When I started doing Internet marketing, I was scared of promoting dating or other low-paying offers because I didn’t think I could make them profitable. However, realizing that the conversion rates can be drastically higher on a smaller paying offer means that it might not be as hard to get profitable as you think.

I talked about a few tips for increasing Facebook ads CTR before, but I wanted to go a step further. I’m going to analyze the differences in ad styles and languages when targeting men or women, and how the differences affect profitability.

How to Make Profitable Dating Ads

Quite possibly the most important thing I have noticed is that you need to keep trying. I have made close to 10,000 different ads across a handful of traffic sources for dating alone. Only a small fraction of those have been profitable, but the most important factor is to keep trying and building on your successes.

The 2 Most Important Factors in The Language

I have tried just about every combination you can think of, and I have concluded that the two most important factors in the way you write the ads are:

1. Precise targeting – If you can include the age (or an age range) on the ad, your CTR and conversions will drastically improve.
2. First person – Again, if you can swing it, my most profitable ads have been first person: “Come Meet Me, I’m Looking For…”

The language and targeting works very well for both male and female targeted ads. Unfortunately, this can be rather difficult to manage if you are using Facebook as your primary traffic source, but Plenty of Fish allows dynamic insertion of targeting attributes, as well as first person language as long as you explain that it is an external website.

The Differences in Pictures

These may seem obvious, but certain ‘types’ of pictures work better for men vs. women as well.

Universal Pictures

Here are a few attributes to try to include regardless of your targeting.

1. Younger than expected – If you are targeting 25-30 year old men and have a picture of what looks to be (or is) an 18 year old girl, it will definitely spark their interest.
2. Older than expected – On the same hand, if you are targeting 18-25 year old men and have a picture of what looks to be a 40 year old woman, you may be surprised at the results!
3. Happy people – Generally speaking, the pictures of happy or smiling people work much better than serious looking people.

Pictures of Women

If you are targeting men (using pictures of women), definitely remember these.

1. Include the chest – Men are very intrigued at the chest of a woman. Include it in the picture even if she is wearing a full sweater. Be careful, many of the traffic sources are declining ads for “excessively large breasts” though.
2. Tan – Unless you are marketing for an albino dating site, pictures of tan women perform much better in my experience.

Pictures of Men

If you are targeting women (using pictures of men), try to keep these tips in mind.

1. Shoulders and up – Women are generally more interested in the face and smile than the body of a man.
2. Hats – Some of my best ads have featured men wearing a hat. Try it!

Those are a few of the factors that I have noticed largely influence the success of a specific dating ads. Obviously the offer, direct-link vs. landing page, your specific targeting, and more all play a role as well. However, if you actually implement these tips, I can guarantee your ads will perform better than before.

Good Dating Ads

1. Age targeting – 28 year old people are excited because the ad is talking directly to them
2. Pictures – A happy guy wearing a hat and a tan, busty woman – The female picture will probably not get approved on Facebook anymore though
3. Language – First person language in both the title and the body
4. Seeking action – “Come to ProfitAddiction.com now!” tells them exactly what to do

Work to implement any of these ideas in your dating ads and you should notice an increase in CTR and conversions. However, even creating a duplicate of an existing profitable ad sometimes fails, so keep working at it.

Bad Dating Ads

These ads (and similar variations) have performed terribly for me on Facebook and Plenty of Fish.

1. Lack of targeting – If a good ad has precise targeting, poor ads are not targeted well
2. Pictures – The woman looks very serious (I thought seductive might do well, it didn’t) and the guy is serious as well – Did not work well
3. Language – Again, very broad and not first person
4. Boring – The ‘Meet Singles’ phrase is probably the most overused dating phrase out there – be creative!

You can definitely test these ad types if you want, but I have tested hundreds of ads exactly like this and failed to see any promising results. If you think you can do better, give it a try!

Pick out a dating site and go make some ads!

EWA Network has some of the best dating offers I have ever run, so I would suggest starting there.

Leave me comments if you have any questions – you know I’ll respond.

“If you want to achieve some really big and interesting goals, you have to learn to fall in love with hard work.” – Steve Pavlina