This Ad Made Us £153,000 (It Was Shot on an iPhone)

Last month, our best performing ad creative generated over £153,000 in revenue. And the funny thing was, it was filmed walking around Lake Como, shot on nothing but an iPhone. Meanwhile, our professionally shot video that we've set up in our professional studio here barely broke even. So here's why. If you're running Meta ads, you might want to start filming some basic selfie style videos on your phone. And here's exactly how to do it. My name is Elliot Bottrill. I'm the CMO of Entrepreneur Circle and we're currently doing around a million pounds a month across our portfolio of companies. And, and every single month we spent around 120 grand on Meta ads alone. And I like to share what's working well now for us to help further our mission of helping millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners scale their businesses and ultimately do more great things in the world. So what I'm about to share with you in this video today is not theory. It's actually something that happened in real time during one of our campaigns and it's completely changed how we approach our video ads. You see, the shift towards selfie style ads isn't just a trend. It's a fundamental change in how people consume content and, and respond to these ads. Here's what we're going to cover. First, I'm going to tell you the exact story of how we discovered this by accident during a bit of a campaign crisis. Then I'll break down the three specific reasons these types of ads work really well. And finally, I'll show you where you can get the complete playbook that we've developed for creating selfie ads that truly convert. So by the end of this video, you'll understand exactly why we've made this pivotal shift in our creative strategy so that you can do the same. So let me tell you this story of how we stumbled upon this discovery because it was not planned at all. We, we were running a live event for our high ticket coaching and we'd done everything right according to our traditional playbooks and marketing wisdom. So we scripted a bunch of ads and shot them in our professional studio. It was looking amazing. You know, we're very blessed to have this studio here with all these amazing cameras and a fantastic video team as well. And so we launched this campaign on a Thursday, feeling very confident about the creator. But then the Sunday came around and I jumped into the ads manager on the morning and checked the performance and honestly I looked at the numbers and I thought, fuck it, these ads are absolutely bombing. These Professional videos. For some reason they were getting pretty bad. Engagement, Engagement. Our ad costs were through the roof and this was on the Sunday and the event was on the Tuesday. So we needed to do something and we needed to do it fast. The problem was our talent who was in the videos was now on holiday in Lake Como. So there was no reasonable way we could possibly get them back in the studio to refilm anything. So I did the only thing that I could do and that was give them a call and say, hey, I'm sorry to disturb you, but I really need you to film some simple selfie style videos. Honestly, they thought I've lost their mind bothering them on their holiday to all of a sudden film some ads. But being the good sports they are, they were up for it. So they took their iPhone, went for a little walk around Lake Como and started filming these ads using the same messaging that we had used in the studio videos. We got them back, uploaded them, and the results, let me tell you, these selfie ads absolutely crushed it. They immediately lowered our cost per lead by 76%. They drove a bunch of people to the live event and we actually ended up ripping about 250 grand in revenue from it, with 153 of that being directly attributable to these selfie ads. So that's when it me we've been doing this video ad thing a little bit wrong. So let's explore. Why did these holiday selfie ads outperform our expensive studio ads so much? Well, there are three specific reasons why this is a fundamental shift that's happening right now. And the first reason is Instagram reels is dominating as a placement. So fundamentally, Instagram reels is where most people are using Instagram and that means it's where most of the available ad impressions are, which means Meta's algorithm is currently favoring reels content and it's very likely your ads are going to be shown there. And so here's the thing about reels. Users expect authentic unpolished content. When someone's scrolling through their authentic feed, you know, they're seeing stuff from their friends, all these other tiktokers and influencers and it's all, you know, normally shot on an iPhone. So anything that's like really high production, it sticks out like a sore thumb and the brain immediately recognizes it and it will throw up their defense. Second reason is that the Meta Andromeda update has now fully rolled. This is absolutely huge and most people do not understand the implications. Now I'm not going to go into the details of it. There's a separate video on my channel where I explain a bit more. But the fundamental shift you need to realize is this algorithm now needs a huge diverse amount of creative, diverse of message, diverse of visuals. And so if we're planning on using the studio setup, it takes too long and sometimes it's too expensive to produce the volume of creative we need, unless you have a flipping 20 person media team. So the math don't really math in that sense. Whereas selfie style stuff is quick, it's cheap, it's easy, and we can produce large volumes. Thirdly, it's a tremendous pattern interrupt. You see, we live by the phrase the best ads. They don't look like ad. And when someone's scrolling through their feed and they see this authentic content shot selfie style, it looks like it could be a friend or a family member or someone they know. Their guard comes down and they engage and they consume professional ads. Again, in this environment of Instagram reels in particular, it just looks too polished and people's guard goes up and next thing you know, they're disengaged. So selfie content sneakily bypasses this resistance early and gets people consuming. Now, before you just grab your phone and start recording some random selfies, let me give you a framework that actually works. The golden rule for this. Step number one, go for a walk. Please do not do this at your desk unless you are a real pro on camera. Because truthfully, most people just look awkward as that. And then trying to do a stationary selfie, go for a walk, you'll feel more natural, you'll communicate more natural, but also you'll get the benefit of the natural light and you have a visual hook of the background behind you that moves. You know, whether it's nice trees, you're walking down the road in your garden, whatever it is that really helps. Set number two is really focus on the hooks to rewrite 10 to 20 hooks when we do these ads versus two to three actual body or meaty bits, because that is where we need to stop the scroll. So you want to have loads of hooks and you want to really focus on delivering that first line tremendously. Well, step three is just keep it conversational. Talk like you're speaking to a friend, not delivering a presentation. Use natural pauses, casual language, and don't be afraid of imperfections. You know, the goal with these is authenticity, not perfection. Step forward, focus on one clear message. Again, this is a 30 to 60 second video ad. So we want one insight, one story, one piece of advice. One, one clear message. We don't want to muddle it, we don't want to try and cram too much in. And step five, just obviously end with a clear call to action. This is an ad. You should know that by now, but tell them exactly what they need to do next in order to take action. So the key with these selfie ads is that you want to find this sweet spot between being really authentic and natural, but also professional. You know, you want to look like you know what you're doing. You want to give a good aura to your prospects, but you also don't look like you're trying too hard. Now, I know what some of you might be thinking. Elliot, this sounds great in theory, this is really easy. But how do I, you know, properly tactically implement this? You know, is there anything else I need to know? Any other advice for how I structure the message for these ads? How do I create the scripts or the bullet points of what I'm going to cover in these ads? What are some of the biggest mistakes people make? And these are all very, very valid questions. And honestly, there's a lot more than I could attempt to cram into a single YouTube video, which is why I've got you covered, guys. I have pulled together, Boom. This complete playbook. It's about 30 pages. And I go into our exact process of how we film these selfie ads, starting with the scripting, how we use our modular ad filming framework to create hooks and the bodies and the CTAs and stitch them together, and how we actually create the copy in a way that's going to be compelling to your business as well as all the other best practices for filming these, getting the right captions on so they look native and all the other little nuances that us kind of top 1% marketers, if you will, know and exploit. Now, it's only reserved for my inner circle where people pay a lot of money to join and get access to, but because you're tuned in on YouTube, you can get access to this completely for free. There's a link in the description, so please enjoy that. Now, if you want more insights into strategies that are working well right now, then hit that subscribe button. I'm looking to share more stuff like this as we learn more what's working as we scale our million pound a month operation to the moon. I appreciate your time and your very valuable attention. Have fun with those selfie ads and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.