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It’s National Braille History Month, Reader! ⠝⠊⠉⠑ ⠺⠕⠗⠅ ⠇⠕⠥⠊⠎ ⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑!

In today’s edition:

• 🖼️ Today's Tip of the Day is for Meta ads

• 👣 🛒 Lead gen and conversion tips

• TikTok creative tools

• Meta’s AI-powered personas removed

• 🗞️ Additional industry news from TikTok

Confused by all the recommendations for Facebook and Instagram ad creative? Wondering how much creative you actually need for a campaign? How much is too much? How much is not enough?

Ad Creative Should Correlate to Your Budget 

The larger your ad spend is, the more creative variation you want in place to keep your campaign performance optimal.

If you’re spending:

• Under $50K/month, you need 6 creative variations.

• Between $50K-$300K, you need 10 creative variations.

• Over $300k, aim for 14 creative variations.

Today's tip was inspired by Molly Pittman, a featured speaker at Social Media Marketing World.

You May Not Know This, Reader.

Most events don't include recordings. And if they do, they're a costly upsell. But not Social Media Marketing World. Recordings are included with your All-Access ticket. Why? Because we know that attendees can't be in 4 places at once, so they appreciate being able to watch the other sessions later. 

"Almost every time slot there were 2 or more sessions I wanted to attend. Since I knew I would get recordings, I could choose the best option for me without feeling like I was missing out," said attendee Jamie Chril. 

Get your All-Access ticket (plus recordings) today.

How to Generate and Convert More Leads in 2025

Are you attracting leads that don’t convert? Looking for a strategy that delivers more buyers who opt-in?

Showcase a Scaled Version of What You Offer

When developing lead generation content, think about how you can create the best experience for a lead to have complete clarity and full confidence in your offer. While you can't completely solve someone's problem in a 45-minute webinar, you can give them clarity about the path forward. 

If you worry about giving away too much information in your lead generation content, don't. People will pay for speed and convenience to arrive at a solution.

The key is making the lead gen experience manageable rather than overwhelming. If you try to use a webinar to teach someone everything you do for clients, they'll be too overwhelmed. That's not valuable. However, you can give them your solution at a high level so they can buy into the validity and value of your process.

For example, if you help people with type 2 diabetes repair their blood sugar without medication, you can use a webinar to teach your core process at a high level, gaining potential customers' buy-in to your methodology.

To develop your lead generation formats, consider these two ideas:

• Use your process as the outline of a high-level webinar.

• Run a free challenge that fully reveals the first step in your process. Emily Hirsh runs a free challenge where participants implement the first step of her process for launching a visibility ad. On the final day, she shares a high-level overview of the steps they'll need to take to succeed.

Tell People How They Can Get What You Offer

Conversion becomes much easier when you have strong audience building and lead generation in place because it takes approximately 30 micro touchpoints before someone makes a purchase.

A micro touchpoint could be seeing your email in their inbox or seeing your ad while they're scrolling Instagram. Even if they don't open your email or click on your ad, they see your name for a microsecond.

When these elements have done their job, you can move on to converting your audience.

These tips will help you effectively communicate your offer:

Use Words Your Customers Use: One common reason for poor sales performance is ineffective offer communication. To evaluate your offer presentation, take your sales page headline and read it back with "I want" in front of it as if your ideal customer were speaking. Ask yourself: Would they say this in their own words? If the answer is no, work on your language.

Concentrate on Outcomes and Benefits Rather Than Features: Customers don't care about logistical details when they want a solution. What they care about is the outcome they'll get by attending an event, purchasing a product, or joining a membership.

Consistently ask Yourself, "What's in it for my customer? Why is what I offer important to them?" All of your marketing communications should be filtered through this perspective, ensuring the focus remains on the customer's desired outcomes and benefits.

Target Existing and New Leads: Many businesses focus heavily on generating new customers while overlooking their existing audience. Hirsh emphasizes that your most significant opportunity often lies with your current leads. "I just had someone sign up for our program who's followed me for nine years," she shares, highlighting the importance of long-term nurturing.

Use Multiple Email Sequences: Don't limit your offer exposure to a single email sequence. You're leaving money on the table if you mention your offer only once in a welcome sequence. Develop multiple sequences to remind people about your offer.

Today's advice is provided with insights from Emily Hirsh, a featured guest on the Social Media Marketing Podcast and presenter at Social Media Marketing World.

Meta AI-Powered Profiles Update: The company stated it was removing certain profiles due to a bug that prevented users from blocking them. The specific profiles mentioned - Scarlett, Izzy, and Brian - are no longer visible on Instagram. Meta clarified that a recent Financial Times article discussed their long-term vision for AI characters on their platforms rather than announcing a new product. A Meta spokesperson explained that the accounts in question were part of a test launched at Connect in 2023 and were managed by humans as part of an early AI character experiment. The company identified the bug affecting users' ability to block these AI accounts and is removing them to resolve the issue. It remains unclear whether these profiles have been permanently removed from the platform. Source: Fast Company

TikTok's AI Self: The feature allows users to create AI-generated avatars in various art styles directly within the app. By uploading 3 to 10 photos, users can generate up to 30 unique avatars reflecting their facial features. These avatars can be used as profile pictures or shared in stories. The feature offers a range of styles, including anime, Old Hollywood, and Modern Professional, enabling users to explore different artistic representations of themselves. Source: Lindsey Gamble via Threads

TikTok AI Meme Maker: The filter lets users transform their photos into AI-generated memes directly within the app. By uploading an image, the filter analyzes it and overlays humorous or satirical text, creating a meme tailored to the photo's content. Source: oncescurado via Threads

TikTok's North American Head of Ad Sales Stepping Down: Sameer Singh has announced his departure from the company, as revealed in an internal memo obtained by ADWEEK. Singh will continue in his position until the end of February 2024. His departure coincides with a critical period for TikTok, as the platform faces a potential U.S. ban scheduled to take effect on January 19. Source: Adweek

Did You Know?

Sam Panopoulos, a Greek-born Canadian, invented Hawaiian pizza in 1962 at his restaurant, Satellite, in Chatham-Kent, Ontario. He named the pizza for the brand of pineapple he used.