Ways to Optimise Your Facebook Ads
Besides learning how to launch a Facebook Ads (Meta Ads) campaign, you are probably wondering how you can optimise your Facebook Ads.
The worst thing that any digital marketer or business owner can do, is to allow their campaign to run remotely and assume that there would be a constant flow of acquisitions or leads. That is the biggest mistake anyone can make, as your campaign’s target audience would suffer from Ad Fatigue or Creative Fatigue.
Ad Fatigue or Creative Fatigue
You must be wondering, what exactly is Ad Fatigue or Creative Fatigue? It basically means that your target audiences have seen your ads so often and stop paying attention to them as they are bored of it.[1]
Imagine this, the first time you saw an elaborated Ad on social media about the latest iPhone 13, you would probably get very excited or have some sort of interest. However, how about the second and third time? You would have already known what to expect. Thus, your overall interest in the Ad is not as high as the initial impression.
With Facebook Ads, the more times an individual has seen the Ad, the more bored they get of it. Therefore, metrics like the Click-through Rate (CTR) decreases while the Cost-per Click (CPC) increases. This would mean that you would have to reach out to more people just to get a click.
Another good indicator of Ad or Creative Fatigue would be under the Delivery column status when your campaign is active. You would see the status “Creative limited” or “Creative fatigue”.
So, how can we overcome Ad Fatigue?
1. Create a New Ad or Rotate Your Ads.
Have different Ad visuals that tell the same brand or advertising message. For example, take a close look at Shopify. They use 4 different Ad visuals, but they essentially send out the same message. Which is, ease of use of building a store on their website, and how it allows business owners to easily reach out to their customers.
This way, users constantly see different images and would potentially be less bored of seeing your Ads. Additionally, you’ll also be able to find out which Ad Creative performs the best.
2. Optimise your Ad Sets
Sometimes it may be the wrong target audience that you are reaching out to. So, optimise your interest group. Selling car insurance and want to reach out to car owners? Setting interest targeting like Toyota, Honda or other car brands may work. You can also consider targeting complementary products such as luxury watches as car owners may be interested in them too.
3. Optimise your Ad Placements
Did you select the “Automatic Ad placements?” Uncheck that box. Yes, uncheck it, because you might be wasting your precious advertising dollars on wrong placements. Facebook is essentially charging you for each impression, but not all impressions are useful for your campaign’s objective.
Unless you have a lot of advertising budget, you wouldn’t want your advertisement to appear on the right column. Just think of when was the last time that you clicked on, or even looked at the right column? So always remember to select your placement positions wisely! For example, if you want to target millennials, you might be able to reach them more effectively via the Instagram placement, compared to Facebook.
In addition, you may want to consider trying the Advantage+ creative option if you are running a Traffic or Conversions objective campaign. This option helps you to automatically create variations of your ad by showing a personalized ad to users based on what they are most likely to click on.[1] Hence, it is worth a shot if you do not have the resources or capability to create more than 1 ad creative.
4. Optimise your Facebook Campaign Objective
Every business wants conversions, but don’t expect to generate conversions on the very first day. Moreover, if you have no track record of conversions, it is difficult for Facebook to optimise it for you. So, you must know which phase your business is in. If you are only running Facebook Ads for the first time, you can still consider Conversion. However, do not expect leads or sales to flood in right from the get go.
On the other hand, if you want people to share or like your post, you can consider Post Engagement. Always hover over the objective and make sure the definition aligns to the objective you have in mind.
5. Conduct A/B Testing
Similar to visuals rotation, you can also conduct A/B testing to know what works and what does not work. You can choose to test your visual, or copywriting, or even target audience. In that way, you’ll know which set works best and you can focus your budget just on that.
6. Change your Ad Format
Running a Static Image Ad, but still not getting results? Then try using a Carousel Image Ad. If that still does not work, maybe it’s time to try using a Video Ad, Slideshow or even the Instant Page Experience which Facebook has.
Other Considerations
However, ad fatigue or creative fatigue may not always be the issue that is plaguing your campaign. There are scenarios where you are facing more micro issues that relate to low Reach, low CTR, high Cost-per Acquisition (CPA) or Cost-per Lead (CPL). For these kinds of scenario, we can employ the following:
- Low Reach: Expand your targeting within your Ad Sets or use the Detailed Targeting Expansion option to reach out to more users.
- Low CTR: Consider changing or adding more variations of your ad creative. Low engagement rates are generally related to the Ad not being enticing for your audience to click through.
- High CPA or CPL: Reassess your targeting, advertising message or Ad. Many times, the issue lies in the promotional offer that we are trying to convey to our target audience.
Conclusion
When you are running a Facebook Ads campaign, it is important to understand the different possible scenarios and issues that you may face. With this knowledge, you are now equipped with the basic knowledge on how to optimise your Facebook Ads campaign.
[1]Meta Business Help Center, https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1346816142327858?id=561906377587030
[2]HubSpot, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ad-fatigue