5 Common Mistakes in Meta Ad Campaigns (and How to Fix Them)
Running Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ads can feel like a guessing game, but many underperforming campaigns suffer from the same handful of mistakes. Here are five of the most common pitfalls and how you can correct them to improve your return on investment.
1. Vague Audience Targeting
The Mistake: Targeting an audience that's too broad or based on guesswork. Casting a wide net often means you're spending money on people who will never become customers.
The Fix: Get specific. Use Meta's detailed targeting options to layer interests and behaviours. Create Lookalike Audiences from your existing customer lists or website visitors to find people with similar characteristics. Don't forget to use exclusions to avoid showing ads to existing customers if the campaign is for new acquisitions.
2. Weak or Mismatched Creatives
The Mistake: Using low-quality images or videos and writing copy that doesn't resonate with the target audience. Your ad creative is the first thing people see, and it needs to grab their attention immediately.
The Fix: A/B test everything—images, headlines, and calls-to-action (CTAs). Use high-resolution visuals and ensure your copy speaks directly to a pain point or desire of your audience. Your ad should offer a clear, compelling reason for someone to stop scrolling and click.
3. Ignoring the Sales Funnel
The Mistake: Trying to sell a high-ticket item to a completely cold audience. It's like asking for marriage on the first date—it rarely works.
The Fix: Structure your campaigns around the marketing funnel. Run "Awareness" campaigns with engaging content (like video views) to introduce your brand. Follow up with "Consideration" campaigns (like traffic or engagement) to retarget those who showed interest. Finally, use "Conversion" campaigns to drive sales from that warm audience.
4. Choosing the Wrong Campaign Objective
The Mistake: Optimising for "Traffic" when your goal is "Sales." While traffic is nice, it doesn't pay the bills. Meta's algorithm is very good at getting you exactly what you ask for.
The Fix: Be honest about your goal. If you want people to buy something, choose the "Sales" or "Conversions" objective. If you want to collect emails, use the "Leads" objective. Aligning your objective with your business goal gives the algorithm the right signals to find the people most likely to take that action.
5. "Set It and Forget It" Mentality
The Mistake: Launching a campaign and not checking its performance for weeks. Ad fatigue is real, and what works today might not work tomorrow.
The Fix: Monitor your campaigns regularly. Keep an eye on key metrics like Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), Click-Through Rate (CTR), and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Turn off underperforming ads, reallocate budget to the winners, and refresh your creatives every few weeks to keep them from going stale.