Are you aware that 91% of Australian’s currently use Facebook and Instagram? It should be no surprise that social is becoming one of the more reliable advertising streams for digital marketing, with such a big audience to advertise to.
Facebook can be an absolute revenue machine for some brands, but there are plenty of roadblocks that cause underperforming and sometimes, not even profitable campaigns to occur. Whether it’s incapabilities internally or using the wrong provider, there are a lot of unsuccessful campaigns with little to no Return On Ad Spend flying around and we have a few main reasons why it often happens:
1. Not enough budget
Often you hear from someone that they have “had a go” at Facebook advertising and thrown $5 – $10 a day at it to see if they can fluke a result. On the rare occasion, this might actually work if you get lucky, but 9 times out of 10, this level of investment won’t produce enough significant traffic to lead to conversions and therefore, it makes it extremely difficult to make a return on the investment.
This also happens when businesses run too many campaigns and spread their budget too thin, not along the better performing campaigns to eat the majority of the budget. Make sure you understand the performance of each campaign and invest your budget into high performing campaigns early on to make solid returns.
2. Too much focus on Vanity Metrics
Impressions, Followers, Engagement, Likes… Sure, they are all nice to have, but with social media advertising, they aren’t directly impacting revenue and this is normally the name of the game.
Tracking conversions should be your focus and keeping an eye on your Return On Ad Spend and scaling this as much as possible. Ensuring that your Facebook pixel is properly installed and looking at your audience’s behaviour after this allows you to optimise your ads and improve your targeting.
It’s nice to promote engagement, but when it comes down to it, money talks!
3. No Remarketing
Have you ever been buying your friend a gift, let’s use a skydiving session as an example and then all of sudden that night, you have an onslaught of ads about skydiving? This isn’t coincidence, this is a social media advertising strategy called “Remarketing” or “Retargetting” that send messaging to existing visitors of your website.
The reason it is important to be considering a remarketing camaign in your social ads, is because the audience that you advertising towards have ALREADY BEEN TO YOUR WEBSITE. They are the warmest leads possible and potential sales possible and it is important to capitalise on the work you’ve already done prior to these ads by bringing potential customers to your website.
The key to this form of advertising is not to fatigue your audience by displaying the ads too frequently to them and to keep your messaging concise and to the point with a strong call to action.
4. Incorrect pixel set up
Setting up your Facebook pixel is extremely important to running Facebook Ads. Facebook do provide some good resources assisting you with your set ups, but there are still a range of things that can go wrong when setting up the pixel that will lead to poor performing campaigns in the future.
Having a Facebook pixel allows you to track events, which can be reported as “conversions” which are prominent actions on the website like buying a product or enquiring about a service. Understanding these conversions allows you to properly identify you Return On Ad Spend and this can guide you to understanding if you are getting a return for your advertising spend.
We cannot stress how important it is to get your pixel set up right, with a growing range of pixel features available, it is a good idea to touch up on your pixel installation knowledge frequently to ensure you are tracking correctly.
5. Lack of a unique value proposition or offer
A lot of businesses think that it is as simple as spending as much money as possible on ads to beat your competitors. This isn’t the case anymore, with such large competition online and so many people flooding the social media advertising avenue, you need to put your best foot forward with communicating your offer.
Here’s are example’s for you, same priced product, different messaging:
Company A – Selling underwear subscriptions, they offer “high quality underpants for competitive pricing”.
Company B – Selling underwear subscriptions, they have a “30 day money back guarantee” if you are unsatisfied with oyur purchase, “free shipping on all orders” and a “free packet of fabric softener with each purchase”
More than likely, you would be leaning towards Company B who not only offer a wide range of extras with your purchase, but they also communicate those to you, allowing you to understand their points of difference.
Creating your companies Unique Vale Propositions is also a great exercise for any business, whether they are runnings ads or not, so make sure you do this one way or another.
If you would like to discuss how your business could be utilising Facebook Advertising, click here to speak to a team member at Reform Digital and craft your strategy with us!
