5 Common Facebook Advertising Mistakes That Wastes Money!
Running Facebook ads can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be.
This article will share 5 common Facebook advertising mistakes I’ve seen as a performance marketer; whether you’re in e-commerce, or running awareness campaigns, avoiding these mistakes will heighten your chances for success on the platform!
1. Relying on Facebook’s Conversion Data
Businesses rarely rely on Facebook conversion data as the source of truth.
The differences in data usually stems from varying attribution models and device privacy settings. If that’s too confusing, just remember Facebook claims credit of a particular sale (or event) in a different way compared to other platforms.
The best alternative is to rely on 3rd-party platforms like Google Analytics, Shopify or Lazada & Shopee Marketing Solutions Portal (MSPs). They yield the most accurate sales data if UTM tags are correct.
2. Omitting UTM Tags when running campaigns
Given Facebook isn’t the most reliable in terms of data, we use alternative platforms to help us see what’s working best or not; this is possible through putting UTM tags on a given landing page.
If you aren’t sure what UTM tags are, it's an additional string of characters added to the end of a website page. It conveys additional information analytics platform use to identify where a specific user came from. The following is an example:
Website with no UTM: https://paidmediamadesimple.webflow.io/
Website with UTMs: https://paidmediamadesimple.webflow.io/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=AUCTION&utm_campaign=Blog-Article&utm_term=Audience&utm_content=CREATIVE
Look out for source & medium. If I were to run Facebook ads with this UTM, it would appear accurately in Google Analytics (or any other tracking software) and allow me to understand exactly where online traffic is coming from, which audiences work best with which specific creative. You can even measure the quality of traffic gotten; what proportion of the users stay for at least 10s and even how many website pages they scroll on your website.
If you aren’t sure how to build UTMs, use this link by Google.
In an ideal world, UTM tag everything you’re getting traffic from. This includes email sources, referral links, social media channels (paid vs organic) or even getting UTMs to your friends to see if they’re supporting your business or not ;)
I’ve seen many clients who don’t use UTMs properly. It's literally flushing down opportunity (and money) as they provide a historical context of the account. They provide big FAT clues on how to bring performance to higher levels.
Without it, you aren’t helping yourself nor your agency. I know this article is for Facebook ads, but UTM tagging works for all online media channels.
Remember to tag your traffic to learn what works best!
3. Not Utilizing Facebook Dynamic Parameters within UTMs
4. Combining Multiple Countries in a Single Adset
Never do this.
Most of the time, 80% of your budget allocated will be focused on the countries where it is the cheapest to serve, or in technical terms, the cheapest CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions).
This article isn’t a masterclass in Facebook advertising, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned having overseen over >$10M worth of ads spent on Facebook; it’s the following:
Be as contextual as you can with the person you’re reaching with the right messaging and the right creative.
In the case where you’re lumping countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong together,
- The culture of these places are radically different from each other; communicate to them in a way which will resonate with them the most
- Ad inventory will relatively be the cheapest in countries like Indonesia; 80% of your budget may likely be spent in those locations
I may even segment ad sets by geographic regions, depending on the size of the country or city. The following are food for thoughts before you launch your next campaign
Which geographic regions are my customers usually from?
Which geographic regions buy my product the most?
Can I leverage any locally contextual language or trends that would better engage with my potential customers there?
5. Launching campaigns without testing a hypothesis**
I feel that great performance marketers are like scientists; they always test & learn to see what works, and more importantly, what doesn’t.
Which age group or gender is most receptive to my product or service?
What type of Facebook audience works best to achieve business results?
Which type of ads brings the most business results for me? Influencer ads? Single Image ads? Video ads?
Which Facebook objective works best for my business?
Which type of Unique-Selling-Proposition best sells my product or service?
One doesn’t simply launch Facebook campaigns; it’s always an ever-learning journey to see what works and what doesn’t; eventually through experience, you’ll be able to see the common pitfalls and avoid them. Of course, its pivotal to learn about them before severe consequences happen.
List down things you want to learn through Facebook advertising; treat it as a mini research of sorts.
Instead of sending our survey respondents (who rarely give truthful replies), get feedback at scale by observing how your target audience responds through engagement with ads.
There is always a way to measure intent and engagement, be it view rates, bounce rates, click-through rates etc.
This will greatly affect how you build your Facebook campaigns.
That’s the 5 common Facebook mistakes I usually see businesses make; if you’re interested to learn more, feel free to send me any message you have about paid marketing and I’ll be glad to help and share from my experience :)
Cheers!
3. Not Utilizing Facebook Dynamic Parameters within UTMs
If you’re running Facebook ads, chances are you want to target more than 1 interest, demographic groups or use different types of creatives to see which works best.
Before you know it, you'll realize you’ve got too many website links to add UTMs to.
No worries - use dynamic parameters.
Let Facebook automatically populate the UTM parameters based on the campaign name, ad set name or ad name for you; the following is an example.
If you’re interested to know other information about your ads, you could even include the following information you can track via Google Analytics:
ad_id={{ad.id}}
adset_id={{adset.id}}
campaign_id={{campaign.id}}
ad_name={{ad.name}}
adset_name={{adset.name}}
campaign_name={{campaign.name}}
placement={{placement}}
site_source_name={{site_source_name}}
But there's a cache!
You will need to spend time to understand data to understand which audience, creative or placements works best.
If you’re willing to learn from data, it will be a recipe for success :)
3. Not Utilizing Facebook Dynamic Parameters within UTMs
If you’re running Facebook ads, chances are you want to target more than 1 interest, demographic groups or use different types of creatives to see which works best. Before you know it, you'll realize you’ve got too many website links to add UTMs to.
No worries - use dynamic parameters.
Let Facebook automatically populate the UTM parameters based on the campaign name, ad set name or ad name for you; the following is an example.
If you’re interested to know other information about your ads, you could even include the following information that you can track via Google Analytics:
ad_id={{ad.id}}
adset_id={{adset.id}}
campaign_id={{campaign.id}}
ad_name={{ad.name}}
adset_name={{adset.name}}
campaign_name={{campaign.name}}
placement={{placement}}
site_source_name={{site_source_name}}
Here’s the cache! You will need to spend time to sift through the data on Google Analytics to understand which audience, creative or placements works best; but if you’re willing to learn from data, it will definitely be a recipe for success :)
4. Combining Multiple Countries in a Single Adset
Never do this.
Most of the time, 80% of your budget allocated will be focused on the countries where it is the cheapest to serve, or in technical terms, the cheapest CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions).
This article isn’t a masterclass in Facebook advertising, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned having overseen over >$10M worth of ads spent on Facebook; it’s the following:
Be as contextual as you can with the person you’re reaching with the right messaging and the right creative.
In the case where you’re lumping countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong together,
- The culture of these places are radically different from each other; communicate to them in a way which will resonate with them the most
- Ad inventory will relatively be the cheapest in countries like Indonesia; 80% of your budget may likely be spent in those locations
I may even segment ad sets by geographic regions, depending on the size of the country or city. The following are food for thoughts before you launch your next campaign
Which geographic regions are my customers usually from?
Which geographic regions buy my product the most?
Can I leverage any locally contextual language or trends that would better engage with my potential customers there?
5. Launching campaigns without testing a hypothesis**
I feel that great performance marketers are like scientists; they always test & learn to see what works, and more importantly, what doesn’t.
Which age group or gender is most receptive to my product or service?
What type of Facebook audience works best to achieve business results?
Which type of ads brings the most business results for me? Influencer ads? Single Image ads? Video ads?
Which Facebook objective works best for my business?
Which type of Unique-Selling-Proposition best sells my product or service?
One doesn’t simply launch Facebook campaigns; it’s always an ever-learning journey to see what works and what doesn’t; eventually through experience, you’ll be able to see the common pitfalls and avoid them. Of course, its pivotal to learn about them before severe consequences happen.
List down things you want to learn through Facebook advertising; treat it as a mini research of sorts.
Instead of sending our survey respondents (who rarely give truthful replies), get feedback at scale by observing how your target audience responds through engagement with ads.
There is always a way to measure intent and engagement, be it view rates, bounce rates, click-through rates etc.
This will greatly affect how you build your Facebook campaigns.
That’s the 5 common Facebook mistakes I usually see businesses make; if you’re interested to learn more, feel free to send me any message you have about paid marketing and I’ll be glad to help and share from my experience :)
Cheers!
4. Combining Multiple Countries in a Single Adset
Never do this.
Most of the time, 80% of your budget allocated will be focused on countries where it is the cheapest to serve, or in technical terms, the cheapest CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions).
This article isn’t a masterclass in Facebook advertising, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my experience, it’s the following:
Be as contextual as you can with the person you’re reaching with the right messaging and the right creative.
If you’re lumping countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong together:
- The culture of these places are radically different from each other; it is pivotal to communicate with them in a way which will resonate with them the most
- Ad inventory will relatively be the cheapest in countries like Indonesia; 80% of your budget will likely be spent in those locations
I may even segment ad sets by geographic regions, depending on the size of the country or city. The following are food for thoughts before you launch your next campaign:
- Which geographic regions are my customers usually from?
- Which geographic regions buy my product the most?
- Can I leverage any locally contextual language or trends that would better engage with potential customers?
3. Not Utilizing Facebook Dynamic Parameters within UTMs
If you’re running Facebook ads, chances are you want to target more than 1 interest, demographic groups or use different types of creatives to see which works best. Before you know it, you'll realize you’ve got too many website links to add UTMs to.
No worries - use dynamic parameters.
Let Facebook automatically populate the UTM parameters based on the campaign name, ad set name or ad name for you; the following is an example.
If you’re interested to know other information about your ads, you could even include the following information that you can track via Google Analytics:
ad_id={{ad.id}}
adset_id={{adset.id}}
campaign_id={{campaign.id}}
ad_name={{ad.name}}
adset_name={{adset.name}}
campaign_name={{campaign.name}}
placement={{placement}}
site_source_name={{site_source_name}}
Here’s the cache! You will need to spend time to sift through the data on Google Analytics to understand which audience, creative or placements works best; but if you’re willing to learn from data, it will definitely be a recipe for success :)
4. Combining Multiple Countries in a Single Adset
Never do this.
Most of the time, 80% of your budget allocated will be focused on the countries where it is the cheapest to serve, or in technical terms, the cheapest CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions).
This article isn’t a masterclass in Facebook advertising, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned having overseen over >$10M worth of ads spent on Facebook; it’s the following:
Be as contextual as you can with the person you’re reaching with the right messaging and the right creative.
In the case where you’re lumping countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong together,
- The culture of these places are radically different from each other; communicate to them in a way which will resonate with them the most
- Ad inventory will relatively be the cheapest in countries like Indonesia; 80% of your budget may likely be spent in those locations
I may even segment ad sets by geographic regions, depending on the size of the country or city. The following are food for thoughts before you launch your next campaign
Which geographic regions are my customers usually from?
Which geographic regions buy my product the most?
Can I leverage any locally contextual language or trends that would better engage with my potential customers there?
5. Launching campaigns without testing a hypothesis**
I feel that great performance marketers are like scientists; they always test & learn to see what works, and more importantly, what doesn’t.
Which age group or gender is most receptive to my product or service?
What type of Facebook audience works best to achieve business results?
Which type of ads brings the most business results for me? Influencer ads? Single Image ads? Video ads?
Which Facebook objective works best for my business?
Which type of Unique-Selling-Proposition best sells my product or service?
One doesn’t simply launch Facebook campaigns; it’s always an ever-learning journey to see what works and what doesn’t; eventually through experience, you’ll be able to see the common pitfalls and avoid them. Of course, its pivotal to learn about them before severe consequences happen.
List down things you want to learn through Facebook advertising; treat it as a mini research of sorts.
Instead of sending our survey respondents (who rarely give truthful replies), get feedback at scale by observing how your target audience responds through engagement with ads.
There is always a way to measure intent and engagement, be it view rates, bounce rates, click-through rates etc.
This will greatly affect how you build your Facebook campaigns.
That’s the 5 common Facebook mistakes I usually see businesses make; if you’re interested to learn more, feel free to send me any message you have about paid marketing and I’ll be glad to help and share from my experience :)
Cheers!
5. Launching campaigns without testing a hypothesis
Great performance marketers are like scientists; they always test & learn to see what works, and more importantly, do less of what doesn’t.
- Which age group or gender is most receptive to my product or service?
- What type of Facebook audience works best to achieve business results?
- Which ad types brings the most business results? Influencer ads? Single Image ads? Video ads?
- Which Facebook objective works best for my business?
- Which type of Unique-Selling-Proposition best sells my product or service?
One doesn’t simply launch Facebook campaigns; it’s always an ever-learning journey to see what works and what doesn’t.
Eventually through experience, you’ll see the common pitfalls and avoid them. Its pivotal to learn before severe consequences happen.
List down things you want to learn through Facebook advertising; treat it as a mini research of sorts.
Instead of sending our survey respondents (who rarely give truthful replies), get feedback at scale by observing how your target audience respond through engagement with ads.
There is always a way to measure intent and engagement, be it view rates, bounce rates, click-through rates etc.
This will greatly influence how the Facebook campaigns are built.
That’s the 5 common Facebook mistakes I see businesses make.
If you’re interested to learn more, feel free to send me any message you have about paid marketing and I’ll be glad to help and share from my experience :)
Cheers!
3. Not Utilizing Facebook Dynamic Parameters within UTMs
If you’re running Facebook ads, chances are you want to target more than 1 interest, demographic groups or use different types of creatives to see which works best. Before you know it, you'll realize you’ve got too many website links to add UTMs to.
No worries - use dynamic parameters.
Let Facebook automatically populate the UTM parameters based on the campaign name, ad set name or ad name for you; the following is an example.
If you’re interested to know other information about your ads, you could even include the following information that you can track via Google Analytics:
ad_id={{ad.id}}
adset_id={{adset.id}}
campaign_id={{campaign.id}}
ad_name={{ad.name}}
adset_name={{adset.name}}
campaign_name={{campaign.name}}
placement={{placement}}
site_source_name={{site_source_name}}
Here’s the cache! You will need to spend time to sift through the data on Google Analytics to understand which audience, creative or placements works best; but if you’re willing to learn from data, it will definitely be a recipe for success :)
4. Combining Multiple Countries in a Single Adset
Never do this.
Most of the time, 80% of your budget allocated will be focused on the countries where it is the cheapest to serve, or in technical terms, the cheapest CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions).
This article isn’t a masterclass in Facebook advertising, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned having overseen over >$10M worth of ads spent on Facebook; it’s the following:
Be as contextual as you can with the person you’re reaching with the right messaging and the right creative.
In the case where you’re lumping countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong together,
- The culture of these places are radically different from each other; communicate to them in a way which will resonate with them the most
- Ad inventory will relatively be the cheapest in countries like Indonesia; 80% of your budget may likely be spent in those locations
I may even segment ad sets by geographic regions, depending on the size of the country or city. The following are food for thoughts before you launch your next campaign
Which geographic regions are my customers usually from?
Which geographic regions buy my product the most?
Can I leverage any locally contextual language or trends that would better engage with my potential customers there?
5. Launching campaigns without testing a hypothesis**
I feel that great performance marketers are like scientists; they always test & learn to see what works, and more importantly, what doesn’t.
Which age group or gender is most receptive to my product or service?
What type of Facebook audience works best to achieve business results?
Which type of ads brings the most business results for me? Influencer ads? Single Image ads? Video ads?
Which Facebook objective works best for my business?
Which type of Unique-Selling-Proposition best sells my product or service?
One doesn’t simply launch Facebook campaigns; it’s always an ever-learning journey to see what works and what doesn’t; eventually through experience, you’ll be able to see the common pitfalls and avoid them. Of course, its pivotal to learn about them before severe consequences happen.
List down things you want to learn through Facebook advertising; treat it as a mini research of sorts.
Instead of sending our survey respondents (who rarely give truthful replies), get feedback at scale by observing how your target audience responds through engagement with ads.
There is always a way to measure intent and engagement, be it view rates, bounce rates, click-through rates etc.
This will greatly affect how you build your Facebook campaigns.
That’s the 5 common Facebook mistakes I usually see businesses make; if you’re interested to learn more, feel free to send me any message you have about paid marketing and I’ll be glad to help and share from my experience :)
Cheers!
