Why Your Facebook Ads Aren’t Profitable (And How to Fix It)

It’s because people are discovering you on social media for the first time. Most people I know will say that Facebook Ads don’t work. Custom audiences: What all high ROI campaigns have in common Most people don’t want to buy anything on Facebook. If you choose “Engagement,” you can instantly retarget users who know your brand and have engaged with previous Facebook posts. First, I want to target users who visited my specific blog posts in the last three days. A simple headline change has the power to grab your audience’s attention away from all the other stuff that’s clogging up their Facebook news feeds. Let’s dissect this ad to give you an idea of what exactly works here, and how to replicate the same tips. That means you’re never truly ‘done’ with Facebook Ads. Many people think that Facebook Ads don’t work. People don’t go to Facebook to buy.

Facebook has two billion monthly active users.

That translates into a couple billion opportunities to grow our businesses.

So you create a few Facebook Ads and set up some campaigns.

Next thing you know, you blew $200 bucks within a few days.

And to make matters worse, you saw almost no return on investment.

No followers, no likes, no sales. Nobody is even clicking.

There’s a good reason why this commonly happens.

Facebook Ads require specific offers and targeting options to be successful.

You can’t just toss up a Facebook Ad and expect a 2x ROI instantly.

It doesn’t work like that. Facebook Ads aren’t like other advertising channels.

Here are some of the main reasons why your Facebook Ads aren’t working.

And then I’ll show you a few steps to fix them.

Why your Facebook ads aren’t working

Many smart people have pointed to PPC and organic search as the top-converting marketing channels for the past few years.

It all comes down to intent.

People type exactly what they’re looking for in Google’s search bar.

That means that these people are more likely to convert or sign up.

For example, if someone typed in “email automation platform,” they’re probably evaluating their options.

All you have to do is create a PPC ad that regurgitates exactly what they said and your odds look pretty good!

People often use search engines when they want to find something specific or solve a problem.

Now, compare that to social media.

Nobody’s actively looking for any products on Facebook or Twitter.

One report years ago claimed that “less than 1%” of sales come from social.

Why is that number so low?

It’s because people are discovering you on social media for the first time.

They’re not ready to buy. They’re not even sure if they need your product or service yet.

So social media is seen as a brand awareness tool as opposed to a conversion one.

That’s not very surprising when you think about it.

People use social media to follow their friends and family.

They might use it to find news bites to quickly digest before moving on with their day.

But they’re not naturally browsing Facebook or Twitter to shop the latest sale.

All of this means that the same advertising strategies you use on one channel can’t necessarily be applied to Facebook.

It is its own world.

Here’s how to respond and turn your Facebook advertising into a conversion machine anyway.

Use the buying cycle to inform your offer

You can’t risk offering a lead magnet like an ebook to a visitor who has never even heard of your brand.

The likelihood of them converting is incredibly low.

You shouldn’t even bother wasting your ad dollars on these campaigns.

However, the flipside is also true.

You wouldn’t want to send a lead-magnet ad to someone who’s already qualified to purchase.

These people already gave you their contact information. You don’t need to pay for it again.

Instead, you could have sent them product ads directly. Not doing so only leaves money on the table.

Following the buying cycle may sound cliché, but separating your campaigns into at least three groups can make all the difference in the world.

For example, people in the “Awareness” stage have no idea what your product is or why they need it.

So don’t waste time sending them a product ad. You want them to simply read your content and recognize your brand initially.

Once you get them to click on your ad, you’ll be able to retarget them later on (more on this in the next section).

Here’s an excellent example from WordStream of what your “awareness” Facebook Ads should look like:

WordStream leads with a simple content guide to get your attention. The image and headline also pack a punch (more on that in later sections, too).

The ‘ask’ in this ad is extremely low. That means that there’s no risk involved for the viewer.

They don’t have to give up personal information or money yet to connect with your brand.

It’s only after you start getting these people to interact that you can follow it up with lead-gen ads.

After someone visits your site a few times, they enter the “Consideration” stage.

Here, you want to focus on retargeting those previous website visitors to get them to opt in for the first time.

Check out this Kajabi ad to see how it’s done:

After building brand awareness and consideration, you can slowly transition into the “Decision” stage with product-focused ads.

Here’s one of my favorite examples from Hootsuite.

This ad is excellent for a few reasons.

It provides a stellar value proposition by pointing out how time-consuming social media analytics can be.

They offer a trial, but they keep the ‘ask’ to a minimum by making it free for up to 30 days.

Most people I know will say that Facebook Ads don’t work.

But that’s because they aren’t offering the right product to the right person in the right stage of their customer journey.

How, exactly, do you do all of this stuff?

Here’s a quick primer on how to use Facebook’s custom audiences to supercharge your ad campaigns.

Custom audiences: What all high ROI campaigns have in common

Most people don’t want to buy anything on Facebook.

That’s especially true for your ‘cold’ fans or for other people who are just hearing about you for the first time.

The solution is to use custom audiences.

These are essentially refined lists of people who have already expressed interest in what you do.

They allow you to promote more relevant offers that convert better and cost less over time.

Here, I’ll show you how to work with custom audiences.

To get started, head to the Facebook Ads Manager and navigate to the “Audiences” section under “Assets.”

From here, you will want to create a custom audience based on website traffic or content engagement. Software products can obviously use the app-based activity as a substitute.