As many businesses across the country have learned within the past several years, Facebook ads can be a very powerful tool for reaching out to potential customers. Many Facebook marketers are having to learn how to create successful Facebook ads through trial and error. However, there's a wide variety of best practices and tips to take note of to help improve that learning curve a bit. Make sure your business isn't making common mistakes that drain ad budget and often lead to unsuccessful campaigns. Continue reading to learn how to avoid the top five common mistakes for paid Facebook advertising.

You Don't Have Any Specific Goals in Mind

It's simple: If you want to know whether or not Facebook ads are working for your business, you must know what metrics you're evaluating and using to establish success. Essentially, if you don't define what success looks like upfront, your ads will be a shot in the dark. If you're looking to track Facebook Ads ROI, you could start with tracking a few different actions like new page "likes", post-level engagement, email opt-ins, website click-throughs, and on-site sales or lead generation.

We're not here to tell you which of these metrics you shoudl be tracking, as it's important that you take your individual business goals into consideration. For example, if you're a newly established company, it may be important to build brand awareness (often measured in a number of page followers). So, before you start designing and strategizing for your next ad, consider the metrics that you want to analyze. 

Broad Targeting Can Hamper Results

Facebook advertising offers a slew of targeting features to hone in on the people you want to speak with directly. Using targeting features appropriately can make the difference between failure and success. Target correctly and your ad will reach audience members who are more likely to react positively; fail to target correctly and you risk diminishing your brand image by displaying your messages to Facebook users who could care less.

If you’re seeing low engagement with your current campaigns, examining your targeting parameters is a great place to start. You can attempt to make your targeting criteria more detailed to increase your accuracy.

Neglecting to Use the Optimal Ad Type

Facebook offers advertisers the opportunity to experiment with a wide variety of different ad types. Certainly, Newsfeed Ads are the most familiar, as they are one of the easiest ad types to create. However, it’s important that you avoid overlooking all the other options such as page like ads, event ads, and lead ads.

Here’s a brief overview of a few Facebook ad types:

• Newsfeed Ads: Typically, newsfeed ads are the first choice for Facebook ad newbies, due in part to the fact that they are easy to create and set up.
• Lead Ads: these ads give offer an easy way to access valuable offers like eBooks, quotes, and newsletters. These ads often include a “download” or “sign up now” call-to-action button
• Right Column Ads: This ad type is one of the more basic options, allowing you to set a headline, description, and single image. You can view these ads on your Desktop newsfeed.
• Event Ads: As their title may suggest, these ads are useful for promoting specific events, offering an opportunity to get more people informed and attending.
• Carousel Ads: These ads allow you to show off multiple products at a time. You can showcase up to ten images and links in a single ad. This type of ad is often effective for eCommerce sites.
• Page Like Ads: If you want to get more likes to your brand’s Facebook page, this is your best bet.

Sloppy Copy

It’s crucial that you write custom compelling copy for every part of your Facebook ads; admittedly, this is a huge responsibility, as one poorly thought-out line of text could potentially turn off an interested customer. Take the time necessary to craft high-quality ad copy. If you’re not overly confident in your abilities, you can set ups a split test and experiment with multiple ad copies. This will help you to consider whether your campaigns fall flat due to poorly written ads or some other missing ad elements.

Here’s a final quick tip: when you sit down to write your ad copy, consider the goal of your ad campaign. Are you trying to get people to buy something from you or are you hoping to draw in new leads or create more brand awareness? Ideally, each sentence of your ad copy should support your campaign goals, nudging the reading towards the right action.

Failure to Exclude Leads Who Have Already Converted

Honestly, this is a simple mistake to correct, yet it occurs all too often. Take a look at the offer you are attempting to promote in your ad and see if you can exclude people who may have already converted on it.

Create a list of leads who have visited your offer’s “Thank You” page. Next, use the Custom Audience option to exclude those individuals from seeing your ad. Once you’ve done this, you won’t have to worry about wasting dollar spend or annoying your leads with redundant ads.

ImageWorks, LLC | Paid Facebook Advertising Management

Although it may seem easy to get started with Facebook Ads, if you're not careful and detail oriented, you can end up blowing your spend with little to show for it. At ImageWorks, we've taken the time to study dozens of accounts and hone in on the mistakes that often cripple a company's first efforts. If you're concerned about your social ad's performance or are looking to outsource ad management to free up time in your schedule, we're a natural fit.