8 Common Facebook Ad Myths, Debunked

There are a lot of Facebook ad myths out there; misconceptions that result in sub-par ROIs, overspending and lack of ad optimization, all of which ultimately lead to low performing Facebook ads and spending too much on poor results. Beliefs such as, ‘Facebook ads are so expensive’ or ‘I need to get as many Facebook page followers as possible’ are actually hindering your success.

This week, we look at those common Facebook misconceptions to bring you: 8 Common Facebook Ad Myths, Debunked.

Facebook Ad Myth 1: Facebook Ads are Miracle-Workers

Hate to break it to you, but no, Facebook ads aren’t miracle-workers. What do I mean by that? I mean that if you’re going into your campaign with the goal of having every ad go viral, you’re going to lose. Instead, you should be aiming to get the best ROIs for your money through well-planned strategies, good targeting and Facebook optimization.

Now, I am not saying that creating a viral campaign isn’t possible; even low-budget Facebook videos can get millions of views, and although this shouldn’t be your number one expectation of all campaigns, unless you’re using good strategy aimed for your specific audience to take you there. Because, yes, reach is important, but you want to be reaching your ideal potential shoppers.  

The secret to creating viral Facebook campaigns lies in mastering your target audience, creating content that your audience is likely to engage with, and not only getting good reach but clicks that ensure good ROIs, which is your ultimate goal.

Bonus Content: Crush Your ROIs With These 7 Facebook Ad Hacks 

Facebook Ad Myth 2: Your Most Important Metric is Relevance

We know Facebook ad relevance is important because it’s Facebook’s way of quantifying how much your cost per click is and how often they will show your ad. And that in order to improve your chances of ads being shown, you want your Facebook relevance score to be 7-10 out of ten.

The problem is, although we know it’s important, if we obsess over that metric – forgetting the one metric that rules them all – we will be spending too much money on ads that may not be bringing in the conversions. And the best metric? Your ROIs, of course! Because ROI metrics ensure you are not only reaching your ultimate campaign objective, but doing it within the ad budget you have set.  

You see, relevance score doesn’t tell us whether our ads are getting those clicks; it only says your ad is relevant to your target audience.

Facebook Ad Myth 3: All Niche Content is Created Equal

Just because one online store in your niche is killing it with one type of content doesn’t mean you should expect the same results from the same content. Why? Because your Facebook ad content needs to talk specifically to your ideal target audience and you need to test your content on your audience to make sure it appeals to your ideal shoppers.

One of the top things I wish I knew before I started Facebook advertising is to try video, text, photo and Messenger, and link posts and ads in your ad-sets to find the winning content formula for each of your segments until you have the ROIs you want.

Facebook Ad Myth 4: You Should Be Make Big Investments to Grow Followers

Who doesn’t want to be popular? It is easy to get trapped in the notion that the more Facebook followers we have, the more sales we’re going to have, and therefore you may be tempted to put the bulk of your budget into this campaign objective.

But here’s the thing: organic reach isn’t so easy to maintain anymore, and just because someone follows your page, doesn’t make them a hot potential customer. This misconception has led to the practice of buying fake likes, which isn’t ethical and ultimately doesn’t give you good returns.

Because bottom line: more followers doesn’t mean more engagement. It’s better to have fewer followers who love your brand than a huge number of followers who don’t really care about the niche you’re selling in.

Therefore, being the most popular brand on the block (Facebook) shouldn’t be your focus; after all, it’s conversions you’re looking for, right? Instead, plan your campaign with your conversion objectives in mind – whether it’s email sign-ups, promotional conversions or new product awareness. That’s not to say you won’t get page likes as a result of your campaigns, but these will be for free, as they may link to your page instead of your ad URL.

Pro Tip

Want to turn ad engagers into page likes? After someone likes your campaign, send them a Facebook page like invitation. You can do this by going into your notifications.   

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Facebook Ad Myth 5: You Should Be Retargeting All Your Shop Visitors As One

Yes, retargeting is a vital part of your marketing strategy, but so many Facebook marketers are running one retargeting campaign to all store visitors at once. What you should be doing is running smaller, separate campaigns that target your boosted eCommerce traffic, depending on their behavior on your site.

Let’s say you are running a product promotion retargeting campaign; what do you think will get you more sales: targeting all site visitors or targeting those customers who have shown interest in that product previously, by targeting visitors to that specific product page?

Instead, if you want your remarketing campaigns to be successful, you should be creating remarketing audiences from a specific segment of your web traffic.

Bonus Content: Enjoy Guaranteed Success with these 7 Facebook Remarketing Tips

Facebook Ad Myth 6: You Need Professional PPC Managers and Agencies

Here’s the thing – you don’t need to hire professionals and agencies to win at Facebook advertising. Yes, third party agencies and service providers can help run your campaigns while you concentrate on your business. But for most of us with limited budgets, you can run successful campaigns on your own while growing your business.

The secret is staying on top of the information as much as possible: through Facebook advertising tip blogs, podcasts and eCommerce Facebook groups, learning how to create and optimize your campaigns for as many conversions as possible within your advertising budget. Running dynamic product campaigns and remarketing campaigns or using tools such as Traffic Booster can help you get better results for less admin while you build your business.

Which brings us to the next big myth…

Facebook Ad Myth 7: You Need a HUGE Budget to Compete

So many people have come to me complaining that they find Facebook ads too expensive. It’s a common misconception because yes, Facebook ads can be expensive, but in almost all cases they are expensive if you’re not targeting or optimizing your ads correctly. It’s this misconception that makes people assume that you need a big advertising budget in order to compete on Facebook.

So how much should you be spending per click? In one Social Media Today study, they found the average cost per click across all industries was $1.72. When you compare this to the average Google AdWords CPC, which is between $1.00 and $2.00, you will see that Facebook is no more expensive than other PPC platforms.

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In fact, you can start on smaller budgets by creating well-optimized ads that have great ROIs to keep your Facebook advertising costs down. Also, don’t be afraid of higher CPCs if they are converting because after you find the right audiences, higher value users cost more but they also convert more.

Bonus Content: 8 Ways to Lower Facebook Ad Costs Today

Facebook Ad Myth 8: Facebook Advertising Exists in a Bubble

The last common Facebook ad misconception is that your Facebook marketing strategy is a separate entity, when in fact you should be integrating your different marketing strategies. Yes, remarketing campaigns are a good example of this, but so is using awesome Google Analytics data from AdWords campaigns to create Facebook ad sets and vice versa. The ideal solution is to integrate your Facebook strategy with your other marketing efforts, so that each campaign (and the data from that campaign) helps push a different objective.

Simply put, Facebook ads should be part of a multi-channel marketing plan. Smart Insights has a great diagram on just how Facebook and other PPCs fit together into your multi-channel marketing plan.

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There you have it, 8 common Facebook ad myths, debunked. If you have questions or some Facebook tips of your own, post them in the comments below and our PPC superstars will be in touch.

 

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