Paid Facebook ads can be a great way to quickly get a ton of traffic and potential new customers to your business’ website. And with Facebook’s incredible amount of users, the visibility, impressions and brand awareness you’ll get with Facebook Ads make it a cost-effective and almost essential part of any social media marketing strategy.
However, it’s important to note that these great results can only be achieved through a well-planned and well-executed Facebook Ads campaign. While creating an effective Facebook Ads campaign is relatively straightforward, many marketers stumble on the same common Facebook Ads mistakes. These mistakes limit your campaign’s effectiveness and instead of being a great return on your investment, becomes a sinkhole for your business’ hard-earned money.
In this article we go over 7 common Facebook Ads mistakes and what you can do to avoid them or how to bounce back if you’ve already accidentally done them. So read on and discover how you can avoid these mistakes!
Mistake 1: Undefined Objectives
Like a driver with a map, your Facebook Ads needs direction in order to maximise its efficiency and effectiveness. Otherwise, you risk spending too much money with very little to show for! This is why it’s important to set clear, defined goals and objectives before you even start your campaign.
To determine your campaign objectives, you should be asking yourself why you’re starting a campaign in the first place! Here are some common objectives that many marketers use:
- Increase website traffic
- Increase customer conversion
- Make more sales
- Attract new sign-ups
Once you have goals in mind you can create a campaign which is specifically made for them, for example, a campaign for page likes or impressions.
Setting clear objectives also allows you to measure your campaign and see how well it’s performing relative to your goals.
Mistake 2: Using the wrong ad types
Facebook ads come in various types and formats. These include:
- Images
- Videos
- Carousels / Slideshows
- Instant Experiences (mobile only)
- Shopping Collections (mobile only)
You can also choose where to place these ads including on desktops, mobile devices and even on sidebars, with Facebook’s ad placement features.
The key to a high performing Facebook ads campaign is knowing which ad type will lead to the greatest ROI. Consider who you’re targeting (more on audience targeting later) and your budget when determining which ad type to use.
For example, ads on desktops typically have higher levels of competition and are thus more expensive than other ad types. Another example is using Facebook Collection ads to target younger audiences who shop on mobile devices. Consider which ad types will get you the most bang for your buck!
Mistake 3: Poor Audience Targeting
We touched on this in our previous point, but it’s worth expanding on – poor audience targeting is one of the biggest and most common Facebook Ads mistakes. Knowing your target audience is key to any successful marketing strategy. Like clear objectives, knowing who your audience is will give your Facebook Ads campaign direction and purpose.
Simply targeting a broad audience won’t net you the results you’re looking for. Instead, you want to be specifically targeting people who are the most likely to respond and engage with your ads.
But who are these people? You can find out by performing market research, conducting surveys, identifying market trends and analysing competitors. Once you have a firm understanding of who your audience is, you can then proceed to directly target them based on a number of factors such as location, demographic, behaviour and interests.
Mistake 4: Unclear Value Propositions
Unclear value propositions on your ads is one of the most common Facebook Ads mistakes. What do you want your ads to do? And what can you offer Facebook users to click on your ad?
Your ads need to have something that will convince users to interact with your ads. They need to be compelling enough to spur action! Writing clear ad copy that outlines the benefits of your business is essential. You can also include additional lead magnets such as exclusive discount codes or free access to templates or eBooks.
Your propositions also need to be clear and evident. Be straightforward with your message and avoid unnecessary buzzwords or jargons. Make it crystal clear to users why they should be doing business with you!
Mistake 5: Unappealing Ads
How appealing are your ads? Are they compelling enough to stand out? Facebook is the number one social media platform in the world. It has over 1.9 billion people using the app every day! That is a lot of people and content that your ad will be going up against. You won’t be only competing with other businesses, but with people’s friends and family as well.
This makes it so important to ensure that your ad creatives are appealing enough to garner your target audience’s attraction. But how can you make sure your ad stands out in a sea of photos, videos and status updates?
The first thing to tackle is the visual content of your ads. Use interesting designs and attractive layouts – while sticking to your brand style of course! Consider using a variety of content as well, including both images and videos. Finally, make sure your headlines are interesting enough to stop people from scrolling past your ads!
Mistake 6: Not Using Facebook Pixel
Facebook Pixel is a unique piece of 15 digit code that tracks the behaviour of those who interact with your brand. It also allows you to monitor your ads and create custom audiences for you to target. Facebook Pixel is a must for any digital marketer – not using it is possibly the biggest yet most common Facebook Ads mistakes.
Let’s take a closer look at what Facebook Pixel can do:
- Track conversions, cost per conversion (CPA) and conversion rates (CVR).
- Measure revenue and return on ad spend.
- Create custom audiences for retargeting and audiences to exclude from retargeting efforts.
- Create lookalike audiences for you to additionally target.
- Allows you to create dynamic ads which lets you retarget customers with products they have already viewed.
Facebook Pixel can be created through the Facebook Ads Manager or the Facebook Business Manager. Once created, you can choose to install it manually or by using plug-ins. Some website platforms like Shopify have features which help you install your code.
Mistake 7: Not Performing A/B Testing
A/B testing is an essential part of Facebook advertising. You could avoid all the common Facebook Ads mistakes we’ve listed above; set clear goals and audience targeting, and create amazing ad content. But there is always still a chance your campaign could fall short.
This is where A/B testing comes in. You always want to be testing and experimenting with alternatives to your ads and to see which one works best. Facebook lets you do this with its A/B testing feature. With it, you can submit multiple variations of your ads with different images, copy or formats, to Facebook. Facebook will then send these different variations to a small segment of your target audience and analyse which variation gets the most engagement. From there, the ad sets that gets the most engagement will be sent to the bigger portion of your audience.
Get the most out of your campaign by avoiding these Facebook Ads mistakes
Facebook Ads can be a serious game changer for your company. It’s capable of attracting great amounts of traffic and leads which can only help to grow your business!
And as long as you avoid these Facebook Ads mistakes, you’ll have a Facebook Ads campaign that consistently gets results. Want more Facebook marketing tips? Check out the ZipZipe blog for more!
