Why Did Your Facebook Ads Campaign Fail?

For the past few years, Facebook has become one of the most powerful advertising platforms. With almost 2 billion users worldwide, it represents a huge opportunity for businesses, small to large, to use the platform. If done correctly, Facebook advertisements usually generate a great return on investment and conversions. However, if you are new to Facebook advertising, things may not turn out as expected or intended. Here are some reasons why some Facebook ads campaigns fail.

1. Not defining the correct campaign objective

Any type of marketing effort must have an objective in order to be able to measure success. On Facebook, there are many objectives to choose from. Make sure to think carefully about what you want potential customers to do with your ad. If you want them to go to your website, choose the “Traffic Objective” if you want them to watch your video, choose “Video Views”. This may sound like a no-brainer, but it is surprising how often objectives are being neglected and business owners are left wondering why they aren’t seeing the return they had hoped for. Below are the different types of campaign objectives on Facebook:

• Brand awareness
• local awareness
• Reach
• Website traffic
• Engagement
• App installs
• Video views
• Lead Generation
• Conversions
• Product Catalogue Sales
• Store Visits

2. Faulty campaign targeting

The targeting options within Facebook’s advertising platform are pretty impressive. Everything a user does within the Facebook ecosystem, or even on most websites, is tracked by the platform and that is where targeting in ads comes in.

If your Facebook ad campaign fails, it will be valuable to take a look at your targeting. Did you target the right audience, or did you go too broad or too narrow? Do some analysis and try to think of your core audience. What gender are they? How old are they? Where do they live? Once you’ve answered these questions, use it to your advantage in your targeting. You don’t want to waste your ad money on people that you know won’t be interested in your ad. If you are engaging with professional SEO services, they would probably know how to do the right targeting on Facebook.

3. Failure to write compelling ads

People appreciate conversational ad copies. Write your ads as if you’re having a cozy chat with your audience – like two friends enjoying coffee! In line with this, it is advised to avoid using jargon words to promote understanding. It is recommended to use words that evoke the senses – sight, touch, sound, taste, and smell. One great technique to use in search engine marketing is writing ad copies through storytelling. Storytelling sparks your audience’s imagination so that they’re able to better connect with your message.

4. You lack a Call to Action

Your ad copies should be able to do more than explaining who you are or what products/services you offer. It’s important to tell the user to do something. If you don’t have a call to action, or you have one that’s buried in the text, your ads won’t be as successful as they could be. In order to generate more clicks, you have to place your call to action at the beginning of the ad, and you can repeat it at the end. Examples of calls to action include “Learn More”, “Read More”, “Buy Now”, “Add to cart”, “Watch Now”, “Sign Up”, “Download Now” and many more.

5. Too much text in the image ad

It’s not recommended to put too much text on an image in your Facebook ad. According to Facebook, too much text on images creates a lower-quality user experience. While the platform may approve the ad, they’ll show you a warning in your Ads Manager. Don’t ignore this warning as Facebook will under-serve your ad if the text is more than 20% of the image.

Facebook advertising is enormously effective, but only when done right. While there are best practices that you need to follow, there is no magic bullet to run a successful advertising campaign. As a result, it is imperative to split test and run different variations to figure out what works.

Need a hand with troubleshooting your Facebook ad campaigns or you want to start engaging in online advertising in UAE? Creativo would love to help! We are a digital marketing agency helping businesses achieve the best ROI and ROAS from their ads.