6 Marketing Mistakes You’re Making On Facebook

Standing out from the crowd amidst a sea of Facebook Ads can be challenging.

While a decade ago, Facebook hadn’t entered the world of marketing as a universally used advertising platform; 2021 presents an entirely different reality.

Statista reports that, within the third quarter of 2020, Facebook had 10 million active advertisers using the social networking platform to promote their products and services, up from seven million advertisers in the first quarter of the previous year.

That’s a lot of ads within our newsfeeds.

There really is more content being uploaded than there is time to absorb it. That’s why people are pickier than ever before – it’ll take something quite unique to stop them in their tracks while scrolling their feed.

If you’re currently running a campaign on Facebook and aren’t seeing results, we’ve identified some of the most-common mistakes that could be hurting your chances at generating some great numbers, and highlighted exactly how to fix them.

(READ: TikTok Launches TikTok for Business)

1. Overlooking Video

Buzzsumo reported that posts posted to Facebook showed a significant decline in reach (the number of people who had seen the post) in ads with photos and links, but there hasn’t been a decline for videos. Videos showed a 10% engagement RISE in the past year.

While ‘the numbers’ show that video content generates a higher level of reach and engagement on Facebook, the amount of video content used within Facebook itself is still significantly low, in comparison to static images and written content.

Marketers have to opportunity to stop people in their tracks, the consumption of online video has risen significantly. Remember, it’s Facebook’s goal to keep users on the platform for as long as possible. The algorithm pushes video content and content it deems of a high value so it can keep users watching for longer.

2. Not Being Specific Enough With Targeting

Marketers and business owners should be realistic when determining the number of people to target with their product or brand.

It’s a common misconception that, the more people who see an ad, will engage with it – but this isn’t necessarily the case. It’s about getting your ad in front of the right audience, who are more likely to interact with your core service or offer.
This is where Facebook’s Ad Management platform can be very powerful.

You can implement a specific audience within a specific campaign (or create multiple audiences under one campaign); determine their interests, previous activities, age, gender, geographic location, and more.

Based on the audience you create, and your designated daily ad spend, Facebook’s advertising platform can suggest the potential number of people you can reach.

If the audience is too large, perhaps try to narrow things down by targeting age range, locations and gender, or layer your audience’s interests.

When it comes to layering interests, there’s a lot of potential.

For example, you could be a personal trainer looking to target people who are interested in personal training, and wish to participate in a weight loss program. You could set up your targeting to target people with interests in fitness, health, physical wellbeing, and so forth. You could then layer your interests so that they would need to be interested in one of the above interests, and MUST ALSO want to lose weight.

(READ: Ultimate Social Media Size Guide 2021 [Infographic])

3. Not Monitoring Ads Consistently

Social listening and monitoring is essential to a successful advertising campaign. This means you need to keep on top of the comments your Facebook ads receive.

If you receive criticism, for example, you’ll need to respond to these comments, or if they are derogatory or spammy, hide them completely. Leaving negative comments on a Facebook ad is dangerous, and can damage the reputation of a brand or business.

The good news is that it’s very easy to do this, thanks to Facebook’s automation tools.

Look at your target audience’s comments on Facebook ads to judge how your audience is receiving a campaign via the comments section.

4. Choosing The Wrong Type Of Ad For The Intended Action

Facebook offers a variety of ad types, and sometimes that can be a problem.

It’s easy to select an ad type without ensuring it’s the right ad for the message you want to get across.

There are many different advertising options to choose from (Instagram stories, videos image posts, carousels posts), and ultimately, what you select needs to align with your end goal. This can include:
Bringing people onto your website (or landing page) and encouraging them to make a purchase, submit an enquiry, or request a quote
Inviting people to fill in their details (as part of a lead generation campaign)

Keeping this in mind when creating your ads helps you create a high-converting campaign that works to serve its original intention.

5. Testing Too Many Things At Once

There is an option to A/B test within Facebook’s advertising platform, meaning that advertisers can test different kinds of Facebook ads with their target audience.

We think it’s best to only test one aspect against each other at a time, for example, the copy used, or if it’s a video or image. If you fail to separate your ad testing, you’ll find it difficult to know which features had the biggest sway on viewers.

(READ: The ABC’s of A/B Testing)

6. STOP Being Afraid To Step Out Of The Box

The world of online marketing is complex and competitive; sometimes it’s not about having the best graphics or the best copy in the world.

It’s about capturing the attention of fast scrolling users and convincing them to take the next step, depending on what the goal of your campaign is (Make a purchase, submit an enquiry, make a booking etc).

So get those creative juices flowing, and think outside the box. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience, and think what would make you stop and click? It could be a quirky video, for example.

There you have it! With an effective Facebook marketing campaign, you’ll start converting potential clients like a well-oiled machine.

(READ: 6 TikTok Tips to Get More Views)

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