Maximize Your Facebook Ads: How to Replicate Social Proof Effectively

Social proof sells.

Imagine scrolling through your feed and seeing two ads:

1. Ad 1: 0 Likes and 0 Comments

2. Ad 2: 879 Likes and 43 Comments

Which ad would you trust more?

Obviously, Ad 2.

Why? Because it has substantial social proof.

The choice is almost instinctual, you don't even think it through, it's a cognitive bias, called confirmation bias.

Reactions on Facebook/Instagram are the main actions the user can take.

As a post or ad has a lot of reactions, your mind automatically confirms that the information in that particular post has to be great because so many people react to it.

In this issue, I’m going to share an amazing hack that can increase efficiency on your ads.

By the end of this, you'll know how to leverage social proof across multiple ad sets to significantly boost your ad performance.

Why Social Proof Matters

If you are long-time reader you may know me as the guy who likes crucial metrics such as conversions, ROAS, LTV or CAC.

But...

Social proof, such as likes, comments, and shares, plays a critical role in building trust and credibility with your audience.

When people see that others have engaged with your ad, they are more likely to trust your brand and take action.

Common Mistake: Duplicating Ads without Post-IDs

Many advertisers make the mistake of duplicating ads into different ad sets without using the original post IDs.

This approach scatters engagement across multiple versions of the ad, diluting the social proof.

The Hack: Using Post-IDs to Consolidate Social Proof

Here’s the thing: don’t just duplicate ads into other ad sets.

Instead, use their post-IDs to maintain a single version of the ad across multiple ad sets.

How does this work?

•  If you have one ad in 3 different ad sets, and someone comments on any of those ads, the comment will be reflected on all versions of your ad.

•  This consolidates all likes, comments, and shares into one ad, amplifying its social proof.

Here’s how you can duplicate that ad with a lot fo good engagement to new campaigns.

Step-by-Step Guide to Duplicating the same Ad

Step 1: Create Your Ad

First, create the ad you want to run in one ad set.

Ensure it's engaging and likely to attract comments and likes.

Step 2: Find the Post ID

After creating the ad, go to the Facebook Ad Manager and find the post ID of your ad. This ID is unique to your ad and can be found in the Ad Setup level, at Ad Creative.

See image below:

If you used a soon to be gone dynamic ad set, then you can find the variations of your dynamic ads in the Page Posts tool, in Business Manager.

From there you can select the variation that has the most engagement and copy the post ID from there.

See image below:

Step 3: Use Existing Post

When setting up new ads, use the original post ID instead of creating a new one.

This way, all engagement will be linked to the same ad, no matter how many ad sets you have.

Choose Existing Post in the Ad Setup. The at the Ad Creative Section choose the post from the list that appears in the pop-up window or enter the post ID.

See images below for more clarity.

1. Ad Setup >>> Choose Existing Post:

2. Ad Creative >>> Choose from the list (or search for the ad)

3. Ad Creative >>> Manually Copy-Paste Post ID

Step 4: Monitor and Optimize 

Keep an eye on your ad’s performance.

With all social proof consolidated, you should see higher engagement rates, which can lead to improved ad performance and lower costs.

Conclusion

Imagine running a campaign where every ad in every ad set shares the same social proof.

Not only does this build trust with your audience, but it also boosts the algorithm’s favorability towards your ad, potentially reducing your cost-per-engagement and cost-per-conversion.

By leveraging post-IDs to consolidate social proof, you can significantly enhance the performance of your Facebook ads.

This simple yet powerful trick ensures that all engagement with your ads is concentrated, making them more trustworthy and effective.

Have you tried this with your Facebook ads? What results did you see?