and offer them an easy way to solve their problems. Prospects will then naturally want to learn more because you've educated them so well and have elevated their status in the process, so you take them to the product sales page.

Perry Marshall

Author, Sales and Traffic Expert, CEO and Founder of Perry S. Marshall & Associates

Perry Marshall is the president of Perry S. Marshall & Associates, a Chicago-based company that consults both online and brick-and-mortar companies on generating sales leads, web traffic and maximizing advertising results. He has written seven books including his most recent, 80/20 Sales and Marketing (Entrepreneur Press, 2013), Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising (Enterpreneur Press, 2014), Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords (Entrepreneur Press, 2014), and Ultimate Guide to Local Business Marketing (Entrepreneur Press, 2016). He blogs at perrymarshall.com.

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