How does it feel to see your Facebook ads not generating conversions? We imagine your frustration, but it can be overcome.
If your Facebook ads aren't converting, you're not alone. This happens to more businesses advertising on Facebook than you might think. It's no secret that there are many complexities within Meta Business Manager. From your audience lists, to your Meta pixel, ad creative, and everything in between, identifying the culprit behind your lack of conversions can feel like finding a needle in a haystack.
Don't beat yourself up if you're staring at your screen wondering, "Why aren't my Facebook ads converting?" Instead, check out this handy list of reasons why your Facebook ads aren't converting and the steps you can take to get back on track!
Why Your Facebook Ads Aren't Converting and How to Fix It
Are your Facebook ads not generating conversions for your business? Here are some reasons why and how to fix them.
1. Your landing page isn't optimized for conversions
The first place to look when your Facebook ads aren't converting is your landing page. You may have the best-performing Facebook ads in the world, but if your website isn't optimized for conversions, you'll struggle to see results from your campaigns. When you see your Facebook ads generating clicks but no conversions, you can assume something has gone wrong along the buyer's journey.
What to do
Try to put yourself in your ideal customer's shoes. Compare your ad and landing page side by side to ensure your messaging is consistent. You could also use a page speed test, a mobile site test, or a website evaluation tool to ensure your site loads quickly and provides an optimal user experience across all devices.
Most importantly, make sure the conversion actions you want users to complete are clearly communicated on the page. Furthermore, all actions should be quick and easy to complete. Even if you're using Facebook lead ads, where a viewer doesn't have to click through to a landing page to convert, you'll need a simple and short form to make conversions as easy as possible.
2. Your Meta Pixel is not set correctly
Your Meta pixel (formerly known as the Facebook pixel) is the hub for all things tracking and reporting for Facebook ads. It's what connects your Facebook ads to your data sources, like your website, so your campaigns know which actions to track.
What to do
To check how your Facebook ad conversion tracking is currently set up, go to the Events Management section of your Meta Business Manager account. There you can see which "events" (i.e., conversion actions) you've set up. From there, you'll be prompted to resolve any conversion tracking issues.
3. The ad text is not clear
For every Facebook ad you run, it's important to have a clear action for your target audience to take. If you don't use clear call-to-action phrases, your audience may not understand what will happen after seeing your Facebook ad. This could easily lead to a lack of Facebook ad conversions.
What to do
To prevent your Facebook ads from not converting due to poor ad copy, try including powerful words that inspire users to take action.
Don't be afraid to specify exactly what conversion action your ad is aiming to achieve. You may also need to revise your Facebook ad objectives to address the purpose behind your ad copy.
4. You're talking to the wrong audience
People whoyou thinkThe people who convert your Facebook ads may be different from the people who actually become customers of your business. It's important to understand your audience, what resonates with them, and the best way to reach them to generate more conversions from your Facebook ads.
What to do
While you may have done some initial research on your target market, try digging deeper and using a more creative Facebook ad audience targeting strategy.
For example, if you promote your higher education program through Facebook ads, you might want to target people whose interests include entertainment, such as live events. Even if this interest isn't directly related to higher education, young adults looking to continue their education likely also enjoy going to sports games or concerts.
5. Advertising fatigue
I think we can probably all understand why ad fatigue might be causing Facebook ads to fail to convert. Have you ever seen the same ad over and over again to the point where you're sick of it? The last thing you want is to oversaturate your target audience with the same Facebook ad.
What to do
You can check if this might be the case in your Facebook ad campaign or by viewing the ad set report. Select the Delivery column option to view the frequency metric. Frequency is the estimated number of times the average member of your audience has seen your ad. The higher the frequency of your Facebook ads, the more often your audience members have seen your ads on more than one occasion.
When your ad frequency increases to around 5-10, it's usually time to update your ad. However, in situations where your targeting is a little more limited, such as if you were targeting a remarketing list, a higher ad frequency number is more common.
To avoid this Facebook ad conversion killer, try regularly changing your ad copy as you see the frequency increase. You could make small changes, such as A/B testing your ad copy, creative, or CTA buttons.
Another option to avoid high ad frequency is, of course, to change your targeting so that your ads are seen by new users. It's best to have a variety of Facebook ad targeting strategies in your account. For example, you could offer one set of ads to a custom audience and another set to a behavioral or interest-based audience. This way, you can exchange different types of ads with different people.
6. Your campaign objective isn't aligned with your goals
Believe it or not, the Facebook ad algorithm can help your campaigns convert. You just have to tell it what to do. Your campaign objective tells Facebook's machine learning how to best deliver your ad.
What to do
If it helps, think about your Facebook ad campaign goals as you would a marketing campaign goal. Google Ads or with the Google Ads bidding strategy. When you select the objective of your Facebook advertising campaign, you're telling it what you want to optimize for. Facebook's Ads Manager even states that "your campaign objective should align with your overall business goals."
There are tons of different campaign objectives to choose from, so there's no right or wrong answer as to which one you'll end up with. However, it may take some trial and error with a few campaigns to see which objective gets you the most Facebook advertising conversions.
7. Your budget or spending limit is too low
The common saying "you have to spend money to make money" certainly applies to Facebook ads. While you want to keep Facebook ad costs under control, you also don't want to limit your campaigns with limited budgets or strict spending limits that could cause your ads to not appear.
What to do
If you use Facebook ad daily budgets with a campaign spend cap, for example, you might exhaust your budget too quickly each day, limiting your chances of conversions.
Meanwhile, Facebook ad lifetime budgets can cause your campaign to exhaust its allocated budget before you've maximized conversion opportunities within a certain time frame.
You can usually tell this is the cause of a decline in conversions when your budgets and spending limits aren't aligned with your average cost-per-click for Facebook ads. For example, if you have a daily budget of $10 and your average cost-per-click for Facebook ads is $2, you're giving yourself only a small chance for someone to click and convert each day.
I know that having huge marketing budgets dedicated to Facebook ads isn't always feasible, and that's okay! However, it's better to have flexibility with your Facebook advertising campaign budgets.
8. You haven't given your ads enough time to generate conversions
I always joke that the hardest part of PPC is patience! Every Facebook advertising campaign goes through a "learning period" when it first starts. During this learning period, the Facebook ad algorithm tests how to display your ad in different ways to maximize results. This can lead to fluctuations in results initially.
What to do
The length of the learning period can vary depending on what you're trying to achieve with your campaign. That said, the typical learning period has been known to last up to two weeks. Ideally, I try to give campaigns up to 30 days to gather as much data as possible before making a decision on what might or might not work.
Aside from the learning curve, you may find yourself with a longer sales cycle. This can, of course, decrease conversion rates, as your audience may need to see an ad multiple times before taking the leap to becoming a lead. Additionally, we know that people need to see something about your business at least seven times before committing to a purchase.
9. Your Facebook Adsthey areconverting… indirectly
This last reason why your Facebook ads aren't converting can be difficult to resolve, but it's helpful to be aware of. Your Facebook ads may be very effective at moving your prospects through your sales funnel, but they end up converting at another touchpoint down the line.
Viewers are very likely to absorb your ad on Facebook but move on to other platforms like Google or YouTube to learn more about your business and ultimately convert.
What to do
Of course, tracking conversions across all platforms is no easy task. However, if you regularly check your PPC reports across all platforms, you may notice any increases in conversions from other marketing channels. If this increase correlates with the dates of your last Facebook advertising campaign, you can assume that your Facebook ads are influencing your customers.
Additionally, you can set up privacy-focused Facebook ad tracking for offline conversions and other conversion types that are right for your specific business.
Facebook ads not converting? You can fix it!
Finding out that your Facebook ads aren't converting is never a fun experience. However, using a handy list like this can help you identify opportunities to improve your strategy and promote your business through the power of Facebook and social ads.
To recap, here are the top nine reasons why your Facebook ads might not be converting:
- Your landing page is not optimized for conversions
- Your Meta Pixel is not set correctly
- The ad text is unclear
- You're talking to the wrong audience.
- Your audience is tired of advertising
- Your campaign objective is not aligned with your goals
- Your budget or spending limit is too low
- You haven't given your ads enough time to generate conversions
- Your Facebook Adsthey areconverting. ..indirectly
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