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Facebook Ads Question

by oleynick
12 replies
Hi Warriors,

I have a question I wanted to ask you and hopefully somebody can answer it!

I'm running a Facebook ad for one of my Facebook fan pages and the first day the ad was running, CTR was great, conversions were great and my ROI was around 150%.

Than the next day my CTR started to go down (was 0.650 became around 0.500) and while traffic to the page continued, for some reason my traffic/conversion ratio dropped dramatically, i.e. traffic stays roughly the same but conversion is 3-4 times worse than before...

The next day I used the same ad copy but switched the image, and traffic/conversion ratio again picked up to about the same level where it was before but than dropped again within a few hours.

My question is, can anybody please explain to me what's going on and what do I have to do to make sure the conversion level stays the same?! Why conversions change if the traffic stays the same? Assuming the majority of traffic is new, shouldn't conversion level also stay approximately the same all the time? Why such a discrepancy from time to time?

So that it will be easier for you to answer my question, my ad targets: males ages 18-64 who like a certain team within a certain sport! The estimated reach is around 1.5M

Let me know what's going on guys and what I shall do to keep the traffic/conversions ratio approximately the same!

Thanks in advance for your help!
#ads #facebook #question
  • Profile picture of the author Zesh
    It depends on the time of day and when your ad is running.

    What I do that usually works best is to pause the ad during working hours...if you are targeting 18-64 I think this is too much of a broad age group.

    I would have targeted 18-35, and the estimated reach (1.5m) is a bit too much...keep it about 50-80,000 for the best conversions and less costs.
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    • Profile picture of the author Gordon Taylor
      Originally Posted by Zesh View Post

      It depends on the time of day and when your ad is running.

      What I do that usually works best is to pause the ad during working hours...if you are targeting 18-64 I think this is too much of a broad age group.

      I would have targeted 18-35, and the estimated reach (1.5m) is a bit too much...keep it about 50-80,000 for the best conversions and less costs.
      I've been advertising there since the time you could get clicks for $.15. Zesh is correct about the time of day. Also filter the age groups better.

      I get the best PAID results from 45 and up. They are the ones with the most disposable income and are the target I always go after, as do many major corporations, like State Farm.

      Kids will waste your clicks big time...13 is supposed to be the minimum age, but you'll find plenty on there that are only 9 or 10 years old, and they admit it!
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  • Profile picture of the author oleynick
    @Zesh: That's an interesting point about the time of day, I will definitely look into that! So in your experience it is better to target people say after 5PM on weekdays and all day on the weekends?

    Also, since I'm targeting by a specific "like", shouldn't a broad age group not be a problem? I mean I know for a fact that all of them "like" this team... although I do understand that there will be a group of people within the estimated reach number, who will be more likely to click on the ad/convert, which will result in a better CTR and lower CPC, so in that regard you're making a great point too!

    Another concern is, if the estimated reach is 50-80,000, wouldn't banner blindness set-in rather quickly?! What do you do to solve the banner blindness problem when targeting lower amounts of people? Do you rotate different types of images and ad copy, basically what do you do to solve this problem?!

    Keep in mind that I can't change the ad title because Facebook doesn't allow to change the title when linking directly to a fan page!

    Thanks in advance for your reply and invaluable advice!!
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  • Profile picture of the author ladymd
    Perhaps your market was already saturated?
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  • Profile picture of the author indexphp
    its got to you with your bids and the banner blindness on your ads. keep your bid 1 penny on the top of the suggested range.

    when your CTR starts to fall, you have to raise your bid to stay on the best converting placements and pages.

    the banner blindness issue is one of the most frustrating parts of Facebook Ads. Since they don't offer a frequency cap, there is nothing you can do. A SINGLE person could be on Facebook ALL DAY sucking up thousands of impressions, which effects your CTR.

    The only thing you can do is keep changing your ads and bid a little high.

    Hope that helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author jostified
    I believe i have a lot to learn on this forum.
    Recently my card got declined on FB ad. I was told it was not authorised by my financial institution
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  • Profile picture of the author webapex
    The facebook ad stats panel shows the average impressions per member (I don't recall the term) after you have reached the same member several times it seems likely that the ctr would drop, I understand frequently changing ad and art work is part of a successful FB campaign.

    With such a short test run, you might have not identified yet if the time of day the clicks were made might be a ctr factor.
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  • Profile picture of the author oleynick
    @indexphp: Thanks for a great advice, I will definitely do that!

    @webapex: Thanks for the tips as well!

    @Gordon Taylor: Thanks for the great advice as well! Can you give me any other tips to prolong the life of a campaign other than switching the image and/or ad copy?! Thanks in advance!
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    • Profile picture of the author Gordon Taylor
      Originally Posted by oleynick View Post


      @Gordon Taylor: Thanks for the great advice as well! Can you give me any other tips to prolong the life of a campaign other than switching the image and/or ad copy?! Thanks in advance!
      Test, test and then test some more...

      Testing ad copy and images are the only way to find the performers. However, I must say I no longer advertise on FB or Google. The ads just don't perform they way they used to.
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  • Profile picture of the author Zesh
    also I find that the more you test the better it is. Images do matter and body text.

    Facebook is just amazing right now.
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  • Profile picture of the author oleynick
    Thanks guys!!

    Few more questions:

    1. How long do you run your ads to understand whether you have a winning ad or not? In other words when do you know if it's time to allocate a higher budget to a particular ad or to pause it?

    2. If you do have a winning ad, what do you do to ensure that it performs for the longest time possible?

    3. And one final question: Could it be that since I was not targeting my ads to different age groups, when conversion was at around 35% Facebook overwhelmingly played an ad to an age group that is more willing to share their email addresses and thus convert, and when the conversion is at around 10%, Facebook is overwhelmingly playing and ad to an age group that is "paranoid" about sharing their email addresses (personal information)?! If that's the case that explains why the traffic to the offer page stays roughly the same percentage-wise, but conversions jump up and down by 25-30%...

    Can this be the problem? What do you think guys?

    If this is not THE problem, I honestly don't understand what's going on...
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