For businesses, Facebook is a top-notch prospecting tool. Indeed, according to Mediametry, it only has 48 million unique visitors per month, while in France, 27 million people access it every day. Looking at these statistics, you must know how to take advantage of this channel to take advantage of all its advantages. When you run an advertising campaign through Facebook, you still have to avoid these rookie mistakes!
Mistakes made by beginners with Facebook ads
Everyone (or almost) uses Facebook. It is a social network that attracts all age and gender categories, but also of geographical origin. This strong interest means that both individuals and professionals use it for all their communication. For marketers, it is the ideal tool to launch or advertise their online business, especially thanks to Facebook ads.
But beware of these mistakes!
Mistake 1: Setting the wrong ad objective
The first mistake that beginners often make is not properly defining the reasons why they decide to launch a Facebook advertising campaign. Facebook advertising allows its users to determine what they want to achieve with their ads, what they want their visitors or followers to see when they see one:
- Do they want to increase the “notoriety” of the brand and interest their potential customers in the products or services offered? Facebook Ads makes it possible to measure your reach with those who follow it;
- Is it their purpose to “consider” their possibilities? In this context, it is a question of encouraging them to get more in-depth information on both the products in question and the company. Ads in this category invite the visitor to interact by leaving comments, for example, or to click on a video, to send a private message to get answers to their questions;
- The last category is “conversions” aimed at motivating customers to purchase.
The goal of an e-merchant site is to optimize its sales. Therefore it must be ensured that the customer, seeing an advertisement on Facebook, decides to buy the product presented there. If the goal is to generate sales, he is not interested in choosing the infamous category. Choosing the right advertising objective is essential, as the implementation of a marketing strategy that is not in line with the needs of the company can lead to failure.
Error 2: Not configuring the Facebook pixel correctly
Uses of Facebook ads include the use of the meta (Facebook) pixel, a JavaScript code that is inserted on Facebook pages. This makes it possible to follow the Internet users who come there and collect the relevant data from them, knowing if there has been an action by the visitors and if any conversion has taken place. It is not necessary to buy. Maybe they’ve subscribed to newsletters or registered for an event.
For example, thanks to the information collected by the Facebook pixel, your company is able to retarget people who have taken an action but did not result in a purchase. But in order to get the expected result, it is necessary to configure it correctly during its installation. An error may result in ads that are not in line with the browsing habits and behavior of visitors. The creation of the Pixel should take company realities into account and include relevant partner integration and appropriate CMS.
Mistake 3: Not targeting the right audience
An error regularly made is mistaken in audience targeting, sometimes too generalized or too limited. To circumvent this problem, it would be necessary to classify it by taking into account socio-demographic criteria, such as age, gender, their geographical area or their occupational activities. The list is not exhaustive, the criteria are very diverse.
The formation of a personality gives the possibility to be a fictitious representation of the complete customer and to change as new information is added to the previous ones. Clearly identifying your audience makes it possible to run proper advertising campaigns and therefore better manage the advertising budget. Note that its effect will vary from viewer to viewer. Those who are used to it, their behavior will not be like that of first time visitors.
A so-called “hot” audience is made up of people who have already interacted with the page. They shop there, or leave a comment. The aim is to encourage them to come back through a retargeting campaign and therefore to advertise to which they are sensitive. A cold audience will be made up of people to whom the company is completely unknown, who have never been to its page.
Error 4: Ignoring the quality of the content and the visuals of the ads
Facebook users only have a few seconds to spend with each post that appears on the News Feed. That’s why it’s essential for a company that wants to create engaging ads right from the start. Not to forget that optimized beautiful photos (so they load quickly), with well-detailed videos, subtitles, captivating background music, make more of an impact than a compact and long text. The fact is that these should be accompanied by an explanatory, clear and concise text of about 90 characters.
The emphasis will be on a scene where the juxtaposition of colors will optimally enhance the products offered, or people, as well as the company’s distinctive signs (logos, brands, etc.). In terms of content, Internet users are more sensitive to content that conveys a message and meaningful values. It is not simply a question of describing the technical or scientific characteristics of the product of service.
Advertising should allow the future buyers to know the benefits or benefits that they can get by using it. The title should be powerful and should already give an idea of ​​what the text will develop. They will have a higher desire to see ads and therefore optimize click-through rates.
Error Fifth: Limit Yourself to One Ad
When a Facebook advertising campaign is launched, it has no long-term impact. Its performance declines after a certain time of its online publication. The public quickly gets tired of these ads that don’t change regularly. To update them, it is strongly recommended to take into account several elements. The continuity of advertising with the values ​​of the company should not be overlooked.
In addition, it should take into account the target audience. An ad aimed at seniors will be different from one aimed at Generation Z or Millennials. The duration of the campaign is also an important parameter, as the longer it is, the higher the budget allocated. Ad space also plays a major role.
Error Sixth: Underestimating Location
We were saying that placements are important to give better visibility to a Facebook ad. However, it is not up to the advertiser where it will be displayed. When you start the process on Facebook Ads, you set the advertising objectives to achieve, which are conversions, notoriety and views.
Depending on each of them, ads may appear in 7 different places. The most important is the news feed and the right column. The results obtained by the advertisement will not be the same depending on the place where it is published. Today, Internet users are increasingly mobile. With mobile news feeds becoming a staple, mobile usage takes precedence, even though purchases are primarily made on desktop computers.
Displaying the ad on the right column is less costly for the advertiser. In addition to this benefit, this space saves you negative feedback from Internet users, which is not the kind of news feed they can comment on. Despite these various benefits, it generates very little interest from advertisers.
Error Seventh: Guaranteed Customer Experience
There are several steps to complete Facebook advertising in order to achieve positive results for a business. That the audience is well defined, with particular attention to the content in terms of both design and text, Internet users will be reserved if page loading is too slow and if ergonomics leaves something to be desired . They will go to see the competition. For a website to retain a user, it must offer a good quality browsing experience.
To avoid making rookie mistakes, it can sometimes be better to entrust the receipt of a Facebook ad campaign to professionals. However, it is quite possible to master the secrets with a lot of practice and of course a few failures. Don’t hesitate to train yourself on this topic. This certified training on webmarketing provides a complete social media component. With time and lots of practice, great results will eventually come!