Facebook and Instagram ads not performing as you expected? Not to worry, because we’re sharing our Facebook team’s top tips for troubleshooting and fixing poor ad performance.
If you want your ads performance to improve or you’ve noticed that your ads performance has changed drastically, these are the things you want to check:
Are you using the right type of campaign for your goals?
Is your targeting correct?
Is there a problem with your budget?
Has Facebook flagged any of your campaigns?
Is your frequency too high?
What’s your relevancy score?
Has the competition ramped up?
#1 Are you using the right type of campaign for your goals?
If your ads aren’t doing well, the very first thing you need to look at is whether or not you’re using the right campaign. Does your objective match your goals?
Facebook has three different marketing objectives that each of their campaign types fall into: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion.
Awareness includes brand awareness and reach campaigns.
This is the marketing objective you would choose if you were trying to get your company out in front of as many people as possible or in front of people that are best suited to what you’re offering.
Think: spreading the word.
Consideration includes traffic, engagement, video views, and any type of campaign that is designed to get the viewer to think about purchasing from you.
Conversion covers any type of campaign that’s designed to get those who see your ads to purchase from your brand, sign up for a webinar, or take whatever action it is that you consider your “end goal.”
Why does it matter if your campaign objective matches your goals?
Let’s say you want to drive store visits with your ads, but you’re using a traffic campaign. Well, you won’t see the end results you’re looking for.
Here’s why: A traffic campaign drives more traffic to your website, not your store.
In this case, you’d be better off with a conversion campaign that features ads with offers or incentives for visiting your store.
Make sense?
#2 Is your targeting correct?
The second thing you’d want to look at is your targeting.
When we talk about targeting with ads, we mean your audience. Who is in the audience you’re targeting with your ads? Is your audience large enough?
Facebook will show warnings like, “Your audience is too small,” or “Your audience is too broad,” and those things do affect performance.
So if you’re running the right type of campaign but you’re still not seeing the results you’d like to see, take a look at your audience and make sure you’re targeting the right people.
#3 Is there a problem with your budget?
The next thing to check is: is your budget feeding out?
While it’s not the only option, most people will be using a daily spend for their ads (for example: $5/day).
Now, let’s say you’re spending $20 a day and you’re thinking, “Wow, my campaigns are just not working.” If it’s budget-related you’re either:
Not spending enough.
Miscalculating your reach.
Let’s address spend first.
Let’s say your cost per result for a lead gen campaign is $25 and you’re spending a daily budget of $20…
Well, Facebook cannot get you a lead in one day with that budget. It needs two days worth of budget to get you a lead with that lead cost and that daily spend.
To see if this is the problem with your ads performance, you need to look at what your cost per result is and what you’re spending daily.
You might want to only spend $5/day, but if a lead in your industry costs more than that and you’re not willing to spend it, you’re wasting your money.
Facebook has to match industry standards and they can’t give you a lead for $5/day just because that’s what you want.
So if the average plumbing lead costs about $80, you need to be willing to spend at least $80/day or accept that you’re only going to get one lead every several days.
Now, let’s talk about your reach.
You may think that your reach is really wide and your budget will go a long way — but you could be wrong.
For example, you may think it’ll be $0.50 to $1.50 per lead, but Facebook may be saying something different, depending on the day.
So you need to look at the estimated daily reach. If that’s not lining up with what you’re getting in your results, then it’s time to switch campaigns, adjust your budget, and switch up some copy and headlines.
If it is matching, then Facebook is doing the best it can with what you’re giving it.
#4 Has Facebook flagged any of your campaigns?
Still not sure what’s affecting your ads performance? Then it’s time to look for any red flags (pun absolutely intended).
When you look at your dashboard, do you see any yellow or red triangles next to your ad sets, your ads, or your campaigns?
If you have a red triangle, you either need to fix that ad/ad set/campaign, or delete it.
Why delete? Even though that ad might be turned off, Facebook Ads Manager sees in there and can hold that against you in the long-run. So if you can’t fix it, get rid of it!
If you have a yellow triangle, read it and take action!
The nice thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that it tells you why it’s flagging something, so you can fix it.
And if you don’t understand what it’s saying, you can always go in and submit a request that says, “Hey, I don’t really know what this means,” or “Hey, I don’t agree with this.”
Flags can get overturned, but you can’t just ignore them.
#5 Is your frequency too high?
Let’s say your ads were running just fine for a couple of weeks or a month or two, and then all of the sudden, performance plummeted.
Chances are, your frequency is too high. Frequency means how many times a person has seen that specific ad in the time that it’s been running.
Why is too high of a frequency bad? It means people aren’t engaging with your ad anymore because they’ve seen it so many times.
What’s a good rule of thumb for frequency?
If your frequency is at or over four and your ads have started to decrease in results or increase in costs, it’s time to switch those ads out or update them.
You can keep the same campaign, you can even keep the same ad set, but you need to keep fresh ads coming in there.
#6 What’s your relevancy score?
If frequency is down and cost doesn’t seem too ridiculously high, but you’re just not seeing the results you hoped for, look at your relevancy scores.
Relevancy scores are broken down into three parts:
Quality ranking — This is determined by the feedback on your ad in comparison to other ads going to the same audience. Are people liking it?
Engagement ranking — This is determined by looking at how people are engaging with your ads. Are they getting a lot of likes, comments, clicks, shares, etc.?
Conversion ranking — This is determined by looking at whether or not your ads are achieving the goals you’ve set for them. For example, if you’re running a traffic campaign, is this ad bringing more people to your site? If you’re running a conversion campaign, is the ad getting conversions and purchases?
If quality, engagement, and conversion rankings are low, and Facebook is saying your ads are in the bottom 25% of ads, chances are your ads just aren’t being shown, and people aren’t liking or engaging with the message you’re putting out there.
If this is the case, you need to completely overhaul your headlines, your copy, your videos, and your images, and get something out there that people really care about and want to engage with.
#7 Has the competition ramped up?
If you’re freaking out because your Facebook or Instagram ad costs just skyrocketed and you don’t know why, look at CPM. CPM = cost per thousand impressions.
If this number is high, it typically means that your competition has increased on Facebook or Instagram, and indicates that more people are targeting the same audience you’re targeting.
A good average CPM is between $5 and $15.
That said, during the holidays, you can expect a normal CPM to be $25+ because more people are typically vying for your audience’s attention during the holidays.
If it’s not holiday season and you have a really high CPM, that means you have a super competitive audience and it’s time to go back into your audience and see if you can adjust your targeting.
See if you can target people who are a good fit for your business in a different way, so that you can get those costs lower.
For example, you may use a lookalike audience instead of interest targeting, or you may focus on retargeting instead of cold audiences.
You’re still getting to the same people, you’re just going about it in a different, more cost-effective way.
You’re proud of yourself. You looked past the stereotypes and hired a millennial. And you did what a lot of business owners do: you put your token millennial in charge of managing your business’s social media accounts.
But is the office millennial really the best person for the job?
Sure, they might know how to navigate all of the platforms better than you do. But there’s more to nailing social media than just getting familiar with the platforms. If you put a millennial in charge of your business’s social media just because of their age, here are five questions to ask yourself to determine if you’ve made the right choice:
Do they know my audience? Your millennial employees may know everything there is to know about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat, but do they know your audience? The only way social works for businesses is if it connects with your customers. And in order to connect, you have to know the people you’re attempting to connect with. You have to know their likes, their dislikes, their values, their pains, their wants, their needs, etc. If you go out there and start posting without considering who your audience is and what will resonate with them, you risk offending them, excluding them, or even worse, disengaging them. The moment you lose their trust or attention, you’ve failed. So make sure your social media manager intimately knows, not just the social media platforms they’ll be using, but also the audience they’ll be engaging with.
Do they know my brand? If there’s one thing people hate about brands on social media, it’s when they’re inconsistent or do things that don’t align with who the brand is and what it stands for. When you do things that don’t make sense for your brand or you contradict yourself on social media, the results can be disastrous. Your customers will know and they will comment when you appear to take a stand for something in a post that doesn’t align with your company and its values. So before you put someone in charge of your social media just because they’re digital natives, make sure they know your brand inside and out and can effectively represent you on all channels.
What is their grasp of CTAs (calls to action)? The point of social media is to engage with your customers and potential customers. It’s not a one-sided conversation or a way to shout at your audience. But in order to engage, build relationships, and see a return on your investment in social media, you need to have clear, concise, effective CTAs on your posts. A lot of brands nail this by asking questions or urging people to take specific actions or click the link in their bio. But all CTAs are not equal, and your social media manager needs to have a good understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Don’t assume that your office millennial is nailing the CTAs — that’s not a given just because you “get” social media.
Do they know regulations and what to avoid for legal reasons? Social media can get you into a lot of trouble if you do it wrong. You could lose customers or even be sued or fined. Each platform has its own rules and regulations, and there’s a lot to consider in terms of how to use each platform and what to say/not say. Is your millennial social media manager familiar with these rules and regulations or are you just assuming they know what to do/what not to do because they’re socially savvy? Assuming is a bad call and could put your business at risk of a lawsuit, fine, or other issue, so make sure they have a good understanding of this important aspect of social media.
What are their intentions? At the end of the day, your social media manager should be connecting with your customers and making your brand look better. Is that the goal of the office millennial you’ve put in charge of your social? Think about it: How good will your social media manager’s decisions be if he or she is only using your business’s platform to solidify his or her place as an influencer? Hey, it’s happened. We’ve seen it. So make sure you and your social media manager are aligned in terms of the goals, purpose, and intentions behind your social media decisions and actions.
Have You Picked The Right Person For The Job?
Your office millennial may be a great fit for the social media manager role, but it’s not a given. Take the time to really consider whether or not you’ve put the right person in place or if you need to spend some time reconsidering or educating your social media manager. Being a millennial does make the social media game a little bit easier — but it’s not a guarantee for success. There’s more to that recipe!
If you’re like a lot of other business owners, you know that blogging can be good for business, but you hate trying to come up with topics. Trust me, I know the feeling. Sometimes, it feels like there’s nothing else to talk about. After all, “There’s nothing new under the sun,” right?
But there are some tried and true ways to get inspiration and come up with topics when you feel like the well has dried up. Here are some of my personal favorites:
#1 Listen to your customers.
One of the very best ways to come up with blog post topics is to listen to your customers. What are they saying? What do they ask about, again and again? What issues are they dealing with?
Here at Spark Marketer, we have a weekly chat where we share what our clients have been asking about or talking about, as well as any issues that have come up throughout the week.
Every topic and issue gets added to a spreadsheet that we can all access, add to, and pull from, which is great because it reveals themes and provides insight to those of us who don’t get to have regular conversations with clients.
Knowing what our clients are dealing with, asking about, and talking about, enables me to write (hopefully) helpful content that’s relevant to what they’re going through. So, yes, it’s altruistic. But, the bonus is, it provides me with a wealth of blog post ideas. It’s how I came up with this one!
Don’t ignore the wealth of ideas in the conversations you have with your customers. After all, they’re the very people you should be writing for!
#2 Use Google autofill & “people also ask.”
Google makes it kind of easy for you to “listen in” using autofill and “people also ask” in search results. All you have to do is start typing in a word or sentence, say, “Why is my fireplace,” for example, and see what autofill comes up with. There, you’ll find out how people are finishing that sentence and just what people are asking.
When you type a question into Google and press enter, you’ll also notice that Google shows a few related questions in the search results, under the title “People also ask.” This is great for finding related topics to write about or other questions to answer within that same blog post. It’s like a free look inside the minds of those searching for topics, services, and products you deal with. Creepy, but helpful.
#3 Check out Answer the Public.
Answer the Public is a pretty great tool that allows you to type a keyword or topic into a search bar and come out on the other side with a whole host of related questions people are asking on the web. It’s a great way of expanding your ideas when all you have in mind is a general topic or keyword. Plus, the guy on the home page is pretty entertaining, in a judgmental kind of way.
Here’s an example of how the questions are organized. The results below are for the keyword “fireplace.” Check it out.
#4 Spy on Quora.
If you can get past the fact that people ask some of the dumbest questions possible on Quora, you’ll find that it’s sometimes a good way to see what good questions are being asked about a particular topic. It’s also a great way to see what kinds of answers people are getting, so you know what misinformation and misconceptions to address in your blog posts. You can choose topics that interest you and Quora will send you emails when related questions are asked, or you can just go to Quora and start looking around. But brace yourself. Like I said, some of the questions are ludicrous, and you’ll spend a few minutes just wondering how these people have made it this far in life.
#5 Keep your eyes and ears open.
A lot of times, topics will come to mind and inspiration will strike in the strangest of places, so keep your eyes and ears open. If you’re a local service business, as painful as it can be sometimes, watch the local news. Are there reports of consumer fraud in your industry? Maybe you need to do a post on what to look for when hiring a company that provides the services you offer. Are there certain products you use to do your job that provide a better value for the homeowner? Maybe it’s time to showcase those in a blog post. Maintain a curious mind, keep your eyes and ears open, and you’ll come up with ideas. The more accustomed you get to thinking outside the box, the easier it will be to find inspiration.
Well, I hope you find these helpful. Now that I’ve shared some of my favorites, I’d love to know how you come up with blog post ideas. Let me know at jessica@sparkmarketer.com!
Being in the service industry is hard. You’re not allowed to have bad days; you have to be on all the time and hold a smile when asked not-so-smart questions; and many days pass without so much as a thank you. When you’ve been in the industry for a long time, it’s even easier to forget why you started doing it in the first place, what you love about your job, and just how big of an impact your daily work really has. It’s easy to get burnt out and to lose perspective.
If you’re starting each day with a pessimistic, “why bother?” attitude, here are some tips to help you recharge and refresh.
Stop & Reflect.
First things first, when you’re burnt out and you’ve lost perspective, it’s easy to forget the good times — the moments when you felt truly satisfied in your work. STOP. Take a few moments, or maybe even an afternoon, to reflect on your time of service and remember the moments when you were thanked, when you felt fulfilled, and when you saw just how much your work mattered to your community. Reflecting on these moments can help recharge your service battery and keep you focused on the positive aspects of your job. In fact, to prevent future burn out, we highly recommend making reflection a regular thing. Make it a priority and put it on your calendar, just as you would an important meeting.
Ask Others.
Many people in the service industry don’t think much of the little things they do or little ways they go above and beyond, which is why it can be beneficial to ask others. Your friends, family, employees, coworkers, and customers may be able to shed some light on the ways your heart for service really made a difference and you went above and beyond what you were called to do. Plus, hearing others say positive things about you is always good for the spirit.
Connect.
Perhaps the most fulfilling part of life is the relationships we form. Are you taking the time to connect with your customers and form a bond? On each and every service call, make it a point to find some way to relate to your customer. Empathize with them. Care about them. It will make all the difference in the way your customer perceives you and in the way you perceive the customer and the service you bring. This may be easier to do with some customers than others, but even if it’s a stretch, find a way to do it with each and every one.
Recognize Your Value.
You have a heart for service, and not everyone does. But if you want to take care of others, you have to also take care of yourself. When you’re burnt out, take the time to refuel and reflect, even if you only have a few minutes in the truck on the way to the next job. Remind yourself of your worth and the value you bring to those you serve. Although it’s nice, what matters is not that each and every customer acknowledges the worth and value you bring — what matters is that you do.
In the service business world, it can be easy to convince yourself it’s all about price. You have potential customers who end up going with whichever company quoted the lowest price and customers who abandon you when a Groupon pops up or an Amazon Prime day offers them a percentage off of Amazon Home Services. How can you compete and make a decent living when you’re being undercut on price left and right and that’s all customers seem to care about?
Offer more.
More? What do you mean more? I can’t afford to lose money on every job!
No, I’m not saying you should not charge for products or time, but there are some things you can do to add value for your customer that don’t cost you. Let’s look at some examples:
#1 Clean Up After Yourself
You may think it’s a given that service business crews and contractors clean up after themselves, but truthfully, it’s not. Simply by taking precautions to make sure your customer’s property and home stay clean throughout and that you leave no traces behind is a great way to add value without cutting into profits. It may take a little more time to put down drop cloths or vacuum up after a job, but it’s not going to take up your whole day. Just include a little buffer for cleanup in your appointment windows.
#2 Offer To Move Furniture
If you’re a house painter, a flooring guy, or you perform some other home service that may require the moving around of furniture, offer to do it for the customer if you’re physically capable of doing so. This can be an especially valuable service for the elderly and is just one way to make the job less stressful and less of a hassle for your customer.
#3 Go Ahead & Do Small Add-On Services That Don’t Take Much Time
Did your customer mention needing or wanting a small service performed sometime in the future? Offer to do it while you’re already there and have the products needed. If you’re a painter, this can be offering to go ahead and touch up baseboards while you’re in the home. If you’re a chimney sweep, this can be offering to go ahead and fix a damper that’s missing a pin. Offer to change out a light bulb that’s burned out or swap out an air filter. If you’re open minded and listen to your customer, you’ll likely find it easy to identify small ways you can add value and provide additional services without breaking the bank or wasting a lot of valuable time.
#4 Educate Your Customer
One thing you may take for granted as a service professional is your knowledge. You have years of experience and education in a field that most people know nothing about — sharing some of that knowledge can add value to your customer’s life. If you’re a chimney sweep, this may be educating your customer on the best tips for seasoning your wood or getting your fire started. If you’re a house painter, this may be letting your customer know that wiping down a painted wall (especially if it’s a darker color) can leave streaks if a wipeable paint is not used. If keeping their kids’ fingerprints off of their walls is something that’s important to them, recommend a paint product that’s made to be wiped down or washed. These small tips and suggestions can lead to happier customers, and all it takes is a little attention, listening, and sharing.
#5 Be On Time Or Call If You’re Going To Be Late
You might be amazed at how many service professionals are perpetually late and don’t take two seconds to call the next customer and let them know. Most customers will understand that things come up and schedules change, but if you don’t take the time to call and let your customer know you’re not going to make the agreed upon time, your customer will feel disrespected. Make every effort to be on time to each and every appointment — and when things don’t go according to plan, make the phone call, apologize, and let them know when they can expect you and that this isn’t the norm.
Value isn’t always about price, and the sooner you see the difference, the sooner your customers will. So get creative and look for ways to make your company the greatest value. Then, those cheaper options won’t even compare.
