why your CPMs are so high
High CPMs in Facebook ads are often caused by aggressive landing page design, overly promotional copy with all caps, and negative sentiment language rather than just creative issues. Testing new landing pages and analyzing copy sentiment are critical to identifying and fixing CPM problems.
Summary
The speaker explains that high CPMs on Facebook ads stem from multiple sources beyond just creative content. Landing pages play a significant role—aggressive landers featuring extreme before-and-after transformations and unrealistic claims can substantially increase CPMs regardless of creative quality. The speaker recommends testing new landing page formats to isolate whether the lander itself is the culprit. Additionally, the primary text in ads contains elements that trigger Facebook's quality penalties. The speaker specifically identifies all caps usage as a CPM-increasing factor and notes this is just one of several copywriting elements Facebook penalizes. Facebook evaluates overall copy sentiment, and the speaker recommends using sentiment analysis tools to check both creative and primary text. Fear-based language and negative sentiment in copy are flagged by Facebook's systems and result in higher CPMs. The ideal approach is to maintain neutral or positive sentiment in ad copy to avoid triggering these soft rejections that artificially inflate costs.
Key Insights
- Aggressive landing pages with extreme before-and-after transformations and unrealistic claims increase CPMs independent of creative quality, making lander testing essential for CPM diagnosis
- Using all caps in primary text increases CPMs, representing just one of several copywriting elements that trigger Facebook's soft penalty system
- Facebook penalizes ads based on overall copy sentiment analysis, which can be measured with sentiment analysis programs applied to both creative and primary text
- Fear-based language in ad copy generates negative sentiment scores that trigger Facebook penalties rather than neutral or positive sentiment responses
- High CPMs are often caused by soft rejections from Facebook's quality systems rather than algorithmic performance issues, making copy and lander optimization critical
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] What matters also is not only your ads but also your lander. So how aggressive is that? If you have a lot of before and afters, crazy transformations, unrealistic expectations, claim, those can definitely increase your CPMs. So you need to test new formats. I would test new landers to kind of rule that out cuz a lot of times I see guys running very aggressive landers and no matter what they do creatively, the lander is actually a reason why their CPMs are so high. There's also a lot of things in the ad copy specifically like the primary text. Even though you're running video ads, there's a lot of stuff in primary text that can increase your…
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