Hello Haveaclues!
I’m a sad Barry today.
Nobody “likes” my ads 😢
Brand teams, designers, C-suite, investors, and even my fellow marketers allll hate my “ugly” ads.
Nobody ever tells me how great they are. If other marketers don’t tell me how great they are, why do I keep making them?
You’ll have to wait to find out the answer after I give a…
Huge congrats and shoutout to my good friend Dara Denney.
If you don’t already know Dara, what are you doing? Her YouTube channel has helped thousands of advertisers get started and improve their advertising efforts and I frequently send people to her channel for guidance. I’m literally Dara’s biggest fan, so much so, I actually hired her when I was at Thesis!
She gave me early access to her new Performance Creative Master Course and I was blown away by everything she provided. It’s her entire playbook (which she might’ve borrowed some from me 😅) and is basically everything any brand team or agency would need to build and manage creative operations and get high performance creative into their ad accounts. If you’re reading this, you probably need it.
Dara gave me a special discount code for my friends (that means you, friend!) to get $100 off and I’ll even throw in a bonus myself, but you’ll have to read to the end of this email to get it. You’ll never guess what the code is 😉
Look at everything you get!
Get Dara’s new Performance Creative Master Course now! Full transparency: I’ll make a few bucks if you sign up from this link. (Thanks! 🤑)
Back to my story about how nobody likes my ugly ads.
Why do I keep making them?
I keep making them because they PRINT MONEY for my clients. Allll those brand teams, designers, C-suite, investors, etc don’t matter to me because they are not my target audience for my ads.
Even if they’re in my “target audience,” they’re biased marketers with years of “experience” that say “THIS MUST LOOK PERFECT” or “OUR BRAND IS SPECIAL!” 🤦♂️
Your brand doesn’t need to look perfect in every frame of every ad. That’s inauthentic.
Your brand isn’t that special. In fact, trying to be your definition “special” might make your brand less relevant and appealing on social.
Your ads don’t need to be praised by anyone on Twitter.
Your ads don’t need to be approved or liked by other marketers.
Your ads don’t need to win awards.
Marketers are not your target audience
Before some B2B SaaS marketer says “whataboutmyaudienceofmarketers,” you don’t count. Also, stop making pretty ads for those marketers too.
Your ads need to drive sales or at least some measurable form of intent.
In order to drive sales and intent, you need to get relevant attention.
Want to know who doesn’t hate my ads? Consumers. Well, maybe sometimes they say they hate me 😬 but hey, at least I know I’m getting their attention and to remember instead of just ignoring me.
Actual comment referring to other ads I’ve been in on an Opopop ad I’m in.
How do you get relevant attention from your target audience? It’s not by trying to make ads that appeal to your fellow marketers.
Studying other brands’s ads in Facebook’s ad library and Foreplay is a great start, but can only get you so far and can often lead you to just create more ads that other marketers like.
If you really want to make great, high-performing ugly ads, you should be studying the content your audience watches and cares about.
Here’s how I find content and design inspo for ads:
I want you to go try this right now:
Close ad library and Foreplay
Open up Instagram or TikTok
Create a totally new account. This account is specifically to pursue content related to my brand/client’s industry/niche/problem.
Use the platform as in the mindset of your target audience: search for relevant content, click hashtags, watch stuff, follow accounts, read comments, go down rabbit holes.
Pay attention to the content the algorithms start to show in your home feed.
Study what you find. What are the biggest accounts in the space? Note the aesthetics, language, video styles/pacing, etc.
Use your findings to make ads that emulate that organic content and are more relevant to your audience.
There is no step 7
Profit!
Reply to this email and tell me if you found anything interesting/new while doing that.
I actually do this. I have multiple Instagram and TikTok accounts for client research and you should too! I love finding relevant meme accounts for each, it’s a great way to see what that audience finds interesting/funny.
Back to Dara’s course, you’ve earned $100 discount (unless you skipped down here just for the code, then I strongly recommend you scroll back up and start from the beginning):
If you’re interested in Dara’s new Performance Creative Master Course discount, use code UGLYADS (duh) for $100 off! After you order through my link, please reply “DARA” to this email to let me know and I’ll send you a free Make Ugly Ads hatt of your choice. That hatt is currently listed for $4,000, so you’d technically make a profit by buying her course and getting the hatt for free 🤪
If you’ve been thinking about booking a 1:1 call with me to help you achieve your marketing goals this quarter, I just got added on Intro and my rate is discounted this month to get some reviews flowing in there:
Thanks again for reading! Feedback is a gift and I’d appreciate any feedback you have for me. Just hit reply and tell me anything that’s on your mind. What else would you like to hear from me?
Have a great week. Go make some ugly ads!
Hott regards,
Barry Hott
