Jason Hornung – Facebook Ads
I kinda like this guy. Jason Hornung that is.
Well, I like what I saw and heard re a Facebook ad pitch he did about how to get the most out of Facebook ads.
Liked it so much I’ll link it up here so you can check it out, if it hasn’t popped up in your FB news feed already.
I’d never heard of the guy before seeing this, and I’m not pushing his agency – that link I just put in is of the non-affiliate kind – but I liked what he had to say in that presentation you see him giving.
I really liked that he kept it simple, and didn’t BS about researching your target audience, the usual crapola that everyone else does, without ever really explaining just how in the hell you can actually define that audience.
Take for example pitching website design, just what in the heck interests are you supposed to target for? Interested in website design? Probably a web designer then. Maybe a small business owner or self employed..? if the person has defined their job as that. If they’ve just expressed an interest in that subject, then it means nothing.
Okay, for some ads, being able to target a particular age and sex is great, so is location, but after that it’s just guess work. If you’re pitching novelty gifts for men at Christmas, well that’s just about everyone who might be interested, as just about everyone will have a male friend or relative! Not just women who’re married, or in a relationship, or whatever.
So I like that Jason Hornung starts off by squashing that commandment of Facebook ads – that there’s a magic audience that can be defined. Especially given that so many of these purported Facebook experts tout that there is, and that they of course can teach you how to find it.
Beyond a few basic settings he tells his audience not to get bogged down in it, and explains why: that when you set your Facebook conversion pixel correctly, Facebook will take care of finding the right people for you.
This is refreshing. When I heard that, I was in for the rest of the presentation and have watched it several times since. It really is very good.
Hornung also advises not to play around with the pixel’s settings, that just the out-of-the-box settings will suffice. In fact, he warns that playing around with these will just mess your targeting up and be more likely to hinder your results than help them.
Again, I like that. The guy wasn’t trying to turn technical somersaults in order to justify his approach/expertise/fee. This was starting to smack of a guy who could actually do just what his Facebook blurb proclaimed – a rare and precious find in the world of marketing gurus. The marketing skill that the majority have honed is just in convincing you that they can.
Maybe Jason Hornung is the same, I couldn’t find out that much about him online, but in the absence of anything immediately negative leaping up on Google, I’m prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.
More than that actually; I’m prepared to follow his advice.
I was intrigued when he said that often times he ran ads with no audience defined. That what with defining custom conversion pages for his pixel to track, he would just let his ad roll and leave Facebook to handle getting it in front of the right people.
I don’t want to repeat everything the man says, but he fully explains for why he says that, and he’s saying something I’d long suspected, but just never heard any guru actually say.
I like too that he wasn’t for getting hung up on method of delivery, be it mobile or desktop etc – all the stuff everyone else labours on and insists is so important. You can narrow all that down later, if you need to, but just get your ad out there, properly defined for what you need to do.
The thing about being an “expert” is that oft times the people claiming those credentials think they’ve got to demonstrate it by making things more complicated and convoluted than need be. Jason Hornung doesn’t do that. He can also back up what he’s saying with sales figures for clients, something he makes the point that the other so-called experts can’t in a separate video. And that’s true: it’s always alluded to, great success, but rarely are specifics ever provided.
There’s more videos than that one I linked up on the guy’s Facebook, and I found them all interesting and practical. No directions to go off and meditate on who you think your one key fan is, and then try and guess what he or she would “like” on Facebook, it’s all practical, immediately workable advice.
Of course, Jason Hornung isn’t all a humanitarian angel dispensing knowledge for karma points, he’s selling the services of his agency (not that I blame him, we all gotta eat) and the inevitable online product:
As you can see, that little info product is going for $1,995. A lot less than some, and a lot more than others.
I like the info I’ve seen thus far but I don’t $2k like it. The argument goes that you have to think of such pricing in terms of an investment and what it’ll bring you… but if it brings you nothing then that’s not such a good deal. And if you need another couple of grand after buying this product to spend on Facebook ads too, then it’s not really for the enthusiastic amateur. Which let’s face it, is the actual buying audience, not the corporate guys. Plus, even if the advice is great, your execution and product/service may not be (or even right for FB ads come to that).
But anyway, I’m throwing this one out there as I think the free knowledge is valuable and leave folks to make their own mind up as to the worth of things.
If you’re interested in another resource that contains training on how to run Facebook ads (and Google and Bing ads) check out Wealthy Affiliate.
I’m a member, it doesn’t cost anything to join, and you get a week of full membership to see if you like the place and want to stick around. No credit card required for “verification” or any of that nonsense.
Read my review here and have a look, see if it’s for you.
Recommended further reading:
Not Facebook ads per se, but the art of copywriting – which you’ll need to write a good ad. A classic and still as relevant as the day it was published.
How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything to Anyone
By Drew Eric Whitman