Is your Facebook advertising campaign having a bit of a dry spell? Are you struggling to meet your impression or engagement goals and feel that you have exhausted all avenues to reach success? Well, fear not, I am here to give you a little insight on what not to do and highlight some key mistakes you may be making with your Facebook campaigns that can be detrimental to your overall campaign success and conversion rates. Just because you may have made these mistakes in the past, doesn’t mean they are irreversible, so keep reading and discover what you need to avoid while managing your Facebook ad campaigns.

DO NOT OVER-OPTIMIZE YOUR CAMPAIGN

Most advertisers feel the need to always be hands-on with their ads and feel more at ease knowing that someone is always changing the campaign up and that these constant changes lead to quicker success. Well did you know that the second you make even the slightest change to your campaign, the entire thing goes back into learning mode? Facebook uses an algorithm to properly place ads across its platform and when you are constantly tweaking things you are inhibiting the algorithm's ability to identify the best user first.

What this means for you, is that you need to target larger audiences by pooling custom audiences and relying on lookalike audiences of your custom audiences that convert. This is a new concept that many marketers used to hark on back in the day but now with the algorithm becoming even smarter, ad costs being driven up, and having even more placements to choose from running campaigns in such a matter is a no brainer. Facebook has even created a playbook for marketers that highlights the best plan of action with optimizations and when to do what actions!

IMPRECISE TARGETING IS A NO-NO

One of the biggest mistakes our paid accounts team see when taking over a client’s social media campaign is that the advertiser is using imprecise targeting, meaning that they are showing their ad to the wrong audience- likely at the wrong time. First off, let’s talk about these boosted posts. Boosted posts are almost always the wrong way to reach the audience you need if you are simply hitting the boost button on the post. The best method for this is to actually go into the Ads Manager and run a post-engagement campaign so that you can utilize the enhanced targeting that Facebook has to offer.

Speaking of Ads Manager, just because you use Ads Manager, it doesn’t mean that you are using the tool properly. Are you utilizing exclusion audiences? If not, guess what, you are probably showing your ad to someone who could care less about your brand. With that being said, if your goal is to raise awareness to the masses then you have nothing to worry about, however, if you are looking to drive action from your Facebook ad campaign, it is best to not narrow your audience too much to get things started.

IS YOUR CAMPAIGN FOCUSED PROPERLY?

Did you know that you only have about 3 seconds to catch a Facebook user’s attention before they say thank you, next and scroll to the next big thing? In addition, did you ever think that the first time a user sees your ad, it could be your brand’s first impression on the line? What I’m talking about here is, that if you are shoving offers and deals about your product down a new audience’s throats, they are likely going to go on to the next one.

Because of this, many marketers recommend focusing on the people engaging with your ad instead of the solution that you offer. What does this mean for you though? For the advertiser, this means you need to tell your key customer’s story through your ads- showing their full journey and how your product solves their problem. We recommend doing this via video- for more information on Facebook videos, check out our previous blog.

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

Have you ever tried on an article of clothing that is one size fits all that in no way, shape or form works with your body type? Facebook advertising works the same way. Think about it, just because something worked in 2018 for your annual sale does not mean utilizing the same thing in 2019 will result in success. As an advertiser, you have to stay current on trends, understand who your audience is, and how they interact online. As an advertiser, you always need to understand your customer’s journey and once you figure that out you will learn what size fits each individual persona you are targeting.

THAT’S A WRAP

Well now that you know the 4 most common Facebook marketing mistakes that advertisers make, it’s time to take a step back and look at how your ads are performing and making sure that you aren’t making any mistakes as your time and money are two of your most valuable assets. If you feel uneasy or would like a more professional approach to running your Facebook advertising campaigns, contact us today for more information.

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