Doctor of Ads Explains Why Your Meta Ads Are Failing (and What To Do About It!)

All right, guys, today on Founders Go Naked, we got Theresa Pantanella. Correct me if I’m pronouncing that wrongly, but yeah, welcome Theresa to the show. And Theresa is a meta ads expert and also a lead gen expert. And not only that, she also sells courses on meta advertising. So she definitely knows her stuff. So welcome to the show today, Theresa.

Oh, thank you so much for having me. This is a real treat. I enjoy talking about meta ads. It’s kind of running in my veins. I love to eat and breathe it. And it’s fascinating to me how the changes are impacting people trying to run the ads now.

Yeah, so let’s get into some of the changes. You know, let’s get into the good stuff, Theresa.

Okay.

What has changed in the past two, three years with meta ads?

They have gone to an entire system where anyone that’s brand new or is tired of the process of figuring out what’s working and what’s not working can just push a button and Facebook makes it look like they’re going to take care of everything. And in some scenarios, it does work. But in other scenarios, it does not work. You know, for example, they have a fantastic way of taking a simple product image or a course image, even if you have an image of yourself, of taking that image, changing the background on it, making it unfold on the page or in the feed, making it spread out, having it grayscale. These are different techniques it does automatically, and it does increase response. So that box, definitely check that box off when you’re using meta ads.

Now, one of the things they are doing that isn’t very kind is what they’re calling advanced placements.

Now, with the advanced…

I’ve seen that.

You’ve seen that.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

And it’s kind of cruel because Facebook, like way back in, oh my gosh, 2016, ran out of ad space.

Yep.

So they contracted with all of these other cute softwares like games, shows, and then they show your ad to that audience. It’s called a placement. It’s part of what they call their audience network.

Yeah, that was called audience network back then, right?

And we always like unchecked it because now we’re not showing it to the audience network because the leads were just terrible.

Oh, if they exist at all.

Right.

Right.

So that process definitely does not serve anyone. To do that whole automatic placement thing. It doesn’t serve anybody.

So yes, there are things on there that make it easier. I really, really, really enjoy using dynamic creative features on the ads. I highly recommend people do that. How many of you have run ads, but you’re like, oh, let me try a different picture. Oh, let me try a different headline. Oh, well, with dynamic creative, you don’t have to do that. Dynamic creative, you give the graphics and the headlines to Facebook. And Facebook does a fantastic job at sorting everything out.

I spent 24 years in healthcare and then decided I wanted an online business instead because I did not want to be location dependent. I started to learn videos, but it was pretty hard to learn it on my own. And I didn’t really take any courses. I just did some YouTube stuff. And there was one gentleman that kind of guided me through a really old piece of software called Camtasia.

Oh, yeah, I remember Camtasia.

I think I still have it on one of my computers here.

And then I heard about these two guys near me in the West Palm Beach, Florida area. And they are really, really good at Internet marketing. So I connected with them and they had a 16 week mastermind. I signed up immediately thinking, oh, these are the guys I’m supposed to be listening to. It was a really, really good program. They had everything written out. They had screenshots. And I didn’t know anybody. So I just followed the program and got really good at. It was teaching us lead generation, how to build the websites for lead generation, the SEO behind the websites.

No video production.

But they also taught us sales calls because we had to sell the leads. And it’s all home based services. I chose roofing. I still have some of those roofing customers doing lead gen for them. But what’s fascinating is that 16 week mastermind. That’s what got the traction for using the information.

Mm hmm.

Yes.

And it also tells me.

Yeah.

So that’s why I really like having programs, taking a course, having the follow up. Because when you’ve got that follow up and that we met twice a week on the phone and then they invited me to stay for the next couple of masterminds to teach the women. So I have like one call every week with the women. And by the way, if you are teaching a course, it’s the best way to really dig in and learn your own information.

Yeah.

When you’re teaching it.

True, true.

And like just like that example you said just now, right? Like just that advantage plus and, you know, just maybe removing it and not using that and using DCA dynamic, creative ads, right? You can do it the right way with DCA ads and the wrong way. And you don’t know until you try it and then you have someone look at it and like, oh, well, actually, you shouldn’t have done this. And that, you know, maybe you shouldn’t have included that image that wasn’t performing in the first place.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

Right.

I love testing out images. But more importantly, I love testing out the message. And that’s where I see people make a lot of mistakes is they don’t take time to really understand. There’s three end challenges that I have discovered over years of not only running ads for people, but running my own ads. And it’s something I saw way back in that SEO mastermind as well. It’s what are people actually thinking? Like when with the SEO, we’re looking at long tail keywords. Well, the long tail keywords are what people are asking when they’re doing searches. It’s what’s in their head. They’re either aware that they have a problem and they want a solution or they think they might have a problem, but they’re not really sure.

Yeah.

And then there’s the whole opposite end of the spectrum. They’re ready to buy. They want their solution to their problem now.

So in that DCA, in the dynamic creative testing, that if you don’t put the right stuff in there, it’s a problem. You know, you can’t put in there something, a message that talks about someone who’s not aware of their problem. And say, buy this now. But you could talk about, hey, if you have this symptom or that symptom, or if you’re thinking about X, this could be for you.

One of my mentors says the awareness part of your advertising should be 50% to

Because people don’t know they have a problem.

That’s A. B, if they do know they have a problem, if they need to consider you and C, you’ve got to have more people that are aware that you even exist in order to get your sales.

So having that very, very broad focus in your advertising and marketing makes a huge difference for the sales. And I know when I run the lead generation ads for my clients, if I don’t have an awareness component, the leads don’t do as well.

And correct me if I’m wrong, Theresa, but Facebook penalizes you if you use the same ad for too long, right? Even though it’s super high performing.

Well, it’s not that they penalize you. It’s more of an ad fatigue issue.

Got it.

People get tired of looking at the same ad. And unless you’re willing to scale vertically and add more money behind the ad, which allows Facebook to go find more people that might like the ad, that ad could die. And even if you are willing to scale vertically and you do, there might not be enough people out there that have an interest in what you’re selling. Especially in these tight niche markets, like a local market. It’s really, really, really hard to do that because your market’s already a finite number.

That’s right.

Yeah.

Like a local market kind of thing, right?

Yeah.

Or looking for plumbing or something.

Right, right, right.

And how often…

It works, but that other stuff, uh-uh.

How often do you have to refresh your ads, Theresa?

You know what? We refresh those ads minimum once every two weeks.

Yeah.

Yes, yes.

That’s a good rule of thumb, isn’t it? Refreshing it every two weeks.

It really is. I highly recommend it. And one of the areas you can easily, easily refresh is your graphics.

Yes.

You can either shade them a different color. Take them in black and white. I love the idea of changing out the actual headline on the graphic.

Yeah.

And see if one works better than another.

Yeah.

One of the other things you can do that takes a little bit more time and effort, but AI is getting this nailed down where it does not take as much time anymore, is 30-second videos. There are different AI tools out there where you could create 30-second videos very quickly. A lot of these are called faceless videos. So for your listeners, don’t feel like you have to go out there with your camera, with your cell phone once a week and make a 30-second video. You can make faceless videos, and they do perform pretty well.

One of the products in video is something that my team’s playing with. They do great videos, but they don’t always come with the best B-roll, the background B-roll. So we do spend a lot of time changing that out.

Yeah, yeah.

But if people want to do it themselves, I guess, yeah, there is software out there that basically you can just give it a script, and it just generates the B-rolls for you, right?

Exactly.

Or an idea. You can give it an idea.

Yes.

For quick boosts and an ad. I use it a lot for awareness campaigns. And at the bottom of the funnel, you want really, really short videos. I’ve seen 10- and 15-second videos do really well at the bottom of the funnel.

So would you say on the top of funnel, you need longer videos to educate them?

I would say in the middle of the funnel.

Right.

Yes, yes. If you have a video that’s running really, really good to your middle of funnel audience, yes, pull that to the top of funnel. But test it first with your middle audience. Don’t waste your money otherwise.

Yep.

Those are the people that already know you, and they’re curious, and they want to listen to a longer video. The people that know you and want more information aren’t willing to listen to a longer video; don’t put it at top of funnel where your cold audience is.

So what video do you recommend to warm up top of the audience people?

I like that question. So, Terence, at top of funnel, when they’re thinking about, do they have this problem like the leaky gut? You want 30-second videos? Definitely. Nothing more than two minutes. Nothing longer than two minutes at top of funnel. And that type of video shows the distress. It shows the pain points.

Right.

All the symptoms.

Exactly, exactly. Hope could be one aspect of emotion that you could use at top of funnel. Pain points do much better.

Yeah.

Like they say, right, if someone tells you to get off your chair and go to the other chair because it’s more comfortable, it’s really hard to get them to move chairs. But if you light a fire under the chair, that person’s going to get up really, really quickly.

That’s a strong visual of fire under the chair. And it would get somebody to move very quickly.

Yes, yes.

Now, the third hidden challenge that I see people making, they don’t know that they’re some notice of mistake is there. They don’t know what to do about it. I call it a hidden challenge because people aren’t aware that it’s there. Usually they’re running the ads. Things are going great. And then nobody’s buying. Well, we have traffic. People are they’re going to my website, but they’re not buying.

You think about…

I call it the message through way. You think about you gave him a message in the ad and then you showed him the landing page. But the message was a little different. Wasn’t the exact same words. It didn’t have the exact same image on it or similar image, different colors.

So imagine you’re sitting in a restaurant and you’re looking at the menu, and you are sold on that juicy hamburger with the juices coming out of it and that cheese melting over the top, that nice fresh slice of tomato and crispy lettuce. And then you get the hamburger. It’s served to you. And it’s flat, it’s overcooked, it’s kind of half off the bun, the cheese thrown on there, but it’s not yet melted. And the tomato’s off to the side with the lettuce. It looks like it’s been there a while.

Yeah, total message disconnect.

You’re not as excited about eating that hamburger now, right?

Yeah, true, true.

Same thing with your ads. You’ve got that fantastic appetite wedded. You want to make sure that when they get to your landing page, the exact same message is there. You can’t tease them over here about being tired and then have them go to your landing page and go, oh, this product will change your life.

Right.

It’ll make your skin look better.

Exactly.

I’ll see it because I’m tired, not because of my skin.

Exactly.

You’ll start to have less bloating.

Right.

Well, I was worried about being sleepy and not having enough energy.

Exactly.

Message disconnect. That message through way has to be smooth. All the T’s are crossed, and the I’s are dotted. Make sure that you have a call to action above the fold. Pretty standard, pretty basic. People have made tens of thousands of dollars off of that one piece of advice.

Yeah.

So basic yet so important.

Exactly, exactly. I like the long landing pages where that call to action speaks to where that person’s had in their mind on the page. Same call to action throughout the whole page, like sign up now, buy my book, get the book. Instead of saying things like what’s going on in their head at that point on the page, are they saying, yes, I need this? Are they saying, yes, I want the book? Are they saying, yes, sign me up now? I can’t live without this. This is what I’ve always been looking for. Get me in.

So that call to action, same thing throughout the page, that message through way. You start them off over here on the ad. Get them to the page. Same message. Now as they’re reading down through the page and they’re being more convinced to buy your course. Buy your book. What’s going on in their head? Because they’re going to go through three issues, three questions in their head. Who are you? What do you have? And what’s in it for me? And that’s going through their head as they’re reading that landing page.

Answering those questions and listening to what’s going on in their mind. Like once you answer that question, who are you? How are they feeling? Are they like, oh, I like you. Oh, I want to work with you. I want to be in your course. I want to learn more from you. As you answer the question, what do you have? Do they like it? If they like it, what are they thinking? Yeah, I want to sign up now. And then, of course, what’s in it for them? That’s where your benefits are chatting to them.

And you can put benefits in your ads. And I’ve seen products use benefits at the top of funnel. It works very well. For courses, yes, definitely put your benefits in there. At top of funnel, top of funnel, bottom of funnel. But make sure those same benefits are reiterated on your landing page. Exactly the same language. And you can rephrase it again later on in the page. I’ve seen huge on landing pages where you have the benefits at the top of the page, just like what’s in the ad. And then two thirds of the way down, three quarters of the way down, the benefits are repeated, but they’re rephrased. That’s OK. But at the top, make sure it says the same thing that’s in the ad. Message through it. Make sure that hamburger shows up on the table, just like it showed up on the menu.

Perfect. That is such a great tip. Thanks, Theresa.

Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure. That’s one of the things I always look for when I’m working with a client is, do we hit it all the way through? And I’ve learned, just like that chair, they don’t like to move, get into another chair. They don’t like to change their landing page either.

Yeah, always a sticking point, isn’t it?

Right, right, right.

And I know I work with clients on a consulting basis as well. Like, how many of you feel like you started with something and it was going great and then it fizzled out?

Yeah, yeah.

So if you don’t have the right people around you to brainstorm, feel free to give me a call. I’m also going to share with you the report that I have on those mistakes that I see people making in the ads. That report goes a little bit deeper into the technical aspect, also reading your ads manager dashboard. So definitely, you definitely want to get that report.

And then if you feel like you’re kind of stumped, feel free to set up a call with me. My goodness, I know I’ve seen people leave refreshed, inspired. They’re ready to go back out there.

Yes.

And they have that clear, that crystal clear vision of what’s going to work, of what that message through way could be to build their sales up, build their leads.

Yeah, it makes a big difference. And everybody deserves to have a better ROI. Everybody deserves to have more business. And sometimes you just need that one good idea that pushes you up the ladder, up to that next step.

I agree. Like you say, sometimes it’s just that one new big idea and your ads just completely change and your business takes off. Sometimes that’s what it requires. And sometimes if you have been trying it yourself for a long, long time, maybe it’s time to enlist someone like you to help out, right?

And we’ll have all that stuff in the show notes as well.

But before I let you leave, Theresa, I do have more questions for you in terms of, I mean, you mentioned about common mistakes, right? So tell me, what are some of the common mistakes people now make that you see on meta ads that when clients come to you and you’re like going, oh, everybody does the same thing over and over again. Why?

Yes, yes.

I had a gal, she took my course last fall. And the reason she took the course is she ran ads for leads, but none of the leads were buying from her. So lead ads, right?

Right, right.

So she took my course. It’s the Half Priced Ads Bootcamp.

Yep.

And then she joined the group coaching program afterwards. In the group coaching program, we worked on the message, but more importantly, we worked on the image that she was using, the graphic she was using, because what she did was she set up the ad to bring in people based on one message, but then she was selling something else. So we did get her ad costs down. Her leads went from $7 a lead, went down to a little over $3 a lead. More importantly, they started to buy from her. She brought the people in, she brought the leads in on a big, huge promise. Big free course. And then she tried to sell them something else.

Yeah, so with the ad, yes, we just, we changed the graphic. Changed the message. No free courses. Simple PDF, simple report went out. And then she was able to sell to them. And reduce her ad costs.

So the mistake there, that common mistake, I would say was giving too much away.

I have another gal in my group coaching program. She’s working with a client. Matter of fact, we just had this conversation yesterday. Again, they’re giving away a course, eight videos, something like over four hours of content.

Well, yeah.

And there’s a theory behind sales. And it’s the same theory that applies to leads and getting sales from the leads. That sales theory is when you get on a call with somebody, when you’re selling something, if you teach them a lot, they are going to feel like they already know everything they need to know. Why do they need you?

Yeah.

And then, unfortunately, with leads, you don’t have that face-to-face interaction to start with. So you are starting from a longer runway to build rapport with them. The best thing you can do with a lead is build that rapport first and then sell to them. Don’t give them so much information that they’re overwhelmed or they feel like they already know everything.

There is a huge issue with the leads also, where people don’t even open up the product that they signed up for.

Yeah, I mean, four hours of video, you know, that’s like, yeah, very few people would probably go through that.

Exactly.

And then to try to sell them afterwards something, they don’t even know you. They won’t even remember where you… The sale is going to be like four weeks after they signed up.

Yeah.

Or if they go to the videos, they’re like, oh, I can do this myself. I don’t need that person.

Exactly.

So that’s definitely a common mistake I see being made, is just giving away the farm. Well, there’s two mistakes. Giving away the farm. The second mistake is not selling the lead on the long-term program in the first place.

Yes, that whole thing should match. Matter of fact, there’s a gal that’s coming out with a course on what is the right lead magnet, because you can have all kinds of lead magnets, but unless that lead magnet leads people to your course, there’s no point.

Yeah.

And even getting leads, because they’re just going to sit on your email list. Non-buyers.

Yeah, so true.

So true.

Yeah.

And here’s another wild mistake I see being made. Oh, my gosh.

Okay.

And you’re very well-versed. I believe your audience knows better than to do this, is to go right to that sales campaign. Right to that sales conversion campaign, put a whole bunch of money behind it and go, yes, I’m going to make sales now.

Yeah.

Yeah, it doesn’t.

It’s true. You’ve got to think like your buyer. You know, if my buyer likes to consume video, you need video ads.

Hmm.

Yes. If your buyer likes to just say on Facebook, oh, my gosh, just use Facebook’s lead generation tool. It’s gotten pretty darn good. I’ve tested it a lot. Yes, it does bring a lower cost lead. And it keeps people on Facebook. If that’s the way people want to consume information, go to where they’re at. Don’t just bust out the door with that sales ad and lay down, you know, a $500 a day ad.

Yeah.

Thinking you’re gonna make all this money.

Yep.

Doesn’t work like that.

Yep.

Another big mistake. Oh, well, I’ll just put more money behind it.

Yeah, right.

Increase the daily ad spend.

Without testing things out and knowing it’s actually bringing a good ROI.

Exactly.

I just, matter of fact, the gentleman I spoke about with the stickers, he ran the ads for a year on his own. And he decided to hire me and my team because he went through an entire month of increasing the budget, decreasing the budget, increasing the budget, decreasing the budget.

Oh, gosh.

And nothing worked. He was like, how come it worked before and it’s not working now? We, and I spent, I spent three weeks really fine-tuning, working with the team. This is working, that’s working. Do this next, do that next. Cut that out. Put this in.

And a lot of it is things like the audience. Like that whole awareness topic that we talked about earlier, that we had no awareness campaigns going at all.

Yes.

So straight to the sale. Straight to the sale. Go bottom of funnel.

Mm-hmm.

So there was nothing catching people who are going to the page, going to, adding to the cart. There’s nothing catching people that have viewed the website, gone to the Facebook page, checked them out.

You know, one of the best things you could do, and I encourage listeners to do this, is observe your behavior when you’re online, when you’re buying something, when you’re looking for something.

What do you do?

Mm-hmm.

Do you go to YouTube and do research? Do you go to the website? Do you look up their Amazon reviews? What do you do? And then are you taking that into consideration with your advertising? And what your buyer could be doing? Because if you have like a leaky gut, if they’re going to YouTube for more information, why are you not advertising on YouTube?

Exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It could be like a huge one-two punch, like Gary V. says, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Hook.”

Yeah, exactly.

Get your jabs going.

Get your jabs going.

I’ll call it planting seeds. You got to plant the seeds in order for it to grow, and then you water the seed. Once you get their attention, you water the seed, middle of funnel, you’re giving them information, you’ve got your longer videos, you’ve got more of your how-to’s.

Oh my gosh, don’t bother the unboxing videos. Those don’t work anymore. Those worked a long time ago. Those don’t work now. And testimonial videos work well in the middle of funnel. So water the seed, plant the seed, water the seed, and then pick the fruit. Then invite people to work with you and extend the invitation, extend the offer to work with you.

That scenario is true, through and through and through. It’s rare that people are like, oh, I’ve got a problem, I’m buying a solution, done.

Yeah.

I mean, there are a few people that do that, but that’s far and few between.

They’re rare.

They’re rare.

It’s going to be probably very unprofitable just to target those people.

Right, right, right.

That’s that one sale you got on that ad, you’re like, well, I got a sale, I have to keep running the ad.

Right?

Yeah.

I think it’s also like Ryan Deiss likes to use the analogy, the dating analogy, right? Where you kind of like, it’s kind of like most advertisers try to ask a woman, like, basically to marry them on the first date, right? And that’s not what you want, right?

No, you want to kind of like have coffee first and what have you, right?

Right.

So I think that same analogy.

Yes, get to know them a little bit better. And that’s where that whole conversation comes in. I love having videos where like for coaches, if you’re teaching, they can get to know you, get to know your voice, get to know your language.

Excerpts from a weekly podcast, excerpts from interviews do really, really well in the middle of funnel, in the bottom of funnel. And if it does really, really well in that middle of funnel, then pull it to the top.

Yes.

If the people who know you and like you and are trying to get to know you like that video, that’s when you give it to the cold audience, people who don’t know you at all. Don’t just, yeah, you can test all kinds of videos at the top of funnel. It’s much more fertile ground to test it in the middle of funnel.

Yeah.

Great.

Yeah.

Great.

Yeah.

Definitely do that.

Absolutely.

Oh, my gosh.

And I love seeing the look on people’s faces when they’re like, oh, my gosh, this works. And they’ve got leads coming in. And like the gal that took my course last fall, she was thrilled. The leads all changed. And she got sales. That’s my favorite part, Terence, is to see everybody be successful.

So, Teresa, tell me, like, if people want your help to get more successful, what’s the best way to find you or how can they start learning from you?

Oh, well, I’m on Facebook. I don’t know. Surprise, surprise.

Right, right, right.

Doctorofads.com is where you would find my schedule link, doctorofads.com. And then if you want to chat with me, but definitely find me on Facebook. It’s at Teresa, at Teresa, T-H-E-R-E-S-A. And then there’s another one at Dr. Teresa at D-R-T-H-E-R-E-S-A.

Right.

I’m not on LinkedIn much.

Okay.

Yeah.

I do have a presence there. Facebook is where you’d find me the most if you want to work with me, doctorofads.com, schedule an appointment.

And I think you mentioned that you might have a report that you can give to listeners as well.

Oh, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And I’m happy to share that link with everybody. It’s the three mistakes I see people make the most of the time. And it goes into what they’re looking at from a tech perspective of when they’re reading their Facebook ads manager, what are they looking at that’s working that they should be looking at?

A lot of people think it’s the click-through rate. There’s other more important things you could be looking at, like the CPM rate. I have a report on that and happy to share that with your listeners. My contact is down there as well.

Okay.

And they can get that report from where, sorry?

Well, let me pull the link up for you.

Okay.

We’ll just link it in the show notes.

That’s fine.

Okay.

Awesome.

Awesome.

So make sure you guys check out Teresa because she’s given so much value today. And if you’re advertising on Facebook, I think you probably wouldn’t find anyone better to actually coach you and train you to make your ads really work for you.

So Teresa, thank you for being here today.

Thanks for having me and best of luck to everybody. We’ve got fantastic ways to get your leads. Go get the leads, get the sales, grow, live the life that you deserve.

Thank you.

My pleasure.