Why Facebook Ads Are NOT As Easy As Everyone Thinks

You have probably read tons of “how to” articles on Google, or watched several YouTube videos that promise to make you a Facebook pro in no time. But till now, you still haven’t been able to run a single profitable Facebook campaign.

Maybe you’ve even invested hundreds or thousands of dollars in running Facebook ads that failed to produce measurable results. As a result, you have concluded that Facebook ads are not worth the “hype.”

Here’s the truth: Facebook ads are worth all the hype because they can be very profitable if done right. If they were not, top brands like Samsung, Amazon Microsoft, and others would not advertise on the platform.

The problem is you’re unlikely going to get the best results from Facebook ads until you’re able to uncover the secrets behind running successful ads.

Contrary to what you’ve been made to believe, Facebook ads are not as easy as everyone thinks. Maybe it was easy some ten years back. Today, the game has changed. Running profitable ads now involves an interplay of several dynamics. It involves many intricate variables that must be combined in the right order before you can get results.

Sadly, many advertisers have had their hands burned. Because they listened to some ‘gurus’ who oversimplified Facebook ads. Successful Facebook ads are usually tied picking cool images or videos and writing decent copy.

Facebook advertising is way more than that. The bitter truth is you can’t learn Facebook ads in one hour and become a professional immediately. And you can’t assume to have mastered Facebook ads simply by watching a 20-minute YouTube video.

Running profitable Facebook ads requires an in-depth understanding of how Facebook serves ads promoted on their platform. And your ability to strategically plan your campaigns based on this understanding.

If you’re finding it difficult to get desired results from your Facebook ads. It could only mean one thing: You’re not doing it right. And you’re unlikely going to succeed in your efforts until you’re able to figure out the problem areas. And then apply the right approach to fix them.

In this article, you will learn about some key areas where many business owners are getting it wrong with Facebook Ads. Usually, these areas are the main pitfalls that businesses encounter in their effort to promote their product or service on Facebook.

That said, you will also learn how tweaking your strategy can help you to get the most out of your Facebook ads budget. But that will be much later in this article. So, keep reading.

Whether your campaign objective is brand awareness, conversion or traffic, understanding how Facebook ads work will bring your offerings to eyeballs of the right audience. And when your ads get served to the right people, you can be sure that leads and sales will continually flow in, as long as your positioning is right.

Before we dive deep into the things that make Facebook ads difficult, and even sometimes problematic. Let’s first look at the reasons your business should make Facebook advertising a priority in your digital marketing strategies. By the time you finish reading this post, you will have gained insights into:

• What you’re doing now that you should stop doing.
• What you are not doing before that you should start doing.
• What you’re doing that you should keep doing.

Why Facebook?

Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world. The social network already crossed the threshold of 2 billion monthly users. More than 65% of its users log in daily. Facebook has a cross representation of human demographics including their data such as location, gender, interest, educational qualification, and so on.

Facebook is able to serve ads to right audiences drawing on their knowledge of their information. In addition to individual’s data on the profile, Facebook also collects data from individual’s activities such as updates, posts, comments, likes and shares. The availability of this immense pool of data enables Facebook to target the right people are more likely going to patronize you.

Business Insider  once published an article on top brands around the world that are using Facebook ads to connect, engage and promote their offerings to their target audience. These brands have recognized how viable the platform is in reaching a mass number of audience. And they got huge results from their ad spends because they targeted relevant audiences.

However, it goes without saying that Facebook will not tell you who you should target and who you shouldn’t. As a business owner, it is left to you to determine the people that are likely going to need your product or service. This is where a lot of business owners get it wrong.

Many business owners become addled when it comes to targeting the right audience. They’ve got incredibly amazing products that meet the needs of their potential audiences. But they are not sure of how to find the people whom the products were made for. This is one of the biggest reasons they continue to struggle with low sales.

Not targeting the right audience is like throwing dollars into a fire because your ads will not deliver. Imagine promoting a marketing software on the news-feed of truck drivers. Such ads will not produce results.

Why You Are Not Getting The Kind Of Results You Want With Facebook Ads

Choosing Wrong Campaign Objective 

Most advertisers are not getting desired results because they have a limited knowledge of the right campaign objective at different stages of their marketing funnel. This makes Facebook ads uniquely challenging.

Before you think of putting your money into Facebook ads, you need to be clear on the goal of your campaign. For example, do you want to increase brand awareness, encourage engagement or boost your conversion rate?

Having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve with your campaign is very key if you want to get results. Your campaign objective should be informed by your marketing goal.

Facebook ad has a wide range of campaign objectives including: 

• Brand awareness
• Reach 
• Traffic
• Engagement
• Conversion 
• Store visits
• Lead generation 
• App installs, etc.

Your Campaign Objective determines other variables involved in setting up your campaign. Your campaign objective determines the list of call-to-actions (CTAs) you can choose from. If for example you choose “Brand Awareness” as your campaign objective, you can choose a CTA like “Learn More.”

A “Reach” campaign object will give you an entirely different collection of CTAs. Some advertisers use the wrong Campaign which inadvertently leads to selection of inappropriate CTA. When this happens, their campaign fails to deliver.

Poor Targeting 

• Another area where many Facebook advertisers fail is in the area of targeting. Targeting is the hallmark of any Facebook advertising success. The wealth of Facebook ads is only available to advertisers that possess the key to right targeting. Let’s break it down:
• There are more than 2.04 billion people on Facebook. More than 1.09 billion out of these numbers use Facebook everyday.That’s more than 20% of the world population. From this statistics, one can safely conclude that at least a part (if not all) of your target market is hanging out on the site.
• Facebook gives you the ability to target your ads to a very specific audience that may need your offer. But you realize people are not engaging with your ads even though you believe you have selected the right audience. So, you are wondering what is wrong with your campaign. Well, the simple answer is: You are not targeting the right people.
• Let’s say you have a business that sells beauty products. To get the most out of Facebook ads, you have to target the precise people that need beauty products. Failure to capture them in your Ad Set will mean a great disservice to your Facebook marketing campaign. That’s why many people complain about horrible site conversion, low engagement rate, and so on.

You could get everything else right. But if you’re targeting the wrong people, Facebook ads will not work for you. Think about poor targeting this way:

You’re a Facebook user with no zero interest in pig business – maybe for religious reasons. But there’s this particular pig farm that keeps targeting their ads on How to make profit in your pig business to you. This ad is most unlikely going to change your mind on piggery. So, such advertisers are just wasting their time and resources. Why? Because they’re not targeting the right person.

That is what happens each time you are not getting it right with your targeting. Your ads are shown to people who are not interested in your business. As a result, they will not take the desired action.

Even in a situation where they take action, maybe by clicking on the “Learn More” button…their action will not necessarily have any positive impact. Because they only clicked out of curiosity and not because they are interested in your offering. When that happens, Facebook charges you(since they took action you set for them) but chances are high that they will not buy your product.

To help advertisers focus on people that are more likely going to engage with their ads, Facebook has a tool called Audience Insights. This tool can be of immense benefits in helping you to maintain focus over the people you want to target with your ads. But only few advertisers are using this tool right.

Not Choosing The Right Bidding Option

• Another important area that a lot of advertisers neglect when setting up their Facebook campaign is the area of bidding. It is one thing for you to choose the right bidding option. It is another thing for you to bid the right amount. Why does this matter in Facebook ads?
• The bidding section is made up of quite a complex mix of variables that ultimately determine the performance of your Facebook ads. Typically, you can select between either“ Automatic” or “Manual” bidding options. But behind each of these options, there are dynamics that play an important part in how visible or viral your ads will go.

Facebook determines how much you pay based on the competitiveness of the parameters(such as interest, demographic, age, etc.) you choose in the audience targeting section. You want to bid higher than other advertisers so that your ads will perform best. But that’s still on the surface. There’s more to learn on bidding and the amount you should bid to get results. You will find out much later in this post.

Unappealing Ads

As an advertiser, you should first ask yourself if your ads are click-worthy. Many advertisers that feel Facebook ads don’t work are probably those that churn out boring and unappealing ads. An ad with poor creative will result in low click-through-rate (CTR).

Your ad is what people see in their news-feed, sidebar of their device or anywhere you set it to appear. The level of engagement your ad attracts depends on how compelling your ad creative is.

Compelling ads are the ones that combine the right images/videos, headlines, and primary texts alongside appropriate call to actions. This sounds quite easy, right? But come to think of it. Facebook has a benchmark against which they judge which ads are standard, creative-wise. Thus, the mere fact that you use the best image from your gallery alongside a compelling copy doesn’t actually mean your ads will deliver.

How do you ensure that you pick the right image for your ad? How relevant is the creative to your business? Does the message the image/video conveys resonate with your target audience?

Don’t forget. Facebook is a highly visual social network. Therefore, you have to make sure your ads are catchy and compelling.

As you read on, you will learn how to spot good creative that will pull your target audience towards your ad. Also, you will gain insights into effective ways to craft incredibly persuasive copy that will endear your ad to your target audience. You will find out this and more soon enough.

Irrelevant Ads

It is one thing to run an ad, it is another thing for your ad to be relevant to your target audience. If you have ever run a campaign that did not deliver, this could be part of the reason why it failed.

Many Facebook advertisers overlook the part called Relevancy Score in the ad delivery equation. Relevancy Score ranges from 1-10. This is the benchmark Facebook uses to tell how interesting your ads are to your audience. And how they’re engaging with it.

Your ad is said to have positive engagement if it generates high volume of likes, comments and shares. However, if people engage negatively with your ad, they may hide it from their news-feed or even report it as spam. Each of these actions has an impact on your overall score. The higher your score, the more likely your ads will be shown. And the less you pay either per click or per impression.

To check your ad score in Facebook, go to the Ads Manager and select the campaign you want to check for. Once you are there, Facebook allows you to edit your columns so that your Relevance Score can be displayed. Once it is displayed, you will be able to see your score (which can be ranked Low, Medium or High).

A Fail-Proof System To Run Profitable and ROI-Driven Facebook Ads

If you are tired of wasting money on what is not working and want to start getting qualified leads and sales through Facebook advertising, then you need truly tested systems on what works. Clearly, the old tactics are obsolete. You need a blueprint that tells you what to do, when to and how to do them so you can get the kind of results you want for your business.

The truth is, there are a lot of Facebook ads programs out there, and many of them are BS. Just some rehashed and outdated strategies. Some of which will even get your ads account banned. Out of all the programs I have taken(trust me, I have taken a handful), one that has helped me get massive results is the Local Marketing Vault.

Local Marketing Vault is simple, actionable and easy to implement. It doesn’t tell you theories, it SHOWS you what you need to do to get the most out of your Facebook marketing effort.

This program is designed to help you overcome the challenges that are often associated with running profitable Facebook ads. LMV will walk you through everything you need to succeed in running profitable Facebook ads.

This LMV is your gateway to creating high performing ads without hitches. Additionally, you will have pre-made Facebook ads & funnels designed to help make your Facebook marketing campaign more profitable.

To get full information on how the Local Marketing Vault can transform your Facebook ads experience Click here.