Everyone likes to mention how great Facebook Ads are. With its multi-billion user base, leading edge ad platform, detailed targeting options, and extensive list of case studies, Facebook often looks like the place to plug online.
But amidst all of the glow, there’s a tough truth: many, if not most businesses, struggle to urge good results from Facebook Ads.
That’s to not say that Facebook isn’t an honest place to advertise. You’ll get great results from Facebook Ads. the very fact of the matter, though, is that Facebook advertising isn’t as easy or straightforward as it’s cracked up to be.
In their rush to urge in on the action, many businesses make key mistakes that doom their campaigns before they even launch. Lately, Facebook Ads is so competitive that it’s fairly unforgiving. If you don’t take the time to try to to things the proper way, you’ll spend plenty of cash and obtain little or no reciprocally.
So, if you’re battling Facebook Ads, here are 5 common problems I frequently see which will set your campaigns up for failure.
1. Failing to check your campaigns
Launching a Facebook Ads campaign is straight forward. In fact, it’s very easy that you simply can start paying for ads almost without realizing it.
Facebook makes the entire campaign creation process so simple and intuitive that it seems like “plug and play” advertising. You found out your account, start running ads and watch the leads and sales are available.
Unfortunately, this whole process may be a bit deceiving. While it certainly is straightforward to line up a campaign, nailing down your strategy, messaging, and targeting can take tons of labor . If you think that you’ll get great results the primary time around, you’re getting to be disappointed.
The only possible way to understand what works and what doesn’t is to check everything. It means more work, to make certain, but Facebook actually makes it fairly easy to separate test a spread of various aspects of your campaigns.
Every a part of your campaigns – from creative to placements – has an impact on the profitability and sustainability of your campaigns. You’ll learn tons about your audience and what messaging they answer through creative testing, then use your optimized creative to refine your delivery, audiences and placement.
But, you’ll only do all of that if you’re actively, regularly running split tests.
Too often, advertisers present a campaign that’s little quite guesswork and assume that Facebook’s algorithms will get them the sales they have. Once they’re making money, they’ll use testing to optimize their campaigns in pursuit of even better results.
Unfortunately, it rarely works out that way. Effective Facebook advertising is that the results of a calculated, deliberate testing strategy. If you aren’t testing your thanks to success from the start, you’ll never find out the way to make Facebook Ads work for your business.
2. Highlighting the incorrect values
As we just discussed, it are often hard to predict exactly what your audience will respond well to. For your ads to succeed, you would like to nail your messaging and ad design.
Unfortunately, many businesses don’t really understand why their customers convert. They think they understand their value proposition, but they’re focused on what they value—not what their customers value.
To make matters worse, even once you get your value proposition right, it are often hard to work out the way to communicate it effectively to your audience.
For example, take a glance at the ad below:
The ad copy is obvious and compelling, but it’s overshadowed by a really confusing image. While the image is gorgeous from a design standpoint, it doesn’t really tell us much about what the merchandise is or does. All we all know is that it’s something to try to with kitchenware.
From the copy, we all know they’re selling reusable silicone bags, but it’s hard to inform what those bags are or what they’re used for within the picture. As a result, it’s hard to urge excited about clicking and converting on this ad.
On the surface, this ad looks great. It’s professionally designed and has punchy ad copy. Most businesses would be proud to run a billboard like this. However, because the worth proposition is murky, this ad is perhaps confusing people rather than converting them.
So, as you test your ad creative, confirm that you simply understand what your core value proposition really is. Then, whenever you create a billboard , take a step back and ask yourself, “Is my value proposition clear? What would someone who knows nothing about my business deduct from this ad?” If you’re not satisfied together with your answers, return to the drafting board.
3. Targeting small audiences
Facebook Ads provides a unprecedented level of targeting detail. Want to focus on bodybuilders who live on their one and can be celebrating their birthday soon? No problem.
As a general rule, the more specific you’ll get together with your marketing, the simpler it’ll be. And, the more narrow your audience, the better it’s to urge specific together with your marketing.
As a result, it looks like Facebook’s targeting options would make Facebook Ads the perfect marketing platform. With the power to urge this granular, how could your campaigns fail?
However, there’s a drag with getting overly specific together with your targeting. Facebook Ads is primarily an awareness-generating platform. Not many of us mount Facebook in search of an area to eat, get their car repaired, or buy toilet tissue.
What does that mean for your marketing? Well, regardless of how specific your targeting is, only a little percentage of your audience will answer your ads. When you’re handling upper funnel advertising, it’s all about the numbers, and when your audience is just too niche, the numbers aren’t on your side.
This is very true when you’re first starting out on Facebook Ads. There are tons of unknowns and if you get overly specific together with your audience—especially while testing your messaging—you can sabotage your campaigns without aiming to .
In my experience, audiences with but 1,000,000 members are just too small. An audience between 1-10 million can work well if your messaging is well-defined, but if you’re still trying to nail your creative, it’s best to focus on an audience of 5-10 million or more.
4. Focusing on short-term results
Far too many advertisers think that Facebook Ads may be a direct-response marketing channel. People will see their ads, click and convert. While this could be the case surely businesses (especially ecommerce businesses selling impulse-buy products), for many companies, things are rarely that straightforward.
As mentioned within the last section, Facebook may be a fairly low-intent marketing channel. People visit Facebook to socialize – to not buy things.
So, when it involves your campaigns, you’ve got to assume that nearly nobody who sees a billboard from your business on Facebook goes to click and/or convert the primary time around. They’re discovering your business and what you’re offering, so it’s getting to take a while for them to warm up to the thought of converting.
With that in mind, your ads got to meet your audience where they’re at. instead of pushing them hard to convert the primary time they notice your ad, you’ll want to make a spread of ads that build familiarity and nudge people through your funnel.
Take this ad, for example:
The ad above is extremely high-funnel. It introduces the corporate , gives a touch insight into what they’re selling and why, and encourages people to see out their site. it’d cause sales, but it’s more likely to pique people’s interest.
Now compare that ad with this one:
This ad is clearly intended for people that are already conversant in Truff’s brand. rather than trying to urge their audience to shop for into their business’s identity and story, this ad is trying to urge people that have responded well to earlier ads to truly buy.
Multi-layer strategies like this have a tendency to supply better results over time than an easy “buy now” strategy. When you’re trying to create awareness and generate interest, that specialize in the long-term play will usually be the simplest move. Facebook Ads is not any exception.
Conclusion
While the Facebook Ads interface is straightforward and intuitive, getting good results from your Facebook campaigns takes tons of effort. That’s why numerous businesses struggle with Facebook Ads—even when their business may be a great fit the platform.
The problems we’ve discussed during this article are quite common , but they’re also fairly easy to unravel . All you’ve got to try to to is put within the necessary time and energy to check your campaigns, find out the way to effectively communicate your value proposition, find an adequately-sized audience to focus on , and specialise in driving long-term results.
If you expect Facebook Ads to be easy, you’ll probably be disappointed. In fact, that’s probably why you’re reading this text . But, if you view Facebook Ads as a puzzle which will yield great results once you solve it, you’ll get on the road to success.