On this episode of Straight Facqts, we’re talking about how Facebook turned one of our performances into their own case study and how you can too. Here’s how we became a Facebook case study!
Hey, what’s going on? My name is Gabe and this is Straight Facqts, where we give it to you straight on how you can grow your business with social media advertising.
Like I said in the intro, we’re going to talk about how Facebook turned one of our performances — where we lowered Infusionsoft’s cost per acquisition by 70% overnight — into one of their case studies to highlight the potential for advertisers on their platform.
So how did we do it?
Well, let’s start from the beginning and give you a little bit of background on Infusionsoft.
They are a small to medium-sized CRM now called Keap. If you’re not familiar with Keap or Infusionsoft, they’re similar to HubSpot. If you’re not familiar with HubSpot either, think Salesforce but for small to medium-sized businesses. Basically, they’re a CRM that helps you with automation.
“We had a Facebook rep who invited us to one of their events down at headquarters where they talked about the different strategies you can use for your creative to improve performance.”
When I joined Infusionsoft, their best performing campaign running at the time was saying goodbye to email.
To be specific, instead of using email to do all of your work where it’s disorganized and not automated, you can use Infusionsoft’s platform to have a more seamless communication with your clients.
So the campaign said “Goodbye, Email” and the creative was a GIF; a very simple animation where there was a heart going down, breaking up, and saying, “Switch to Infusionsoft.” Really basic and it speaks to where it was on the spectrum in terms of the bell curve of performance or the results it was getting.
The math is going to be a little bit off here, but we’ll call it around a cost per acquisition of $150. That’s on the bell curve of performance.
Oh man, it was about a two or a three — the results it was getting. And if you’re interested on how you can be able to improve, obviously this video is going to help you.
You can also watch or listen to other podcasts where we get much more in-depth about the practices that you can use. But if you’re at two or three and want to scale your business with social media advertising, I hope you’re really good at crossing your fingers and toes because the likelihood is just little to none.
So going through that, we had a Facebook rep who invited us to one of their events down at headquarters where they talked about the different strategies you can use for your creative to improve performance.
“Just by switching the creative, we lowered the cost per lead by 70% overnight.”
Going through that process, I wrote down every little tidbit, every trick that they can use and started pitching the idea of: “Hey, we’ve got to make some videos. This is going to be a big differentiator in terms of our performance.”
Little did I know at that time, it was going to be a fight just to get one video made. Predominantly, at that particular time, it was just cheap creative, videos, animation, and reusing old content that Infusionsoft made two or three years prior.
I was hoping that would work. Or using snippets from old content and then repurposing them, which the likelihood of that working is little to none, mostly because a lot of the creative was a lot of action shots. It’s not necessarily long-form video that works best, but short-form video. You also need to have visuals that are seamless with the text.
With old content, it was very difficult to be able to mash the messaging up. Hence, it was a battle just to be able to get any video made. And I know this to be a fact. It’s a big hurdle for a lot of companies to say, “Hey, we need to be able to invest in creative.” But it is absolutely vital.
If you’re not going to invest in creative, I would not invest in Facebook at all. That’s because you’re going to get a middle of the road performance at best and that really limits your potential to be a top performer.
In this case, just by switching the creative, we lowered the cost per lead by 70% overnight. We lowered the cost per acquisition by 70% overnight!
“You want to lead with your benefits. That’s where the highest volume of people are going to be aware of why the heck they’re even watching your video.”
So it was a huge battle in order to be able to get creative produced. Plus, every time that we would book a studio session, it would always get changed, priorities would shift to where the videographer was not available, or the actor would get pulled away.
By the way, shout out to Natalie, the lady that you see in that video right there. Major kudos for everything that you did. That definitely changed both of our lives. It changed mine, I imagine it changed yours as well. Some really cool stuff!
But every time we would book studio time to make just one video, it would get removed from us. Eventually, we booked a time at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Friday where they finally let us make one video.
So what’s special about this video? There are a couple of strategies that we learned. First, you want to lead with your benefits. That’s where the highest volume of people are going to be aware of why the heck they’re even watching your video.
“91% of ads featuring a person’s face attract more attention than ads without it.”
Using someone’s face is also going to be one of your most effective strategies, maybe if not the most effective strategy, to stop them from scrolling. 91% of ads featuring a person’s face attract more attention than ads without it. It’s almost double the amount than other stimuli.
Also, have what we call a video headline. That’s going to be text above the ad that calls attention to what the benefit is. Then captions below so the person can be able to visually follow along with the audio, even if they’re in a sound-off world.
“I was refreshing the screen every 15 minutes and the clickthrough rates went from, say, 0.5 to 2.1, 2.2%.”
So we had the storyboard, we had the script, and we were going off the same campaign that we had before, which is the: “Bye, email. We’re breaking up with you.”
We did the same thing, we had that GIF where a heart is broken, and then we had Natalie, the actress, tear it apart: “Bye, email. I’m moving on to Infusionsoft to get better organized and more efficient with my time.” So on and so on.
We did this at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Friday, and on Monday, they shot it over to me. I uploaded it that night and it was one of the most memorable times in my life as an advertiser.
I was refreshing the screen every 15 minutes and the clickthrough rates went from, say, 0.5 to 2.1, 2.2%. Overall, the cost per acquisition went down 70%.
So we are paying about $150. I did not do the math prior to this, but it went down to about $30 to $35 instantly. Instantly.
“It was just refreshing being dumbfounded about how powerful a video can be for your social media advertising.”
By the way, once you catch that creative sugar rush, all you want is more because that was extremely addicting. It was just refreshing being dumbfounded about how powerful a video can be for your social media advertising.
So then, over the next week, this was something that we did not plan for at all. You can tell from us not even being able to book a studio time to make one simple video to having the leads just dramatically jump up.
When I got to Infusionsoft, Facebook attributed for about 15% of the leads. When I left, there was a time near the end where Facebook attributed for 63% of their incoming leads. 15% to 63%, and that’s because of the improvements of the storytelling of Infusionsoft’s benefit.
So by doing that and lowering the cost per lead overnight, the sales team was not ready at all. In fact, that success created more issues down funnel, where we had to train the SDRs and the sales team to handle a much higher volume in leads.
“With paid search, they’re pursuing you. With paid social, you’re pursuing them.”
Now, a little bit of insight: Facebook’s cost per lead, if done well, is going to be significantly lower than virtually any other platform, definitely any other digital platform. So the cost per acquisition is going to be good.
However, the conversion rate is not going to be as optimal as paid search or referrals because with paid social, you’re interjecting your ads in front of them at any given moment. Therefore, they may not be particularly ready right then and there.
With paid search, they’re pursuing you. With paid social, you’re pursuing them. So the conversion rates aren’t as high because of that.
Overall, we had to work on strategies to handle a significantly higher volume of leads that don’t convert as well.
I’ll say this. Because they had such a higher volume of leads, I remember walking in two weeks after it happened and the sales team had no idea who I was.
“A Facebook rep noticed that we’re able to lower the CPA by 70%. Because of that, they were able to turn that performance into their own case study.”
So I worked in a San Francisco office, they were over in Arizona, and when they found out that I was the person who was giving them a ton more work and giving them a ton more leads, they all hated me, until they talked and realized that we were actually doing a good thing.
But it was such a ripple effect that pretty much throughout the company, everybody knew that there was an abundant source of incoming leads that were coming in, and then ultimately lowering the CAC as well. So good stuff there.
Now, if you’re wondering how you can be able to do it, one thing that I would 100% recommend is this would not have been achievable if we did not have a Facebook rep.
So a Facebook rep noticed that we’re able to lower the CPA by 70%. Because of that, they were able to turn that performance into their own case study to highlight the potential of Facebook advertisers for the community.
“Try the things the Facebook rep is recommending you to do.”
Another value that the Facebook rep can also give you is they typically don’t help you out with creative. But, they’ll give you little insights here and there and they’ll also help you overcome hurdles with account issues as well. Those are really the two reasons why I have Facebook reps.
So if there’s any issue, instead of talking to chat support, you can talk to them and they can turn your performance into a case study.
I would also recommend trying new things. Try the things the Facebook rep is recommending you to do.
This could be using lead gen, and this is just an example. I would not use lead gen ads or lead form ads — where you don’t go to a landing page but use their new upcoming features and master those features. We’ll talk about that another time.
If you master those features, then that’s going to be more likely to stand out. Facebook is going to want to brag about your performance, because if you do well, the rest of their customers are going to do well too.
Cool, so that’s a little bit of story about Facebook, and how they turned our performance into their own case study. Really cool and one of the more exciting times I’ve had as an advertiser. But now, let’s get into rating creative!
Ad Review: Drinks
So we’re going to be rating three different creatives from three different drink companies. That’s not the coolest way to say it, but three different carbonation drinks. That’s a little bit more specific, and the first one is going to be Gatorade. Let’s get into it!
Gatorade Ad
So I have some beef with this ad.
You do see Gatorade in the beginning, which is good and impactful, even if I didn’t notice that the first time. That’s awesome. But there are no captions here. So there’s a person talking, but if it’s a sound-off world, I have no idea what they’re saying.
There’s also no product placement, just people working hard. University of Florida, that’s irrelevant. By the way, this is underneath an acquisition lens. That’s irrelevant to me purchasing the product because there’s no lead up talking about it in the captions, or copy that’s just overlaid.
Like, why the University of Florida? Am I seeing a Gator ad? Actually, kind of. If it’s a Gatorade, there’s a little bit of a history, but you see people rallying each other up.
Finally, we see a product placement. We don’t even know what’s great about it, what it helps you with, but we see product placements.
“Gatorade is committed to helping millions play.” It would be better if they led with that. If they had that as the opening scene, that would make a lot of things more relevant like the University of Florida. That would tie together.
Right now, I’m just like: “Why am I seeing this?” Cool B-roll. It doesn’t tell me much about the product.
As I said, these are all under an acquisition lens. However, Gatorade and all these companies we’re looking at are pretty big brands so they can be able to do more of a branding play than an acquisition play. But, unrightfully judging them makes me happy.
All right, now we’re getting into Mountain Dew. Let’s go!
Mountain Dew Ad
All right. So, much better video in terms of acquisition. I can go without this opening scene, but that’s being a little bit nitpicky.
I do like the split screen, so the audience is already at the comparison. They’re having an in-depth understanding that, A, there’s product there, but B, as a comparison. So that’s going to get the audience thinking a little bit and it gives them more versatility.
In addition, they’re talking about how Mountain Dew is applicable to just simple enjoyment with food, how they work together. Especially since they’re at a point with branding — how can they mix it up and show more versatile benefits. I do like that.
My stomach does not like that, my taste buds do. That sounds like a big meal my stomach is already churning from but it definitely puts placements into its audience. So if you’re going to get nachos, you’ve got to get a Mountain Dew.
Good arguments, and it’s a lifestyle ad as well. And then there’s “vote for your flavor.” Is it chicken wings and pizza? Interesting.
Overall, good video. Good video. I like it. It is a completely different level than Gatorade and you can tell that it was specifically made for social media.
All right, next one. Let’s get into Red Bull.
Red Bull Ad
“Thank you for recycling your can.” Cool. So this is a branding play where they’re not talking about their product and the acquisition — getting people to purchase more. They’re looking to be able to brand who the company is, and that is an economically-friendly company.
A, they’re letting you know their cans are recyclable, and B, they’re asking you to recycle them. There’s a little bit of an acquisition flair, but it’s not going have as many strings pulling you to purchase that product.
However, the way that they’re doing it from a branding standpoint is good. I enjoy it.
I wish that there was maybe a little bit of wings. So you drink the Red Bull, you start flying away, and you do as I do, “Jordan.” You shoot for the recycling bin as you’re flying away.
That would’ve been a cool little feature because then it shows that Red Bull does give you wings and you’re able to fly away and get that energy. They’re not portraying that here.
I also like that they’ve got an alien and a gas station clerk, a guy playing chess against the robot. Robot’s a little bit jealous.
Good commercial for Red Bull. It’s more in the branding side. I enjoy the commercial more than the acquisition end.
Final Rankings
If we had to rate them, it’s going to be Mountain Dew, clear top. They are the king of the mountain, followed by Red Bull, and then at number three is Gatorade.
Gatorade has the coolest visuals, and that is not a question. However, they do not use their visuals to tell the story of what the benefit is of their ad.
If they did a couple of those switches and put that end scene in the beginning, things would be different. But that’s how it lies.
If you have any feedback, let us know. If you think we’re wrong, definitely let us know. Be sure to check out the other podcasts and chat soon!
That’s how we became a Facebook case study!
Watch the video here:
