So you’re planning on advertising with Facebook. If you’re managing any kind of business, from eCommerce to a non-profit, you can have unparalleled reach with Facebook ads.
There are many benefits of Facebook ads. According to statistics, Facebook boasts nearly 3 billion users. So whether you’re well established, or just starting, this is the optimal platform to reach current customers, and prospect new ones.
However, growing your business using Facebook ads can only be efficient if you avoid the common pitfalls. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with the 10 mistakes to avoid when advertising with Facebook.
1. Not Setting Clear Goals
The first step to running any advertising campaign is establishing a clear Facebook advertising strategy. This doesn’t have to be a detailed spreadsheet of numbers. Your goal can simply be to increase sales or drive more people to a certain landing page.
Whatever your goal is, think about what metric would be the best indicator of success. Facebook offers multiple marketing goals to optimize your campaign. If you want to drive sales, setting your campaign to an engagement goal is not going to get you results, you’ll need a conversion goal.
The ad with the highest engagement might not be the ad that’s driving the most sales, and with an engagement goal, Facebook will spend the majority of your budget on the most engaging ads.
Setting a clear goal is the key to using your budget in a smart and effective way. With these goals in mind, optimization becomes simpler. You can look at the analytics and see which ads are getting the most sales, clicks, impressions, etc. Then move your bids and budgets around to increase desired results.
2. Not Optimizing to Your Goals
Facebook can do a lot of the work for you when it comes to optimization. With the Campaign Budget Optimization option, Facebook can manage your budgets for you.
This gives Facebook room to determine which of your ad sets are performing best, based on your goals, so you don’t have to play the guessing game. Additionally, rather than analyzing each ad set, you can look at the campaign level for a simplified overview of performance.
Then, you just have to determine which metrics are most essential based on your campaign goal. Use these metrics to signal Facebook where to spend by increasing or decreasing bids.
3. Not Checking Your Pixel and Landing Pages
One of the most common mistakes advertisers make is spending all their time constructing the perfect ad and neglecting the rest of the process. If users click on your ad because it catches their attention, then land on a poorly built website, they will drop off immediately.
Your click-through rate might be high, but what purpose does it serve?
Before you even start running ads on Facebook, you need to tie up all the loose ends on your website. Make sure it flows well, and that your product pages are up-to-date and engaging.
Additionally, make sure that your landing pages are working. Check the load time so you don’t leave users frustrated when they get to your site. If you see one landing page drop off in performance, analyze every aspect to ensure that it provides the best user experience.
Facebook tracking relies on the pixel. So make sure that it’s properly installed and firing the correct events on every important landing page. You should check your pixel regularly, at least once a month. This gets you ahead of the game and acts as a preventative measure to keep performance from dropping.
4. Not Defining Your Target Audience
Facebook has a large pool of users that could potentially see your ads. With so many people on the platform, it’s important to target an audience.
Don’t make the mistake of targeting everyone. Instead, think about who you would like to reach, or who you think might be interested in your brand or product. Facebook has endless options within its demographics and interest groups.
You might have an idea of who your audience is based on current customers, but if you want to keep growing your brand, you’re going to have to test new things. There are many reasons to use a Facebook ad agency, and targeting is one of the most important.
Facebook ad agencies specialize in finding the right target audience for every brand they work with. This means you have a head start in testing new audiences. You can utilize their expertise on what has worked for companies that are similar to yours.
5. Making Your Audience Too Small
While specific targeting is important to get your ads in front of a receptive audience, make sure that audience isn’t too small to drive results. Highly specific targeting can be a great way to test, but you’ll need fresh creative to keep people interested.
If you don’t want to be constantly refreshing creative, it’s better to use a larger audience pool and let Facebook do the work. You can still filter your audience while keeping it relatively broad.
Figure out what works for you. If your target audience is in a very specific age range, don’t get too granular with the interest overlays. Facebook will identify the people within your audience that are most ready to engage.
6. Using the Wrong Thumbnail for Your Ad
Remember that the thumbnail is likely the first thing people will see in their feed. This image should catch their attention immediately. For video ads, thumbnails can determine the success of the ad.
Many viewers drop off pretty early in the video, so having an engaging thumbnail can present your message right away. This could mean adding text overlay to the image or selecting a still that encompasses the main theme of the video.
Remember to keep your thumbnails in line with Facebook rules to avoid ads being rejected.
7. Using Ad Creative That Isn’t Engaging
For an ad to be effective, you need more than just targeting. Creative should be made to speak directly to your audience. It should address a need or desire in a visually engaging way.
Ads that explain your product or service can often work, but consider adding a more persuasive element. Testimonials add credibility to your brand and often show strong performance on platforms like Facebook.
Even with the largest audience pool, sometimes creativity can get stale. Keep trying new things based on what you’ve seen work. Holidays and seasonal changes are often the perfect time for a creative refresh.
8. Not Running Video Creative
You should test both photos and videos in your ad campaigns. However, video is number one when it comes to Facebook advertising.
Research shows that video creativity continues to be a successful strategy for a variety of advertisers. Video is more visually interesting and has more capability to tell a story than static ads.
While there are lots of ways to make video ads engaging, try to keep it simple. Most viewers won’t make it all the way through your video, so make your message strong and concise from the beginning.
If you don’t have the resources for a high production video ad, don’t worry! Take your static images and test them in a slideshow format. This will still add some visual interest and save a lot of time on production.
9. Not Using the Right Copy
The copy is often an afterthought for advertisers. If you’ve spent a lot of time constructing the ad itself, it’s tempting to throw some copy in at the last minute. Don’t make this mistake!
The headline is usually the first thing people read when viewing your ad, so make sure it’s short and has a clear message. Additionally, your copy should reflect the content of the ad. Copy that doesn’t compliment the ad will confuse viewers and weaken your impact.
It’s important to create a clear brand voice. This will be directly reflected in your ad copy. Think about your target audience and what would appeal to them. Address a common pain point for your audience, or add emojis to make your copy fun and show your brand’s personality.
10. Not Testing
Testing is possibly the most important tool to use when advertising on Facebook. Chances are, you’re not going to find your sweet spot immediately. Testing can be used for both targeting and creativity.
Start your campaign with a variety of ads and audiences. Having multiple options from the beginning will enable you to see results faster. Once you’ve figured out what works, iterate on the top performers.
Iterating on ads gives you a chance to hone in on which elements make your ads engaging. This is where you can play with the details. If a slideshow format is top-performing, iterate by testing different images within the slideshow.
Even when you think you’ve found the perfect formula for success, keep testing. Audiences change, and sometimes certain ad formats work for a while, then drop in performance.
Testing ensures that your audience is getting fresh creative and that you’re always reaching new people who might be interested in your brand.
Start Advertising With Facebook Today!
Now that you know the common mistakes to avoid when advertising with Facebook, you have a head start in creating the perfect campaign that reaches your target audience.
Remember, it’s normal not to get it right the first time. Be flexible, and use Facebook advertising as an opportunity to learn more about your audience, and further develop your brand voice.
These tips will help you keep your campaigns running efficiently. Facebook advertising isn’t something you can turn on and leave alone. If you want to be successful on the platform, you should be constantly looking at the analytics and making adjustments at every step.
Get ready to connect with your audience and grow your brand by building a Facebook advertising campaign today.
