The Facebook Roundup: Volume 11

As per usual…

Those that land in our “good” selection are ones which really bring forth best practices, creativity, and effectiveness. The “bad” are ones that had a possibility at potential but weren’t exactly making the cut. For the “worst”, and we mean no hard feelings to those at the bottom of the list, is that special feeling you get when your stomach doesn’t settle (that sudden lump in the back of your throat).

So let’s begin with Volume 11.

The Good

The good of the week is a new product called “Pavlok” which aims to help break bad habits.

Why is this such an attention-getter?

• The brand name “Pavlok” is a play on Pavlov which, as you may know, was a pioneer in classical conditioning (the dog thing may come to mind) so if you connect the two you can see how it fits perfectly with their approach to forming habits.
• The image is very eye catching because it looks like a wrist band but the way it’s presented almost comes across with a super hero vibe.
• Habits usually take longer than 5 days so it’s a bold claim (enough to pique your interest).
• They used a quote from Stephen Colbert (which has a lot of influence on the young to middle age demographic).

The ad is very clean and straight forward. When you combine all the good elements you naturally want to learn more about this product. Once you do jump to their site you realize the wristband shocks you whenever you’re doing a bad habit which is very entertaining as a though. Overall they nailed it.

The Bad

Middling out our list is a sponsored post by BoostInsider talking about business and blogging.

What makes this bad?

• The copy seems to be a jumped mess almost as if it were thrown through some automated text generator with a few keywords thrown in. How do I “own” twitter/tumbler (and more)? Do they mean run or running? So if I signed up today I’ll get cash today?
• Just another generic stock photo (one that doesn’t bother Photoshopping something on the screen) and a big, ugly line of text right across it.
• I can make $2000+ monthly by sharing what I like? That’s one bold claim. It’ll turn heads but no one is buying it (but some, unfortunately, will).

This is a sponsored post that had potential. If the copy would expand on what they do, such as explaining that they connect socially active bloggers with businesses, and threw out the “own a business” versus maybe something like a side income it would have a larger reach. The image is just lazy but at least it has the eye contact element which does draw attention. The claim is just too outlandish and could have been reasonable if they rotated real income statements or quotes from their users.

The Bait

At the bottom of our list is a sponsored post by Posi Rank (which I’ll get into after…)

What puts this at the bottom?

• The copy just doesn’t seem to have soul; it comes across as if the person creating the campaign looked up a few standard business jargon lines and threw the brand name at the front.
• The image is fine by itself but tossing the brand image into it makes it look like all those joke/quote type pages that love adding their Twitter/IG/FB handles (which looks tacky).
• The ultimate SEO platform eh? “Actually Works in 2015”? 50-200%? Ultimate gets thrown around far too frequently to create a sense of authority. The “actually” part makes it feel like the SEO industry, as a whole, is doing something wrong and this platform is the one in the right. What percentage do they mean? Earnings? Search engine placement? This copy needed to be expanded – it would have greatly benefited from a detailed description of what the “platform” truly is.

And this is where it’s the “bait”. When you look at this ad you’re thinking “oh, this must be a suite that I can use on my website that will run audits, teach me best practices, monitor everything, and suggest new avenues for growing my SEO”. Nah. While it is a platform it’s mainly there to be a white label business model for others to sell to business owners. Slap your name on a domain, white label the platform, start pulling in clients, and let it automate. I’m not knocking the business approach but it just creates too many clones in the industry – one which actually needs more hands-on since SEO isn’t just something you set-it and forget-it.

Conclusion

What did we learn this week?

1. Got a fun product? Make it stand out by playing into cultural references, take time with the creative, and go after core issue and accelerate the results.
2. Stock photos are okay but at least take the time to touch them and don’t throw text across the whole thing which really defeats the purpose.
3. Don’t create an ad that looks and sounds like it’s meant for consumers but actually exists for business individuals – stick to your market.

Seen any good, bad, or down-right ugly ads this week? Have thoughts about these ones? Share your feedback with a comment below.