Why your Facebook ads aren't performing (and what to do about it)

Every day I see a handful of posts from people asking why their ads aren’t working and what can be done to fix them. I also see plenty of posts from gurus sharing their ‘hacks’ to instantly improve ad performance.

The truth is that there is no quick fix, there are likely many adjustments and improvements that need to be made to get your ads on track.

As a Facebook marketer with many years of experience with the platform, I thought it’d be useful to address some of the most common mistakes I see people making and posting about in subreddits like this.

But first, it’s important to understand that Facebook marketing is a complicated platform and every account requires a tailored approach. So none of this advice is hard and fast, it’s just general guidance.

You’re probably not spending enough

I’m going to start with one that most of you aren’t going to like, and probably where most people are going wrong. I always see posts from people spending $10/day wondering why they aren’t getting any sales.

The power of Facebook lies in its machine learning and algorithm. This machine requires spend to get the ad in front of people, gather data, and optimise accordingly. With a spend of $10/day, you’ll only get a handful of weekly sales if you’re lucky (probably closer to 0 sales in reality). That is not enough data for Facebook to establish a profile of your target customer.

Not only are you getting very few sales at a low budget, but you’re not even reaching a great deal of people. And so, the machine that powers Facebook is not getting the fuel to work its magic.

I’m not saying it’s impossible to get results at a low budget, it’s just very difficult and very time-consuming. You’re better off allocating that budget elsewhere until you can afford more ad spend. I always suggest $80 to $100/day as a bare minimum for brands looking to take FB ads seriously, and that’s still on the lower side.

You're not optimised for purchases

Another common post I see is from people asking why they have 46 Add to Carts and 0 sales. The same people have set their campaign objective to Add to Cart.

If your objective is to make sales, you should always be optimised for purchases. As stated, Facebook is a smart algorithm and will deliver exactly what you ask for. If you set your campaign objective to landing page views, Facebook will deliver you an audience of people who are likely to click on your ad and do nothing more. This same principle applies to engagement, video views, initiate checkouts etc.

Your campaign objective should always be conversions, this will ensure the highest quality traffic.

Your account has no coherent structure

A solid account structure serves as a foundation for all your marketing efforts. I audit a lot of accounts that lack any structure whatsoever. They have 5 different campaigns running with 10 ad sets in each that are being turned off and on every other day.

When it comes to account structure, simplicity is key. I’ve seen super successful ad accounts run with just 1 campaign. I will never use more than 3 campaigns at a time, and sometimes 1 is all that is necessary in the early stages.

As mentioned previously, Facebook requires spend to work optimally. You should always be aiming to concentrate your budget on the least amount of campaigns and ad sets possible. 1 ad set at $100/day spend will generally be better than 10 ad sets at $10/day spend.

Another benefit of a solid account structure is that it allows for more controlled testing. If you can minimise the amount of variables being tested at once, you can get a better understanding of what’s happening. You shouldn’t be testing 10 different interests stacked in one ad set with 10 different creatives at the same time.

You’re not patient

Ads generally don’t stabilise for the first few days. Another common post I see is from people asking whether or not they should turn an ad set off because it’s been 2 days and they’ve had minimal results. I always say to allow around 5 days before making any decisions on whether or not to kill or scale (unless you have a high ad spend, you generally don’t have to wait as long).

The opposite of this point is also true. If it’s been a day and you’ve seen great results, that doesn’t mean they will continue. Set a rule and stick to it, tampering with ad sets before giving them a chance will only hinder results.

You’re too attached I see Facebook as a machine. I feed it inputs, it spits out outputs, and I adjust accordingly.

What this means in practice is that I’ll launch a new ad or ad set, Facebook will tell me if it’s good or not (which I can infer through metrics), and then I will decide whether to kill it or scale it.

Don’t get attached to audiences or creatives that you believe should be performing well. I see this all the time, people holding on to creatives and audiences that they believe are great despite continuously running at a loss. Remove yourself from the process as much as possible, your job is to input data, analyse the outputs and adjust accordingly (I understand this can be really difficult for marketers and brand owners alike. We all think we know best, I’m always being humbled by Facebook).

Thanks for reading!