Your Weekly Pencil - April 20, 2021

New Signals

• This week, Facebook announced 3 new ad options: a new ‘Conversion Leads’ goal for Lead Ads—enabling advertisers to target leads most likely to convert, the option to convert Leads forms into Messenger templates used for following up, and a new feature that allows advertisers to display a ‘Call Now’ CTA button in their ads.
• IHOP gave listeners of social audio app Clubhouse a chance to listen to the sound of sizzling bacon for a whole day, as part of its rollout of Steakhouse Premium Bacon. This comes as more brands test the invite-only, 10M user-base app in their promotions. 
• Target, last Wednesday, announced its commitment to spending $2 billion with black-owned businesses by 2025.

Stryke Club's authentic 'Real Mom & Son' ad just works  - Watch Pencil's ad of the week

• Dubbed as skincare essentials for the boys— Stryke Club is a one-of-a-kind product line designed for today’s teenage boy—the one who’s ready for a lesson in self-care.
• Part of the video was in no way professionally produced—it was a normal photo of a mom and her son—a photo you might see from friends and family on your Facebook feed. But the more closely ads mimic the content native to their audiences feeds, the higher the chance they'll want to engage.
• With the sheer amount of ads today, people have learned to tune out messages they can’t relate to. Authentic ads like these let you cut through the noise and stand out to your target audiences.

Is your creative getting stuck in a rut? - How to create ads with more creative variety

The more differences you can explore, the more likely you are to find winning ads. Here's the TL;DR from Pencil CEO Will Hanschell of 5 ways to shake things up:

• Try a different brief
• Combine different assets
• Loosen up your brand kit
• Prompt copy from left field
• Input different assets

Using AI to Scale Facebook Ads with Markeko Digital - Watch the livestream here

• Markeko Digital has everything you need to pass your next Facebook Blueprint Certification Exam. Diego Rios, its founder, has partnered with Pencil for the livestream video above featuring Pencil CEO, Will Hanschell, to give you even more insights on how to continue scaling your ads.

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Something deeper

• Escaping old ideas is harder than having new ones