The Anatomy Of A High Converting Facebook Ad (Case Study & Free Workbook)

If you’re wondering what it takes to create a high converting Facebook Ad that actually generates leads and builds your email list from COLD traffic, then read on…

I want to share with you a case study of a Facebook ad we ran to generate over 106 email leads in under 7 days.

Total cost for 106 emails? $77.00

Which meant, the average cost per email subscriber was only $0.72c.

Towards the end of this post, there is a free updated workbook for 2020 that goes with this post (no opt-in required).

This Facebook Ads workbook can be applied to various business models (local business, coaches, e-commerce etc) as the principles of creating a high converting Facebook ad are the same.

Now before you scroll down to download the workbook, be sure to read this post in its entirety first or the workbook won’t make sense.

Cool? ok, let’s get into it.

List Building With Facebook Ads

First, let’s talk stats and proof:

the anatomy of a high converting facebook ad from cold traffic


In the above image,  you can see that I’m spending about $0.71 per sign up to rapidly grow an email list on a niche website.

Our cost per click (CPC) was less than 0.18c per click which is pretty low.

Just a side note on CPC – getting the lowest cost per click is not going to get you email leads or make you money.

If getting leads for your business is going to move the needle then you should focus on the number of emails (conversions) as the key performance indicator.

You could get 100 clicks at $0.10c per click but if no one is opting into your freebie – you’ve got a problem.

You want Facebook to optimize your ad campaign by showing your ad to the people who would most likely enter in their emails.

The ad below offers a “dating cheat sheet” and responsible for generating 106 email conversions + 2 organic email leads in 7 days.

As growing the email list is the main lever in this business, our goal is to build an email list in preparation for an upcoming digital product launch.

The Anatomy Of A High Converting Facebook Ad (Case Study & Free Workbook) High Converting Facebook Ad

This ad was easy to create, I went to canva.com and created an image using a plain black background with my client’s image as an ad.

Even though the ad is simple, it represents a “real person” behind the brand and the ad creative has enough color to catch your attention.

If you were scrolling through your Facebook newsfeed, the ad stands out as it is a contrast to what you normally see on newsfeeds.

The bait or offer here is a “Tinder & Bumble” cheat sheet and has a direct call to action on it “Download”

After split-testing different ad variations, for us the best converting ads were real-life images.

Facebook Ad Creative

An ad creative is he image, video or visual that you will be using in your Facebook Ad.

Your image or video should be a visual representation of your ad copy.

Your ad copy should explains why they should opt-in to your lead magnet.

If you’re ever stuck, think of the visitor asking “What’s in it for me? How does this benefit me?”

Your ad creative should do the SAME.

Your ad creative can have the following elements:

  • Convey the offer or hook – if you offer an ebook, you can use an ebook cover as a visual representation.
  • Tells a story – if you’re using a video, you can film your product in use or you performing the treatment or providing a service to a client.
  • Display the product – an image of your product or the cover of your free guide.
  • Stand out in newsfeed – use contrasting colors or captivating images without annoying yellow boxes or big red arrows.
  • Brand consistency – if you or your client’s have a brand style guide in place, add touches of your brand’s colors or fonts in the image or video.
  • Evoke emotion – certain photos or visual representations evoke emotions you want your audience to feel.

Facebook Ad Copy

The Facebook’s newsfeed is crowded and every post is vying for users attention….

So how do you write ad copy that stands out and gets your ad clicked on?

Here’s the ad copy we used to generate 106 email conversions.

———————————————-

 Living Under Matchless Existence?
Create a Successful Tinder & Bumble dating profile with this Cheat Sheet:
Winning bio and profile examples to swipe
Photo 1 to 4 selection success recipe
Copy and paste winning opening messages
Get Cheat Sheet Here: Linktolandingpage.com 

———————————————-

Obviously the ad copy will have to align with your target audience’s needs.

You’ll notice that the ad copy begins with a strong question based on a pain point that the audience is experiencing.

However, be careful not to be too “negative” or aggressive as Facebook can attribute that to poor user experience and disapprove the ad.

Especially in sensitive niches like weight loss, dating and finance.

Take some time to think about the challenges, pain points and struggles your audience may be experiencing.

Then find a way to address that pain point or challenge in a positive way.

In my free workbook, I show you how to come up with this and use it in your ad copy.

In this case, the freebie was a cheat sheet and guide to creating a successful Tinder and Bumble dating profile for men.

The question “Living Under Matchless Existence?” immediately allows the audience to qualify themselves to be eligible for this freebie.

In the second part of the ad copy, the ad copy tells prospects what they can expect to see inside the cheat sheet.

You want your Facebook ad to be congruent with your landing page, so re-iterated some of the ad copy on your landing page.

This means your landing page should explain to the visitor what they are going to get when they enter their name and email.

The copy on the landing page states that they are going to get a “Free Tinder & Bumble Cheat Sheet” with a swipe file of “bio profile examples”.

Throw in some compelling ad copy (like “copy and paste”, “swipe and deploy”) so that the user can anticipate when they get their freebie.

Facebook Ad Link Headline & Description

Under the image, you have the headline for the actual link. The headline summarises what the user will get when they click on that link.

FB Ad link and description

In the description, you will want to summarize again what the user will get.

We probably could have done a better job by adding a simple yet strong call to action like “Get your cheat sheet now.”

Or split test the call to action with “Download”.

By adding a description and another call to action in your ad, you increase the likelihood that your prospects will click on the ad.

From past experience, most people pay attention to the headline more than the description so focus more on what you will write in the headline.

However don’t leave the text description blank as it looks kinda odd.

Just a simple text description will do so don’t stress too much over it.

Finally, you want to make sure that you have a call to action button on your ad.

The 3 call to actions buttons that works well in a Facebook Ad “Traffic” or “Conversion” campaign are:

  • Download
  • Learn More
  • Sign up

For free ebooks, checklist and cheatsheets, I like to use the download button.

For a local business offering a downloadable coupon, I switch between the “sign up” and “learn more” button.

Even though the download button is not the highest converting call to action button, it pre-frames people on what action they are required to take on the next page.

At the end of the day, this ad’s goal was to get email conversions and not just website clicks.

After 50 web conversions, I duplicated the campaign to a “Conversion” campaign as the Facebook ad pixel and algorithm now knew what a conversion looked like.

Landing Page Congruency

The final piece is creating a landing page that matches your Facebook’s ads offer.

The opt-in landing page is how you automate the process of capturing leads.

I am no longer using Clickfunnels and have now switched over to Groovefunnels.

It’s 100x better than Clickfunnels and much more affordable.

You can get your free lifetime account to Groovefunnels here if you like.

The free account lets you build up to 3 sales funnels and websites completely free!

Without the landing being congruent to the Facebook ad, it would be impossible to obtain 106 emails.

Therefore make sure you have the same headline, imagery and copy transferred over to your landing page.

This lets visitors know that they’re in the right place.

High Converting Facebook Ad Recap

The anatomy of a high converting Facebook ad for lead generation and list building boils down to:

  • A striking Image that stands out on the newsfeed
  • Compelling ad copy that focuses on your audience’s pain point and offers a solution
  • An irresistible offer, bribe or freebie
  • A relevant call to action in the ad copy and ad button
  • A relevant and matching landing page.

Beyond the ad, it’s important to have your audience targeting dialed in.

Ad targeting will have to be a separate blog post as the targeting features within the Facebook ads manager is a beast.

Once you have collected your leads, always have a follow-up email campaign in place to move prospects further along their journey.

Not everyone will be ready to take up your offer immediately.

Therefore you should segment your email list and create different follow-up campaigns for buyers and non-buyers.

The free FB Ads workbook will walk you through step-by-step in creating high converting ads that speak to your target audience.

When you have all the above elements, you will end up with a high converting Facebook ad that…

  • Generate leads
  • Builds your email list
  • Allows you to generate revenue
  • And become successful in your new product launch

Facebook Ads Workbook Download

Click on the image below to download your Free FB Ads workbook (updated for 2020).

There’s no opt-in and the PDF will open in a separate tab.

If you love this post, it would mean the world to me if you could hit the like or share button!

FB ads workbook download

Photo of author

Aimee Vo

Aimee Vo is a digital marketing expert with over 12 years hands-on experience in SEO and paid traffic. She publishes content on sales funnels, lead generation, and content marketing with insights from personal experience.