10 Facebook Ad Mistakes to Avoid

We don’t need to sit here and explain how important Facebook is to the world. With nearly 2 billion users worldwide Facebook continues to grow in popularity, meaning new ways to get users to your site.

One of the best ways to get users from Facebook to your site is creating the perfect ad that will entice them to click to the page. However, if there are some discrepancies in the ads you may be losing potential clicks or missing your targeted audience.

Targeting Broad Audiences

One of the first steps to any digital marketing campaign is to identify your audience. There’s no use in targeting a certain group of users that are not likely to purchase your product or service. The same goes for Facebook ads, your ads should be focused on a clear and concise audience.

By targeting a broad audience you risk not reaching the users with high purchasing potential, all because of a limited budget. You may find that You can potentially reach 1 million users, yet because of a limited budget the ad can only reach around 250,000 users. That leaves 750,000 potential customers out there that won’t be reached. Review your ad’s projected ad reach and total audience size. This comparison will help determine if the audience is too broad. Begin restricting users based on different factors, such as location, age, or interests.

Exclude Users Who Converted in the Past

Facebook ad creators often get caught up worrying about creating ads and not focusing on the users. Some important users to consider are the ones who have already clicked and converted. It should be pretty obvious why you would want to add previous converters to an exclusion list. The ads are typically no longer relevant to them since converting and if the ad appears too much the user may get annoyed.

To exclude these users from your list you’ll need to create a Custom Audience of users who have visited certain pages of your site. In this case users who have visited pages such as the final Thank You page would be the users you want to exclude. This will let Facebook know that anyone who has visited the final checkout page of your site does not need to see your ad.

Wrong Ad Types

Facebook allows for marketers to utilize multiple ad types, however many advertisers stick with just one ad type. The issue with doing this is having the option to try and test new sources. You may find different ads have different engagements and click thru rates.

What type of Facebook ads are there?

• Newsfeed – The most common, the Newsfeed ad is easy for beginners to set up, simple to create, and show up where users are looking most of the time.
• Lead Ads – Available on mobile and desktop, these types of ads are aimed at gathering…yup, leads. Users don’t have to leave Facebook to fill out their information, which makes it a quick, easy experience for them. This limits the chance of the user leaving your site while it loads or leaves the Facebook page/app.
• Right Column – One of the first ads utilized on Facebook, this is more of a location rather than an ad type. It allows for users to place many different types of ads, including text, event, and images along the right column of the site.
• Page Likes – These are ads that are not necessarily aimed at selling user’s products or services, rather aimed at bringing in additional likes to your page. There’s many reasons to bring in more likes to your branded page, such as having a large following to share with, increased likeliness for others to see your brand, and increase brand trust with potential buyers.
• Carousel – One ad, up to ten images or products. Users can browse through a carousel or scroller of different pages/images until they see what they like.

• Dynamic Product – Also known as re-targeting ads, these ads utilize a user’s cookies and web history to show products they have looked at before.
• Canvas – Animated ads for mobile that let you tell a story about your brand, product, or service. Users can swipe, zoom, and tilt with their fingers to view the experience.  
• Event – Planning an event? Want to let people in the area with similar interests know about it? Create an Event ad with Facebook that will entice people to attend.
• Mobile App Install – App install ads are text and image ads that influence users to download your app. When clicked it will take them to their app store where they can immediately download the app. This saves time and limits the user from getting distracted when searching for the app on their own.
• GIFs – These are new ads to Facebook and have not seen the popularity as some of the others. However, it’s worth trying, especially since many users seem to enjoy GIFs. Videos can take awhile to load, and images just don’t have the flair, a GIFs is the perfect in between.
• Video – With video ads marketers can increase engagement and build a connection with users. Keep in mind that these videos only have a short amount of time to capture the user before they move on.

Ads Not Catching the User

If your ad’s image is boring or the headline is not compelling users will simply read over the ad and move on. It’s important marketers create headlines and images that will catch the user’s eye, getting them to read the ad completely. Amatuer photographs, boring colors, and images that do not match the product or service can confuse users.

Too Much Text

A similar issue that often arises is the having too much text within an ad. An ad that has too much text can scare away a user, where an image with a straightforward message will get the message across quickly. Users make up their mind when clicking, or even buying, very quickly which means you need to capture them quickly. Limit the amount of text to your ad and show the product or services that are being offered.

What is too much text?

Facebook suggests marketers implement the 20% rule, which means the ads should only have approximately 20% text on an image ad. This is done to ensure users get high quality content, rather than too much text that would not be appealing to many.

Not Driving Home the Offer

Not catching the user and having too much text also plays into not driving home the offer. If your site offers a free membership, free shipping, or other deals, showcase it. Make it the selling point of your brand, use it to get users to click on your ad. Don’t limit it to small text on an image, put it front and center for users to see, these are the factors will influence them to buy your product over a competitor’s.

Not Testing

Try out different ads, select new images, show a new offer, always be changing it up. As you make these changes track what is working and what is not. This will help streamline your ads and increase your conversions. Business owners often believe they know what their customers are searching or like to see, until they begin tracking the information. They quickly learn that what they search for or are attracted to, if it’s video or images, can be much different than their targeted audience.

Not Matching Proper Landing Pages

With any paid advertising campaign it’s vital users are brought to the proper landing pages. You wouldn’t want a grocery store employee to bring you to the produce section when you asked for the pet aisle. Don’t do the same to potential customers. Often we will see sites sending users to their home page if they’re not 100% sure where to send them for a specific ad. If this is the case it’s best practice to refine the ad to be more targeted. This may mean changing who it’s targeted at, the product being sold, or even the product category.

Failing to Track Traffic and Conversions

This goes without saying, however every once in awhile there will be a site that’s not tracking traffic and conversions. How do you know where users are coming from? How are they interacting on the site? Are your Facebook ads driving conversions? Properly setting up Google Analytics can help answer all these questions.

Copy Errors

Writing great custom copy for your Facebook ads brings great responsibility. Make sure to be editing and reviewing your ads before making them live. If you’re prone to typing or spelling mistakes take the time to have others review your ads. Sure it might take a some extra time, but it’s going to be well worth it.