It may be called Meta now, but the Facebook Ads platform used for advertising on Facebook and Instagram remains largely the same. So do the common mistakes marketers make when configuring and optimizing their campaigns. Here are some simple tips to help you avoid the most common Facebook ad mistakes when you are creating and managing Instagram and Facebook ads.
1. Re-examine your targeting
If you see that your core campaign metrics and results are not up to snuff in Instagram or Facebook campaigns, it is probably worth re-examining your audience setup. If you notice that you have loads of impressions, but few clicks or other tracked events and conversions, it is possible that your established audience is not relevant, interested or engaged with the product or service you are promoting. On the other hand, if your campaign has too few impressions, it may be an indication that your audience is too small.
The characteristics of your audience also matter. If you have created a Saved Audience, be sure to check the selected characteristics and ensure that they truly reflect the relevant buyer personas for your brand.
If your audience is made up of website visitors or a list of clients, ensure that these really are the people you want to include, exclude or make a lookalike. For example, in a retargeting audience, you might want to exclude visitors who have bought a certain item, because it is doubtful that they will make a second purchase on your site, or conversely, you may want to show them only ads related to the rest of your range of products or services.
2. If the campaign doesn’t work, check your campaign objective
Many customers want to optimize their campaigns for leads, sign ups or sales. They set up campaigns with one of these goals as an optimization metric, but then they see that the desired results are not forthcoming.
You have to have not only enough budget but also enough leads, subscriptions or sales for the algorithm to optimize for your desired conversion. If there is not enough volume, consider optimizing for a broader goal, with higher volume. A goal higher up the funnel (TOFU or MOFU) will give more optimization opportunities to the algorithm, and sometimes this is necessary if our campaigns are too limited by their initial goal.
3. Get your ads under control!
Many marketers set up their ads, walk away, and won’t look at or touch them again for a long time. It’s important to monitor the performance of your ads and swap those that don’t work well for new ones. You can also do A/B testing to determine which arts and texts have the most impact on your audience.
Another factor to consider is the length of the ad texts. Many of us have the mania of creating very long ad texts, simply because the platform allows us to do so. Be mindful of Facebook Ads platform character length recommendations when you’re setting up ad copy—this is especially important for Instagram and mobile users. Few people stop and actually click in order to view all that extra text contained in your ad. Ensure that the most important and impactful information is at the beginning of your copy or is containd in the ad image itself.
Ad text and art should be crystal clear and effectual since you only have about a second to stop a smartphone user in their tracks.
4. Spend wisely
There is no point in creating dazzling ads that targeting a relevant audience and use the right campaign objective if the established budget does not correspond to the realities of the advertising market on Instagram or Facebook. Your campaign is competing against other advertisers looking to sell products or services similar to yours to people who are from the same target. Therefore, you have to spend enough to be able to compete on the ad platform.
As we have already mentioned, a campaign with very few impressions can indicate that your target audience is too restricted or small. But this lack of reach can also be down to a daily budget so small that there is simply not enough money to serve the ads.
On the other hand, a well-configured campaign that is performing successfully in terms of goal and results doesn’t require an unlimited budget. For example, if I sell subscriptions for weekly home delivery of organic vegetable baskets in Barcelona, and only in Barcelona, there comes a time when I cannot reach more potential customers on Facebook or Instagram, and it is not worth spending more money. Almost every campaign has a sweet spot—an ideal budget or daily spend that when surpassed does not improve results.
If you would like assistance avoiding the most common Facebook Ad errors or need help with your Facebook and Instagram Ad campaigns, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Client Success Manager
Alexis is our Client Success Manager at All Around. She is a Digital Marketing Specialist and Manager with 15+ years of experience in international markets. She is a dedicated client partner, ready to take businesses to the next level, with vast expertise in digital strategy, operations, project management, reporting, budgeting and negotiation.
