Are you struggling to get great results from your Facebook ads? Wondering if you’re making mistakes that are hurting your campaigns?
Even if you’re a veteran Facebook advertiser, you may be guilty of making some of the errors on this list. But don’t feel bad! It can all be fixed. Here are some top mistakes that businesses make that you want to avoid.
1) You’re Using the Same Ads for Everyone
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business is to target all Facebook users with the same ads regardless of their stage in your marketing funnel. In other words, the ads you show to people who have already booked a room or added it to their cart should be exponentially different from the ads you show to new consumers who have never heard of your business or brand before.
If someone is one step away from confirming a booking but hasn’t quite crossed that line yet, you want to give them the incentive to complete their booking. One way to do this is a promotion, perhaps in the room, they are wishing to stay in. Whereas someone who is just browsing, you want them to know all of the benefits as to why they should be staying at your hotel and not at your competitors.
2) You haven’t defined any clear goals for your ad
Before you jump knee-deep into any campaign, you need to clearly know what your goal is. What is it that you wish to achieve with this ad? Are you trying to boost conversion? Or do you simply want to build brand awareness or get more fans for your business page? When choosing a marketing objective for a campaign, choose wisely as you cannot change it once you create the campaign (you would have to start again).
Identifying your vision of success and building ads and campaigns around it is essential. Not only will this help you design more relevant ads and copy, but it’ll also be easier to identify which campaign objective to choose (e.g. Brand Awareness, Engagement, Reach, etc).
3) You’re using too much text
While design your ads, you can check ad text ratings with Facebook’s text overlay tool. For the most part, you should aim for the “Ok” rating because it means that your ads will run without issue. Ads rated as “high,” may not run at all. If your ad receives a medium or high rating, you need to hit the drawing board and do some redesign work.
In some cases, Facebook will grant some exceptions based on the type of product you’re advertising. For example, if you’re promoting a book and the cover contains text, they may waive the rule.
4) You’re trying to reach too many people at once
A lot of new Facebook advertisers make the mistake of thinking they should show their ads to as many people as possible. Instead, you should focus on showing your ads to as many relevant people as possible. The more you narrow down your audience, the more likely it is that the people seeing your ads will actually have an interest in your products and services.
One of the great things about Facebook advertising is its sophisticated targeting features. You can use a variety of demographics, behaviours, and interests to find your unique audience. Getting to know who your customers are is a crucial step for a successful Facebook Ads campaign. Facebook has 1 billion+ daily active Facebook users, so it’s absolutely critical that you target only those who are potentially interested in your business. Any audience that is not likely to convert for you is a waste of your advertising dollar.
Whether you’re making one or all of these mistakes, don’t bury your head in the sand. Avoiding these issues is relatively easy once you get the hang of it. Plus, you’ll start to see some improvements almost immediately. So get back out there, take charge of your campaigns, and start increasing those bookings for Summer!
Are you using Facebook ads to market your hotel/property? Feel free to share your experience at marketing@staah.com
