- On today's episode, we're talking about
the number one single biggest mistake
most businesses make when it comes to Facebook ads.
And 10 more mistakes to avoid as well.
Let's get to it.
(upbeat rock music)
Hey there, my name is Adam Erhart,
Modern Marketing Strategist and welcome
to the Modern Marketing Show where we help you
make marketing that matters.
I've been running Facebook ads for a long time.
For a lot of clients, a long, long time.
Basically since they first started.
And I've had the opportunity to see
what works and what doesn't
and I've looked over a lot of ad accounts.
So when I say I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly,
I've seen it.
So over the years and through all the different
ad accounts I've looked at
and all the clients that I've work with
and all the ad accounts that I've audited,
well, there's one mistake that seems
to occur over and over again.
So we're gonna cover that in just a second.
But when we do, stick around because we're also gonna cover
10 more mistakes that you might just be making as well.
So I'm not gonna leave you hanging any longer.
The number one single biggest mistake
that most businesses make when it comes
to running Facebook ads
is making decisions based on insufficient data.
It's not sexy, I know.
But it's the truth.
You see, the problem most people have
when they're running Facebook ads
is they're making decisions either too early,
or with insufficient data to make the right decision.
Whether this means giving up on ads way too early,
scaling too early or making split testing decisions
without enough data behind them,
it's all pretty much the same thing.
And this is really dangerous territory.
Because it means you could be potentially
leaving hundreds, thousands,
even tens or hundreds of thousands,
or even millions of dollars on the table.
And I see this happen all the time.
When someone takes a potentially really high performing ad
and cuts it off right away.
Or they see an ad that starts to get
a little bit of traction and they dump a ton of money at it,
only for it to fizzle out just a couple days later.
So here's why this is important.
You see, Facebook is an algorithm
and an algorithm means math.
And math means numbers.
Which means you've gotta be sure
that you're providing Facebook with sufficient data
and sufficient numbers for them to work appropriately.
And to go through the algorithm
in order to find the best possible combination
of things for you and your ad.
And what this means is you've gotta feed the beast.
You've gotta give it both time, and money
to get sufficient results from it.
This is why it's so incredibly important
to have your entire strategy thought out
before you spend your first dollar.
We call this full funnel marketing.
And basically it means, having your strategy mapped out
from ad click all the way through to sale,
and maybe even up-sales and continuity
and all the stuff that occurs after that.
So my biggest suggestion and my biggest takeaway point here
is that when you're setting up your ad campaigns,
and when you're designing everything,
make sure that you've done it all strategically
and make sure that you've got key performance indicators
or KPIs all set ahead of time
so you know what numbers you're shooting for.
What is sufficient amount of time,
or budget is necessary in order to decide
if this is a winner or a loser.
And then have a strategy in place
for what you're gonna do
whether it's a green light or a red light.
Meaning whether your ads are meeting your expectations,
or falling below them.
Alright, so now that we've got that covered,
let's dive into the 10 more mistakes that I frequently see
so you can avoid them too.
So the next biggest mistake
is all about having no Pixel installed.
And what this means is that
when you're running Facebook ads,
you need to make sure that the Facebook Pixel
that you're provided is installed
across all of your different websites, and landing pages,
and anywhere else you're gonna be running traffic to.
This is especially important
if you're gonna be running conversion ads obviously
as you're gonna be optimizing for the second step
in the funnel but regardless, you wanna make sure
that the Facebook Pixel is installed
across all of your online assets and properties.
This is going to allow you to collect
and to basically amalgamate as much data as possible
so you can use it later to either re-target people
or to create audiences based on
different actions they've taken.
So again, make sure that Pixel is installed everywhere.
The next mistake comes down
to not having enough budget per ad set.
So this kinda draws on the biggest mistake we talked about
which is basically not having enough data in general.
But when you're deciding how to carve up your budget
and which ad set to put it in,
you wanna make sure that each ad set
gets a sufficient amount of budget.
This is because ads are optimized at the ad set level.
Which means, again, you've gotta give Facebook
a sufficient amount of data
and a sufficient amount of budget
so that they can show it to enough people
to get good results.
So let's say you're working with a budget of $50 a day.
Rather than putting it across
10 different ad sets with five bucks in each,
you might wanna put it down to two different
ad sets with $25 in each which is going to allow you
to get more data a little bit quicker and then, of course,
you can scale up the winner and cut the loser later.
The next mistake is having too many ads per ad set.
Again, this kinda draws on what we just talked about.
But when you start to really spread out
all sorts of different ads under an ad set,
well, Facebook is gonna try and pick and choose
which ads to show to your audience.
And they're gonna make a decision really quickly
which may not be the best one for your business.
For this reason, try to keep it relatively limited
so you can actually get a clear indication
and a relatively accurate split test
with which ad is actually providing
the results you're after.
The next mistake is all about using the wrong audience size.
And this could be either using a really tiny audience
of hundreds or thousands or a massive and huge audience
of millions and millions and millions.
What you wanna do here is you wanna find that sweet spot.
Maybe between 500,000 and two million people,
probably a rough ball park to start.
And this is if you're targeting
nationally or internationally.
Now if you're targeting locally,
this is a whole other story.
And you can get away with much smaller audience sizes
of maybe just a few thousand people.
But again, what you wanna be doing
is you wanna be giving Facebook enough data
so they can optimize the algorithm
to get you the results you're after.
The next mistake people make is not using custom audiences.
Whether we're talking about audiences
that you've built off the Facebook Pixel
that you have installed or whether we're talking about
uploading your email list or your customer list.
These are incredibly powerful audiences
because basically what you're doing
is you're giving Facebook the data
with exactly who you want and then telling them,
look, these are the people that I'm after.
And that moves us nicely into the next mistake
which is not using lookalike audiences.
You see, a lookalike audience can be built
off the custom audience that you've just built.
I know, if this is the first time you're hearing this,
it might sound a little bit confusing.
But once you've done it a few times,
it's actually really straightforward.
Basically when you're creating a lookalike audience,
what it allows you to do is to go out there
and tell Facebook, look, these customers
that I've already got that I've just told you are mine,
well, I want you to find the top 1% of people
that look just like them
and then Facebook is gonna deliver
your message and your ads directly to those people.
This is incredibly valuable targeting
and some of the best results we see,
almost always come from lookalike audiences.
The next mistake that I frequently see
is using the wrong conversion objective.
What this means is that if you want
someone to take a specific action,
well then, you wanna tell Facebook what that action is
and optimize your ads for that.
Don't be shy here.
You can afford to be honest and tell Facebook
exactly what you want.
And it's in their best interest to try to get that for you.
This means if you simply want clicks
and traffic to your website, well,
then you're gonna wanna pick traffic.
If you've got a video and you wanna get more views on it,
well, then you're gonna pick video views.
And if you want someone to register
for a webinar or download a lead magnet,
well, then you're gonna wanna pick the conversion objective.
Not traffic, not video views,
but the one that you're actually after.
The next mistake I see is not having
backup ad creative on hand.
This means backup ads with text and different images,
different combinations of things you can try
if your ad happens to go stale,
or stops losing its effectiveness.
The last thing you wanna do is have to scramble
to come up with brand new creative
and find new images and write new copy
as your ad is tanking.
Rather, you're much better off
to have a steady supply and a backup supply
of really well-crafted ads that you can put out there
whenever you need to.
The mistake after that is not having backup ad accounts.
Sometimes ads get denied.
And sometimes ad accounts even get shut down.
Which is why if you're relying on Facebook ads
as your source of traffic, you want to have
backup ad accounts in place just in case this happens.
One backup ad account is great.
Two, is probably even better.
And three, well, may not be a bad choice.
And the final mistake that I wanna cover
that I see most people making with Facebook ads
is not diversifying your ad platforms.
One really is the loneliest number
which means if you're relying solely on Facebook ads
as your source of paid traffic,
you might wanna start looking into other platforms
like YouTube ads or maybe even LinkedIn ads
or Google Adwords, or display advertising, whatever it is,
and whatever is best suited for your business.
But putting all your eggs in that one basket
and in that one Facebook ad strategy is really risky.
So diversify your traffic platforms
and make sure you've got multiple irons in the fire
ready to strike whenever you need to.
Alright, so there you have it.
The top mistakes that I see people making.
So let me ask you, have you ever made any of these mistakes?
And are there any takeaways that you're gonna be able to use
in your business immediately?
Also, have you ever had an ad denied
or an ad account shut down?
If so, let me know in the comment section below
and let me know what you did about it.
Of course, if you enjoyed the episode,
make sure to give it that thumbs up button.
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And if you have any comments, tips, suggestions,
or ideas for a future video,
make sure to leave them in the comment section below.
So thanks for much for watching.
And I'll catch you next time on the Modern Marketing Show.