10 Red Flags Your Agency Doesn’t Understand Meta Ads

In the evolving world of digital advertising, understanding how to effectively use Meta Ads (formerly Facebook Ads) is crucial for any marketing agency. However, many agencies still fall into common pitfalls that hinder ad performance and waste budget. 

Here are ten red flags indicating your agency might not be fully grasping the nuances of Meta Ads.

1. Running Ads Not Optimized for Your End Goal

If your agency is not optimizing ads for your specific end goals, you’re likely missing out. For instance, conversion-optimized campaigns can yield up to 71% lower costs per purchase compared to Link Click Optimized campaigns. 

Additionally, when optimizing for upper-funnel events like add-to-carts or email captures, beware of false positives. These metrics might look impressive but often attract window shoppers or low-quality leads, not genuine customers. This can become even more exacerbated without refined targeting.

2. Running Free Promotions to Drive Cheaper Customers

Be cautious of strategies like contests or giveaways aimed at merely capturing emails or superficial engagement. Such tactics often attract individuals interested solely in the promotion, not in becoming long-term customers, leading to a wasteful expenditure of resources. 

For example, offering a free product or running a contest to giveaway $500 in product might seem like a good way to attract email addresses that will in turn into customers at a later date. However, the people usually attracted to these deals and targeted by Meta are typically only scouring the internet for free stuff and have no intention of ever becoming a customer.

3. Using Interest Targeting

If your agency is leveraging interest targeting in any capacity, you are likely leaving cheaper conversions on the table.

Broad targeting has been found to outperform interest-based targeting, delivering +16% better CPAs. 

During my tenure at Facebook, one of my initial actions with each ad account I managed was to steer them away from interest targeting. The reason for this shift? Interest targeting narrowed the pool of potential viewers for your ad, whereas broad targeting proved more effective due to the pixel’s conversion optimization capabilities. 

Broad targeting was so successful that Meta transitioned advertisers who used interest targeting to new programs that didn’t restrict them to such narrow parameters. Now when interest targeting is employed, the system automatically widens its reach to include more users. 

Therefore, if you were to target multiple different interest groups, you would essentially be fragmenting your budget significantly, thereby diminishing your campaign’s performance. This is because you wouldn’t be fully utilizing Meta’s powerful machine learning and optimization capabilities inherent in its advertising signal.

4. Not Exiting the Learning Phase

An agency incorporating too many ad sets is a surefire way to drive worse performance. 

Instead of optimizing for people who will convert on your ads, your account is relegated to the Learning Phase, a period of worse performance and higher volatility.

Advertisers with ~20% of spend in Learning Phase see +17% conversions and -15% CPA vs. advertisers with ~80% of spend in Learning Phase.

To efficiently move beyond the Learning Phase, an ad set requires about 50 optimization events within a 7-day period. Therefore, it’s essential to allocate a budget that supports these 50 optimization events in a week. Setting a budget that is either too low or excessively high can mislead the delivery system regarding the optimal audience for your ads.

Another significant factor preventing ad sets from exiting the Learning Phase is the volume of ad sets. Running too many ad sets simultaneously leads to less frequent delivery for each set. As a result, fewer ad sets complete the Learning Phase, and more of the budget is consumed before the delivery system can optimize performance effectively. A practical approach to mitigate this issue is to simplify your account by consolidating ad sets. This consolidation not only streamlines the number of ad sets but also merges their delivery learnings, enhancing ad performance.

Should your ad set fail to accumulate sufficient optimization events to exit the Learning Phase, the status in the Delivery column will display “Learning limited.”

5. Not Capping Existing Customer Targeting on ASC Campaigns

A meta-analysis has shown that Advantage+ shopping campaigns (ASC) can lead to a 17% improvement in cost per conversion and a 32% increase in Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). However, a significant pitfall in managing ASC campaigns on Meta is the neglect of some agencies in setting a cap for existing customers. While ASC campaigns are capable of delivering efficient results, it’s crucial to implement guardrails for driving incremental growth.

A common issue arises when there’s no cap on existing customers. In such cases, Meta tends to serve impressions primarily to individuals who are likely to convert without the need for ads. A recent audit of an account revealed that nearly 50% of their ASC campaign spend was directed towards existing customers. Moreover, 60% of these conversions were view-based, suggesting that they originated from owned channels such as email and SMS, although Meta was credited for these conversions.

To avoid this inefficiency, it’s advisable to cap your existing customer delivery. A general guideline is to set a cap ranging from 0% to 15%, depending on the specific requirements of your business. This approach helps prevent the wastage of ad dollars on non-incremental strategies, ensuring a more effective use of your advertising budget.

6. Spending Too Much on Retargeting

Overinvesting in retargeting can lead to spending that doesn’t incrementally contribute to sales. This is often indicated by high frequencies of ad exposure over short periods, which may suggest either wasteful spending or targeting too small an audience. On most advertising platforms, retargeting campaigns appear highly effective, boasting high conversion rates and low Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), seemingly driving both new and existing customers to make purchases.

However, it’s important to understand why this might be the case. Retargeting ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram target users who have already demonstrated significant interest in your product. Therefore, these ads might not be the sole reason for their conversion. Rather, they could simply be one of the steps in a conversion journey that would have occurred even without the ads.

Despite this, retargeting often receives a large share of digital advertising budgets due to its seemingly impressive performance metrics. It’s crucial to assess whether your investment in retargeting is genuinely driving additional value or merely capitalizing on conversions that would have happened anyway. Carefully evaluating your retargeting spend is essential to achieving a more effective Return on Investment (ROI).

7. Overinvesting in Existing Customers

Investing excessively in advertising to existing customers often leads to non-incremental spending. Similar to with retargeting, this is particularly evident when ad frequencies are high over short periods, which might indicate either wasteful spending or the targeting of a limited audience. It’s essential to consider whether your existing customers need additional ads to prompt repeat purchases.

While ads might incrementally influence your existing customers, in many cases, simpler communication methods like email and SMS are sufficient. If your ads are prompting some existing customers to click and buy, it could be a sign that you’re overspending on this audience.

Not tailoring your campaigns to exclude those who are likely to convert without ads can lead to inefficiencies. By default, existing customers are often included in your targeting groups, which can diminish the actual gains your digital campaigns should be achieving in terms of new conversions. Adjusting your strategy to focus more on acquiring new customers or engaging less active ones could yield better results for your ad spend.

8. Taking Credit for Sales That Would Have Happened Anyway

Agencies must critically assess ad reporting.

A high percentage of view-based conversions could suggest that Meta is incorrectly attributing conversions to ads when these conversions might have occurred regardless. It’s crucial to critically assess your ad reporting to ensure it reflects logical and effective marketing outcomes. For instance, you may notice your ads are apparently successful in driving conversions, yet there is a lack of direct interaction, such as clicks, with your ads. While view-based conversions can be significant, an excessively high rate of such conversions could indicate that your ads aren’t actually driving incremental sales.

When a user sees an ad but doesn’t click on it, yet still makes a purchase, it might suggest that the user would have converted without seeing the ad. In these instances, Meta’s system might imply that the ad caused the conversion, but it is more likely to be a correlation rather than a causation. This scenario is particularly common with audiences lower in the sales funnel, such as site visitors or existing customers, who are often targets of retargeting campaigns.

9. Running More Than 6 Ads in a Non-ASC Campaign

When advertisers run too many ads simultaneously, each individual ad is delivered less frequently. This reduced frequency means that fewer ads complete the learning phase effectively, leading to more of the budget being spent before the ad delivery system can fully optimize performance. Essentially, an excess of ads can lead to subpar performance.

For more predictable, stable, and optimized results, it’s crucial for advertisers to keep a close eye on the volume of active ads. While experimenting with new creative ideas and marketing strategies remains important, it’s vital to balance these initiatives with allowing the ad delivery system sufficient time to learn and adapt to each ad.

The ad delivery system prefers ads that have more frequent delivery, as this allows for more accurate conversion predictions. However, once an advertiser adds more than six ads, the incremental benefit of adding additional ads diminishes significantly. Therefore, maintaining a moderate number of well-monitored ads is key to effective advertising performance.

10. Sending People to the Wrong Landing Page

It is crucial to ensure that your products, messages, promotional offers, and pricing are consistent between your ad and the destination page. This aspect is often overlooked in Meta ad campaigns. Directing every user to the homepage, while it might seem convenient, can actually lead to negative outcomes. 

For example, consider a scenario where a user clicks on an ad for a black T-shirt but is then redirected to the homepage. The user is then forced to search for the specific T-shirt, and if they can’t find it, they are likely to leave the site. To prevent this, advertisers should direct users straight to the product page of the black T-shirt. This approach reduces the likelihood of users bouncing off the site and increases the chances of conversion.

Conclusion

In summary, navigating the complexities of Meta Ads requires a nuanced approach. By avoiding these common pitfalls, your agency can optimize ad spend, reach the right audience, and drive meaningful conversions. If you recognize these red flags in your agency’s approach, it might be time for a strategy overhaul.

Thankfully, we can help.

Reach out to us for a free audit of your Meta ad account. Our team of experts will provide a comprehensive review and insights to ensure your advertising strategy is on the right track. Don’t let these common mistakes hinder your success. Contact us today for your free audit and take the first step towards optimizing your Meta advertising strategy!