Common Pitfalls In Facebook Ads And How To Avoid Them
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There are lots of common pitfalls with Facebook ads. They’re focusing on the wrong things, which leads to poor results. It may be because Facebook’s ad platform, especially Ads Manager, is pretty complex. Meta has added more features over the years, giving advertisers extra control and flexibility, which advanced advertisers may appreciate. But this can also make it confusing, even for experienced advertisers.
The result of this is that many advertisers get caught up in all the choices: “Should I run this type of campaign?” “What setting should I use?” “Should I try this new option?” This leads them to spend time on things that don’t really matter or that have only a minor impact. And because time and budget are limited, spending effort in the wrong places hurts their chances of success.
In this article, we’ll cover the common pitfalls in Facebook Ads and how to avoid them and the five most important things to focus on in Facebook and Instagram advertising. If you get these five things right, you’ll see better results.
One common pitfall that many advertisers make is not having enough creative testing. Today, the most important work in your Facebook ads comes from testing new creative ideas. This means trying different concepts, angles, formats, and anything else you can think of based on what you know about your audience.
Here’s how to structure your testing for success, and this is what we use to help clients scale from $1 to $1,000 per day in just 60 days. The structure is simple: you start with one main CBO (Campaign Budget Optimization) campaign. Inside that campaign, you’ll add new ad sets every week. Ideally, you’ll add one or two new tests each week. If you have a bigger budget, you can test more frequently.
Remember, if you add five or ten ad sets each week, they won’t all get much spend. That’s why adding just one or two new tests each week works best. For each test, you should create three different ads. If you have a bigger budget, you can make smaller changes to the creative—like adjusting the headline or colors. Even small tweaks can show noticeable results when you’re spending a lot.
On the other hand, if your budget is smaller, you’ll want to make bigger changes in your tests. For example, you might change the entire image while keeping the headline the same, or try different benefits with the same image. The key is to make noticeable changes that stand out, not just tiny adjustments.
Lastly, inside each ad, make sure to include at least two different headlines and two primary texts. This gives Facebook more options to test within each ad, so you don’t have to create multiple ads. Instead, you’ll have multiple variations within a single ad, increasing the chances of finding what works best.
Another important tip is to make sure you spend at least $5 to $10 on each ad set. This helps make sure Facebook gives your new tests a fair chance to perform. Often, Facebook will favor the ads that are already performing well and spend more on them, which limits your ability to test new ideas. You don’t want to waste money, but you do want to give new ads some budget to see if they can become successful. Spending $5 to $10 on each test gives Facebook enough data to decide if the ad will do well and if it deserves more budget.
When managing your testing, if an ad doesn’t make any sales after 4 or 5 days, depending on your target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), you should cut it. Or if it makes sales but costs too much (like 3 times your target CPA), you should stop it. Repeat this process every week to keep your testing organized and efficient.
This is the first and most important step. Many brands skip this and just add ads to a campaign without proper testing, then wonder why they’re not getting good results. You need to put in the effort and test new ads weekly to improve your campaigns.
Next, let’s talk about high view-through conversions. So, what are view-through conversions? These happen when someone sees your ad but doesn’t click it. Later, they convert through another action, like an email, and Facebook still credits the sale to the ad. However, this isn’t always the real reason they made the purchase.
The issue with this is, if you’re running email marketing at the same time, many repeat customers may show up. With one-day view conversions, Facebook might count these as conversions from the ad, which can falsely improve your return on ad spend (ROAS) and lower your cost per acquisition (CPA). This can make your results look better than they actually are, because it’s hard to tell whether the sale came from the ad or from your email campaign.
To fix this, go to the ad set level and find the “attribution setting.” Change it from one-day view to only 7-day click for all your campaigns. For most brands, this will give you the most accurate results. If you’re spending millions on ads, you might use one-day view, but for most businesses, 7-day click is better. This will help you get a clearer picture of how well your ads are really performing.
Another common pitfall is that many brands don’t exclude existing customers when running ads. This is important because excluding customers allows you to focus on getting new ones. Most businesses are trying to get new customers, while keeping current ones engaged through methods like email, SMS, and social media. But sometimes Facebook targets your current customers instead, since they’re more likely to buy again.
You don’t want this to happen because it keeps you from reaching fresh customers. To make sure you’re targeting new ones, go to the ad set level and click on “Click to Original Audiences.” Facebook will try to push you to Advantage Plus audiences, but click to the original audiences instead. Then, you’ll add a custom audience using the purchase pixel (set to 180 days, which is the max Facebook allows) and a customer list from your email software, like Klaviyo. This will ensure your ads are reaching new customers, not just repeat buyers.
The great thing about this setup is that it updates daily, so your ads will automatically exclude customers who have already purchased from you, without any extra effort on your part. It’s important to use both your Pixel and Klaviyo lists to make sure you’re targeting new customers as much as possible. Facebook won’t catch every existing customer, but using both tools together will help you reach more new people and fewer repeat buyers.
In the Facebook ads platform, you’ll see a breakdown of how many of your ads are reaching new customers, existing ones, and those Facebook can’t track. To connect Klaviyo with Facebook, go to the “Integrations” section in Klaviyo, link your Meta ad account, and then add a custom audience sync. This sync will automatically connect to Facebook, and it’s a simple, one-time setup. Once it’s done, you won’t need to repeat it.
Lack of optimizing their Ads is another common pitfall brands make. Sometimes, people think they shouldn’t change anything in their ads, but this can hurt performance. It’s important to make improvements on a regular basis, like cutting ads that aren’t working, increasing budgets for ads that are performing well, and testing new ideas. You should be doing this every week in a planned and organized way.
Here’s a simple way to do this:
– If no, check if it’s getting any sales. If it’s getting sales, let it run. If not, check if it has any spend. If yes, and it’s still not doing well, you can cut it. If there’s no spend, let it run for more data.
– If yes, check if it’s getting any spend. If it has no spend, let it run. If it has spend, check the cost per sale (CPA). If it’s under your target, you can increase the budget. If it’s above the target, cut the ad.
By following this simple structure, you can make decisions based on actual data and avoid wasting money on ads that aren’t working.
Finally, let’s talk about having too many campaigns. I always recommend simplifying your setup with account consolidation. Most brands can run their ads under one campaign, not five. The way to do this is by having just one CBO (Campaign Budget Optimization) campaign and adding new ad sets each week to test. There’s no need to over complicate things. Having too many campaigns makes it harder to manage and figure out what’s working. Plus, your budget gets spread too thin.
By keeping everything in one campaign, Meta will automatically adjust the budget based on what performs best. It’s much easier this way and helps you get better results.
So, keep it simple. Stick with one campaign for most of your ads.
Five Most important things to focus on Facebook Ads
One thing is to avoid pitfalls, another thing is to start doing things that will help your Facebook. So, let’s look at some important things to focus on Facebook Ads.
Many Facebook advertisers focus a lot on picking the right campaign objective, thinking it’s the most important part. But actually, the campaign objective mainly affects which options you’ll see for something even more important: the performance goal.
The performance goal tells Meta what you really want from your campaign. It’s what you’re optimizing for—what outcome you’re hoping to achieve. But it’s not always obvious. Depending on your chosen campaign objective, you’ll see different performance goal options. For example, if you choose the “Leads” objective, you might have the option to optimize for “Get as many conversions or leads as possible.” This is usually the best choice for a leads campaign, but you could also pick goals like “Get as many link clicks as possible” or “Get as many landing page views as possible.”
Now, here’s an interesting part: if you set a leads campaign to optimize for link clicks, it’ll work the same way as a traffic campaign also set to optimize for link clicks. In this case, there’s no advantage to using a leads campaign over a traffic campaign. So, it’s really the performance goal that makes the difference, not the campaign objective itself.
When you’re setting up Facebook ads, it’s crucial to make sure your performance goal actually matches what you want. For instance, if you’re running a “Leads” campaign, aim to get as many leads as possible. If it’s a “Sales” campaign, you’ll want to focus on getting as many purchases as possible or maximizing your return on ad spend (if your account setup allows for that kind of tracking).
The performance goal you choose isn’t a small detail—it’s incredibly important. Meta’s algorithm is very good at finding people likely to take the specific action you’re looking for. If you tell Meta you want link clicks, you’ll probably get lots of them, often at a low cost. But will those people actually become leads or make purchases? Often, no. But if you set your goal to “leads” or “sales,” Meta will try to find people who are more likely to take those actions instead.
Choosing the right performance goal can lead to a huge difference in results—sometimes even doubling the effectiveness of your campaign. For example, a “Leads” campaign set to optimize for leads usually performs much better than a traffic campaign or a “Leads” campaign set to optimize for clicks, especially when comparing cost per lead or total leads on the same budget. So, it’s essential to select a goal that truly fits your business aim.
To keep it simple, pick a goal that reflects what you really want. If you want leads, set it for leads. If you’re aiming for sales, set it for sales. Or if you just want to reach a wide audience, it’s fine to use an “Awareness” campaign with a goal like “maximize reach.” Just remember to ask yourself, “What’s my main goal here?” and set your performance goal to match that.
The next key to success with Facebook and Instagram ads is being able to track what people do after they click on your ad. Do they go on to make a purchase? Do they sign up as a lead? Which pages do they visit? Tracking these actions is essential.
For your performance goal to work—like optimizing for leads or sales—Meta needs to know what a lead or sale looks like on your website. Without proper tracking, you won’t have accurate data to see which ads are doing well, and Meta won’t be able to adjust to get you more of the actions you want. You’ll miss out on opportunities to turn off under performing ads, boost the effective ones, and improve your results.
To get this tracking right, make sure you have both the Facebook pixel and the Conversions API installed on your website. These tools help you track important actions, allowing Meta’s algorithm to work better and giving you the data you need to make good decisions.
Accurate tracking benefits you as an advertiser and helps Meta’s system optimize more effectively—both of which can make a big difference in your campaign results.
One of the most important parts of any Facebook or Instagram ad campaign is the offer itself—what people get when they take the action you want, whether that’s buying a product or signing up for a service. How you present that offer, how appealing it is, and how you package it make a huge difference.
The reason the offer matters so much is simple: even if your ad setup isn’t perfect, a strong offer can still bring in good results. On the other hand, if you’ve optimized everything but the offer doesn’t grab people’s interest, the campaign will probably fall flat.
Let’s go over some quick examples to help you improve your offer. Often, when someone asks for advice on why their ads aren’t working, the answer may be that their offer might not be compelling enough. So here are some ideas to consider as you work on making your offer more enticing.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR OFFER
One of the best examples of how powerful a good offer can be was with a client selling a product that cost about £3,000 to install in people’s homes. The ads were supposed to generate leads for sales calls and focused on benefits like top-notch customer service and professional installation.
The results were decent, but not amazing. Then, a huge change was made by offering a finance option. Instead of saying, “This is the total cost,” we highlighted that customers could get this product for just £9 a week, spread over a long period—about six years. Plus, installation could happen within 48 hours of inquiry, making it fast and hassle-free.
This new offer totally transformed the campaign. By focusing on affordability and speed, we made the offer much more attractive, and the results were incredible.
When we switched the offer, that campaign took off. Instead of just saying, “This is a great product,” we changed it to: “Here’s a finance option, pay just a small amount per week, it’s cheaper than you thought, and installation happens within 48 hours.” That made the offer so much more attractive, and the leads started pouring in. We had to pause the campaign several times because the business couldn’t keep up with the number of leads.
Another way to improve your offer is by adding something new and unique to your product or service—something no one else is offering. If customers see that your product can do something special, it can catch their interest and lead to more sales.
For services, offering a guarantee can also be a game-changer. When you tell customers, “We guarantee results or you don’t pay,” or “We’ll keep working with you until you get the result you want,” it shows confidence in what you offer. This can greatly increase your lead or sale rate.
Think about your offer carefully. Making small improvements can dramatically increase your results, often in no time at all. If you can make your offer better, you could see a huge boost in performance for your Facebook and Instagram ads.
Many Facebook advertisers are so focused on tweaking their campaigns—trying to reduce costs by a dollar here or improve their cost per lead by a small percent—that they overlook a much bigger opportunity.
There’s only so much you can lower your cost per conversion once your ads are performing well. But there’s a lot more room to grow your lifetime customer value. In fact, it’s often easier to double how much each customer spends with you over time than to cut your ad costs in half.
By focusing on increasing lifetime customer value, you can see a huge impact on your return on ad spend (ROAS), even if your ad campaigns stay the same. Doubling customer value doubles your ROAS, which strengthens your business. It also helps you handle challenges like dips in ad performance or increased competition, since you’ll be making more per customer than before.
So, instead of putting all your effort into squeezing small improvements from your ad costs, think about ways to encourage repeat business or increase the average customer spend. It’s one of the most powerful ways to boost your results and keep your business strong.
There are several ways to increase lifetime customer value. One powerful method is through referrals. If your product or service is excellent, customers are more likely to recommend it to others. Knowing that each new customer could bring in another through word-of-mouth can make your ad campaigns even more profitable.
Another approach is to focus on repeat purchases. High product and service quality is crucial, but so is staying in touch with customers. You can use retargeting ads, email follow-ups, SMS marketing, or other strategies to keep customers engaged and encourage them to buy again.
A subscription model can also be effective, bringing in recurring revenue. And you might consider simply charging more for your product or service if you can offer added value to justify it. Offering cross-sells and upsells—additional products that your customers may like—can also increase customer spending over time.
Many Facebook advertisers overlook these tactics, but increasing customer value can make a big impact. If you can triple the value of each customer, you can afford to spend more on acquiring new customers and still come out ahead. In general, this can lead to a much more profitable business.
The ad creative is what your audience actually sees—it’s the images, videos, and text that grab their attention (or don’t). While some advertisers focus heavily on adjusting account settings, these settings are becoming less crucial as Facebook automates more of the process. What really matters is how the ad looks and feels to potential customers.
A good ad creative can make people think, “This looks interesting; I want to know more.” It creates a strong impression of your brand and can make a huge difference in results.
It’s important that advertisers invest more time and money into high-quality creative. Many advertisers pour most of their budget into running the campaign itself but spend very little on creating compelling visuals or messages. Sometimes, just taking a small portion of your ad budget—say, 10%—and using it to hire a professional designer, photographer, or video editor can greatly improve your results. High-quality creative can make a big difference in how people respond to your ads.
If you spend just 10% of your ad budget on improving your creativity, will you see better results? Yes, absolutely. It’s common to see improvements of 30%, 40%, or even more—sometimes even up to 60%—just by upgrading the quality of your ad creative. So, the money spent on better creative will quickly pay off.
Conclusion
To make your Facebook Ads more successful and profitable, start by avoiding these common mistakes and applying the suggested fixes. Regular testing, optimizing, and analyzing are key to getting great results.
Need expert help to boost your Facebook Ads performance? Book a discovery call with us, and our team will work with you to create a strategy that fits your business goals.
By kingkentus
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