If you’re running digital ads for your company, it is likely that you use Facebook and Instagram to do so. There are major opportunities for brand reach and conversion through these ad platforms, but if you do not have experience with proper ad development, you may be wasting valuable dollars on advertising that is not driving results. Discover four common mistakes that new marketers make that may be draining your Facebook Ad Budget.
Not Setting a Schedule
Letting your ads run 24/7 during a given period may seem like a good idea to reach lots of people, but in reality, it does not give Facebook enough information to display your ads in a timely fashion. Not setting a schedule means that your ads may show up very late at night or early in the morning when people are checking social media, but are not in an active buyer mindset. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience to determine what times of day they are most likely to see value in your product. Are you a coffee shop advertising a new drink? Run your ads only in the mornings, when people are more likely to want a pick-me-up. Are you a new gym looking to bring in young professionals? Run your ads from 3pm-6pm to grab them as they are getting off work.
Subpar Landing Pages
Landing pages that have mistakes and typos, are visually unappealing, or are not secure may also be draining your ads budget. If the page your ad is driving traffic to is not high-enough quality, the people who click to it will immediately click away, and Facebook will notice. It will become more expensive to get a click to your page and the people you are reaching will likely become lower-quality targets. Building a landing page that is simple yet interesting, and making it clear what actions you’d like your visitors to take is essential to stretching your ad spend stretch as far as you can.
Not Defining Your Audience Well Enough
Keeping an audience engaged with your ad means that the ad’s content must appear relevant to them. A widely defined audience may allow you to reach more people, but those people likely don’t care enough about your product or service to remember the ad they saw. Don’t waste valuable marketing dollars trying to reach people who don’t care; narrowing down the audience may put you in front of fewer eyeballs, but the people you do catch will be far more interested in you and provide a higher return on your investment.
Too Much of the Same
If you don’t have the time to sit down and strategize your advertising each sales cycle, you may get caught in the routine of boosting the same type of post or building the same type of ad each time. Doing so repeatedly can actually hurt your ad spend, as Facebook users will notice the monotony and click on the ads less and less as time goes on. Cost per click is an important metric, and if Facebook sees the number of clicks on an ad decreasing, they will increase your cost-per-click and deprioritize your ad compared to others. This is especially true if you are using the same saved audience for each ad cycle. Make sure you are taking the time to incorporate variety into the types of ads you are making, and the audience you are serving to optimize your spend in Facebook Ads Manager.
Your company can reach up to 1.9 billion people using Facebook Ads.
Do you want to start advertising your company on Facebook or Instagram, but aren’t sure how to get started? Or maybe you’ve been running ads, but can’t seem to get the results you want.
CLICK HERE to schedule a complimentary 30-minute digital marketing audit.
