Running Facebook ads is a great way to generate leads. But if you struggle to see the results, don’t worry — you’re not alone! Many marketers go through this, making common mistakes that lower conversion rates and waste precious ad budgets.
In this article, we’ll show you 6 Facebook ad mistakes and share tips on how to avoid them to boost your return on ad spend (ROAS).
Facebook and Facebook Ads in a Nutshell
With around 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook isn’t just a social media — it’s a platform where businesses can connect with potential customers at a scale that’s hard to match.
Facebook allows marketers to engage with potential customers through Facebook Ads. With them, they can generate traffic and leads by targeting specific audiences based on age ranges, location, interests, and behaviors.
That said, you need to understand how Facebook ads work and some common mistakes to make them effective. To help you, we’ve gathered a list of 6 common mistakes, that we’ve described and provided the solution for.
Targeting the Wrong Audience
The biggest mistake people make when running Facebook ads is choosing the wrong audience. Targeting a wide net is tempting, but this often leads to wasted ad spend. When your audience is too broad, your ad is shown to people with little to no interest in your product, driving up costs and reducing your ROAS.
How to avoid it:
Before running the campaign — analyze your audience. You should know their age ranges, locations, interests, and preferred devices.
What’s more, use Facebook’s Custom Audience feature to reach users who’ve already visited your website or engaged with your social media. You can also use Lookalike Audiences to create a list based on your most loyal customers.
Poor Ad Creatives
The visuals, headlines, and texts make people interested. If your images are low-quality and your ad copy is irrelevant, customers won’t click. An unattractive or uninspiring ad is one of the most common Facebook ad mistakes that leads to low CTR and conversions.
How to avoid it:
Creating eye-catching visuals and engaging ad copy takes time, not 5 minutes. Analyze your audience to see what tone of voice and images they prefer. Moreover, include a clear call-to-action (CTA) that tells users what action to take: visit a website, sign up for a free trial, etc.
If unsure what will work, create multiple creatives to test what resonates best with your audience.
Neglecting the Landing Page
So, your ad copy is flawless, and your visuals are spot-on — but when users click, they get on a confusing, slow, or irrelevant website. This is a critical mistake. Even the best ad won’t convert if your landing page doesn’t match the promise made in your ad, making users bounce off the page and not convert.
How to avoid it:
Make sure your landing page aligns with your ad’s message. If your ad promises a 20% discount, the landing page should highlight that offer.
What’s more, make sure the page loads quickly and is easy to navigate, especially on mobile devices. Texts on your landing page should clearly guide users to the next step: filling out a form, completing a purchase, etc.
Not Testing Enough
One common Facebook ad mistake is running a single ad and not testing different ad types, targeting options, or bid strategies. Without proper testing, you won’t know what truly works and what holds your campaigns back.
How to avoid it:
Test different ad types: carousel, video, or banner ads. Play with different ad copy, headlines, and CTAs. Always test different audience segments, ad placements, and even age ranges.
Run tests during the learning phase of your campaigns to gather accurate data on what works best. Analyze and optimize based on those results — good testing leads to long-term improvements.
Ignoring Data and Analytics
One of the Facebook advertising mistakes is not analyzing your ad performance in detail. If you’re not tracking key metrics like CPC, CTR, and ROAS, it’s hard to know where your money is going or why your ads aren’t performing.
How to avoid it:
Always keep an eye on the data. Facebook Ads Manager and ad tracking tools, like Keitarto Tracker, provide in-depth insights into your campaigns.
Review metrics regularly to understand how different audiences respond to your ads. You should also use Facebook Pixel to see how users behave on your website and each marketing funnel stage.
Skipping the Learning Phase
Facebook’s ad system relies on a learning phase. During this phase, the system analyzes which users are most likely to engage and convert. Some advertisers make the mistake of turning off their ads too soon before Facebook can optimize fully. This reduces the potential of getting high-quality leads and improving conversion rates.
How to avoid it:
Allow your ads to run for at least a few days without making drastic changes. Facebook typically needs about 50 conversions to stop the learning phase. While it can be tempting to change things, give the algorithm time to do its job before making any decisions.
What Else Should You Know?
1) Ad Fatigue
Once you’ve found the right audience and have strong ad creatives, one more mistake you might encounter is ad fatigue. If users keep seeing the same ad over and over, its effectiveness will decline.
How to avoid it: Refresh your ad creatives. Swap out images, update ad copy, or change the offer to keep things fresh. Also, consider rotating between multiple ad variations to avoid overexposure.
2) Ad Tracking Tools
Managing and optimizing your Facebook ads can be complex, but using the right tools can make a significant difference. Keitaro Tracker is a self-hosted solution that helps marketers optimize their Facebook ad campaigns and gain valuable insights.
Key Keitaro Features for Facebook Ads:
🔵 In-Depth Reports: Get detailed insights with 30+ built-in metrics to track ad performance and optimize your campaigns.
🔵 Effortless Landing Pages: Quickly create and manage landing pages that align with your ad messaging.
🔵 Precise Targeting: Utilize customizable Geo DB with IPv6 support for advanced audience targeting.
🔵 A/B Tests and Multi-Offer Funnels: Test different ad creatives and offers to find the best-performing combinations.
🔵 Seamless Integrations: Works perfectly with Facebook, allowing you to easily manage and analyze your ad performance.
🔵 14-Day Free Trial: Experience all the features before committing to a plan.
By integrating Keitaro Tracker into your Facebook ad strategy, you get the data needed to refine your campaigns and make informed, data-driven decisions.
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