Why Your Facebook Ad Didn't Work

I've been running Facebook Ads with various success for a few years now.  And want to share what I've learned along the way because there is nothing more frustrating than dealing with a disapproved ad or an approved ad that doesn't yield the results you were hoping for.

First, let's discuss the approved ad that just didn't work.

Scenario #1 - Your ad was approved and you didn't like the results

Ok, so you made it past the Facebook gates and ran an ad.  But the results were less than satisfying.  Here are a few reasons why that ad may not have converted:

1. The Image
   Your image is the first thing people see and it needs to stop the user from scrolling.  Images of you, or at the very least, a person, perform better than an inanimate object.  And the more emotion the image conveys, the better.
   
   
2. The Headline
   This is the bold, title line.  If it's written in a positive tone, it may or may not perform better than if it's written in a negative tone.
   Example: 5 Mistakes When Taking Photos VS. 5 Ways to Take Amazing Photos
   Some audiences respond better to fear triggers.  Some respond better to the promise of success.  The only way to know is to test both.
   
   
3. The Target Audience is Too Broad
   Targeting an age range, gender, and location (like USA) is a good first step.  But even with those demographics narrowed down, your audience is still pretty broad.  Use the interests feature to further narrow down your audience. 
   Also, if you know your audience follows a specific page, Marie Forleo, for example, use that in your targeting.
   The ideal audience size for your ad is 500,000 - 2Million.  Use the interests in addition to gender, age, and location to narrow down your audience to reach the most likely people to respond to your ad.
   
   
4. Selling to a Cold Audience
   If you're using your ad to sell a product or service to people who have never heard of you, the chances that they will buy are very small.  Remember:  people buy from people they know, like, and trust.
   
   This means that if you are using an ad to ask your audience to buy from you, it needs to be a re-targeted audience.  This is where having the Facebook Pixel comes in handy.  With the pixel installed on your website, you can create an ad around the people who have visited your website and/or landing page.
   
   
   However, you can still run a successful ad to a cold audience when you offer something free.  Like a freebie, lead magnet, opt-in....whatever you want to call it.  You won't make money from your ad, but people will sign up for your email list.  Then, they are warm leads that you can market to via email.  Nurture your list and they might buy eventually once they've gotten to know, like, and trust you.
   
   My course, Marketing for Introverts: Master Your Message, Make More Sales, teaches you how to create an opt-in page and automated email sequence.
   
   
5. You Didn't Split Test
   If you only have one ad image, one headline, one button, and one ad text, you don't know which one of those could be hurting the ads performance.  When you use 2-3 different images and 2-3 different headlines spread over several ads, then you can start to see which ad is performing better.
   
   Split testing within Facebook itself is hard.  I've been using AdEspresso for split testing my ads and really like it.  They show you reports and graphics on which ads are performing well and which ads aren't.  Then you can pause the ads that are underperforming.  There is a monthly fee for AdEspresso and it's well worth it.

Scenario #2 - Your Ad Was Disapproved

Facebook is really cracking down on too much text in an image; before/after pictures; MLM businesses; and anything that promises results in a time frame. 

Here's a great video from Andrew Hubbard explaining why your ad may be disapproved.

While Facebook gives you a general reason why an ad is disapproved, you will likely need to look into it further.  I had an ad disapproved for a "non-functional landing page" when it was clearly working and had been approved in other ads.  After chatting with support, the ad was reviewed and approved.

It's not easy to find their support though.  But using this link https://www.facebook.com/business/help you can actually start a chat with someone!  And their support staff are very nice.

It's important to get ads approved, as Andrew mentions in the video, because having too many disapproved ads sitting on your account may lead to Facebook shutting down your ad account.

Yes, there will be times when you are violating Facebook's terms and will need to change your ad.  But it's nice to know that you can get answers from Facebook.

Summary

So if you've had a bad experience with Facebook ads in the past, learn from it.  Ask WHY it didn't work.  And reiterate.  Know your audience well enough that you can precisely target them.