Meta Ad Creative Testing Strategy: The Philippines Method

Meta Ad Creative Testing Strategy: The Philippines Method

Why the Philippines?

• Ultra-low costs: Less than $0.01 per link click, ~$1 per trial/conversion

• English-speaking population: Direct transferability to Western markets

• ~70% correlation: Winners in the Philippines typically perform well in US/UK/EU

• 20x cheaper: Allows you to test 20x more creatives for the same budget

Step-by-Step Testing Process

Phase 1: Setup Testing Campaign

• Use Manual Campaigns (not Advantage+) for testing

• Optimize for your actual conversion event (trial starts, purchases - not app installs or proxy events)

• Set to Lowest Cost bidding with fixed daily budget (~$100-200)

• Target: Philippines, English speakers only

• Placement: All automatic placements

• Audience: Broad (no interest or demographic targeting)

Phase 2: Creative Production (400 ads/month target)

• 99% video content

• Focus on problem-solution format: "Before PhotoRoom → After PhotoRoom"

• Use winning ad frameworks as base templates

• Build internal Python/MoviePy tool (using ChatGPT to code it)

• Take 1 winning ad and remix it with:
• 5 different hooks
• 5 different voiceovers
• 5 different music tracks

• This creates 25+ variations from one base creative

• In-house team creating ads

• 50 influencers on retainer creating content

• Repurpose organic content as ads

• Embrace randomness - test unusual objects/themes to avoid groupthink

Phase 3: Launch & Testing

• Create 50 new ads per week across team

• Launch all 50 ads simultaneously in testing campaign

• Budget: $100-200 total (not per ad)

• IF ad spend > $30 in testing campaign

• THEN pause ad immediately

• This forces Facebook to find multiple winners instead of spending everything on one ad

Phase 4: Graduation to Scaling Campaign

• Advantage+ App Campaign (or Advantage+ Shopping for e-com)

• One campaign per language/country

• One campaign per device (iOS/Android)

• Cost Cap bidding with high budgets ($20K/day budget, might spend $2K)

• Always maintain exactly 50 ads (the maximum for Advantage+ App campaigns)

1. Sort all ads by Ad Spend (Last 7 Days)

2. Filter to ads that have been live for at least 7 days (fair comparison)

3. Delete bottom 5 performers

4. Add top 5 from testing campaign

5. Monitor if new ads climb to top of spend distribution

Phase 5: Success Metrics

• Winner in Philippines: €1 per trial or less

• Marginal in Philippines: €2-3 per trial (might work, probably won't)

• Goal: Get 1 new winning ad per month that enters top 10 by spend

• Red flag: No new ads in top 10 for 6+ months

• Click-through rates

• Hook rates

• CPMs

• Video retention rates

• Ad spend distribution (what Facebook chooses to scale)

• Your target CPA being hit

Key Principles

• No audience testing

• No interest targeting

• No placement testing

• 50 ads per ad set (maximize it)

• Same structure replicated across channels

• 50-100 ads per week total across all languages

• Batch editing and automation

• Lower production quality but higher volume beats high production/low volume

• Don't second-guess what will work

• Your taste as a marketer is often wrong

• Launch everything, let Facebook show you the winners

Transferring to Main Markets

1. Launch same creative in US/UK/EU scaling campaigns

2. Expect 70% correlation rate

3. Costs will be 10-20x higher in main markets

4. 90% of ads still won't scale in main campaign (need to overcome existing social proof)

5. But the 10% that do will be your new top performers

Tools & Automation

• Python + MoviePy: Batch video editing

• ChatGPT: Help code internal tools without dev team

• Facebook Automated Rules: Cap ad spend in testing

• Internal upload tool: Simultaneously launch to Meta + TikTok + Google