10 Facebook Ads Mistakes: Why Your Ads Aren't Connecting With Your Audience

Facebook advertisements have the ability to get readers to stop immediately in their tracks, click on the link and drive conversions. They can boost traffic and create a serious return on investment. However, if your campaign is not executed properly, it won't do any of this. In fact, the Facebook advertisements will turn into a huge money pit for you. So, you have to figure out how you can connect to your customers so that you can ensure you are making money in the long run. Otherwise, what is the point in all the hard work and effort that you put into your Facebook marketing campaign? There is none.

Ultimately, your goal is to avoid generic ads and to focus on personalized advertisements. You want to create ads that will connect with your audience. If this isn't what you are doing, then you are making at least one of these 10 mistakes:

Mistake #1: Inappropriate or Dull Images

Statistics show that Facebook advertisements and posts that have images will receive more than twice the engagement than those that do not have images. Therefore, it is crucial that you always use images in your marketing campaign. However, you need to be careful with the images that you choose to use in your ads. You don't want to use boring stock images, and you also don't want to use inappropriate photos. These won't be captivating and will only turn your audience away. Your best bet to figure out what photos work for your audience is to experiment and test. See which photos convert the best by split testing, which will minimize your overall investment.

Mistake #2: Targeting the Wrong Audience

You can have the best campaign ever (from the images to the headlines), but it won't matter at all if it shown to the wrong audience. Some people tend to think all you need to do is broaden your audience; however, this is actually the opposite of what you need to do. You really need to specify your audience for each campaign, even if it means creating multiple campaigns. Try to narrow down your demographic by age, marital status, and even income if you can. Target pain points and interests, too.

Mistake #3: Failing to Deliver in the Trust Department

Studies show that the majority of consumers use online reviews to influence their purchasing decisions. So, if your customers are unable to see that they can trust what you say, your conversions will drop. There are many areas on your landing page where customers tend to lose their trust in you, including photos and customer testimonials. Why? With photos, they may lack professionality. With customer testimonials, they may lack authenticity. Other things that scare of customers include insufficient contact information, lack of a good refund policy, no terms and conditions, etc.

Mistake #4: No Sense of Urgency

One business was able to improve the sales of its packages by more than 330 percent simply by integrating a sense of urgency in its marketing campaign. This can be a very effective strategy, especially when you consider the fact that just under 50 percent of consumers hardly ever want to pay the full price of a product. You can use countdown timers, the illusion of a short supply of a product or a similar urgency effect - whatever it looks to create that sense of urgency to get customers to buy now rather than later.

Mistake #5: Lack of Free Shipping

Did you know that more than 70 percent of online consumers prefer to have free shipping as an option when they purchase a product online? If you aren't offering free shipping in your Facebook ads, it may be why you aren't getting as much traffic and conversions as you'd like. If you are worried about the costs, you may want to try increasing the cost of your product to help make up the price difference. By offering the free shipping option, you are letting your customers know they don't have to worry about additional shipping costs once they've decided to make a purchase from you. It helps relieve some anxiety on their end and ups the chances of them hitting the purchase button.

Mistake #6: Failing to Discuss Benefits

While it can be helpful to discuss the features of a product, most people tend to purchase a product based on emotions instead of rationality. Therefore, when creating ad copy, you need to look at the emotional benefits of a product rather than the logical features. This is what will attract a customer to buy the product. After all, you're going to be more inclined to purchase a luxury watch because of the way it looks and how others view you with it on rather than the ability to tell time by wearing it.

Mistake #7: Too Much Jargon

As a marketer, it is easy to get caught up in industry terminology when trying to describe a product or service. However, more often than not, your audience is not going to be familiar with the technical aspects of the product as you and isn't going to be able to understand the terms. This will immediately turn them away and ruin any chances of that customer converting. Therefore, make sure that you are using clear and plain terms in your ads.

Mistake #8: Failing to Scope Out the Competition

Practice always makes perfect, but you also have to learn from those who know best. This means you need to learn from your competition. Take a look at advertisements that have been developed by your competition as well as companies in other niches. See if you can identify any common patterns. There is a good chance you will come across a few common phrases: "Just Releases," "Hurry, Offer Ends Soon!" and "Limited Time Offer". As you can see, Facebook ads do not need to be sophisticated or excessive. Instead, they just need to convert.

Mistake #9: Uninspiring Headlines

Your ad headline is going to be the first thing that your audience sees and reads, so it must be inspiring and captivating. It must hook the reader, pull them in and leave them wanting more. If it doesn't, then you have nothing. They won't want to click-through to your landing page, which means they'll keep scrolling through Facebook and find someone else's ad to click on. Let your headline address a problem and make sure your product can solve it. Be clear, yet concise, and don't trick anyone, as this is a sure-fire way to turn your potential customers away. Be powerful and emotional whenever possible.

Mistake #10: Failing to Split Test

While it may be hard to hear, most Facebook advertisements will not work. However, it is possible to find the ones that will, but you have to split test. You have to split test more than just images. You have to also split test your landing page, body test, headlines, audience, call to actions, and ad placements. For those on a budget, try to test a great image with a 3-4 ads and 5-6 different audiences. Make sure to experiment with the body text, headline and value proposition. With your audiences, create different genders, ages, incomes, countries and interests. You can run the ads at a relatively low cost and track the data. Abandon the ads that don't look promising.

Hopefully, these 10 tips will prove to be useful to you in your Facebook ad campaign. Remember, don't get discouraged if you don't see success right away. You just need to keep split testing and tweaking your campaign until you get it right and see some conversions. If you would rather not do the heavy lifting yourself, feel free to reach out to us at WebDetail to discuss setting up a marketing strategy for your business.