Top 4 mistakes beginners make on Facebook Ads » Portal Insights

Facebook Ads is one of the largest advertising platforms in the world. Due to the ease of creating and optimizing campaigns, there are already more than 6 million advertisers who try, every day, to sell more through the tool.

And here it is worth emphasizing the word “try”.

Although it is very simple to create your ad on Facebook or, at the very least, boost a post on your page, few businesses are actually able to make any profit from ads.

Ironically, this can be attributed to ease of use. After all, if all of Facebook's revenue comes from advertisers, the most natural thing is for them to shorten the path between “I want to advertise” and “I am advertising” as much as possible.

And it's worth making it clear that this ease of advertising on Facebook is not entirely bad, especially if we take into account that just a few years ago, running ads of any kind was the exclusive preserve of companies with high marketing and advertising budgets.

The problem arises when ease of use is understood as ease of profit and, consequently, we see a sea of ​​small and medium-sized companies literally “burning money” with poorly segmented campaigns, unpersuasive texts and bidding strategies that are incompatible with the profit margin of customers. products and/or services being advertised.

Therefore, be aware of the main mistakes made by beginners in Facebook Ads when advertising.

1. Not installing the Facebook Pixel

One of the main mistakes beginners make in Facebook Ads is not installing the tracking pixel.

The Facebook Pixel is basically code that must be installed on all pages of a website in order to monitor user actions (purchases, pages visited, button clicks, etc.) and create audiences based on these actions.

The pixel is essential because, in addition to facilitating data analysis, allowing the configuration of Personalized Conversions (more on them below) and creating remarketing campaigns through Similar Audiences, it helps the Facebook algorithm to optimize your ads with based on an action that you judge to be the most valid.

For example, with the Facebook Pixel installed you can create a campaign for your online store and “tell” Facebook to find people who are most likely to buy a certain item. If you don't do this, Facebook will optimize ads based on clicks.

And not everyone who clicks buys.

In other words, the sooner you install the Facebook Pixel, the better. If you currently use Facebook Ads and wonder why your ads generate lots of clicks but no sales, this is most likely the reason.

Installing the Facebook Pixel is simple and quick:

• Login to your Ads Manager;
• In the top menu, click on “Pixels” (you may need to click on “All tools” first;
• Click on “Create a pixel”, give it a name and enter your website’s URL;
• Click “Install it yourself” or “Send instructions to a developer” if you have one;
• If you choose the “Install yourself” option, copy the code and install it in the header (above the ) of your website. If you use WordPress, I recommend this plugin.

If you still have questions, this video by Camila Porto can help.

2. Not using Custom Conversions

As we mentioned in the previous item, the Facebook Pixel allows you to configure Custom Conversions, which can be understood as specific actions that you want to be used as objectives in campaigns.

And this is important because you don't want Facebook to show you ads without any chance of taking the highest value action on your site.

Still using the online store example, you could create a Custom Conversion for each product and, in parallel, create an ad campaign for each product.

This way, Facebook will understand that the footwear promotion campaign, for example, should appear to people who are most likely to click on the “Buy” button in the footwear section of the website, and that the same applies to jackets, hats , pants etc.

To use this feature you need to create Custom Conversions in the toolbox and create ads with the “Conversions” objective. If you have questions, this video can help.

3. Not testing enough

The internet is full of hacks and miraculous techniques that promise to boost anyone's ads, but based on our experience and reports from hundreds of serious professionals, when it comes to Facebook ads, the “best” for some may (and probably won't) will be) the best for your business.

Stop to think about the complexity of your product or service combined with the variety of possible audiences for them. Now, take into consideration that each of these possible audiences for your product or service are at different levels of awareness and purchasing moments.

Unless you can find another business that sells exactly the same thing as you, to exactly the same audience, the best way to learn what works best on Facebook Ads is to test it.

There are several ways to implement a testing culture in your company, but the simplest and most practical way is to define one AB test per week. Another tip is to use a grid technique presented by V4 Company in this video.

Remember: testing is the most reliable and cost-effective way to find what works best for you – which audiences tend to buy the most, which artwork and copy causes the most engagement on your posts, when and where your ads should be linked, etc.

4. Not taking the learning curve into account (wanting immediate results)

A very important factor that very few people take into consideration when starting to advertise on Facebook Ads is the learning curve that every algorithm has.

When you create ads and they are approved, Facebook will start running a series of internal tests within the settings you made during creation. It will test the positioning, audience, devices and even the behavior of that user on the social network.

Over time, it will “learn” who your ads should be shown to in order to achieve the objective you choose to achieve. This is all to ensure the good performance of your ads and, of course, keep you advertising on the platform.

Officially, Facebook needs 50 optimization events during this learning phase. The time to reach this number will depend on your budget but, as a rule, my recommendation is to always leave ads active with a daily budget of 10% of the total budget you have available, for three days.

After this period, you and Facebook will be able to reach a conclusion about what works best and then invest all your resources.

If this all seems too complicated for you, just remember:

• Never draw conclusions about audiences, positions and any variables before the end of the learning phase;
• Never invest more than 10% of your total budget before the learning phase.

Did you like these tips on how to avoid the main Facebook Ads beginner mistakes? Check out the other articles we have on Portal Insights about paid ads.