It is very common for local businesses in Mid Ulster to run adverts on Meta in an attempt to stand out from the crowd, reach potential customers and support growth.
Unfortunately, Meta advertising holds both promise and pitfalls and some companies are more successful at it than others. We hate to see local businesses wasting their time and hard-earned money running ads that are unlikely to produce any tangible results.
With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at a list of things to avoid when advertising on Meta:
Boosted Posts: The Superficial Approach
Nine times out of ten, boosting your posts will not be the best approach. Boosted posts are one of the simplest ways to advertise on Facebook because they don’t require any strategy or effort: you simply select an existing post, hit the “boost” button, and select a few easy parameters like audience, budget, and duration. While this may seem like a quick and easy way to increase your post’s reach, it not the most cost-effective or strategic use of your advertising budget.
There are two main problems with boosted posts. Firstly, they are cost inefficient so your budget will quickly evaporate with limited impact. Secondly, boosted posts are designed to increase engagement which is probably not the main objective of your marketing objective. Yes, you can easily reach a lot of people and the increases likes/comments on your post can look great, but its superficial. Remember, you can’t take Facebook likes to the bank and its unlikely boosted posts will offer significant tangible benefits to your business in the real world.
To achieve stronger results, we highly recommend use of Meta Ads Manager instead. Which offers advanced advertising options to create compelling advertising campaigns that produce real results.
Not Tracking Performance: Stabbing In The Dark
Failing to set up proper tracking makes it impossible to measure the effectiveness of your ads and properly understand what works, and what doesn’t. Without proper monitoring, you risk committing resources into advertising that don't resonate with your audience, wasting both time and money. The absence of tracking also means missed opportunities for optimization; you can't fine-tune what you can't measure.
Ensure that you have tracking pixels in place and that you’re regularly reviewing your adverts to fine tune performance.
Poor Targeting: Missing the Mark
Precise targeting is key to effective advertising on Meta, yet many businesses still target demographics that are either too broad or too narrow.
Overly broad targeting leads to wasted ad spend as your ads may be shown to people who have little interest in your product or service. On the other hand, overly narrow targeting might miss out on legitimate potential customers.
Usually a ‘one size fits all’ advert will not be ideal, so several different adverts aimed at separate demographics is usually the way forward.
Campaign Structure: Maximising Efficiency
We often find that many local businesses with less experience of Meta advertising limit themselves by running one campaign, one ad set, and one ad, targeted at a small demographic and potentially wasting money.
These businesses will need to develop a more sophisticated campaign structure to advertise efficiently on Meta. This might involve running multiple campaigns with different objectives, each containing several ad sets targeting different audience segments. Within each ad set, businesses should test multiple ads to identify the most effective creative and messaging.
This may sound complex but will allow you to reap the rewards in terms of producing actual results, be that increasing website visitors, creating warm leads or boosting sales of your product or service.
Let Mid Ulster Marketing Help You...
Remember that Meta advertising is highly competitive and you are competing against thousands of other businesses for that prime position, including professional ad agencies who know how to use Meta Ads effectively.
If you lack the time, skill or confidence to excel at advertising on Meta, why not let Mid Ulster Marketing assist you with professional marketing management.
07793551992
shane@midulstermarketing.com