4 No-Brainer Reasons your Facebook Ads Campaigns are failing

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Facebook Ads Campaigns - A close-up view of a Facebook business page on a computer screen.

Facebook, a giant social media platform launched in 2004, continues to grow in both active users and the total time spent on the platform. It is still a widely used social media channel with approximately 2.45 billion monthly active users. This explains the growing popularity of Facebook ads campaigns as an integral component of most brands’ marketing strategy.

Every marketer and entrepreneur loves to talk about how great Facebook ads are. With Facebook’s multi-billion user base, detailed targeting options, and the endless list of case studies have made Facebook the right place for marketers to connect with their target audience.

But amidst this bright light, there is the hard truth: most businesses and marketers still struggle to get substantial results from their Facebook marketing efforts. That’s not to imply that Facebook is not a good platform to advertise. The reality is that Facebook marketing isn’t as straightforward as portrayed in most blog posts you have read.

In a rush to reap the benefits of launching a Facebook business page, ads, and other advertising strategies, many businesses make costly mistakes that doom their marketing campaigns long before they launch. Facebook ads are becoming more competitive, and simple mistakes could cost you a lot of money.

Why your Facebook Ads Campaigns are failing

Unless you are getting the returns you seek, it’s time to start troubleshooting your Facebook ads account. Here’s why your Facebook ads efforts are failing terribly.

1. Your approach is questionable

Most businesses struggle with Facebook long before they roll out their campaigns, mainly if they are used to dominating Google Ads and copy-paste the same approach to their Facebook ads. Look; we all know Google AdWords is incredibly powerful, and nowhere else a marketer can harness the power of searchers’ intent to translate ads into $$$ fast. There is also a reason much of Google’s revenue comes from ads and not the other products they offer.

Facebook advertising has its benefits, but searcher’s intent isn’t one of them. Only a few (no one at all) goes to your Facebook page looking for your company’s latest eBook. Instead, social media users want to connect with old grade school buddies, #humblebrag to their fans about the exciting summer holiday in Miami, and probably stalk one’s ex-lover.  

The hard truth is that you are playing an entirely different game and certainly competing with people’s friends and family. Good luck anyway!

There’s a good way around these two hurdles, but takes ingenuity and some legwork. For beginners, forget about those popular bottom-funnel commercial key phrases that convert well-performing AdWords. Instead, map your target customer journey and roll up your sleeves to create a unique Facebook campaign for each major stage of the consumer’s journey (funnel). Here’s an example;

Step 1: Awareness – You need to grab attention from your audience’s personal activities and use an excellent content piece to spark their curiosity and interest in what you offer.

Step 2: Lead generation – It’s time to un-suck your unique offer. All the creative ads bells and whistles cannot make up for a boring a discounted, or free consultation offer.

Step 3: It’s conversation time – a perfect blend of correct timing, lead nurturing, and irresistible sales offer can give you the results you seek.

Restructure your Facebook Ads campaigns approach to fit your customers’ journey. But that means you must fine-tune audience targeting.

2. Wrong target audience

Choosing the audience on Facebook is the complete opposite of selecting an audience for Google Ads. When specifying keywords for AdWords, the target audience often self-selects. For instance, “auto repair Phoenix” makes the entire process pretty obvious. Just set-up the correct negatives, match types, and geotargeting. You will never get a prospect from Texas or Alaska calling you.

Facebook advertising starts with the selection of the audience. This is a little tricky, particularly in the top-of-the-funnel (awareness) phase, where you are casting a wide net and certainly crossing your fingers. So, it’s safer to start broad then get narrow. Start with basic demographics such as age, sex, location (ASL), and their interests.

Limit your awareness-phase audience to 1 million to 2 million users. Too few users mean you won’t get sufficient data, and too broad range of audience means you will get lots of junk. Be sure to optimize your campaign for the lowest CPC and test it for a different audience.

Lead generation is the next phase in your Facebook advertising funnel, and this is where the custom audience comes into play. If you did step 1 perfectly, you should be getting more website visits daily. The point is, your Facebook advertising ads should rhyme with the different phases of your marketing funnel.

3. Failure to test your ads campaigns

Launching Facebook ads campaigns is easy. Actually, it is so easy that you can begin paying for ads without knowing. Facebook has made it easy to create and launch paid ads that most marketers feel like ‘plug and play’ marketing. All you need is to set up an account, begin running ads and watch your sales increase.

Unfortunately, this process is deceiving. Nailing down your advertising strategy, targeting, and messaging takes a lot of work. The only sure way to know whether your Facebook ads campaigns will work is by testing them.

Each part of ads adverting campaigns, from ad creation to placement, directly impacts the overall performance, sustainability, and profitability of your Facebook ads marketing strategy. Testing your campaigns gives you the chance to learn more about your target audience, what messaging they respond to, and use these details to optimize and refine your ads delivery and placement.

4. Excessive text in images

Facebook newsfeed is overly crowded with text posts, images, videos, and other forms of content. In that, a poorly designed ad is likely to be left unnoticed if it’s not designed correctly or placed to attract Facebook users’ attention.

The ad copy, image, and the text over it should complement each other. Remember, social media users are already busy scrolling through video, pictures, and other posts of their relatives, colleagues, and friends. They will ignore your ad if it’s not interesting enough.

Summary

Facebook ads have the potential to market nearly every product and service. Indeed, it is a great platform that grants businesses and marketers access to a broad audience and cost-effect marketing option. If your Facebook ads campaigns are failing, now you know why. 

Use a good Facebook ads campaign manager to help you fix these mistakes and roll out advertising campaigns that can boost sales.

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