How To Fix Your Facebook Ads That Aren’t Converting

Have you decided to advertise your business using Facebook ads after reading all the stories about the billions of people using the platform every day? If so, then great!

You’ve just joined one of the most effective platforms in the world for small and medium-sized business advertising. But wait, what’s this we hear you say?

‘My Facebook ads aren’t converting!’

or

‘My Facebook ad is running, but there are no impressions’!

We’re here to help!

Why Facebook Ads are Not Effective

The truth is, Facebook ads ARE effective, but only if they are used correctly. Most issues with Facebook ads not converting come down to one of three issues:

• low or thinly spread budget
• badly designed creatives or poorly written copy
• badly targeted adverts

We explore each one of these areas below.

Budgeting Issues

It may surprise you to learn that you don’t need to spend thousands on Facebook advertising. In fact, it can actually be a very cheap method of advertising your business; however, there is definitely a lower end, and optimizing your budget is vital.

Let’s assume you had $100 to spend. It’s not a huge budget by any means, but it’s not really low either. Before you do anything with your budget, you need to know what you’re advertising. It’s better to go specific with a niche, rather than broadly.

Now, let’s say you run a tattoo shop. You could spend your $100 on an advert to tell people that you run a tattoo shop, but how would you test that it was successful?

A better idea would be to spend your $100 on a specific campaign. Things like, ‘buy one, get one free tattoo for 2 people’, a set of specific flash images only $40 a tattoo, a specific voucher if they sign up to your email list, etc., can all go a long way. Tracking is vital, and this way you can see if your advert is working.

These types of adverts also lend themselves well to limited offers, and if you only have $100 to spend, you want to spread your ad over no more than 2 weeks, preferably one. The less the budget, the less the time to advertise. Otherwise you’re wasting money spreading it too thinly.

Copy & Design Issues

Adverts are visual, and if your advert is badly designed or poorly written then it will not work. You may get the ‘curiosity clicks’ which are Facebook clicks but no conversions. These are a marketer’s worst nightmare because people click (which costs you money) just out of curiosity with no intention of buying, and then you’ve spent money attracting someone who wasn’t interested.

Keep your creative clean, limit the words on your image (preferably have none), and make sure you add subtitles to your videos. Keep your ad copy clear, too, and use one call to action.

For example:

“Sign up for your $40 tattoo voucher”

“Visit the shop on Chapel Hill today”

“Tag a mate for buy one, get one free mini tattoos”

One call to action per advert is much better than “click like, share it with a mate, sign up to our email list, comment and visit the shop”. These are far too confusing and difficult to track the effectiveness of your ad.

Targeting Issues

If you’re fed up and thinking, why are my ads not converting, the number one reason your Facebook ads are not working is down to the targeting you’ve picked, leading to your Facebook ads having low impressions or the wrong impressions.

We see this with Facebook ads failing so often: you set up your advert, but you may not have decided exactly WHAT you want to advertise. Is it the buy one, get one free? Or maybe the flash selection? Maybe it’s a voucher code? Why not do them all? The problem is if you do them all your targeting gets too broad, and you spread that small budget too thinly.

Let’s take our tattoo studio example: you could target everyone over the age of 18 (or 21 in some States) within a 100-mile radius of your studio and show examples of all kinds of artwork, from portraits to tribal to Disney. The problem is, you could be targeting someone who may want to get a tattoo, but hates Disney, or someone else who is not interested in tattoos at all.

So, if your Facebook ads are not showing results, it’s time to dig out those marketing personas. You want to sell the $40 lightning bolt mini tattoo as a buy one, get one free for the customer and a friend. How are you going to target them? That would be perfect for someone who has a birthday coming up soon. All these questions and more need answering to get your targeting right.