Here’s the biggest question I get about Facebook ads: what do I actually use in my image or video?
I’m Jake Sheldon, co-founder of Pest Control Millionaires. I have a portfolio of businesses including pest control, cleaning, and moving companies. I also work as a fractional CMO for other service businesses. And I can tell you that getting the visual elements right in your Facebook ads makes all the difference between ads that get ignored and ads that actually generate leads.
At the end of the day, you want to do something that grabs attention. That’s all that Facebook wants. It’s disruptive marketing like Dan Kennedy always talks about. This is disruption at its finest.
Facebook Is Not Like Other Platforms
Facebook advertising is different than Google Ads, door hangers, or mailers. You’re not looking to do branding quite as much. You want to disrupt people’s patterns.
Everyone’s going through a low state hypnosis while they’re scrolling. A lot of people call it doom scrolling. So you need to grab people’s attention and snap them out of it.
How do you do that? You want to use brighter colors or hooks, something that gets people’s attention immediately.
Jonas does this super well. He has great videos that grab people’s attention with a very, very strong hook that disrupts their pattern. You need something that’s going to do exactly that.
Show the Pain Point in Your Creative
Another thing you want in your image or video is a pain point. Something that actually hits them on a deeper core level.
Let’s say it’s a mosquito ad that you’re running. You actually want to show a mosquito on the ad, or a mosquito biting someone, or a yard with people in it dealing with mosquitoes.
That is what’s going to work very, very well in those scenarios.
You have to think about it. People are scrolling aimlessly and you have to get them to stop. You’ve seen all the Alex Hormozi ads where he’s falling off the stretcher. Remember all those? That’s what it’s all about. The disruption.
It’s not like Google where people are searching for you. That’s high intent, easy to close. Facebook is different. You have to disrupt them. You have to get them to stop scrolling.
How do you do that? Bright colors, good intro, good headline. Make them stop. If you have a family in your ad and they can hear that buzzing noise of mosquitoes, people just know what it is. They feel it.
Don't Show Your Team or Truck
Here’s a common question. With Google or some of these other platforms, you can have imagery where it shows the solution. A tech standing by your truck. A picture of your family. A picture of your pest control team.
That actually works great for those platforms. But on Facebook, specifically for lead generation or conversion ads, it doesn’t work.
You have to gather attention and get people to make a buying decision quickly. You can’t afford to be soft or subtle.
Before and After Pictures Work Great
Before and after pictures work really well. We’ve seen this consistently.
Before and after pictures do very, very well, especially on the lawn side of things. If you have a good contrast, like an aeration job where you can really see the difference, that crushes.
Show the problem clearly, then show the solution. The visual contrast grabs attention and tells the story instantly.
Your Headline Is 50% to 80% of the Ad
Which headlines and copy styles maximize attention?
Same thing. Something that’s going to gather attention and get people to stop.
What I like to do is use headlines that summarize exactly what your offer is. If it’s a pest control service and a mosquito control service that you’re bundling together, you could quite literally just say “Pest Control and Mosquito Control Service” and then give them the price.
Or here’s an offer that Jonas and I are both actually running: it’s a general pest service for the year and they get a free mosquito control service for the rest of the year with the same general pest price. That’s what you would want to put in the headline.
There are a million different opinions on how important the headline is, but we do know it’s very, very important. Some people say it’s 80% of the ad. Some people say it’s 50% of the ad. All I know is, depending on the percentage, it’s very, very important.
So you want to get the headline right. That’s why in my videos I come swinging in on a web, do a backflip, and land on my feet talking about pest control. That actually grabs attention.
Never Put Your Phone Number in the Headline
One thing I want to say specifically about headlines: one thing you don’t want to do is put your phone number.
I see a lot of people, especially in our class who haven’t gone all the way through, they’ll put their phone number in the headline. Do not do that.
You don’t want to put the company name. You don’t want to put a phone number. You don’t want to do anything like that. You want to talk about the offer or what you’re actually doing for the service.
Stay away from company branding in the headlines.
Your headline needs to be catchy and get their attention quick. It needs to make them want to read the next sentence. Just like any good ad copy, you just have to get them to read the next sentence. Get them down the funnel.
Facebook Ads vs Organic Content Are Completely Different
How is content different for Facebook ads versus Facebook organic?
This is a great question because it is going to be way different than an ad versus an organic post or a Facebook group post.
We talked about groups in previous videos. In groups and organic posts, you want to lead with value because you’re building trust, you’re building authority, you’re building value on those groups.
You actually don’t want to do that on ads. On ads, you can be as advertisy, if that’s even a word, as you want. You can be as salesy as you want.
Why? Because it’s an ad. People can see it’s sponsored. You are paying for people to see that ad, so you can be salesy.
There’s a huge difference there. We have ad copy scripts that people can follow that we’ve found work very, very well. We did not make these up. We got them from other marketers and books that we’ve read.
I would definitely follow an ad copy formula on the paid side of things. And then you can follow our templates on the organic and the groups, the Facebook group side of things as well.
Skip the Branding Ads
Should you ever run top of funnel ads for branding?
You can. But I would say Facebook already does a great job with branding on your conversion or your lead ads. You’re already paying for the branding to go out there anyway. So you don’t really need to do a lot of extra paid ads on that type of thing.
None of us run big enough companies that we can just throw money at branding ads without getting a return on our ad spend.
You can go even deeper than that. A lot of things I see people do wrong with Facebook ads is they won’t have any of the elements that you need. Your target audience, your offer, your pain point, your CTA, your solution, your social proof. They don’t have any of those elements.
I don’t want to name any big company names, but you know them. They have their technician with arms folded against their truck in front of a house. It means nothing.
Half the time if you didn’t know the company, you don’t even know what the ad is for. It will just say like “$50 off.” Well, what the heck is that for?
Well, they’re spending millions a year on branding. Smaller businesses don’t have millions and millions of dollars to spend on branding. I want conversions.
That’s just me. If I spend money on something, I want to get money back. If I’m going to put my money into Facebook, I want leads and customers.
Real Examples of High Performing Ads
Can I give you examples of Facebook ads that performed really, really well? I have tons of them.
One of them right now I got from Jonas. The offer we’re running is a general pest service at the regular price, but if they sign up for a year’s worth of general pest, they get mosquito control for free for a year. We’re already going out there anyway, and we’re getting a lot of people coming through the funnel with that.
Another one that’s worked really well is I like to run a $67 initial for my general pest service as long as they sign up for the year. This is just me personally, I don’t know about everyone reading this, but I don’t like to do one time services. So we just don’t do them.
We only give them that initial discount if they sign up for the year. I love the recurring revenue. That’s what I’m going after and that’s what I do all my advertising for, that recurring book of business.
There are all sorts of ads that work well. Weed control ads. Aeration ads. We did a standalone picture, side by side before and after with aeration. It was quite the difference too. Pretty awesome footage and pictures. That crushed.
A mosquito control ad that we just did about two months ago did fantastically well. It was a hand going like this with mosquitoes all over the hand. Then it was $49 initial if they signed up for the year of mosquito control.
That one worked fantastically well. It was a nasty picture of someone getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and it converted really, really well.
Video testimonials run really well too. If you can get someone, not on your team, but one of your customers to do a video ad for you, that works great. Having them do a video testimonial and using that as an ad works really well.
The Biggest Mistakes With Facebook Ad Content
What are the biggest mistakes with Facebook ad content?
The big mistake is people are treating their actual ads like organic content on Facebook or group content.
Doing that, giving value and posting pictures of your technician or your family or whatever it may be on those platforms, those advertising methods are fine. But you don’t want to do it with paid ads.
You want to have ads that disrupt, that sell the service, that get people to go through your funnel.
And one last thing I want to mention: you want to be different. So if everyone in town is running a $50 off offer, well don’t do that because it’s not going to work.
Or if everyone in town is doing a $99 initial service, don’t do that either. You have to show up different.
We’ve talked about this a lot, but if you want to have a competitive advantage over everyone, you need to do an offer that’s different from everyone else in town.
Make Your Ads Stand Out
The bottom line is this: your Facebook ad creative needs to disrupt the scroll. Use bright colors. Show the pain point clearly. Write headlines that focus on the offer, not your company name.
Be as salesy as you want in paid ads. Save the value content for your organic posts and Facebook groups.
And always, always be different from your competition. If everyone is zigging, you zag.
Keep Growing Your Skills
Want to connect with over 2,000 pest control business owners who are running profitable Facebook ad campaigns? Join our free Facebook group, Pest Control Millionaires. We share what’s working, break down winning ads, and help each other scale.
And if you want the complete playbook for building Facebook ad campaigns that actually convert, check out Zip Code Kings. It’s packed with proven strategies, ad copy templates, and real examples of campaigns that are crushing it right now.
Now go create some ads that make people stop scrolling.
