Facebook Ad Mistakes
Whew, y'all, Facebook ads are a HOT BUTTON TOPIC right now…ya feel me?
I get questions ALL THE TIME about Facebook ads – how to run them, how to use them, how to not waste money with them, etc and so I'm letting you know right.now what the TOP 4 money-wasting mistakes I see with Facebook ads are and how YOU can avoid them.
Oops – before we get started, if you haven't seen THIS VIDEO where I'm explaining my blueprint for basic Facebook ad strategy that every business can use – go do that now.
Ok guys, this post is going to be long and in-depth and #allthethings so let's just jump right into it.
Money-wasting Mistake #1
Not targeting the correct audiences.
What does it mean? Facebook Ads show to people based on the audience that you that you choose to show it to. You can choose to show it to a cold audience (people who don't know you) based on different interests they have like Marie Forleo, Business, Amy Porterfield and MANY MORE or you can choose to show it to a warm audience of either your email list, Facebook page interaction, website traffic and/or all of the above. If you are targeting the wrong audience for the wrong “action” item at the end of your ad it can 'cause you to toss money out of the proverbial window.
Example: You are wanting to show an ad to a Free Guide you created called “The Real Man's Guide to Buying a House as a Bachelor” and the audience you choose is made up of “all genders, ages 18-85” you're not using your audience as strategically as you could be.
How to fix it: Be strategic with your audience placement and make sure the audience you send an ad to will actually want it. In the example above, you could have targeted ONLY men and maybe narrowed down the age gap to 30-45 as that would be a more prime age for a single-man to buy a house.
Money-wasting Mistake #2
Boosting posts.
What does it mean? When you publish a post to your business Facebook page you will be inundated with opportunities to “boost post” by Facebook; when you click this button it will prompt you to set the audience and a few other settings (like the budget) and turn you loose. The PROBLEM here is that Facebook doesn't allow you to choose your objective so it sets the objective of the Ad as “boosted post” which basically means it's trying to do #allthethings for you – have people “like” your page, comment and click. You don't want this.
Example: You published a post linking to a blog post you did and you boost it for $5/day (what will it hurt, right?) and you WANT people click and read the post, then sign-up for the upgrade inside of the post. At the end of the day, your $5 was spent getting 10 new people to like your page, 2 people to comment on the post, 4 people to click through and read (only 1 of those actually signed up for your freebie) and 12 people to click on 2 other Instagram posts on your page.
If you would have created an AD from that post instead of boosting it you could have set the objective as “conversions” which would have meant you didn't pay until someone clicked through, read the post AND opted in to your freebie. So, if you converted these people from the ad at $2/conversion (or $2/person who opts in to your freebie), the same $5/day would have resulted in 2, maybe 3 opt-ins as opposed to the 1 you got earlier for the $5.
How to fix it: Go in to your ads manager and create an ad from the post instead of boosting – it's super easy and just as quick!
Money-wasting Mistake #3
Not retargeting ads.
What does it mean? When people see your ad but don't take the action you want them to you can send the same ad (or a different one) back to them to entice them to take the desired action, that's retargeting.
Example: You send out an ad to a cold audience to a specific blog post you want them to read but only 15% of those who clicked through actually signed up for the freebie you had available. 85% of people you spent money to get your ad in front of and have them click did NOT do what you wanted.
How to fix it: You can now tell Facebook to send an ad (maybe straight to the opt-in) to the 85% of people who SAW the blog post but didn't opt-in and now you'll convert even higher.
Money-wasting Mistake #4
Not excluding audiences.
What does it mean? When you create audiences inside of your Facebook ads dashboard those audiences can be used to target people for an ad OR they can be used as ‘exclusion' audiences and can be excluded from ads for certain reasons.
Example: You send a cold ad out to anybody who likes “sewing, babies and Scary Mommy” to send people to a blog post and turn them into a warm audience but you don't exclude anyone in your own audience who also likes these things which means all of the comments, likes, etc are being done by people who already know you and NOT the “cold” people you wanted to find.
How to fix it: Use the “warm” audiences you've already created in Facebook Ad's Manager and exclude them from this ad so you know your money is only being spent towards cold traffic.