Growth Newsletter #184

My favorite metric: Thumb stop rate. 

A measure of how effectively your ads grab people’s attention (by getting their thumb to stop scrolling). But your ad needs to do far more than just get attention, it needs to build intention. 

To make sure our ads do that, let’s use two key frameworks to create and optimize them:

1,3,5+ Framework

People have zero attention span on social media. You have to get your point across within seconds:

• 1-second mark: Grab attention with something visually striking to stop the thumb. 
  • Note: ~70% of users don’t have sound on. Make sure the visuals are all you need, but add audio to delight the 30%.
• 3-second mark: Get the point across and intrigue them to keep watching. They should know what the product does (and/or problem it solves).
• 5-second mark: Assume they’re gone by now, so leave them with a clear understanding of the product and be motivated to take action. 
• Beyond: For those that are still around, build upon the benefits and features and social proof.

This primarily applies for video ads, but the principles apply for text + image as well. Hook with an interesting visual and opener. Get the point across quickly. Assume people are gone within seconds.

AIDA Framework

Next let’s use the classic copywriting framework, AIDA, to create great ads:

#1. Attention: Does your ad grab people’s attention? 

Use the thumb stop rate in Meta Ads to tell you if your ad’s hook was enticing enough to get users to stop scrolling.

It’s a custom metric you need to enable. Make sure to use a percentage format and calculate this as 3-second video plays divided by impressions. 

Aim for at least 10%; the higher, the better. If <10%, improve the hook.

#2. Interest: Does your ad sustain people’s attention? 

Again this is most applicable to video and carousel ads because there’s no good metric for evaluating static image ads. Gauge people’s interest by looking at video average play time or carousel engagement.

Also look at your video ads’ drop-off data to find out at what point users stop watching your video ad and adjust the video where the drop-off is steepest:

#3. Desire: Does your ad make users want to learn more? 

Look at link clicks (or unique link clicks), Meta’s version of clickthrough rate (CTR). If the clicks are low, change the CTA or focus more on building purchase intent.

Note: Meta offers several different CTRs, which include clicks to your FB page and clicks on something other than your CTA. We recommend looking at link clicks specifically because it looks only at clicks on your CTA button.

#4. Action: Do users convert after seeing your ad? 

The cost per result metric, Meta’s version of CPA, measures the amount spent per whatever conversion chosen for your ad objective, like purchase or app install.

Of course, you want this to be lower than the amount made from the conversion. It probably won’t be at first while Meta and you are learning what resonates, but the goal is to optimize it down to be around ⅓ of the lifetime-value of a customer.

Some recommendations:

• If the CPA is too high, it could be the landing page, the targeting, or the ad.
• Continue the same message and “feel” from ad onto the landing page.
• Craft the landing page to speak to the exact people you’re targeting in the ad.
• Tailor the conversion goal to the warmth of the audience and the price of your product. If it’s inexpensive or a warm audience, go straight for sale. If it’s expensive or a cold audience, try a lead magnet and nurture via email.
• Reduce friction by removing extra form fields and steps to convert.

Next steps

Obviously, there’s a lot to the process of spending money to get people to buy things they weren’t intending to buy today. These two frameworks help but there’s tons of nuance and expertise within it. Here are some resources:

• Check out 54 other ad tactics we’ve shared in this newsletter.
• Browse our Ad Vault for inspiration with 164 Meta Ads from top startups.
• Work with us, we’ll run the ads for you :)
• Read our 5-part TikTok Ads Guide.
• Read our popular Growth Guide to learn the full funnel.