Can you recognize this handsome devil?

If you’ve ever been scrolling down your news feed and caught site of the gold-pooping unicorn video, you’ll recognize this long-haired prince from the ads for Squatty Potty.(If not, don’t worry! I embedded it under their section below just for you.)People remember him (and the product) because their videos are hilarious. And if you’ve ever suffered from feeling like you can’t get a good poop going, you know what to buy.Humor flat out works. Psychologists have found that laughter builds trust between the person laughing and the person (or brand) who made them laugh. But it does so much more than that!Making your customers laugh improves their mood, makes them like you/your brand, and improves their recall of your product when their need arises.In other words, funny sells. If you want to make more money from your Facebook Ads, you have to implement the lessons learned from these hilarious ads.

Use Funny Videos to Sell Your Company for $1 Billion

Imagine. You’re scrolling down your newsfeed, when you stumble upon a video…[embed]https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZUG9qYTJMsI[/embed]This viral video by Dollar Shave Club kicked off their entire business, and lead to their eventual $1 billion acquisition. Not too shabby.

What You Can Learn/Steal From This Facebook Ad

While the Dollar Shave Club humor may not fit with your brand, there are some key lessons here that any eCommerce store can take away…

• Do something shocking or unexpected within the first few seconds of your video ad to get them to keep watching. It doesn’t have to be cursing (although that certainly works).
• Don’t be afraid of longer video ads. Many experts say Facebook video ads should only be 15-30 seconds… but if your video is interesting enough (or funny enough) you might be able to get away with up to 2 minutes or more.
• Use motion in your videos. Still videos of you standing in front of a white background can be great to teach someone something, but it makes for a boring video. Motion captures our attention better and keeps up interested.

Try Everything to Get Your Period... Then Sell Your Product

Subscription boxes are becoming hugely popular. And Dollar Shave Club isn’t the only club to ride a viral video to massive success. Take a look at this:[embed]https://www.youtube.com/embed/NEcZmT0fiNM[/embed]How’s a girl exercising her thighs and “trying everything to get her period” for shocking and unexpected? It grabs your attention, then continues to make you laugh, right up to the punchline.

What You Can Learn/Steal From This Facebook Ad

Despite being another somewhat raunchy/crude example, even the most buttoned-up stores can learn something from HelloFlo.

• Build curiosity. They don’t pitch their product at all until the very end of the video. In fact, they almost make you want to know what the product is.
• Take a page from TV’s book. Look to the most popular TV shows among your audience, then use that for inspiration. This ad reminded me of the all-popular dance moms (I hate that show and everything it stands for, but the ad was still really funny).
• Make it high quality. The video almost looks like it was made in a studio. It’s all about the lighting and angles.

Catch Their Eye With Unicorns, Make ‘em Smirk, and Convert ‘em

Slack is one of my favorite all-time programs AND companies. Their culture is funny, progressive, and innovative. And they know how to relate to their audience. Just look at this!

With this ad, they use bright colors to catch your attention, a unicorn (pony?) to make you smirk (probably because of the marketing world’s latest obsession with the phrase “Unicorns”), and a unique value proposition to get you to click. Who doesn’t want to make work better and go to 25% fewer meetings?

What You Can Learn/Steal From This Facebook Ad

While this might not be an eCommerce example, you can certainly take a few things away from it to use in your eCommerce Facebook ads. Namely:

• If it fits your brand, use bright and colorful images to catch the chronic scroller’s eye.
• Use imagery to help customers visualize what it feels like to use your product.
• Consider a snappy tagline to communicate your product’s main value. (i.e. “Make Work Better”)

Surprise ‘em With Gold-Pooping Dragons, Mermen, and a Centaur

“You know how ducks don’t have sphincters so their poop slides right out? Squatty Potty turns you into a duck.” There’s not much more I can say about this one… just watch the video.[embed]https://youtu.be/YbYWhdLO43Q[/embed]Squatty Potty used their comical video ads to turn their eCommerce shop into a multi-million dollar business nearly overnight. If that’s not something to strive for, I don’t know what it.

What You Can Learn/Steal From This Facebook Ad

Let’s be real - the Squatty Potty was built for funny adverts. Maybe your product isn’t so lucky. So what can you learn here?

• Use a mascot. Better yet, find a funny influencer to be your mascot.
• Be totally outrageous. A gold-pooping dragon? A merman? A centaur? Now that sticks out in my mind!
• Use multiple small jokes, rather than one big one. That way, if one of them sucks, you can just keep ‘em coming and catch them laughing in another one.

Flatulence is Funny, Too

Nothing like good ol’ farting humor to end the post.

In case you can’t read it, the text says “for better digestion”. This was a print ad, not a Facebook ad, but I had to share it. I love the clever use of visualization to immediately get the point across (and it pushes the pain of embarrassment, too). The only thing I’d change is making the image of the product and text bigger and blend it better with the photo.

What You Can Learn/Steal From This Facebook Ad

It’s tough to make a funny picture into an ad - video is much easier. But if you do it right, it can be a lot less work and money investment than a video. Here are some takeaways:

• Think of a funny way to convey the problem your product can help with. Then show a picture of that problem to drive the pain home, along with a snappy tagline.
• If your problem is invisible (like farting) think of a way to use an image to make it visible.
• Use farting humor. It’s a classic.

Conclusion

Humor builds trust, makes people happy, and just plain makes life better. Who doesn’t love a good laugh?If you’re ready to make a better ROI from your eCommerce Facebook ads, steal some ideas from these hilarious ads. It all boils down to this…

• Use shock value to keep ‘em watching.
• Build suspense to make them want to know what your product is.
• If you can’t use video, add bright colors or an image that visualizes your product in a funny way.
• Add a snappy tagline of your core benefit to entice clicks.
• Last but not least, use fart humor. Everybody loves a good fart joke.

If you’ve had a hugely successful funny ad, be sure to remarket to those people to hit them again and again. You want them to laugh so hard their face hurts from smiling so much.In fact, use humor in other places, too - like your email marketing campaigns or on your other social media accounts.Oh, and one last tip… don’t just use Facebook ads to promote your products. They’re great to promote your content, too.Off to you - have you seen or made a hilarious Facebook ad recently? Share it in the comments!