Meta Ads: 6 Creative Myths Busted with Aggie Meroni, White Bee Digital

[SPEAKER_01]: In this world of AI, people want authentic connection, they want authentic video, they want real people talking about products in their language, in their home environments or whilst they're grabbing a coffee in the morning. [SPEAKER_01]: So if you're listening to this and you're in the marketing department for an e-commerce brand or you head up a marketing, for an e-commerce brand, put aside budget, take it out if you add spend and allocate it to real content creators, no influences to create the [SPEAKER_00]: You're listening to the Keep Optimizing Podcast to increase your traffic improve your conversion rates and grow your profits.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hello and welcome. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Chloe Thomas, the host of this e-commerce marketing focused podcast. [SPEAKER_02]: If you're not familiar with our format, well, we release five episode mini series that dive deep into one e-commerce marketing topic. [SPEAKER_02]: It could be channels like email, SEO, or Facebook ads, or a big topic like acquisition, retention, or analytics.

[SPEAKER_02]: In each of the episodes, new ones released on Wednesdays, I get into a different expert who explore the latest device on making it work for you. [SPEAKER_02]: And then, after each five episodes, many series we take a week off to give you time to take action on what you've learned. [SPEAKER_02]: At the moment, we've been picking up on meta-adds thread, and this is our final episode on meta-ads, where we will be continuing our exploration of creative with the brilliant past guest Agima Rowling.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is in the last in the series, so remember there won't be an episode next week, to give you time to catch up on any of the series you missed, share with your team, and most importantly, take action. [SPEAKER_02]: Now with all the changes to meta ads in the last 12 months, a number of myths have sprung up about creatives and how to win the game that just are not true. [SPEAKER_02]: Lucky for us, Aggie is here to break them down for us, so brace yourselves for the 6 biggest myths in the world of meta ads creative and a huge quantity of advice on how to get your creatives and thus your meta ads accounts performing really well.

[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure you listen right at the end of the episode because Aki is giving some awesome answers in the quickfire inside a tips round so you don't want to miss out on that. [SPEAKER_02]: In this episode, I'm chatting with Meta adds expert Aggie Moroni. [SPEAKER_02]: Aggie is the founder and CEO of White Bee Digital, a paid social agency supporting e-commerce businesses as they scale, and she's also the author of the Amazon Best Selling Book, Crack the Code, the strategic Meta adds framework to scale your e-commerce brand.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hello Aggie. [SPEAKER_01]: Hi Chloe, thanks so much for having me back. [SPEAKER_02]: Always a pleasure to chat to you and to have you on the show. [SPEAKER_02]: How have things been since we last caught up, which was way back in February 25?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think it's safe to say that a lot has changed in Meta Ads since we last spoke. [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's got about 180 on the environment that we were in last year. [SPEAKER_02]: because we were kind of like creative was becoming important early last year, but it's somewhat increased, doesn't it, referred to? [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the algorithm changes started about December before we spoke last and there was kind of the impact of that was kind of trickling through the last time we spoke. [SPEAKER_01]: But say, we're full speed ahead now. [SPEAKER_01]: It's a totally different world, we're in a new normal. [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what we're going to dive into today because there is a lot of misinformation flying around.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of brands are feeling a little bit panicky. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, resources are strained already and budgets and so on. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's kind of like how do we position ourselves in this new normal, [SPEAKER_02]: Well, in a minute or two, we will be going through the six key myths that people are hearing that aren't really true. [SPEAKER_02]: So, prepare to be massively helpful of that, everyone.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I can't not ask you about the book. [SPEAKER_02]: Huge congrats on getting it out, they're getting it published, and you've had some amazing feedback on it. [SPEAKER_02]: Tell us a little bit about it before we go into the myths. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, so last September I launched my book about Mr.

Ads for Ecommerce brands and the reason I launched it it was because over the last six years I have heard the same questions asked time and time again and this isn't just from startups we're talking CMOs that maybe have a more analog marketing background or maybe you know they're new to Ecommerce or it's a different type of environment [SPEAKER_01]: And if you're at the strategic level and you're not in the weeds, you can feel like you lose touch a bit. [SPEAKER_01]: So this is for anyone that has their finger in the metad's pie at any e-commerce brand.

[SPEAKER_01]: All the questions that you were too scared to ask, things that people have told you and you're like, is that actually true? [SPEAKER_01]: I cover everything in that book and I also kind of cover this new creative world ruin with our creative strategy framework. [SPEAKER_01]: So it gives you step by step how you can organize your own strategy in your e-commerce business which is a huge thing now and as you can't really function with meta ads or succeed with meta ads without that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's such a huge shift and it's, it has, I know it's derailed many people and it's hard to get your head around, you know, something that was so straightforward, was meant to rise ever straightforward, has become so complete completely and utterly different. [SPEAKER_02]: So I can tell you exactly why you're getting such great, great reviews on the book. [SPEAKER_02]: We're going to be talking about the myths that are out there around what creative you do and don't need at the moment.

[SPEAKER_02]: Can we just clarify what creative and add formats it's actually we're talking about here, because I think my head immediately goes video video video video. [SPEAKER_02]: We're just talking video, we're talking about other things as well before we get into the six. [SPEAKER_01]: a good thing to clarify straight away. [SPEAKER_01]: So when we're talking about ad creators, we're talking about the visual element of the ad.

[SPEAKER_01]: So whether that's a static, whether it's the video, for e-commerce, obviously we have collection ads, which are incredible for us, you know, anything slide shows or formats, whether you're doing story formats, Instagram, feed, Facebook, [SPEAKER_01]: Awesome. [SPEAKER_01]: So what's our first myth to bust? [SPEAKER_01]: So can I just give context for this? [SPEAKER_01]: So these are myths I've personally heard and I've just gone that's not actually true is it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I just thought there's a lot of information being [SPEAKER_01]: kind of broadcast on places like X and LinkedIn. [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of it is contradictory or you know conflicts with other advice that you might have heard and I think it's really important to understand why those myths are being said and by who? [SPEAKER_01]: Because who you listen to and the type of e-commerce brands they're working with or that they're running are going to massively impact the advice that they're sharing and that is really important to bear in mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like that thing we should all be doing better on the internet is looking at who's actually telling us these things and is it relevant to us? [SPEAKER_02]: Is it not relevant to us? [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's been such a challenge in digital marketing ever since it came along. [SPEAKER_02]: Was is this even e-commerce advice?

[SPEAKER_02]: Can be a real real hiccup for people? [SPEAKER_01]: absolutely. [SPEAKER_01]: I think something that this big shift that's happened in the creative space or meta ads, it kind of touches on the first myth, which I'll read it out, Chloe. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, let's just do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're ads aren't working in inverted commas, you have a creative problem. [SPEAKER_01]: So, now that creative is this big thing, the elephant in the room when it comes to meta-ads, if you add to our working, or you're not hitting the goals that you've set for yourself, the first thing people say, oh it's your creative, you've got rubber shards, that's why they're not working. [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. [SPEAKER_01]: It's easy to blame the creatives and you know sometimes it's true maybe you're not doing the right things which we can cover what the right things are but it's the scapegoat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now everything is the creatives fault. [SPEAKER_01]: But actually I've seen many situations because we ordered accounts very thoroughly before we work with them and one brand I turned down last week would have been our biggest client [SPEAKER_01]: They were willing to invest budget on the creatives. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, they had bestilling products, tested products. [SPEAKER_01]: But when I looked at the numbers on their website, their conversion rate kept declining.

[SPEAKER_01]: So no matter how great the ads ended up being, after we deployed our creative strategy, we could not fix the conversion rate and that at the end of the day would determine whether they hit their goals or not, so we forecast everything. [SPEAKER_01]: So the fundamentals weren't right and it was not an ads problem. [SPEAKER_01]: There was a problem with the websites. [SPEAKER_01]: Now there are lots of things that can impact whether you add to work or not, and there's always a reason.

[SPEAKER_01]: Creatives are just one part of it. [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, there's your website, there's your offer, so what are you selling? [SPEAKER_01]: Do you have your numbers correct? [SPEAKER_01]: So this was another thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: They hadn't correct. [SPEAKER_01]: They hadn't calculated what their target, Mer had been, looks at their contribution margin or that kind of thing. [SPEAKER_01]: So the numbers were out of whack with what they were expecting to achieve [SPEAKER_01]: So all these different factors play into why you might not be hitting your goals. [SPEAKER_01]: So if someone just takes a quick glance who adds library and says it's your creatives, you need to take a bit of a deeper dive.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not that simple. [SPEAKER_02]: I can imagine some brands have gone, oh my god we need to do a full rebrand and come up with a whole new identity thinking they've got a creative problem. [SPEAKER_02]: Actually it's a conversion problem or it's they're not tracking it in the right way or feeding the right information in or any of those many, many other issues we can have. [SPEAKER_01]: It's in a way we've kind of gone back to the fundamentals of e-commerce because, you know, there's always like this bright shiny thing somewhere, there's always a new hack or new way to make you know some money, but the end of the day, it comes to are you attracting the right kind of audience?

[SPEAKER_01]: and the targeting is not in your major buying anymore, you know, in the settings, it's in your ads, so in the creatives, that's one part of it, are you attracting the right people for the right cost, to your websites, and then is that website converting them at the correct rate, feed to be profitable? [SPEAKER_01]: And then are you retaining them and making them come back, so they buy from you again? [SPEAKER_01]: Now every company has their own metrics that they need to hit, sometimes it's a one-off purchase, so if it's very high-end, outdoor furniture brand or maybe it's like outdoor kitchens or whatever it is that like 20,000 pounds, you're probably not going to have someone buy another 20,000 pound kitchens from me any next summer.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you know, every company has their own cadence and what they need to achieve from their customers, but creative always gets blamed. [SPEAKER_01]: So I'd say, just be wary of someone blamed your creative. [SPEAKER_01]: It's not always the case that that's the problem. [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm going to resist the urge to go off on the, we're being taken back to the Fundamentals point because gosh, I could talk about that for the rest of the afternoon.

[SPEAKER_02]: Instead, I'm going to bring us to our second myth. [SPEAKER_02]: which is almost the opposite of what we've just been talking about in some ways. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think this is one which has stopped a lot of brands in their tracks and made them just give up completely, which is that you need to test 50 creatives a week or a month. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think I've had someone say 100 a hundred a week as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's just, I mean, I was wondering if this was true myself, but it's a scary number when you hear that, isn't it? [SPEAKER_02]: The you must have 50 new creatives a week type thing. [SPEAKER_01]: So I lose track of how many times I've heard this unlinked in and I think sometimes we're all in a bit of an echo chamber. [SPEAKER_01]: So someone will say it, they won't really, but you know, no, whether it's sure not, but they then repeat it and then someone else repeats it and it's like this big Chinese whispers that happens across social media that this must be true.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the reason I've added this to my list is because I was an event last week and it was for Econ founders and someone approached me after and said, oh, um, what tool can I use to create 50 ads a week? [SPEAKER_01]: And you've adds a week and I was like, how much you spending? [SPEAKER_01]: And they're like, oh, um, 100 pounds a day? [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, there is absolutely no need for you to be creating 50 ads a week.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the reason that some people are saying these numbers is because they're spending multiple six figures or millions a month or met ads. [SPEAKER_01]: You need to remember that you have to adjust the volume of ads according to your budget. [SPEAKER_01]: Now that may sound like the most obvious thing in the world, but that context is missing from most of the posts that we see online. [SPEAKER_01]: And also I see lots of calculators.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now we even try to create them myself. [SPEAKER_01]: This is no shade on people saying, you know, roughly, how many ads do I need per ad spend? [SPEAKER_01]: Now there is no magic number for this unfortunately. [SPEAKER_01]: I wish I could just say black and white.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're spending 10 grand a month, this is how many ads you need, if you're spending 500,000 a month, this is how many ads you need. [SPEAKER_01]: And the reason the calculators are pointless on this is you won't know until you start running your own ads, that how quickly they burn out. [SPEAKER_01]: some adds are going to run for longer and hit your your goals, some won't even get any spend. [SPEAKER_01]: Now this is another new ones thing that's happened with this new algorithm update, some adds take all your budget and others don't get you know penny spent on them, which obviously is very frustrating if you're a brand that is budgeted for 50 adds.

[SPEAKER_01]: maybe three or four of them get shown to the world. [SPEAKER_01]: You're like, what a waste of budget that was. [SPEAKER_01]: So I would say be cautious about those numbers, be highly intentional with the ads that you're creating, everything should be researched and databaseed. [SPEAKER_01]: It's not that you have a thought in the shower, get some inspiration, no shade on that either, because that was the way it was.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just have a great idea on new commit to work, create the ad, launch it, see what happened. [SPEAKER_01]: There wasn't any real data behind it of your ideal customer or their beliefs or that pain points, motivations, objections, nothing, just a nice creative concept you thought about. [SPEAKER_01]: Or you'd go and ripple for your competitors ads in ad's library. [SPEAKER_01]: I also do not strongly recommend that either.

[SPEAKER_01]: and apart from being unethical, obviously, don't ever copy people, it's more like the blind leading the blind now. [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean that it's had to do well, especially in this new world, people aren't always doing full creative strategy. [SPEAKER_01]: So you're thinking, oh, you know, they look great. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to do those, but they're not going to work.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you need to know who you're selling to, what your goals are, [SPEAKER_01]: have your creative system in place, and this is what is making and breaking brands now, making sure they have a repeatable creative process internally, so they never run out of creative ideas for their ads. [SPEAKER_01]: So everything is a system now. [SPEAKER_01]: This is so different how it used to be. [SPEAKER_01]: So I think this is actually what's breaking brands now.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't have this system in place, so it just seems like so overwhelming. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it has to be new creative as part of business as usual, analyzing the creative working out what the new creative should be conducting the research and so forth. [SPEAKER_02]: So they've got that system in place. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think I totally agree with the idea of a calculator when you start to actually think about it.

[SPEAKER_02]: So well, of course, that's not going to work because it depends on lead time to sail. [SPEAKER_02]: It depends on the target customer basically going, it depends on where you are in your ad journey. [SPEAKER_02]: And if this is the, if you're finally going right, we're going to build our creative system. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I would assume at the beginning of the process you're going to be doing a lot of testing and needing more creative to zone in on what works for your audience and then it becomes somewhat more stable.

[SPEAKER_02]: Until you have a new idea from the data and then off you go again. [SPEAKER_01]: I'd say another thing that's massively flipped is before people would start with the visual part of the ad, but now the system is flipped. [SPEAKER_01]: So you do your messaging first, so you do all your research, [SPEAKER_01]: not to plug the book, but if you just read my book, I'll go into this in detail. [SPEAKER_01]: So you do your research, you know, macro, so what's happening in the world, your niche, your business, your ad account, and so on, and that goes into your offers, everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you do a lot of work. [SPEAKER_01]: So our system's nine steps. [SPEAKER_01]: The creative bit doesn't start to the eighth step. [SPEAKER_01]: So there's a lot of work that happens before you even visually communicate what your message is because the messaging is your targeting now.

[SPEAKER_01]: So before you could toggle on a few things and you're in your targeting settings and away you go. [SPEAKER_01]: That does not work now. [SPEAKER_01]: Everything's broad targeting and the actual messaging is what the AI is scanning in your ads to match your ads to the people that are online and that's how you ads get served. [SPEAKER_01]: So if your ads are very vague, it's not very clear you know who they're talking to, [SPEAKER_01]: you just who adds, can't match to people.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's actually impacting the profitability of your ads. [SPEAKER_01]: So once you understand the system and how that's changed, you then adapt to how you work. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's all about how you visually communicate a message. [SPEAKER_01]: So you might have the same angle, but you communicate it five different ways.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that you have a video, a static, carousel collection ad, all saying the same thing, but it all looks very different [SPEAKER_02]: I think what we're saying here, or what Maggie's saying here, so it's she's the expert I am not in this arena, is that you shouldn't be investing in 50 creators a week, you should be investing in building the system that brings you the creatives. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that immediately, anyone says system or efficiency at the moment, we go to AI.

[SPEAKER_02]: So let's do the third myth, which is that AI generated ad creatives are a quick solution to this creative problem. [SPEAKER_01]: So part two of the question I had at this event was, you know, what tech or what AI can I use to create those 50 ads? [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like number one, obviously, with a budget issue. [SPEAKER_01]: But number two, I said, AI is not a quick solution.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because number one, there are so many options to figure out which one to use. [SPEAKER_01]: And they change all the time. [SPEAKER_01]: The AI systems, or software we were using, six months ago, is different to what we use internally now. [SPEAKER_01]: And the thing is, it's never just one software or however you want to, one LLA or however you're going to call it, that will do everything for you, they might get the first draft for you, then you might have to go to Canvray I and edit it manually and then it's ready so nothing comes out perfect and if you're working with clients, so maybe work with various econ brands every time they want to tweak.

[SPEAKER_01]: you have to manually do it usually because it doesn't quite fit what they had in mind. [SPEAKER_01]: So I'd be very cautious about saying AI is going to solve your problems because it can actually you might can create a road for your own back. [SPEAKER_01]: Suddenly you're trying to create 50 ads with this super prompt that someone shared on LinkedIn and you actually just get yourself in knots. [SPEAKER_01]: And then you feel rubbish, I think, why can't I crack this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, everyone else is managing to do it. [SPEAKER_01]: But behind the scenes, agency people are talking to each other, going, this isn't actually that quick to do. [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it's great for ideation. [SPEAKER_01]: If your clients aren't too precious or you know, your brand is quite open, it's doing things that do not look polish non-brand, crack on.

[SPEAKER_01]: It can be brilliant in that sense. [SPEAKER_01]: But if you're really particular and you need everything to be a certain way, it's definitely not [SPEAKER_01]: the cheaper or quicker way to create your arts. [SPEAKER_02]: So again, it comes back to that, the whole thing of like AI isn't the solution you need a problem that it can solve in the first place, but also it's the putting that effort in to do, I think it was the other seven or eight steps of the nine-step piece where you're not yet creating anything you're doing the research, which will then help you understand what you need to create and maybe an AI tool can help you at that point, but [SPEAKER_02]: It's all going to depend on your brand requirements, the tone of voice, the visual, identity, and all those sorts of things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if you literally go into, I don't know, cling, which is like a video one or Nanobanon or two, which does creative say, this is a photo of the products, create me a meta ad. [SPEAKER_01]: It's going to create something weird. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, we all know how rubbish it, you know, L&M just aren't great at ads. [SPEAKER_01]: Full start, like you really need to lead to being the driving sea and the strategist and that it will help them to implement things for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think things are getting easier with that, I don't feel like I have to be as detailed in my prompting anymore as I used to and I still get great results, but I think you need to really be comfortable with what you're trying to create with it before you kind of let the loose on your ad creatives. [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's always hard as well if you're creating it someone else. [SPEAKER_01]: because they may have a different idea of what they are looking for versus what you've created with that.

[SPEAKER_02]: So lining expectations sometimes are completely and then our fourth myth is quite linked into this, which is that real UGC is dead when you can get AI UGC for a fraction of the cost. [SPEAKER_01]: I hear this so much. [SPEAKER_01]: I actually think the opposite is true. [SPEAKER_01]: So before we started recording, I was saying how things have changed so much for my agency at the moment, you know, now we have an online on retainer designer, fidget editor, so on.

[SPEAKER_01]: We actually also do the sourcing management of UGC creators, which we never had to do before, because in this world of AI, people want authentic. [SPEAKER_01]: connection, they want authentic video, they want real people talking about products in their language, in their home environments or whilst they're grabbing a coffee in the morning, you know, the Yapper ad, you know, people talking to camera, that's taken off, it's like doing really well now because people want to see people without makeup or, you know, just have to have the gym or in their car, just having a chat about whatever they've just bought or what they're loving or what they bought someone.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I can understand the appeal of UGC created by AI and it is getting better before it was really clear if it was an AI UGC content creator. [SPEAKER_01]: When I speak to huge brands, they're big fans of it, because they don't have to pay lots of different creators for it. [SPEAKER_01]: They can just test concepts and scripts and whichever works they can then hire real people to replicate those ads with genuine content, maybe mashups and things like that. [SPEAKER_01]: But I think it's really interesting how, you know, it's such a split world on this, but I personally see UGC getting stronger.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm seeing much more demand from brands that we're working with asking for real people. [SPEAKER_01]: The founders themselves are also really against it because they say we want to show that we're an authentic brand. [SPEAKER_01]: We don't want, you know, because there is also a bit of a pushback from consumers. [SPEAKER_01]: If they see something is trying to be real, but it's AI, they kind of don't trust the brand.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whereas if it's whims a call and on purposely AI, so you've got a gorilla flying through the sky or you know something really that could not be real then people are open to it and it can do well in ads because people already then mentally know it's not real but if you're trying to hoodwink people or that's how they feel the trust is broken. [SPEAKER_01]: So we're saying to our clients now, because some of them have those brand ambassador schemes or they have like their customers that want to create content for them, which is great, but if you've ever worked in marketing for E-Corm, you're a founder, you're trying to get this gold dust [SPEAKER_01]: It's actually really hard to get this from someone that is not a professional content creator, because they don't understand the lighting, the compositions, the edits that have to happen to make it an epic content that converts into sales.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're listening to this and you're in the marketing department, for any commerce brand or you head up a marketing, for any con brand, put aside budget, take it out if you add spend and allocate it to real content creators, [SPEAKER_02]: For me, there's two big parts about this. [SPEAKER_02]: One, there's the potential brand Bashlack. [SPEAKER_02]: Bashlack, lashback. [SPEAKER_02]: That can't be you get, yeah, it's, we're recording in the heat wave, everybody, you're going to give us both a break on this.

[SPEAKER_02]: You've got that kind of backlash that can come at you. [SPEAKER_02]: If you get found to be using fake UGC, which implies you don't have any actual UGC, but then you've also got the fact that as humans, our subconscious will has a way of identifying what's authentic and what isn't authentic. [SPEAKER_02]: like pictures with five ten fingers instead of five fingers on a hand and that kind of stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: We might not logically see it actively see it, but our subconscious is going, that's not real.

[SPEAKER_02]: So there's that whole psychological downgrade from it. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think we've seen with blog content and written content that the stuff created by humans is outperforming. [SPEAKER_02]: And I think we'll see exactly the same thing with the video. [SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, it's definitely [SPEAKER_01]: I have to say one thing that if it helps, I have to find is very useful, creating AI videos for ads is when you have little snippets that you can use in mashup edits, so maybe you have like a beauty product and you need like a short video to show like the oil in a skin product or maybe you need to show like you know how moisture absorbs into the skin or how oil in the hair kind of coats the hair or something like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: those little scientific videos come work really well, all little clips of like, you know, one of the ingredients that you have, like in the in nature, you know, to help tell the story, they can work really well, and I don't think anyone cares if those snippets aren't real, you know, because they look like animations anyway, they can be created with AI. [SPEAKER_01]: But I think when you're trying to replicate a human black person and they're giving a review of your products, [SPEAKER_01]: you want it to be a real person because then they could be lying where everything could be a terrible product, it might not work.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just not the same. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, totally agree. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, number five of our myths. [SPEAKER_02]: Creative volume versus creative quality.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I have an anecdote for this one. [SPEAKER_01]: So I always see again on social media, people saying you have to have a huge volume of creative. [SPEAKER_01]: That's the only way you're going to find what works. [SPEAKER_01]: And others are saying, actually, the quality is more important.

[SPEAKER_01]: So each head is intentional. [SPEAKER_01]: Each head has its place in your ad accounts. [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone has a theory, like you know why you've created it. [SPEAKER_01]: Because it's going to have this outcome or touch on this pain point or whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do think it's a mix of the two. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think, again, this is budget dependent. [SPEAKER_01]: If you have huge budget, some talking like high six figures, million a month, then obviously you're gonna have a lot of ads every month, probably a lot of 400 or something, like I'm talking huge volumes, smaller advertisers, not that many, you know, from 10 to maybe 30 ads a month, [SPEAKER_01]: which again, if you're used to creating maybe five or six a month is a huge leap, but we're not talking 50 a week.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's really important to be really well researched, and then have your system in play so you know that when you have these new angles that you're testing, that you know they're okay, you've got like a checklist, just like these are different formats we need, whether it's like video, UGC, [SPEAKER_01]: Carrister, all these different, you know, formats for each angle. [SPEAKER_01]: So you test by angle rather than, by, I don't know, otherwise, that people test like all videos or all carousels because you want to test the message and how that's visually communicated and then you'll find your winners and that's how you can start iterating on your performance as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: There isn't, it's not better or worse and one, [SPEAKER_01]: They were spending 30k a month on ads. [SPEAKER_01]: They had over 200 ads in the ad account. [SPEAKER_01]: They were very, very not profitable. [SPEAKER_01]: So they were making a huge loss every month.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the reason was, every ad looks very similar with a similar messaging. [SPEAKER_01]: So they hadn't really tested anything new, but they had a huge volume of creatives. [SPEAKER_01]: So this is [SPEAKER_01]: The example I used to highlight what I mean when I say, yes, she couldn't have high volume, but all the ads are saying the same thing and they all look really similar. [SPEAKER_01]: You're not really testing, you're just pumping the account full of ads.

[SPEAKER_01]: A volume for the sake of volume. [SPEAKER_02]: If you haven't got that message yet, everybody, we are not doing volume for the sake of volume. [SPEAKER_02]: You have to get the strategy and all the layers adding up to make sure you're making creative that's worthy of being tested. [SPEAKER_02]: Let's jump straight into number six because this one had my brain spinning when you sent it over to me.

[SPEAKER_02]: In many ways, I'm fascinated to know what's going on with this one. [SPEAKER_02]: I give you number six. [SPEAKER_02]: Static ads are the only way to test angles at volume. [SPEAKER_01]: So this is another myth that I hear all over the internet on social media and it's something I really don't agree with so I understand the logic so what that myth is is that when you're spending [SPEAKER_01]: at Paulie or Metza.

[SPEAKER_01]: So say you're spending six figures a month. [SPEAKER_01]: The volume of adgeny needs create is huge and a lot of ways this is tackled is you'll test the angle first so you'll test the message is this message landing with my audience and the argument is you can test quicker with static arts. [SPEAKER_01]: Now this makes sense because statistics are quicker to create. [SPEAKER_01]: You don't need any video editing, you don't have to be on location anywhere, you can take a pat shot and create something and you've got a static ad with the headline.

[SPEAKER_01]: In reality, some angles are just communicated better with video. [SPEAKER_01]: So sometimes, for example, so I always talk about the five stages of awareness. [SPEAKER_01]: Most brands talk to the people that are most aware and ready to buy. [SPEAKER_01]: So 5% of their audience was actually with me to add to your generating demands.

[SPEAKER_01]: You need to talk to people that have no idea that you exist. [SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of this is done to education. [SPEAKER_01]: So people need to be taught what it is you solve, the problem you solve, or, you know, a bit about your brand. [SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of people respond better to video.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're only pumping in static ads into your ad account to test messaging, you're missing a massive opportunity. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I do think it's easier perhaps when you're a smaller brand, even though you have smaller budgets, because maybe you can be more intentional about those videos, maybe you've got things you can mash up and you've got more bandwidth with a smaller budget, and it doesn't sound logical, but I've seen I find that's the case. [SPEAKER_01]: when we work with brands of smaller budgets that they can be more intentional about that mix.

[SPEAKER_01]: The bigger budgets, because it's such a volume game at that stage, I just do think there's a lost opportunity there, you know, to talk through products and have different iterations of a founder add or have different demonstration videos or different unboxing videos, because you're going to hit different people with those videos and you would if you just had a picture. [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm sure there are some messages that it's almost impossible to deliver via a static ad.

[SPEAKER_02]: And there are some that work brilliant on a static ad. [SPEAKER_02]: So I think I think we have to get away from thinking text ad image ad video ad is like a ladder. [SPEAKER_02]: It is like no complete different things, different jobs. [SPEAKER_02]: And therefore, if you want a test, you have to test with the right format for the right message.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, just to give you an example of this, [SPEAKER_01]: So quite a few of our clients in the past have sold gift boxes, so there'll be more premium price point greater Christmas and things like that. [SPEAKER_01]: And we have tested every single format going for those across all those clients in the past. [SPEAKER_01]: The thing that wins hands down absolutely every time is video. [SPEAKER_01]: A video of someone opening the box and someone whether it's the founder or [SPEAKER_01]: opening the box with joy and explaining what each product is in that gift box.

[SPEAKER_01]: That outperforms everything. [SPEAKER_01]: Every time we've run that for different brands, that is the format that works because people want to really be confident that what they're getting, they're seeing all angles, every piece in that box, so that when they spend their money with the love for the gift for that person, there is no objection in their minds. [SPEAKER_01]: They are confident that that is a perfect gift [SPEAKER_01]: It's really hard to show that just in a static image.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I mean, there'll be things in there that you might need to pull out, you know, maybe it's a dressing gown, so you want to see how big the dressing gown is, maybe there's a candle, so you want to see how the candle looks in someone's hands, you know, how big it is. [SPEAKER_01]: You know, you don't always get the economy of all the scale of things when you just see it in a static image. [SPEAKER_01]: So I think my personal experience is if you really want to test your ads, even when you're doing at volume, you need to have a framework in place to also be testing video when you're testing your messaging.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's such a good example, it illustrates it's so well. [SPEAKER_02]: So we've done our six. [SPEAKER_02]: I've got one more question before you before we head into the inside of tips, which is who should be creating the creative? [SPEAKER_02]: Who should be setting the strategy?

[SPEAKER_02]: So I've seen some people swear it should be the brand should do all the creation. [SPEAKER_02]: Other people like, well, the agency should do all the creation. [SPEAKER_02]: What's your, your approach this? [SPEAKER_02]: Because I think this is something somewhere where a lot of people get hung up as well [SPEAKER_02]: created.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is such a good question and I'd say if you'd ask me this a year ago I'd have given you a totally different answer to what we're about to give you now. [SPEAKER_01]: So this is how much the landscape has changed. [SPEAKER_01]: If you're a pure major buying agency, so you are, and I'm saying just because obviously major buying is not simple, but if you're just doing the major buying, so you're setting the settings, building the campaigns, it's impossible for you to set the strategy and to get the best results, because you should be in charge of everything, you should be doing your research and what the ad should be saying.

[SPEAKER_01]: The thing is, when it comes to the actual creation of the assets, [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes the brand wants to do it, and they have the budget internally, they'll have their own content team, social media team, that's fine, but they need to be briefed really strictly on what is needed for social ads. [SPEAKER_01]: Because that's what you'll know, ads on meta are a different beast to what you would put on other platforms or, you know, [SPEAKER_01]: I think sometimes it's best if the agency takes over everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we personally do now and this is through trial and error because we'd be briefing things, our clients are becoming overwhelmed saying we don't know how to actually create what you've asked us. [SPEAKER_01]: Despite great briefing I might add, but if you're not doing it day to day and you're having to add more work onto your in-house team, that is really overwhelming on them. [SPEAKER_01]: to suddenly have loads of extra work to do. [SPEAKER_01]: So it's how do they fit that into that already demanding jobs?

[SPEAKER_01]: So now we just take over. [SPEAKER_01]: We just say we need raw clips of XYZ. [SPEAKER_01]: We need these kind of shots if they have photos she's booked in. [SPEAKER_01]: We'll say please let us know so we can brief you on the shots we need.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or, you know, we're going on location brilliant. [SPEAKER_01]: So for example, stuff that always gets left off, but is so critical for paid social is close-ups. [SPEAKER_01]: People all might want to feel like the products coming out for the screen at them. [SPEAKER_01]: They want to see it as if they're looking at it themselves, not from far away.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's always missed when you do like a more sort of editorial type of sheet. [SPEAKER_01]: So there are some shots that can be really specific for ads. [SPEAKER_01]: So when that's missing, it's actually really hard for anybody to execute properly. [SPEAKER_01]: But I would say now, if your agency is only doing major buying and they're leaving you to come up with all your creative strategy and all the creations that they can just just build the ads for you, I would say that is going to put you on the back foot and we do we are being approached by brands now that is that's the case.

[SPEAKER_01]: The agency aren't briefing them and they're feeding a bit lost. [SPEAKER_01]: So we take over that whole process and a lot of EECOM meta-ads agencies are moving to that now because they want the control. [SPEAKER_01]: Because obviously if you're ad-stue well, your clients are happy and they stay with you. [SPEAKER_01]: You don't want to be stressed, you don't want your clients to be stressed, you want everyone to get great results.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's why a lot of ad agencies are now taking over the creative as well. [SPEAKER_02]: It does seem like if you're not having input into the creative, is the person running the account that you are. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you're stumbling blind. [SPEAKER_02]: Basically, I don't know how you can.

[SPEAKER_02]: When your biggest lever is out of your control, I could possibly say. [SPEAKER_02]: It's hard, definitely. [SPEAKER_02]: Awesome. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for all that Aggie.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's been great picking your brains about all of this. [SPEAKER_02]: Listeners, make sure you stay tuned right to the end because we are about to do Aggies inside a tips on metarads, which are clearly. [SPEAKER_02]: You can already tell. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to be awesome.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, Aggie, so far we've gone deep into creative myth-busting. [SPEAKER_02]: Now you get to house with your inside an knowledge about the whole of Meterads. [SPEAKER_02]: So for the following questions, your answer can be anything to do with Meterads, which of course does include everything we've already been talking about. [SPEAKER_02]: Aggie, are you ready?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, let's start with new beadvise. [SPEAKER_02]: If we've inspired someone to take their first step, what they need to know to give themselves the best chance of success. [SPEAKER_01]: My advice to anyone that's completely need to matter ads is number one, you add the last thing in your whole e-commerce business that you should be playing with.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what do I mean by that? [SPEAKER_01]: Does your website convert? [SPEAKER_01]: So that sounds like such a stupid question. [SPEAKER_01]: There are obviously your friends and family that are going to buy from you because they love you and they want to support your business, but they come to a point where you will milk them dry and you need to actually get some new customers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are they buying for me easily, so if you've got a conversion rate over 2%. [SPEAKER_01]: Do you have your email flow set up? [SPEAKER_01]: This is so important people do not buy the first time they see one ad, it could take months for them to buy from you, so you need to be able to capture emails you can sell to them forever. [SPEAKER_01]: Is your organic social optimised?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you posting organically? [SPEAKER_01]: The bane of everyone's life, but in this series evil. [SPEAKER_01]: Once that's all done, then you can start looking at ads. [SPEAKER_01]: And that's when I would really strongly recommend if you're going to be doing them yourself, you get trained, because it's very easy to lose money with watching hacks on YouTube and stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just [SPEAKER_01]: pay for a course, learn how to do it properly, and then you've made a good investment in your business to learn to actually generate sales for yourself, because I see a lot of new bees trying to fudge their way through free training, and they just don't tell you what you need to learn to in order to be profitable with it. [SPEAKER_01]: So that'll probably be my biggest advice. [SPEAKER_02]: Brilliant advice. [SPEAKER_02]: Now once you've started, of course, you've got to keep [SPEAKER_01]: So I do believe that the creative lever is obviously the biggest one when everything around your ecosystem is working.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm a big believer that if something isn't working, that there is a solution for it, you just have to know where to look. [SPEAKER_01]: So my the first things to check, [SPEAKER_01]: your numbers. [SPEAKER_01]: So your target cost acquisition, your cac, and your blended ROS and contribution margin numbers. [SPEAKER_01]: Are you confident that they are what they are?

[SPEAKER_01]: With all the volatility and energy prices, supply chain issues, cost of goods, etc, are the numbers you calculated before still relevant today? [SPEAKER_01]: Because they could be different and that mean you're losing money with that realising into its two rates. [SPEAKER_01]: Do you have new content coming in all the time? [SPEAKER_01]: So, rule assets that you can make into new ads.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would say the research that you're doing your ads, redo it, that at least quarterly. [SPEAKER_01]: Because I know when you're a smaller brand, you don't have time to do this weekly or even monthly, but make sure you go deep, at least once a quarter, because you will find new opportunities of things to talk about in your ads. [SPEAKER_01]: And once you realise how to do it in this cycle that you read, kind of, redo every now and again, you're always, you'll never run out of things to talk about in your ads, because that's the biggest block that people have like, just don't know what to say, I've got a creative block, I don't know what messaging I need to talk about.

[SPEAKER_01]: So once you have this cadence set up with this cycle, you will never run out of ideas, so I'd recommend doing that. [SPEAKER_02]: Love that. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, if someone listing wants to learn more, is there one cheap or free resource, you would recommend? [SPEAKER_01]: Well, you can come and follow me on Instagram.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm usually showing my kind of beginner content on Instagram. [SPEAKER_01]: There's obviously Meta Blue Prince. [SPEAKER_01]: So that's their free Meta Edge training. [SPEAKER_01]: Let's say that's brilliant for the kind of media buying side of Meta Ads.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to learn how to apply into your own account, though, that's where it's limiting, because there's no one to ask or get feedback on any of the materials. [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to get a general idea of how methods it adds work, that is the biggest free trading that you can do or methods it adds. [SPEAKER_02]: Love it. [SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: Finally, it's a crystal ball time. [SPEAKER_02]: What's coming up in the next six to 12 months that we should be getting ready for? [SPEAKER_01]: This is maybe a little left field, I don't know, but it's kind of touches on something we were talking about earlier. [SPEAKER_01]: So even in the time of AI and it's a bit of economic volatility at the moment so people are trying to be as efficient as possible all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's also this counter movement happening of real life connection, real people, authenticity, things that look a bit rough and ready that aren't necessarily polished, lean into that because that's where we're going. [SPEAKER_01]: I think that people are becoming more cynical with things that are easy to produce. [SPEAKER_01]: So if there's something that's taken you a bit more time, a bit more thoughts, doesn't mean that's be expensive. [SPEAKER_01]: But you know, maybe you've gone into your back garden as a post having an AI background, you know, those kinds of things that is going to resonate more with your audience going forward because we're starting to see that already in the as that we're creating love that bit of freedom little bit less time in here and make up absolutely we will love that.

[SPEAKER_02]: you're speaking to me, Agu, we are very nearly at the show, so please, at the list is now where they can find out more about you and your business and getting touch. [SPEAKER_01]: So you can find me on LinkedIn, Agu, Moroni, or over on Instagram at whatbedigital and my website is whatbedigital.com. [SPEAKER_01]: And if you'd like some inspiration of different types of Angie, you could create for the different stages of awareness that we talked about earlier, you can find my meta-ads vaults in the show notes.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's straightforward, is that everybody? [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much. [SPEAKER_02]: It's always brilliant to have you as a part of our meta-ads series. [SPEAKER_02]: And you have, wow, dust was some amazing advice today.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, huge thanks. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me. [SPEAKER_02]: always great to get to learn a bit about meta ads from Aggie and if you were confused last not sure what to do with your creative strategy or meta, think you've got a lot to be getting on with there to really avoid those myths, those six myths we went through and to really zone in on what you actually need. [SPEAKER_02]: For me it's all about [SPEAKER_02]: strategy.

[SPEAKER_02]: The research that goes into working what had you should create being driven by that research to create the right type of ads, graphics, videos, etc. [SPEAKER_02]: Only using AI if it's actually beneficial, which is not just about your time, it's about the quality of the output and the results of that output. [SPEAKER_02]: But also considering the whole piece around your ads and how that's driving the results, how what happens when they get to your website. [SPEAKER_02]: If you set yourself up for success in that way as well, plus then you've got the tracking and everything that we talked about with each back in the first episode in this series.

[SPEAKER_02]: And [SPEAKER_02]: lots of other stuff we've done in this series. [SPEAKER_02]: So I think if once you've listened to these five episodes you are so well set up for making your MetaRads a huge success for you this year. [SPEAKER_02]: Now what else do I need to tell you that? [SPEAKER_02]: You can get the links to everything we discuss the full transcript of the episode.

[SPEAKER_02]: Our important notes are more at keepoptimizing.com. [SPEAKER_02]: You could also use the short link keepopt.com for the number of the episode to get to the right page too.

[SPEAKER_02]: When you get to the website, please do. [SPEAKER_02]: Put yourself on our email list. [SPEAKER_02]: You don't miss out on all the stuff we're up to to help you improve your business. [SPEAKER_02]: And thank you for tuning into this episode of The Key Pop Demising podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: All five of our episodes revisiting the meta-adds thread are now live. [SPEAKER_02]: Think of it as your get me up to date on meta-adds fast masterclass. [SPEAKER_02]: So if you haven't already [SPEAKER_02]: You can find them by scrolling up your podcast feed or use the short link, keep op.com forward slash meta to find it all on the website.

[SPEAKER_02]: Our next masterclass topic is email marketing. [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, we are revisiting the email marketing thread. [SPEAKER_02]: You can catch that so far at keepop.com forward slash email, and make sure you tune in in two Wednesdays time to catch the start of our new dive into it all.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, no episode next week. [SPEAKER_02]: So you have time to catch up on any episode you missed from this series, and most importantly, [SPEAKER_02]: make some progress, put into action some of what you've learned. [SPEAKER_02]: That is the most important thing about this podcast. [SPEAKER_02]: It's not listing and getting lots of ideas.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's actually taking action with them and making it make a difference in your business. [SPEAKER_02]: So make sure you're subscribed to us or following us on your favorite podcast player so you don't miss out on what we've got coming up. [SPEAKER_02]: And if you know someone who's particularly interested in improving their matter methods or email marketing performance, please do tell them that we are covering it because this show exists to help [SPEAKER_02]: Have a great week and make sure you listen to the next episode so I can help you to keep optimizing your marketing.