Module 01 of 04 . 13 min
Build an offer, not a discount
Write the thing you are actually selling as one sentence a stranger would say yes to, and know what you can afford to pay for a lead before you spend anything.
Most Meta ads that fail were never going to work, and the targeting had nothing to do with it. The offer underneath them was not worth the tap, and no audience setting has ever fixed that.
On Google somebody types what they want and you answer them. On Facebook and Instagram nobody asked for you. You are interrupting a person who was looking at a friend’s holiday photos, and the only thing that buys you their attention is what you are actually offering. That is why the offer comes first here and the writing comes second.
An offer is not your service and it is not your price
An offer is the whole of what a person gets, what it costs them, how long it takes, and what happens if it goes wrong. "Interior detailing" is a service. "We park in your driveway with our own water and power, hand the car back in three hours, and you look at it before you pay" is an offer. One of those can carry an ad and the other cannot.
The result
- The question in their head
- What do I end up with?
- What Clearcoat answers
- A car that looks new inside
The mechanism
- The question in their head
- How, and why does that work?
- What Clearcoat answers
- We bring water and power to you
The terms
- The question in their head
- What does it cost and how long?
- What Clearcoat answers
- $189, three hours, your driveway
The risk
- The question in their head
- What if it is no good?
- What Clearcoat answers
- Look at it before you pay
The reason now
- The question in their head
- Why not next month?
- What Clearcoat answers
- Two Saturday slots left
| The part | The question in their head | What Clearcoat answers |
|---|---|---|
| The result | What do I end up with? | A car that looks new inside |
| The mechanism | How, and why does that work? | We bring water and power to you |
| The terms | What does it cost and how long? | $189, three hours, your driveway |
| The risk | What if it is no good? | Look at it before you pay |
| The reason now | Why not next month? | Two Saturday slots left |
The price is invented. The five parts are not: write your own answer to each of those questions and you have an offer, whatever you sell.
The test to run before you spend a cent
If a hundred perfectly qualified people, exactly the ones you want, read this offer, would a sane number of them say yes? If the answer is no, then no headline, no video and no audience setting is going to save it. Nothing else in this course matters until that answer is yes, and it is the question most people skip because it is uncomfortable to ask.
Move the sliders
What can you afford to pay for one lead?
Set it to your own business. The answer decides whether you can advertise at all, and most people work it out after the money is gone.
Profit on one job
$210
Before your overheads and before you have paid yourself.
Break even cost per lead
$63
Pay this and the ads exactly wash their face. You worked for nothing.
What to aim to pay
$21
Two thirds held back for overheads, the ones who never answer, and your wage.
Now move "leads that turn into a booked job". It is the slider the offer changes, and an offer that takes booking from two in ten to four in ten doubles what you can afford to pay for a lead without you touching a single ad setting. It is also why two detailers can look at the same thirty dollar lead, and one is delighted while the other is quietly going broke.
Your turn
A real offer, or not an offer yet?
Six things a local business might put in an ad. Only some of them are offers.
20% off your first detail
We bring our own water and power to your driveway, so you never leave the house
Look at the car before you pay. If the seats are not what you expected, you pay nothing.
Free quote, no obligation
$189 for a full interior on a five seat car, done in your driveway on Saturday
Premium detailing using only the highest quality products
What most people advertise
20% off your first detail. Book now!
What can carry an ad
Full interior detail in your own driveway, $189 for a five seat car. We bring our own water and power, we are done in three hours, and you look at the car before you pay a cent. Two Saturday slots left this week.
The second one is not written more cleverly. It is a better thing being sold. Notice that it is more expensive than the discount and easier to say yes to, which is the whole argument of this module.
Do this now
Write your own offer as one sentence
Open a note and finish this, about your business: "You get ___, because we ___, for ___, and if it is not right then ___." If one of those blanks makes you uncomfortable, that is the same part a stranger would have doubts about. Fix it now, before you write a word of an ad.
Module 01 checklist
0 of 6Before you move on
Write your offer as one sentence with all five parts in it, and write down the most you can afford to pay for a lead. Everything after this is how to say that sentence so a stranger reads it.