My POF Ad Bombed HELP!

there are many elements that go into making up a good ad.

too many for discussion here.

But my first thoughts would suggest

1) your ad may be confusing ( a big no no)
I personally would not get the connection. I understand if something sucks but biting?

2) funny (being funny and sales copy rarely mix) Are your customers in the mood for a laugh? i think not

3) Also, using a picture that captures the emotion of what is happening will work better. rather than a dog.

also the ad may be vaguely insulting and pompus ( another no no)

You only created one ad? You need to do at least 20 different images (most people say 50) and a few different headlines / ad bodys.

Get at least a couple thousand impressions for each ad before killing them off.

I'm not an expert in this field (and by "this field" I mean placing ads online, not marketing in general), but I can tell from reading your post one thing you definitely did wrong. The word "ad" is singular, indicating you put up one ad.

Those who make a killing in ads will tell you most of them don't work. They make a killing because they keep testing and tweaking and maximizing the ones that do.

Those who fancy themselves to be "experts" expect everything to work. Those who fancy themselves to be "marketers" know good and well most of what they do will not work, but they'll kill it big on the ones that do.

Stop thinking like an "expert". Start thinking like a marketer.

I have a pic. I made up with an attractive woman doing the thumbs down gesture and the words bad profile. Do you think this would be a better choice for an image?

LOL steve.... you gotta read the post before you comment bro.

POF

thats a dating site.

his ads were ON the dating site.

To the OP...

you gotta put a TON of different ads/images and test them.

1 ad/image isn't gonna cut it.

not by a long shot.

Also...

is your offer what the market wants?

How's it priced?

Do you have proof of results?

Do they know who you are?

Here's something to think about: you're advertising a service to write a profile for the guy...

on a free dating site...

i.e. they aren't as serious about online dating as someone who's PAYING for the service (match/okcupid etc).

FRAME OF MIND is important here.

I used to write POF and Craigslist profiles/ads for men looking to hook up - maybe 4 or 5 years ago. I didn't judge whether they were looking for their soul mate... or just wanted to get laid again and again and again.

I never actually advertised on POF. I got 99% of my clients from Adwords.

Your headline is clever. But not effective.

I disagree with Peter about this. You CAN use humor in this market. That's just not how to do it.

Do you have a website?

If not, create one.

Position yourself.

Do you want to work with just men? Do you want to help them get laid? Find love? Discover happiness? Gain confidence?

There's a lot of money here - if you do it right.

I went after rich men. I actually got paid $1,000 by one guy for everyone woman I hooked him up with (which included "being him" on email.)

Anyway...

The question of who your target audience is....... IS relevant.

If you're going after woman, for instance, who want to meet their soul mate...

...you can say something like, "He's Looking For You RIGHT NOW! Don't Let Your Profile Lose Him, Forever."

Keep going...

Mark

I currently have CPA offers on POF that are doing well for me, and honestly, Dave hit the nail on the head.

It's all about testing out a LOT of different images, which is often the #1 deciding factor, because it's usually the first thing that catches attention.

POF has made it harder to catch attention because they've made it so you can't use scantily clad women, big bazookas, or anything overly sexual.

so, test the crap out of a lot of images, stick with tiny snippets of copy that are intriguing, curiosity provoking, yet still relevant to helping them hook up.

Like testing out a shit load of images, you'll want to do the same thing with headlines.

To get a few that returned GREAT click through rates for me, i had to create about 100 different ads, probably more.

And honestly, some ugly images I made in Paint have given me some of the best CTRs on POF... I used an eye-grabbing pic and then a killer headline... and used that for an image ad.

Listen to Dave and you won't go wrong... but the key to this and almost all other places where you run ads... you gotta try a lot of different ones to find a winner, and that means pics and copy.

Thanks for the advice guys, test test test

shhhhhh. :-)

Dave is a freaking badass when it comes to this market. My advice is... to heed his advice.

-Daniel

Daniel... shhhhh...... its SUPPOSED to be a secret. :-)

People tend to respond MOSTLY to Greed and Vanity.
People also tend to respond less to insulting or potentially insulting copy.

However that's not to say you can't use fear to sell them, for example you might have better luck with a headline that says "Is your dating profile making these mistakes?" or "What women are really thinking when they look at your profile."
or "What your profile is really saying about you..."

Some vanity examples could be:

"Improves your dating profile-Because you deserve to be chased by super models!"
or
"These simple changes can make women beg for your affection and have all your guy friends super jealous, asking you for advice with women!"

Greed Headlines could include:

"Dating Profile Secrets that literally make women take off their Panties!" (May not go over with POF approvers but I'd imagine It'd make a good headline. lol)
Or
"Dating Profile secrets that make your email so flooded with women Chasing You that
even your hottest ex's will come crawling back!"

Or Mix Greed with fear with this:
"Don't scare off women that could be yours by making these dating profile mistakes."

I can't say that any of these headlines will work for sure, so test, test, test and the usual stuff they say. Plus sometimes too much hype can also hurt if you can't deliver.

But also remember politeness is important. Copy that's insulting or anything that gives your prospects the sense that it's not serious can backfire.

Also Be sure to have your headline contain promises of benefits.

One more bonus tip:
You can also have success sometimes by turning your headline into a News bulletin.

For example:

"New dating profile technology really makes the females go wild over you and treat you how you've always deserved to be treated-Don't be that guy that doesn't have this unfair advantage or you may be stuck with lonely Friday nights in 2014!"

Assuming my ads have good headlines/text/images, can I assume then my bidding is non-competitive which is resulting in crappy CTR?


you're not seeing it.

Don't assume anything.

test it to validate.

but I can tell you this... your ads DONT have good copy/headlines and images, otherwise the CTR would be better.

the results don't lie.

a higher bid on a crappy ad won't do anything.

gotta be realistic here dude and see whats really here, vs what you wanna see