Everything That’s Working in Paid Ads Right Now

0:00Hey, business besties. Welcome back to Female Founder World. I'm Jasmine. I'm Jasmine.

0:17I'm mini workshop on the podcast. And this is part of our Launch Lab series that we're doing with Adobe Express. Some of you probably came to her actual workshop. If you missed it, we do have a recording available online at the moment that you can go and watch. I'll put the link in the show notes just in case anyone's missed it. But today we're going to give you a few more insights and a little bit of a workshop into paid ads, what's changed and how you can really stand out and convert in 2025 and going into 2026. Anita, welcome back. Thank you. The masterclass was so fun to do. It was so good.

0:52Yeah. And I think it's really good because the feedback that I got on that was thank you for making it simple. I think it seems really overwhelming to do meta ads, but when you can kind of just hear a 30 minute or 60 minute masterclass on how to do it step by step, you'll realize it's actually not that hard. Totally. And also like exactly, you gave us examples like this is what I think is good this is what's not working like this is what's great for smaller businesses and it was so practical and actually watching the videos and thinking oh my god I could totally I could totally make that I can totally do that just made it all feel so much more achievable exactly and it's not like you need to start anything from scratch like you've got all of these other examples to build from other businesses and the structure of your ads account can be super simple and it's just the creative you need to focus on so if you're listening to this and your audio only fine you'll still get heaps out of it but I would actually really recommend people go to Spotify go to YouTube because we will be showing some of the slides from the workshop and some of the examples that you're referencing and those visual cues I just feel are so so helpful yeah the visuals are really important especially because we're going to go through good creative and bad creative and it's we can talk through them of course but it's always better to see them yeah and we so we're going to go through the examples we're going to go through some of the reasons why we're having this conversation, what's changed at Meta specifically, that's going to impact paid ad strategy.

2:13And then we're going to talk about ROI and how to measure that a little bit as well. But I want to kick off like why we're having this conversation and why I wanted to actually include a Meta Ads workshop in this Launch Lab series with Adobe Express is because of some of the changes that are happening. Can you talk us through what they are and what you've seen? Yes. So 2025 and 2026 will be, I reckon, the biggest years for changes for Meta ads and you know they always change the structure so every time you go into your meta ads account it looks a little bit different and everyone gets a little confused but actually the biggest changes are happening right now where they're actually removing the ability for you to choose things like your audience and I think that's a massive massive thing because for so long we've really had two options you can have a manual campaign and you choose your audience you choose your budget your goal everything and then you have the other one where AI does everything and that's called Advantage Plus.

3:05Right now, they are shifting everything so that you have no more manual campaigns. It's only Advantage Plus. So really, the only thing that you'll be able to control is your ad creatives. And that's a huge thing because if Meta is controlling everything from the time that your customer or your potential customer sees the ad to who the customer actually is that's going to see the ad and you have no control over that, how do you create something for people you don't know if you don't know who they are. So that's what we're going to go through today and just simplifying everything, not just from the creative side of things, but also the structure and keeping it super, super simple.

3:42Okay, I love this. Let's kick off with examples. What do you think are some good styles of content that are working right now? And again, guys, go look on Spotify, go look on YouTube. You're going to see the actual examples that Anita's talking about if you want to watch them. And I'll also link some of these in the show notes as well if you want to see the presentation. But talk us through some of the styles of content that you think are working when people are thinking, okay, the only thing I can control is creative. Yeah. What should that look like? Okay. Well, I'll start by saying you need to go to Meta Ads Library always.

4:15Every day just have that as an open tab. And I want you to think about the brands that you absolutely love that are running ads and always just type them into the library and you can see all the ads that they have running. That's what I do and I have some really great brands that I follow. One of them happens to be who gives a crap because I feel like they've been around long enough. They're a mature enough business to have ads that they know work really well. So one of the ads they have right now is an us versus them ad. And this is done so well in so many different ways. So they don't just do it, but so many really big companies, but also startups use this us versus them kind of thing.

4:51So as everyone knows, us versus them is like, you know, you and your competitor, but you're not going to mention the competitor name. We have to be like super clear about that. You just have to make sure that you're saying them is like the people that you're against or the brands that you're against, but you can't be too specific about who they are. So who gives a crap? They did one for their bags, which is like a compostable bag. And it had like putting stuff, I think it was jelly inside of the bags compared to their or other brands. And it could, you could see that their one held the entire thing of five kilos and the other one started to leak and it looked so disgusting.

5:28It was so like visually compelling watching it leak out. I know you're just like, I can't look. This is actually really messed up, but I can't look away. What is happening? It's like a car crash. So basically that's something. And it stops the scroll because you see this like yucky jelly falling out of a bag. And then you see on the other side the who gives a crap bag that is just holding it together. And I'm like, that is such a good and powerful visual. You can do this in so many other ways as well. So Us Versus Them, it can be done like even there was one done with cleaning on a T-shirt. So like using the powder of your brand compared to other brands and showing that even though ours is sustainable, it works the same as other brands.

6:06So you can do this in so many ways. It's very similar to a before and after ad, which of course, no matter what happens in this world, a before and after ad will always work really well, especially when you're showing a massive transformation. information the only thing I will say with that is you've got to be really careful because meta doesn't allow for a lot of before and after ads for skincare for example if you're like if it's a weight loss product you know showing before and after is not allowed it'll flag it it will flag it yeah you just have to be very careful look at the rules and also read about it online just to see what you can and can't do but you can be really creative before with before and afters like no matter what you sell there is a way to do before and after so for hero packaging for example It's like using single-use plastic before and it looks terrible.

6:51I used it like I created it on landfill and then I had a mailer which was composting in dirt. So before and after, super simple, not targeting any other competitors but just going generic but it's really powerful. Is it like a legal issue to call out actual competitors or like why can't you do that? It's a legal issue. Let's be clear. It's unethical I think and well I know and also it is illegal. now I know that because I have called them out in the past and it's not allowed. My lawyer was like remove that. You can't mention names and talk about them in a bad way. It's not, I forgot what the legal term is, but it's just not allowed.

7:31Okay, amazing. We have so many examples here. I'm going to look at my notes because I know that there's a few more that I want you to talk through. So Us vs. Them is such a good one. Also, one of the styles of ad that you talked about was like an ugly style of ad. What does that mean? Ugly means not a photo shoot, not perfect, no face tuning, no like big lights, no flashy photography. An ugly ad is something that looks native to a platform and is like, it could be you just grabbing your phone like you do on your Instagram stories, for example, grabbing your phone and saying something about your product and being like, I cannot believe it changed my life like this.

8:08That is an ugly ad. Another example of an ugly ad and you should see this if you're seeing the visuals of this is um you know microsoft paint back in the day yeah it was so it was so ugly right and like writing text on microsoft paint it stops the scroll because it mixes together nostalgia and also unpolished content so anything that you do that doesn't have some kind of polish behind it is what i would refer to as an ugly or raw ad and those work really well simply because it's the style of content that people would watch if they're just watching organically, like on TikTok or your Instagram stories, you're kind of like talking to them as though it's like a FaceTime call.

8:47That is ugly content. Not that you are ugly. I was going to say, if I pick up the camera and start talking to it, I'll not take that personally. Now for a quick word from our sponsor, Adobe Express. Adobe believes that creativity is a superpower for entrepreneurs and Adobe Express is all about making that power accessible for small businesses and founders. you know the ones that wear a million hats built with founders in mind adobe express features ready-to-go templates for everything from product mock-ups to pitch decks and instagram stories it works on mobile and desktop so you can literally design from anywhere anytime even in between meetings or on your way to a pop-up adobe express the quick and easy create anything app get started for free at adobe.com forward slash express in the app store or google play store something else that you spoke about when we were um when we were doing the workshop was um a style of ad with timely results and we spoke about a specific i think it's like a supplement example in here i'll put it up on the screen so everyone can see it yeah what is that style and why does that work okay mary ruth is an american brand have you heard of that brand okay so they are doing i think eight or nine figures like it's absolutely i think nine now and their ads are so interesting because if you look at the product packaging, it's actually not very aesthetically pleasing and their ads kind of take on the same path.

10:13It's not like you look at it and go, wow, that's a stunning ad, but it works so well. So the timely ad, what they do really well is they have a picture of the actual supplement bottle. So you know what you're getting, but then it'll tell you like, okay, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, how it's going to transform your life. Imagine like, I want everyone to think about their own product and think, okay, how am I transforming my customers' lives and everyone's products should be doing that, right? Like it's solving a problem. Can you do a timeline of when they're going to see results or when they're going to feel better?

10:45Is it like hour one compared to hour 30 or, you know, you could do it in like first year, second year, third year, what you're going to feel. And it not only encourages first purchase, but it also makes people think about coming back and purchasing again. So I really, really liked that one. I would say, so we've spoken about ugly and timely results. There are more that I just want to quickly name. One is like a call out ad, which is super easy to do. So like what's a call out ad? Call out ad is like an image of a product or a person using your product. And it's got little call outs. So if you use Adobe Express, it's like super easy to do with that.

11:20So what you do is you have an image and then you just choose little elements and you can change the color of the elements. It could be a speech bubble, for example, add in text and it could say like boosts metabolism or it could be something like, you know, organic cotton or whatever the call out is of your product. But it's just really, really clear to the customer what your product does. Because I find that a lot of the times when people are running ads, they'll have a picture of a bottle that they're selling and they don't have any information on it. And so you have to click through to a website, scan the product page to actually find out what the product does.

11:55on the ad itself remember you are mostly targeting new people at all times and so if that's the case you need to tell people exactly what it does so they can make a decision whether they want to click through or not. In the example that we're going to show on the screen as well I feel like it's like a bottle there's like a pretty background it's like looks like it's fairly clear to execute you mentioned Adobe Express before. Yes. Can you talk through a couple of ways you could use Adobe Express to do something like this and also maybe make different variations of it? Yeah I think you should always make different variations of an ad.

12:24So say for example, let's talk about a supplement that is here, right? So I've got two examples here and they're both of Lemmy. And so it's a bottle and what you can do with Adobe Express is essentially remove the background and change the color of the background, have a gradient, have your brand colors, have a different image. Like there's so many things you can do. Another thing you could do, and I think this is really good with Adobe, is you can use AI to make the background whatever you want. So if you want a desk or if you want a kitchen bench or whatever, it can do that for you and have the bottle sitting there.

12:56I think testing, you know, minor changes to the same image or video is so good to creative test your ads because you just don't know what's going to resonate. And if you're running those ads, meta will automatically boost budget to the ad that is performing best. So why not have a test of like the same ad with four different styles? What about founder or like green screen with the product speaking to the camera do you recommend people do that kind of content because I feel like that works well organically it will work well so well it depends on it depends on what you're saying so again like my view on ads is you've got to not only stop the scroll but you've got to make them pay attention enough so that they understand what your product does no fluffing about though so I don't want a 30 second introduction of like hey guys just jumping on here to da la la la la it's the same thing with a tiktok video we don't want to do that we want to get straight into it.

13:51So something you can do is go straight from results and be like, I just use this product to make$5 million. Here's how I did it. And then talk about the product. So you give the result first and then you can fluff about a little bit. But the green screen with a founder is always going to do well, especially because it's humanizing the product rather than just having a product there. Something that I really love seeing brands do is when they say this has been sold out and it's back in stock or something like that. It's like you immediately think, oh, oh, okay, I need to get in on this now or there's some kind of like hype or urgency around it when people say something like that.

14:26So for me there is an ad and we'll put it up on the screen. What she's done is it's so good. It's a lip, I think, what do you call it? Not a lip liner, a stain I think. And she puts it on her hand and tries to rub it off. That's the first visual you see and it does not come off, right? And then it's her as a green screen being like it's back in stock. It's sold out this many times. it's back and stuff so you're changing up the visuals constantly but you're also showing the product in use and then you're also showing the founder and it's all within 15 seconds I think it's like an ideal ad I love that yeah okay let's talk about some stuff that's not working now yeah okay what kind of styles of content do you think particularly like small businesses should steer away from because one of the examples that you're going to list here and I'll show it on the screen as well is a Glossier ad that might make sense for Glossier for people who already know the product, know the brand, but probably won't work if they're coming across you for the first time.

15:23Can you talk through that example and some of the other things that you think people should steer clear of? Yeah, for sure. So Glossier, their ad that you'll see is essentially a beautiful like white background and then their bottles just stacked up. And what it says on it, which I find really funny, it says future Jew radiance, you can feel oil serum hybrid. Right. Means nothing. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what that means. Like the bottles are so beautiful, but I know as well that Glossier is like, you know,$80,$90. Like I'm not going to spend money on something I don't know. Now imagine that brand that has so much brand awareness.

15:56I'm seeing that ad and going, I don't even know what that is. I don't want to click through to it even though I trust the brand name. Imagine a small business who doesn't have the brand awareness is writing something like Radiance You Can Feel. No one cares. You have to be really specific. So something that I would change about this ad is having the transformation, like having some kind of a visual of the skin or applying it and then the text shouldn't be something so fluffy like radiance you can feel be really specific like does it target rosacea and what does it do like you'll see uh immediate result results in an hour you know something really specific about a problem that people are facing you can have the bottle but you can also have the skin and showing the results of it i think that really works well if you are a small business, please don't just follow the big brands, follow medium-sized businesses because they know what they're doing.

16:51The big brands have the brand leverage to have brands that don't really need to have conversions. We need conversions. And so in order to do that, we need to show exactly what the product does. I love that. Okay. What are some other examples of styles of content that you think just avoid okay avoid really generic statements okay so there is one that will show and it's like this um orange background I think it's selling wine I don't I think it's selling wine I don't actually know what it's selling it's like this orange background it says on the screen to have or to hold and it has like a few wine bottles on top of like this old school retro um telephone no idea what this is absolutely won't get click throughs it's it's a terrible ad in my opinion so for small businesses again really specific about what you sell so if you are trying to say for example do a collection like say you're selling fashion and you've got a collection that you want to promote talk about the collection like actually be specific about what makes the collection amazing if you're selling a product talk about what the product actually does and name it.

17:59And so when people click through to it, it's consistent with what they see on the ad is what is the product page that they're going to. That's what's going to help with conversions as well. So anything generic is just shocking. Another ad that I saw, which I thought was so bad, you can't do this as a small business. You just can't. Like I know that TikTok videos, you know, the street interviews when you go around and you're interviewing people. So many of them now. So many and everyone's doing them fine. They're so engaging. Not for a bloody ad, Let me tell you because this guy, there was an – I still – I don't know what he – I think it's like a stress pill or something.

18:34But he goes around to different people and he's like, okay, you know, out of 1 to 10, like how stressed are you? And some of them are saying 2, some of them are saying 7, some of them are saying 8. And it goes on for like a minute. And I'm like, and what about it? Like what am I learning from this? He's not handing them the product. It's not a live reaction. He's just talking about the problem without talking about the solution. So if you're going to do street interviews, you've got to get to the solution really quickly or have the reaction, but the reaction has to be in response to actually using the product.

19:09So street interviews might work for TikTok. It's not necessarily great for ads. That's what I would say. Okay, great advice. Was there anything else that you think people should avoid? Let's have a look. Yeah, there was one more and just too much text. a really simple one like there is an email kind of style ad that I saw again I don't know what it's for but it just says we're sorry and it goes on to have like about like two paragraphs of text on there no one's reading that stuff either so really powerful imagery if I could prioritize stuff for any small business owner listening it would be have your ugly ads one is they're super cheap to create they're the most engaging and native to the platform and I find that there's the most amount of click throughs.

19:55The second type would be like the call out ads that I would do. And then the other one would be the before and after us versus them. Avoid anything that's generic, anything that's too much text. And also this is something really small, but on the Glossier ad, I don't know who created it, but on the ad creative itself, it has shop now, but that's not where people click to click through. So you don't need a button on the image itself. You can just have the shop now button in the actual app. So that's stuff to avoid. Okay. That's a great tip. The last thing I want to ask you is how do people measure the success of these campaigns?

20:33So let's say you're coming to this, you're new to it. What are some of the things that you think we should be looking out for? So when you get to your ads manager, there's a dashboard, right? And you, what people don't realize is you can customize the columns to see the results. So don't just rely on what Meta shows you. They're going to show you things like impressions, clicks, maybe not even conversions. It kind of just gives you some general stuff. You can click on customize columns and there are two things that I really want you to look at. One is cost per acquisition, your CPA, and that is going to tell you how much it costs to acquire that customer.

21:07So if that customer comes in and makes a purchase, how much did it cost you? How much did you pay Meta to actually get that person to make that purchase? That's one, so CPA. Second one is is ROAS. So for every dollar that I put in, how much am I getting from that customer? So those are the two things and you can easily select them in columns. And I would move those two columns to the front. Those are the two things that you really need to see. So CPA and ROAS, if I'll just give you a quick indication of what you need to look out for. So CPA, so again, cost per acquisition, you need to think about this like what is your average order value?

21:40So say your average order value is$100, your CPA should be no more than 40 % of your average order value maximum. If it's getting anything above that, you're in trouble. And of course, it depends on your margins. This is a really generalized kind of statement, but this is just kind of a good ballpark figure to look at. Make sure it's not above 40 % of that. With your ROAS, anything below two needs to be examined. So for every dollar that you put in, if you're not getting at least$2 back from Meta, it's not worth your money because you're going to pay for acquisition. Then you're going to pay for your cogs.

22:12You're going to pay for all the other marketing. You're going to pay for freight. You're paying for all this sort of stuff. You need to make sure that ROAS is sitting above two at any given point in time. Three, four, five is fantastic. Anything less than two, you need to look at it and either pause the ad or perhaps remove it altogether. I love all of this like super specific advice. During our live workshop, you had so many questions come in at the end and I feel like a lot of them were around when I'm testing something how long should I test it for what budget should I be doing if I'm just getting started and like how many ads should I be testing at one time is there some kind of like blanket or like a general advice that you give to people kind of in that space of trying to test and figure out what's working blanket advice is keep it super simple don't have many many campaigns don't have a huge budget when you first start, I would say that you need to have like one Advantage Plus campaign.

23:05If you're just starting, have one campaign, put in as many ad creatives as possible and let meta decide which one is working for you. The more you scale up, the more campaigns that you can do. And I spoke about that in the masterclass, like exactly how to structure it for different like daily budgets. And I think there are three ways that I've decided to structure it and you can go through that in the masterclass, but essentially keep it simple, have one Advantage Plus campaign to begin with. And if you're Thinking about your budget and if you've already made some sales, I always think about it like $100 of sales, you can spend 15 % of that on your ads.

23:39So$15. If you're still about to make sales, then just test it really small, like$10,$15 a day. And if you can't do that, you can even do like$8 a day. But just know that you can't just expect to spend$8 a day. It's a small amount and get conversions straight away. You need to let it run for at least four weeks before anything can come through. and meta learns more about you. Thank you so much for sharing your advice and for being so specific. I love having you on the show because you just like tell – you're just exactly sharing your opinion. You're giving all the specifics. You give the numbers.

24:12You don't hold back. And so that's exactly the kind of conversations I want to be having. Amazing. On Female Founder World. Well, you're welcome. And I love doing all this stuff with you. Where can people find you? They can find me on Instagram at sellanythingonline, on TikTok at sellanythingonline, And then also if you want to follow along with my packaging company, it's hero.packaging. Okay. I'm going to put those links in the show notes. Thank you so much, Anita. Thank you. I just wanted to jump in and end the show with a quick thank you and shout out to all of our paid Business Besties subscribers.

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