Hungry Bear
Benjamin Boman · Freelance Meta ads managerSometimes I get asked out of the blue for advice on “how to do their ads” covering what to say, how to set it up and how it should work.
Basically, a full ad strategy.
While this is a major deliverable that ads managers do for their clients, I haven’t seen it defined specifically yet.
When most people think of an ads strategy, they generally mean the overall thinking of how to apply strength to opportunity + a plan for the other moving pieces. I.e. a Facebook ad strategy at a high level covers what ads you will run, to who and how.
❌ But that’s so general.
👉🏼 So I suggest that ad strategy covers 7 things:
1. The Target
People want different things. And not everybody is a good customer. Speaking to everyone dilutes the message.
Take a gym as an example. Say you could target university students, parents or the kids. Who would be the better market?
You can consider value vs competition vs satisfaction.
- Who is most valuable?
- Who can you really help?
- Who is the best prospect for ROI?
👉🏼 DO THIS: Choose one based on the most likely return on your efforts.
Knowing who you’re targeting makes the next parts easier.
2. The Offer
This is broadly the packaged up thing you’re either selling directly, or using to entice people into doing business with you.
It’s a promotional package designed to draw people in.
For a hotdog stand, it could be 50% off chicken hot dogs. For an online coach, it could be a free webinar training on How to Get a Management Promotion Without Working Extra Hours.
But offers can also take different formats than a simple promotion.
For schools and academies for example, that could be things like:
- In-person tours
- Admission calls
- Video/webinar trainings
- Content offers
- Quizzes and surveys
👉🏼 DO THIS: I start by choosing the most common one and test that against the combined judgement of clients + experience, to see which ones bring in the best leads for the lowest price.
3. Positioning (Messaging)
Positioning (also called messaging angle) is how you present the offer to the target. For example, will you say {offer} helps you go faster, or will {offer} save you money?
That’s messaging.
There are two ways: (Mark Ritson)
- A) about something or,
- B) against something/someone.
I start with research what the target wants and doesn’t want by:
- Review mining
- Comments, on videos/social
- Sales team knowledge - insight into key emotions and phrases, problems, feelings, etc
👉🏼 DO THIS: Pick 2-3 messaging angles for testing.
I pick 2 so I can A/B test, and have a 3rd for a 2nd round of A/B testing.
Example: For the promotion coach example, it may become apparent that job switchers (target) feel frustrated by their dead end job and want the relief of knowing they earn enough to comfortably support their family.
👋 FYI: If you’d like help putting together your Facebook ads strategy, I’m offering free 25min strategy workshops here (limited to 4 per month).
LINK: https://tr.ee/wmE1Hg
4. Creatives
Image ads have commonly used formats. E.g.
- Us vs them
- Before vs after
- Headline, dot points
- Callouts
- Memes
- etc
Likewise, videos use different scripts or outlines.
- Problem-solution
- Pain, agitate, solution
- Testimonials
- etc
👉🏼 DO THIS: Pick about 5-10 to run at a time.
- I like to run 2 adsets to test, with 3-5 unique formats in each.
(Btw, Dara Denny is a great resource on this topic.)
5. Copy
Like creative formats, copy tends to use different frameworks and structures too.
Formats like:
- Pain, Agitate, Solution (PAS)
- Before after bridge
- or the classic Attention, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA) framework.
Some may be more or less suited to your product.
Likewise, hooks have different categories:
- Curiosity
- Transformation
👉🏼 DO THIS: Pick about 5-10 to run at a time.
6. Funnel
The funnel mechanism is how you capture the leads. It doesn’t always have to be a landing page, it can also be:
- Meta Instant forms
- Messenger/WhatsApp ads
- Quiz funnels
- etc
👉🏼 DO THIS: Pick the most likely to succeed.*
*You can keep another method as a back up to B test later if performance is noticeably below target.
Aa good ads manager will have the judgement on experience to know which setup works best for your industry.
For example, Instagram messaging ads may work well for some countries, but WhatsApp messaging is the only way people will do business.
7. Follow up
Not necessarily an ads thing, but essential have a plan and the right practices in place. Without proper follow up, pretty much any lead generation campaign will be a total waste of time.
Follow up includes:
- Email automations (booking sequences, nurturing, cancellations, etc)
- SMS
- Phone calls
- Video messages
- etc
👉🏼 DO THIS: This is essential for lead generation in 2026+. Make sure you have as many of these in place as possible.
- Adapt your pipeline stages for easy prioritisation of who to call
- Make sure you call leads ASAP
- Track calls made as a company KPI
If you think through these seven factors you will have an actual strategy that can be used to intentionally discover the best performing setup for your campaigns.
And then what?
- Formalize your thinking of each of these 7 items to build your campaign.
- Test your campaign theory for 3-4 weeks to see the results.
- Identify areas for improvement or iteration.
- Repeat step 1 - 3 to constantly improve your campaign performance.
Want help with Facebook lead gen ads?
Send me a message on LinkedIn if you’d like a free 15 minute account audit & strategy session. (Or, just pick a time here and now).
