Angles are the key to everything right?
If you want to succeed with your FB ads, you need a good angle.
If you want to come with a product people want, you need a good angle.
If you want to position yourself as an expert, you need a good angle.
What Are Angles?
Let me explain.
An angle is how you approach your ad from a creative point of view. It’s what you want to focus on.
I’ll give you an example.
You’re selling a car, let’s say a Mercedes SL 65 AMG.
Here you have a few different angles you can use.
You can focus on the tradition of the Mercedes brand and how this is the best model they’ve ever created. This appeals to people who see cars more as art collectibles than actual tools to get you from A to B.
You can focus on the safety elements of this car. This will appeal to those who have children or who are safety conscious. Volvo built an entire brand focusing on this angle alone.
You can focus on the comfort and emphasize how no other brand can match this. You will appeal here to those who look for luxury and a good driving experience.
This list can go on and on from prestige to limited availability (people want to have a Ferrari not just because it is a cool car but because so few others have it) to the warranty and service.
It’s as simple as putting the lens on a specific feature or benefit of your offer that will appeal to your target market.
Why Are Angles Important?
When you brainstorm an angle, you’re creating a bridge between you and a specific audience. You are focusing on what makes your product attractive to the people you want to sell it too. Instead of taking a shotgun approach, where you try to talk about all that is good, you narrow it down to one specific thing that really hits home.
This allows you to accomplish certain goals, especially with Facebook ads.
First, you can match your offer with your audience. Instead of having a campaign that talks to everyone, about everything, you can talk about one important thing to one important group. This will lead to better conversion and far lower ad cost.
Second, you can sell the same product to multiple audiences. No product has a single angle. But instead of being so general you get the attention of no one, you want to match different angles with different audiences.
Let’s assume that you’re a piano teacher.
What angles can you take?
You come to the student’s house, which is important for those who value commodity.
You provide free transportation to your house, good for those who don’t have a car.
You can teach him how to play a certain song in as little as 8 weeks, which is a goal-oriented angle.
You have been trained by a prestigious university which is a credibility angle.
You are specialized in training kids between 8 to 14 and you have an unique approach, which of course, will appeal to parents with kids between 8 and 14.
You offer 1 free session for every 5 paid ones or you offer a 20% discount if they order before the end of the month which are value angles.
Your natural instinct would be to present all of this at once. After all, it’s easier to cover the entire marketplace instead of using an angle.
The Problems With Being Too General
The first one is that people don’t really read ads. They glance over them and if your audience feels like this is EXACTLY for them, then they click. You’ll not really get the luxury of having someone scan through an ad until they find the benefit you desire.
Imagine this.
You’re in Hong Kong, in the crowded markets and you know no one. It is crowded, almost suffocating. Then you see a friend from back home. You say hi and even if normally you would not want to spend time with him, now, amongst strangers, his company is welcome.
This is what your ad needs to be.
It needs to be that friend in a crowd of strangers, the friendly smile that makes you stop from whatever you’re doing. And you can achieve that ONLY by being specific on the angle you’re taking. Generality doesn’t pay in online marketing.
And the second is purely logistical.
You can write a single headline. This headline is short. This will be the point of contact with your audience. You can have as many angles as you want in your ad body copy (which I don’t recommend, I suggest you have a common theme from start to finish) BUT a single one in your headline.
This is true for your blog posts or Facebook ads or YouTube content or Google AdWords. You have limited space and you must get attention with it.
How Do You Create A Good Angle?
You find a good angle at the intersection between what your product does and what your audience wants the most.
You must ask yourself…
“What benefits can I express here, regarding my product?”
Once you’ve made a list, ask:
“What of these are the most relevant to the audience that I’m selling too?”
You can also ask:
“Which of these will get the most attention or will come across as the most unique?”
I suggest that you start with benefits as that’s a sure way to get attention. Curiosity works as an angle but you need to be good at it and your ad must be congruent with it.
You can say something like “James learned how to play the piano in just 4 weeks. Want to learn how he did it?”, which is a curiosity angle. However, experience taught me that going with a straight benefit works better in most cases.
Last but not least, once you’ve come with your idea, you want to transform it into a headline. Your angle or hook will almost always be represented through your headline. Once you’ve come with the headline, build the ad.
And as a word of caution, your ad must be congruent with your angle. You can’t get their attention with one thing and talk about something else later. You’ll just get them to leave your page. Sensationalism and “spicy” topics work great at getting attention but are awful at selling things. Don’t fall into the trap of doing that. The end goal is not to get your ad read, it is to make the sale.
To Review…
#1 – Angles are your creative approach to presenting your product.
#2 – Different angles match different audiences.
#3 – Without a good angle or better said, a good match with your audience, your ad will be ignored.
#4 – Curiosity, especially around stories work as an angle but it’s an advanced technique.
#5 – Once you’ve found an angle, transform it into a headline that gets attention and gets him to read the ad. Don’t sell through your headline, its only job is to get the rest read.
#6 – Avoid angles that are not congruent with your ad as they rarely work and may be taken down by Facebook or you’ll get a low quality score.
That’s all.
Now go create angles for your own business. It’s the fastest way to differentiate yourself without creating new products.
Best regards,
Imran
