Facebook Ads are Weird

Ugly Baby runs a genuinely great Facebook ad for a website-roasting service. The pitch works. Then the funnel puts a card form and a year's subscription between you and the thing you were sold, before you get to taste it at all. I wrote up the ad, the paywall gate, and the June postscript where I forgot to cancel, got charged the full $365, and had to ask for a refund.

The ad was great. The funnel asked for my card and a full year up front, before I could see the product do the one thing it advertised. Good hook, gated too early. I wrote up Ugly Baby's Facebook ad, screenshot by screenshot.

https://www.jakelawrence.xyz/essays/facebook-ads-are-weird

Ugly Baby's Facebook ad for a website-roasting service is genuinely good. Then it wants your card and a year's subscription before you're allowed to taste the product. I praised it, quarreled with it, then forgot to cancel and got charged the full $365. The refund request is the postscript.

Ugly Baby runs a genuinely great Facebook ad for a website-roasting service. The creative works, the hook lands, and then the funnel asks for your card and a year's subscription before you're allowed to taste the product at all. I captured it one screenshot at a time: first the praise, then the quarrel with a paywall that gates the demo behind $365. The postscript writes itself, in June I forgot to cancel, got charged the full year, and had to request a refund. https://www.jakelawrence.xyz/essays/facebook-ads-are-weird

A great Facebook ad sold me on a website-roasting service. The funnel then asked for my card and a full year before letting me see it roast anything. Hook great, gate too early. Screenshot by screenshot.

https://www.jakelawrence.xyz/essays/facebook-ads-are-weird

Ugly Baby's ad for a website-roasting service is genuinely good. Then it wants your card and a year's subscription before you can taste the product. I praised it, then forgot to cancel and got charged the full $365.