Are you undermining the success of your Facebook ads without even realizing it?

Social media advertising — particularly Facebook advertising — is, undoubtedly, one of the most effective ways to get your brand out there and drive conversions, but the effectiveness of individual campaigns can vary widely, depending on the decisions you make.

The better your campaign performs, the farther your advertising budget will go. This is definitely a good thing, because, let’s face it, not many advertisers have an endless budget to burn through. But, if you make the wrong decisions, it can hurt the success of your campaign just as much as making the right decisions can help it. Today, I hope to help you learn which mistakes to avoid in your campaign.

5 mistakes that could be hurting the success of your Facebook ads

Mistake #1. You don’t have a strategy

You should never go into Facebook advertising willy nilly. In order to get the most out of your Facebook advertising dollars, you first need a clear objective, as well as a strategy on how to reach that objective.

Luckily, Facebook understands just how important having an objective is, which is why they make choosing one the first step toward creating a Facebook ad. Objectives you can choose from include everything from brand awareness or engagement to traffic or conversions.

There are all kinds of different ad types you could choose from and a variety of different audiences you could be targeting in your ads. The answer to which ads you choose and who your target audience is will make or break your success. That’s why, when you’re making these kinds of decisions about your ads, you should always keep your overall objective in mind.

Mistake #2. You’re not using targeting effectively

One of the biggest advantages of using Facebook ads in the first place is that they can be extremely targeted. With the ability to target specific groups of people, you’re only paying to advertise to people who are already interested in what you have to offer or are most likely to need it. You’ll also avoid advertising to people who aren’t in your geographic area or who are outside of your target demographic.

That being said, if you’re not using targeting effectively, there’s a good chance that the return on your investment won’t be as high as it could be. This means you’ll be spending more of your advertising dollars targeting people who aren’t likely to end up wanting or needing your services or products in the first place.

With Facebook’s built-in targeting feature, you can target audiences based on all kinds of things, including their contacts, interests, age, life events, purchase history, location, behaviors and so much more.

Too often, businesses end up targeting a much bigger or smaller audience than is effective, or worse, targeting the wrong audience altogether. That’s why it’s very important that you truly understand who your audience is before you set out to target them in your advertising.

Mistake #3. You’re not using video

A survey from 2018 found that a staggering 71% of consumers find video ads on Facebook either relevant or highly relevant. In addition to being seen as relevant, Facebook video advertising is also much more engaging when compared to text or image ads. In fact, in 2017, when most advertisement types were seeing a drop in engagement, Facebook video ads actually saw a 10% increase.

Here are a few other reasons to harness the power of video in your Facebook ads:

• Grab attention – Video ads, more than any other type of ad, are great at grabbing the attention of your audience.
• Build brand awareness – If you’re looking to get your brand out in front of a wider audience and build recognition in who you are and what you have to offer, video ads are an excellent option.
• People love to watch videos! – Did you know that more than 100 million hours of video are watched every single day on Facebook? Simply put, video ads are effective because people love to watch videos.

Mistake #4. You’re not keeping track of your ads

Facebook ads are not something you can set and forget, at least not if you want them to perform as effectively as they could. An effective Facebook advertising strategy involves daily monitoring of your ads, which helps you keep a pulse on how they are performing.

Regularly monitoring your ads will prevent the same people from seeing the same ad over and over and over again, which is tiresome for your audience and a waste of your money. Daily monitoring also helps you learn whether or not your ads are meeting your objectives. With this information in hand, you can fine-tune your ads to be more effective, as well as build out better advertising campaigns in the future.

While monitoring your ads, look at a number of different areas, including the number of leads the ad generated, the click-through rate of the ad, the conversion rate and how frequently the ad is viewed. This kind of information is critical to making the most of your advertising budget.

Mistakes #5. You’re not testing your ads

A/B testing is a vitally important aspect of any advertising campaign, and Facebook is not an exception. The phrasing or verbiage you use in an ad can have a huge impact on its success, and you’d be surprised at what a difference changing small things like this can make in your advertising campaigns.

Testing is a step that’s often overlooked in Facebook advertising, but it’s something you should always make sure that you’re doing. However, there is a right and a wrong way to A/B test your ads.

One common mistake advertisers often make is testing too many elements of an ad at the same time. If you test too many variables at once, it’s impossible to tell which variable adjustment made the difference. By methodically testing one variable at a time, you can fine-tune every aspect of your ads.

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Facebook advertising can help you reach a wide range of goals, from building brand awareness to increasing the number of conversions you’re getting, but not all Facebook advertising campaigns are made equal.

I hope that this blog will help you learn about what not to do in your Facebook advertising campaigns, but if you’re looking for help in getting them right, you’ll be glad to know that Marketing 360® is here to help. Learn more and see our plans and pricing. 

Originally published on 5/26/20