Mistakes with Facebook ad placements can be easily avoided from the outset. We’ve put together a selection of the most common problems and came up with solutions for you.
Before you go on reading… We’re not going to show you how to place an ad here. We’re going to show you problems with placing an ad and offer solutions. Please refer to our Facebook Ads Guide and Guide to Facebook Ads for help with placements.
General Problems & Solutions
When creating a campaign, Facebook takes you by the hand and asks you specific questions. First about your campaign’s goal, and then about matters of target group, placement, budget, schedule and format of your ad. This makes it easy for you to run smooth and targeted campaigns.
These are the most common issues:
Campaign isn’t going well
You may have defined the wrong target or the campaign format/ advertisement type you chose don’t meet the needs of your target group. Try to define the right target first and follow the recommendations in the Ad Manager.
TIP Facebook also bases the performance of your ad on the performance of the website you link. If your website is e.g. not optimized for smartphones, your ad will perform much worse. Unable to change that? Then a Facebook Instant Experience might be the answer.
Campaign is stopped
You can set a spending cap for both an individual campaign and your account. Once your limit is reached, Facebook will automatically stop the campaign. Remember that you can always check your current spending to monitor it.
Campaign shows zero results
This problem cannot be traced back to a single cause. Facebook usually gives you an indication of where the problem lies. If not, it’s best to go through all the steps of the campaign set-up: from goal to the target group and strategy.
Campaign keeps getting more expensive
It’s perfectly normal for a campaign to become more expensive over time. The same users will be exposed to your ad over and over again, meaning the performance is bound to deteriorate accordingly. You can influence this process by giving a wider definition of your target group from the outset. As a rule of thumb, your campaign should never run for several weeks or even months.
Campaign suddenly performs worse
Other than what has already been said in the previous points, it may be there’s a strong competitor who’s running a very similar campaign. If you’re 100% sure that you’ve set up everything correctly, don’t make changes to your target group unless you have a good plan B.
Campaign costs way too much
This can have very different reasons. Maybe you set your spending cap way to high. But it’s always a good idea to give your campaign a bit of time to come to life. The great thing about Facebook ads is that the platform optimizes your ad for you. And this optimization may take a few days until it kicks in successfully.
Problems with displaying ad text & ad images
Planning, aligning and adjusting your campaign is of course very important. But it should also look appealing. What exactly this means depends on you and your target group.
Try out different images and text to find out how to appeal to your target group. You can try different images, videos or text for the same ad. Facebook will then find out which material works best for you.
Other problems
Ad Format not approved
Your image or video violates Facebook’s policies. It’s often not worth filing an objection because of the lengthy process. And your image is unlikely to be approved anyway. Use a different image for your ad instead to get your campaign off the ground.
Too much text in Image Ad
Facebook doesn’t like an image full of text. What used to be decided on a 20% text-per-picture ratio in the past has turned into a more dynamic Facebook policy today. You can check your image text directly here.
Don’t despair – check our guide
Problems with ad placements can be related to your account settings, ad settings, or your website. Get savvy in Facebook advertising right from the start! Facebook has put together a nice and clear guide for this purpose.
You can always get help from the Spreadshop community. Just visit our forum or ask your question about Facebook ads in the comments here.
