Facebook Ads has recently become one of the most popular online platforms to advertise with, both for small businesses and major corporations. On the platform, users can advertise to Facebook, Instagram, and a variety of other partnered apps and websites in Facebook’s audience network. Not only is it one of the most cost-effective ways to run ads, Facebook Ads makes it easy to track conversions from your brand’s website with their pixel.
Though many companies have had great success from their Facebook Ad campaigns, many have also struggled to maximize their full potential with the platform. Facebook Ads, to put it bluntly, is complex. There is a reason why agencies literally sell full courses on how to run ads on Facebook. Without the right targeting and without the right knowledge of how to effectively lower your ad costs, users can easily destroy entire campaigns with a few poor decisions.
For one, users should do extensive research on the learning phase of campaigns. When you first create an ad campaign with Facebook’s campaign budget optimization feature, it is immediately put into a preliminary stage of advertising called the “learning phase”. In this stage, users may see fluctuations in their ad costs and unpredictable allocations of their budget.
During this time, users should avoid making any creative changes to their ads or any significant changes to their budget, as those actions will restart the learning phase for your ads. Every ad set within the campaign is placed in this learning phase and will not exit the phase until it receives 50 individual conversion events.
Another mistake that users often make is not testing multiple ads per ad set. In a Facebook Ads campaign, users will typically create several ad sets within a campaign to test different target audiences. However, many people choose not to test different ads. Often times, users can receive better results just by advertising different sections of their video ads.
Say you have a 30-second video for your advertisement. Facebook recommends only creating video ads with a maximum length of 15 seconds. So, instead of just running the first 15 seconds of your ad for all of your ad sets, you should test both the first 15 seconds, and the last 15 seconds of your ad to see which performs better. Alternatively, users can also make minor creative changes to their video ads and create different versions of their ads to test out.
Misallocating Your Budget
Some brands don’t have enough margin to advertise on Facebook. So before you spend money on ads, make sure your business metrics support paid ads.
- Darren Litt, from MarketerHire
Ignoring Engagement
It’s important to never underestimate the power and need for human connection. People are alone and they’re looking to connections in online forums, chats, and Facebook groups to help fill the void. It’s a form of marketing that requires time commitment, patience, and strategy, but ultimately delivers high rewards. Social media channels represent another way to build and maintain relationships during—and after—the pandemic.
- Jason Akatiff, from Boundery
Putting on a Facade
Not being genuine is, perhaps, the biggest mistake you can make on social media. Don’t try to be someone your not. Just advertise yourself, your brand, and your products in the most natural way possible.
- Dr. Livingood, from Livingood Daily
Conclusion
When operated with proper discretion, Facebook Ads can be a truly amazing platform for your business to grow. Remember that there are unlimited combinations of people you can target. Almost always, even if your ad costs are relatively high, there are changes that can be made to improve your results. A change of location, time of day, age range, or interest can provide a substantial reduction in ad costs.
Even if your costs are high to start, remember that Facebook’s optimization technology is designed to lower them over time. The more data that you feed Facebook, the better results it can provide for you. Once an ad set begins receiving conversions, Facebook can begin to narrow down what audiences are most likely to engage with your ad and direct them toward you. Facebook also provides lookalike and custom audiences that build up over time and track users that have already engaged with your content, as well as users who are likely to engage with your content.
A strong foundation behind the ads is also what leads to great results; a solid product, an engaging, informative video, and memorable branding. All of these factors contribute to a user scrolling through their feed and clicking on your ad.