As of 2018, 93% of marketers use Facebook advertising, and chances are that you are part of that stat. However, are you using it correctly? Like with everything else in marketing, there is always room for improvement and learning. Check out the top 5 mistakes we see in Facebook ads and how you can avoid making them.
The Top 5 Mistakes We See in Facebook Ads
Advertising your organization’s content on Facebook is a great first step in creating brand awareness and promoting your products or services. However, you want to make sure you spend your advertising dollars wisely by avoiding these mistakes!
1. Not Narrowing Down Your Audience
You may initially think that it’s best to reach as many people as possible, especially if you are creating ads to drive brand awareness. However, if your target audience is too broad, then you risk being limited by your ad budget and not reaching people who are truly a good fit for your company.
How to Avoid This Mistake:
Be sure to realistically think about how many people and what kind of people on Facebook would be genuinely interested in your product/service. Also, select custom age ranges and specific demographics based on your buyer persona. Use Facebook’s audience size reach estimates to help you make the best decision.
2. Not Knowing the Difference Between Boosted Posts and Facebook Ads
It’s important to make sure you understand the various advertising options on Facebook. Boosted posts are great for creating brand awareness, but are not the only option you have!
How to Avoid This Mistake:
Know when to use boosted posts and when to use traditional Facebook ads. When you are promoting products or services, it’s best to use Facebook ads. This is because you will have more options for the type of ad to create (video, carousel, offer, etc.) and be able to really narrow down your audience.
Boosted posts are simply promoted standard posts from your existing business page. They do not allow you to control how the ad is optimized and limit your targeting abilities.
3. Not Updating Your Ad Content Regularly
Your ad will lose effectiveness if your target audience has seen the same text and images multiple times. They will continue to scroll past it and not engage with the ad, therefore wasting your ad budget.
How to Avoid This Mistake:
Even if you’re advertising the same product or service, make small changes to your Facebook ad to keep it fresh. You can create a different image, change the text, or even select another ad format. This is especially important to remember if your ad is timely, such as an expiring offer or a seasonal promotion.
4. Overloading Your Ad Image With Text
Less text is more when it comes to Facebook ads. While it makes sense that you want to inform your audience about as much as possible, too much text can overwhelm your reader and cause them to keep scrolling and not engage with your content.
How to Avoid This Mistake:
If you have a text-heavy brochure for your service or event, do not use it as an image for your ad. Your ad should be visually appealing, so limit any text you do use to important information that your reader should know. Keep in mind you have room for more details in the headline and description.
Speaking of which, you want to make your ad’s headline and description short and sweet as well. According to a report by HubSpot and AdEspresso, 4 words is the most popular length for headlines and 15 words is the most common for the description.
5. Not Excluding Customers from Seeing Your Ads
Don’t waste your advertising budget on showing your existing customers ads for something they’ve already converted on. Your wasting ad budget on people who don’t need to see your ad anymore.
How to Avoid This Mistake:
Avoiding this mistake requires you to keep up with your ads consistently, but is worth the effort. Upload the contacts who have converted for the specific offer (those who viewed the thank you page) to a list and create a Custom Audience on Facebook ads. By using this feature, the contacts on your list won’t see a repetitive, irrelevant ad and you’ll be using your ad budget wisely.
Use these tips to help you yield even better results for your Facebook ads!
If you need more help improving your Facebook ads, then sign up for a free audit of your online ad performance. Our advertising experts will highlight specific areas of improvement for your brand's ads!
