8 Newbie Mistakes When Launching Ads On Instagram And Facebook
We will analyze the typical mistakes that beginners make (and not only) when launching ads on Instagram and Facebook through the Facebook Ads account.
Error 1: run ads without setting up a Facebook pixel
Facebook Pixel is a piece of code that allows you to get information about user behavior on the site, as well as about conversions. At the same time, the pixel transmits information about all visitors (if they are registered on Facebook), and not only about those who went to the site from your advertising campaigns on Facebook Ads.
Also, a pixel is needed to track conversions on different devices, optimize advertising campaigns at the cost of conversion, create look-alike audiences and start remarketing.
It is necessary not only to create a pixel but also to set up events – they will send conversion data on the site to the advertising system. If you set a pixel without setting events, Facebook will not understand what users do on the site, whether they are converted.
Events can be individually configured (as a rule, this is the URL of a certain landing page) or standard (for them you need to embed the code directly or through Google Tag Manager). Events can also be configured through the Event Setup Tool.
Mistake 2: Choosing irrelevant goals
It is necessary to correctly determine the goal already at the initial stage: it is then impossible to change it. How the Facebook algorithm selects an audience and optimizes campaigns depends on the goal.
The most common options are Conversions, Lead Ads, and Catalog Sales. You can use non-standard solutions – for example, select the “Video views” goal, then to set up remarketing or look-alike audiences for users who have watched the video before any moment.
If you need conversions, choose this goal, and not “Traffic” or “Engagement” (this way you will get likes and subscriptions, but not customers). This is how Facebook auction works. You are trading with many other advertisers for almost the same users. For example, suppose your competitors set up campaigns to get conversions, and you choose traffic. It is logical that Facebook will lead you to users who are ready to click, and not make a conversion.
We add that it is better to drive traffic not to the social network, but to an external landing page. Then you can “catch up” the user not only in Facebook Ads but also in other advertising systems.
Error 3: Skip location targeting
When setting up geo-targeting, you must select the “People living here” option (the default setting is “Living here or recent visitors”). “Recent Visitors” and “Travelers” do not apply to your target audience: they are people who have been to a place you specified (or, for example, liked it), but are not here now.
Error 4: Do not specify language
In the “Audience Settings”, do not forget to expand the “Advanced Settings” tab and indicate the language there
Otherwise, advertising may be shown to people who do not speak Selected Language at all, and this is fraught with a drain on the budget.
Error 5: Set the interests of the audience, starting from the product
By setting detailed targeting, you can indicate the interests of the audience. And at this stage, many novice advertisers make mistakes.
Let’s say our task is to sell tours to Kamchatka. To do this, we create a new audience: set up detailed targeting, set interests.
If you ask the average targetologist, most likely, he will name such interests: Kamchatka, travel, hiking, hunting, fishing, extreme sports. But they most likely will not work.
To choose the right targeting, you need to think about who buys such tours. In our case, these will be people with a high income and a high level of stress at work: owners and founders of companies, top managers. They go to Kamchatka to “reboot.” To do this, it is not necessary to get involved in extreme sports or outdoor activities. Those who love hunting and fishing are likely to want to organize a trip for themselves; they don’t need tours. But people who are very busy at work do not have time to buy tickets and deal with other organizational issues on their own; they would rather buy a tour.
Mistake 6: Narrow the audience
In an effort to target more precisely on specific users, advertisers indicate a lot of audience interests. But this may not improve, but it worsens the results.
For optimization algorithms to work effectively, the campaign should have as much data as possible about the audience, clicks, and conversions. By segmenting the audience, we reduce the amount of data. Because of this, the algorithm works worse.
By the way, do not immediately launch ads with detailed targeting. Better start with remarketing. There are three options for setting it up.
- If the site has a Facebook pixel. Then we can create an audience based on its data and “catch up” with advertising all visitors to the site – not only those who switched to it from Facebook, but also those who came from Google, Yandex, etc.
- If there is no site, but there is a popular Instagram page. Then we can set up remarketing for our subscribers.
- If there is a database of customer contacts (phones and email). These contacts can be uploaded to Facebook Ads, creating a custom audience for displaying ads. Important: there must be at least 1000 contacts (this is the minimum audience to run ads through Facebook Ads).
Next, run look-alike. For example, you can create an audience of users similar to your customers who have bought something in the last month or six months.
Then it’s worth launching an ad using broad targeting (optimized for conversion). And only then segment the audience.
Mistake 7: Not paying enough attention to preparing ads and creatives
Advertisements should be bright and interesting, attract attention, evoke emotions. Try to get into the pain of your target audience. You can show the product in detail if it looks attractive.
Use branded images if you want to be remembered. Do not place too much text on creatives – otherwise, the algorithm will lower their priority in the display. In addition, according to the rules of Facebook Ads, the text should not occupy more than 20% of the image.
See Also: How to start a blog on Instagram: 4 steps
The texts should be short and to the point: you have only a few seconds to capture the user’s attention. Do not just promise benefits, but provide evidence. Remember to add calls to action.
For different placements, prepare different creatives: those that you use for the news feed may not look good in Stories (for example, they will be cropped incorrectly and lose part of the image). Do not use Stories as the only placement.
It’s better to prepare different options for creatives in advance: so you can test them and find the most effective one. Do not forget that creatives quickly “burn out” and need to be changed in a timely manner.
Error 8: Do not think over forms in Lead Ads and do not handle leads well
Lead Ads allows you to create forms and get contact details of potential customers within the social network. This format is useful, for example, if there is no site or it is bad.
It is necessary to carefully think over the form: do not overload it with extra fields, it is clear to formulate questions. At the same time, it is worth adding a clarifying question in order to cut off an irrelevant audience. If possible, it is better to disable autocomplete: often it “pulls up” irrelevant contacts.
It is important to process applications promptly; preferably within 15 minutes, until the user has forgotten what form he filled out. Before launching Lead Ads campaigns, prepare your sales team for this. Keep in mind that there will be many applications, but not all will be of high quality.
It’s better to think in advance where you will upload and how to store leads: you can use the contact details later. On Facebook Ads, leads get to the company’s page (“Publishing Tools” – “Lead Advertising Forms”) and are stored there for 90 days. Unloading them can be inconvenient.
