Episode #095: 7 Common Facebook & Instagram Ad Mistakes to Avoid
7 Common Facebook & Instagram Ad Mistakes to Avoid
In this episode, I'm breaking down the seven biggest Facebook and Instagram ad mistakes I see businesses making repeatedly - costing them thousands in wasted ad spend and missed opportunities.
Based on patterns I've observed in our membership community -- and with personal clients -- these insights will help you avoid the painful trial-and-error process most advertisers go through.
Discover why skipping the testing phase is the #1 reason most ads fail (and how to properly test creative, copy, and audiences)
Understand the "faucet problem" - why turning ads on and off destroys your momentum and results
Get my practical advice on why you need at least 90-180 days to truly evaluate if ads are working for you
If you've been struggling with Facebook and Instagram ads or you're hesitant to start because you're afraid of wasting money, this episode will save you countless hours and dollars in preventable mistakes.
Listen now to transform your approach to advertising and start getting the results you've been looking for!
Links Mentioned
Full Transcript:
[00:00:00]:
This is Not Your Average Online Marketing podcast, episode number 95. And in this episode, we're talking about the common mistakes that I see people make when it comes to getting their Facebook ads up and off the ground or running Facebook ads in general. So if you're new to Facebook ads to grow your email list, to generate sales, or just to grow your business, or if you feel like you're not getting the results you want and you're curious if you're making mistakes, this episode is for you, so stay tuned. Hey. Hey. Hey. Not so average marketer. Welcome to another episode of the podcast.
[00:00:34]:
Now I'm very excited to be hanging out with you today to talk about Facebook ads. What else? You guys know I love Facebook ads. And really, what I'm excited about this week is that I have been watching these students inside our membership program, and I talked with one of the support team that we have. For those of you who don't know, we have our membership, and we have an expert copywriter and ads person in there that helps me help the group as well. I'm still in there responding and supporting, but it's always good to have a second set of eyes. And I was talking to her and I said, what are you kinda seeing as some of the the common themes in the membership, the common questions that are coming up, and what do you think are the mistakes, so to speak, that people are making when it comes to their ads? And she said, oh my gosh. What a great question. Here's what I'm seeing, and what she is seeing is what we're gonna talk about today.
[00:01:24]:
So I wanna talk to you first and foremost about how we talk about ads and how we think about ads in our business. And I think the most important thing that we touch on first is this concept that we're not just running ads to flip a quick buck, so to speak. Right? And I think a lot of people that I talk to, they think that the big mistake they're making with their Facebook ads is that they're not profitable right off the jump. Right? They think, oh, I should turn on ads and I should be profitable. And if I'm not, I'm I'm doing it wrong. And we're gonna kinda break down why that ideology might not be the best way to think about it and how you might not be profitable because you're you're skipping on on some really important stuff. So I have seven common pitfalls that I see people fall into or mistakes that I see people should avoid when it comes to Facebook ads. So if you're trying to get more profitability or growth with your ads, try to not make these mistakes, and let's get into it.
[00:02:27]:
First mistake that I see people make when it comes to Facebook and Instagram ads is they skip the testing period. Y'all, this is so important. I see this time and time again, not just in our community, but, like, collectively in a lot of communities that I'm in on the internet, Facebook groups, and other program course groups. Ads people say, like, oh, I ran ads, but I didn't get results. Like, ads didn't work for me. And when you ask them what what they did, they say, oh, I, you know, I ran ads for a couple days. Or they might even say, like, I spent $50, but I didn't get any sales. Okay.
[00:03:08]:
Here's what ultimately that tells me. Most people are skipping what we call the testing period. And testing your Facebook Ads is actually made up of three pieces. You need to test multiple creative, multiple images, videos, multiple variations of what the ad looks like. You need to test multiple variations of copy, the words that go with the ad, and you need to test multiple targets, multiple interest, multiple places that you're running the ads. So many people go, well, I threw $50 at this ad that I thought was gonna work and it didn't. So clearly, something is wrong. Not always.
[00:03:43]:
The point of testing ads, the point of going through an ads testing period is to identify what creative, copy, and targeting works the best. You're not just gonna blindly, like you know, the way that I kind of think of it is, like, imagine you're you're deciding you wanna go to a specific part of the world and you say, I'm gonna hang a map on the wall and throw a dart at it, and I'm gonna be blindfolded, but I'm gonna see how close I can get to that destination. You might hit it. You might hit the destination with the dart on the wall, but the reality is you would have much better luck if you took the blindfold off. You had a couple test shots and you figured out how you needed to throw the dart to get it where you wanted to go. Right? You don't wanna be flying blind when it comes to your ads. So the way that we do this is we do two sets of copy, two sets of images, and five to ten different audiences, and we split test them. And this is something that we teach people how to do in our Facebook and Instagram Ads for Listbuilding Bootcamp is run these ads for, like, 48 to 72 hours, find your winning audience and creative combinations, and then you can start going on with scaling and and ongoing ads and ongoing lead or sale generation.
[00:04:59]:
So mistake number one, skipping the testing period. Second mistake that I see people make is they want an instant ROI with their Facebook ads, but they don't have the data to back up if that's even possible. Now what does that mean? I know that's kind of a mouthful. Here's the reality. Most people have this perception in my experience of Facebook ads that, like, oh, yeah. Facebook ads, the goal is turn them on, run people into a funnel, typically an automated webinar funnel, no judgment, but that's what we see a lot of. And then I should just be generating revenue in a very short period of time. And the reality is that is not the full story.
[00:05:43]:
When you run Facebook ads I've started saying this new thing in some of the interviews I've been doing for our upcoming launch. I've been telling people, you actually can't lose money on Facebook ads. And I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna say, Zach, unequivocally not true. I've lost money on Facebook ads. And to that, I say, have you or have you misunderstood the way Facebook ads work? What I mean by this is you have to realize that when you run a Facebook ad, you're not paying for leads or sales. You're not even paying for traffic, really. What you're paying for is visibility.
[00:06:18]:
You're paying for that ad to be seen. That is it. Right? And then if you get it right because you've done the testing period, then you're kind of measuring based on the amount of times my ad has been seen, what can I expect in terms of leads, sales, and quantifiable data? Right? What so many people do is they run ads to a funnel that is essentially untested. Right? Or you may say, no, Zach. That's not true. I've tested my funnel. I posted on Instagram or I emailed my list. Yeah.
[00:06:54]:
So that's warm traffic. The way that cold traffic, AKA ads traffic, AKA traffic of people who don't know you from a hole in the wall, those people all react differently to how they engage with ads and funnels. And so if you go from organic traffic and you go right to ads traffic and you go, oh, my funnel is not working. It must be the ads. It might not be. It might be that the funnel isn't really tested on cold traffic yet, and I'm gonna say something that's kind of like tough tough love, if you will. But just because you're a warm audience, the people who already like you want to buy your offer, that does not mean that the marketing, the messaging, and the positioning is good. Like, straight up, your warm audience is more likely to buy from you with, like, bad messaging than a cold audience is gonna buy from you with bad messaging.
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So you have to realize that if you don't have data that cold traffic is going to work with your ads, you cannot expect that you're gonna take something that worked live or even evergreen, go over to ads, and it's going to behave the same way. So, really, I think that one, the first mistake, you know, skipping that testing period migrates beautifully into the second mistake. Because if you think about it, what I'm essentially saying is you need to test your ads to get the data to determine if your funnel is viable on cold traffic or if you need to work on your messaging, which takes us into mistake number three. So the third mistake is blaming the ads for funnel side strategy. Okay. So if you've ever watched RuPaul's Drag Race, they have an after show. You know, they all these reality shows, they have an after show. And they say, if you're not watching RuPaul's Untucked, you're only getting half the story. I love that.
[00:08:51]:
One, because how kitschy, how catchy, I love. But two, because it's the way I think about advertising. If you're only looking at the Facebook ads manager and profitability, you're only getting half the story. Right? You have to realize that when you drive traffic to your website, to your funnel, it's not just the ads that are doing the heavy lifting. Right? You might have a phenomenal Facebook ad. You might be getting amazing leads. You might be getting incredible results. But here's the thing, you have to realize that if you are doing all that and then you go, oh, but it didn't work because I didn't get paid.
[00:09:27]:
I didn't get conversions. I didn't get the the the sales, so to speak. You have to look at the funnel too. Right? Because there's so many elements to this. Like, let me give you a really specific example. I worked with a client who had a great freebie in terms of the cost per lead was good. Right? And they were in our membership, and I was talking to them and they're, like, my cost per lead is so good. I think the ads aren't working or they're giving me bad leads because no one's buying my product.
[00:09:57]:
And I said, okay. What is the freebie? And I won't give the exact name because I wanna be mindful, but, essentially, the gist of the freebie was, like, five tips to blank. Right? Like, five tips to lose weight on the scale. Five tips to get a hundred followers on Instagram. When I asked them the following question, they said, oh. I said, does someone wanting those five tips mean that they are a qualified person to want to buy the offer you have in your funnel? Said another way, is your freebie actually solving a problem that tells you your target market that you're targeting wants the paid offer? So many people, they love to do this. They go, oh, I've run these ads before. I've run form ads.
[00:10:49]:
Like, I teach I teach instant form ads in my boot camp. People go, oh, those give you bad leads. But I say, here's the thing. Ads are only part of the equation. If you get phenomenal leads, but it's the wrong positioning, the wrong offer, the wrong messaging, guess what? Those leads aren't gonna convert. Straight up. No bones about it. You have to think about things holistically. And so if you if you kinda walk through what we've said so far, like, first, you gotta, like, figure out what works with an ads perspective, then you have to collect that data.
[00:11:19]:
But then if that data is telling you something, I'm not saying that your ads are working unequivocally. Ads always work. It's never an ads problem. But if you're getting leads, they're going into your funnel and they're not converting. I'd look at the front end messaging of the freebie and the back end messaging of the funnel. Yes. Ads matter 100%, but they're only half of the story. They get you in front of people.
[00:11:44]:
Like I said, you're paying for visibility. Then what you do with that visibility is highly contingent on your messaging and your positioning. So let's run through those again. Number one, skipping out on the testing period. Number two, expecting an instant ROI without the data to back it up. And number three, with or without data, blaming ads for funnel side strategies. Now the fourth mistake that I see people making with Facebook ads is I call it the faucet problem. They treat Facebook ads like a faucet.
[00:12:18]:
When I need business, then I'll turn on my Facebook ads like a faucet. They turn them on for a launch. They turn them off in between launches. They turn them on because they feel like they're having a good week. They turn them off because they feel like cash flow is low. They turn them on because they're trying to promote something right now. They turn them off because that promotion is over. They turn them on, off, on, off, on, off.
[00:12:42]:
Here is what I will tell you. Consistency, just like with social media and other organic strategies, matters with advertising. Okay? What you do with advertising is you are creating, like I said, visibility. If you are only visible to the audience that you're advertising to sometimes and then other times you're like a a whisper in the wind, people aren't really connecting with you. They're not really learning about you or from you or building a relationship with you. Right? And so it's really important that you understand that I am a firm believer that you should have Facebook ads running all the time. All the time. Even if it's only $5 to $10 a day.
[00:13:25]:
And what I teach inside my Facebook and Instagram Ads for Listbuilding Bootcamp, which I'm hosting live April 28, I'll talk about that in a second, is that you should just, at minimum, be running ads to grow your email list all the time. Right? Because in our business, if we have ads running that grow our list, we have an email sequence for new subscribers that makes them a low ticket offer. We have a tripwire that right after opt-in people get made a low ticket offer. If our list is always growing, our audience is always growing. If our audience is always growing, our business is always growing. If our business is always growing, our launches are getting bigger, and we're always maintaining that visibility to new and existing audiences. You cannot expect in 2025, I am a full body believer of this, that you're just gonna turn on ads when you want money and they're gonna work. People need to build relationships more than ever with the people that they're interested in buying from.
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And what that means is that you can't just run ads to a launch on a Friday, completely cold traffic to brand new webinar, deliver your sales pitch in sixty minutes, and expect these massive conversions that people are getting back in 2015, 2020, you know, when people were stuck inside. Like, it it's not working the way it used to work. Right? There was a wonderful article in the Atlantic about the trust recession. I've talked about this on the podcast before, but it's this concept that people don't just trust the way they used to in in products, in companies, in brands. They need to build a relationship first. Right? And so if you are not building a relationship, like, think about it if if you were dating somebody. If you were dating somebody, you know, think about those early days. Right? You're texting all the time.
[00:15:13]:
They text you good morning. How are how did you sleep, Beautiful? You know, you do all of that stuff. Right? And then imagine you're having that kind of courtship, and then suddenly, they disappear for, like, two months. Right? Because you're not launching. You just disappear. You're not showing up organically because organic reach is down. You're not advertising.
[00:15:32]:
And then you pop back up two weeks later, three weeks later, three months later, and you go, I've got a webinar. Come see me. You're basically the same thing as coming back and being like, hey. Hey. I know you I haven't talked to you for two months, but let's go out. Let's have a date. Let's get together. Right? Don't do that to your audience.
[00:15:49]:
Don't do that to the people that you're trying to build that relationship with. You need consistency. So, again, that fourth mistake that I see people make is they're treating ads like a faucet. Now those first four mistakes, I think they really play together. Right? You've gotta test. You've got to get data. You've got to look at your holistic funnel, and you've got to have our ads running all the time to do that. The next couple mistakes are more like logistic mistakes, like things I see people doing from an ads perspective, like the the setup or the management side of things that I'm like, don't do that.
[00:16:28]:
Okay? So first one that I see is they make changes to ads without changing or or I should say starting new ads. Right? So a lot of people, all of that that you just listen to, a lot of that is, like, get data, optimize, learn, learn, learn. People hear me say that, and what they do is they go out and they start making changes to their ads, which is not a bad thing. I'm in favor of that. But when you create a new ads, like, let's say you're running an ad, you've got an image going, and the data is telling you this image is not converting. I need to create a new image. You do not, from a logistics perspective, wanna go into an ad that's already running and just swap out the photo. Essentially, what I'm saying is you need to always isolate your testing with Facebook ads.
[00:17:19]:
So anytime you test something new with a Facebook ad, you should be testing a new Facebook ad. Don't just change something that is or isn't working. Always start a fresh test. Right? And that's gonna give you the cleanest data and the best results. So it's just really important that from a logistics perspective, you're not just in your, like, one ad campaign just changing things over and over again. Every time you change something to get new data, you need to start a new ad so that you have accurate data to look at. Okay? The other thing is that I see so many people do, and I get it. I do.
[00:17:59]:
But I think it's really important is they skip out on the pixel. Right? Now if you are just starting with ads and you're only running ads to grow your email list using lead form ads, which I teach inside our boot camp, that's okay if you don't have the pixel yet. But once you've been running ads for couple of months, you really wanna get the Facebook pixel. And what the Meta pixel is or the Facebook pixel is, is it's essentially a piece of code that goes on your website. And what it does is it tells Facebook when someone is taking a specific action on your website, such as purchasing a product, opting into your email list, and what people think is it's used for reporting. And technically, yeah, it is used for reporting. However, it's also used for optimization. What I mean is Facebook uses the data that it gathers from the pixel to determine where and how to keep running your ads.
[00:18:57]:
So the way that I explain this one is kinda like, if you think of, like, a fish finder. Right? If you were to go on a lake and you're fishing, you have the little fish finder, the little electronic that finds the fish in the water under the boat. If you find a school of fish, what are you gonna do? You're gonna drop anchor and fish there. Right? But if you don't have the fish finder, aka the pixel, aka the data reporting tool, and you cast your fishing rod, but you don't catch a fish, you're assuming there's no fish there. And so what you do is you move on. Right? You move to another spot because you're not catching fish. Facebook is the same way. If you don't have the pixel, it's always assuming that it didn't catch any fish.
[00:19:44]:
It's always assuming that, hey, we looked and, like, nobody seems to have purchased anything on your website. I don't have any data that says people purchased. And so for that reason, we're gonna try a new pond. We're gonna move where we're running your ads. And so without the pixel, what ends up happening is you don't have that feedback loop to tell Facebook it's doing a good job, and it doesn't learn because your Facebook ad account actually learns based on your pixel. It doesn't learn who and where to run your ads. Right? So it's really important that you build out the pixel data. Now, again, mistakes five and six are, like, more logistics, more if you've been in the ads game for a little while.
[00:20:25]:
Make sure you're not just randomly changing things in active ads, and make sure that you have your pixel set up. The last mistake that I see people make is, this is a fun one, I think, is they think they've given Facebook ads the old college try based on how much they've spent, not based on how long and how much data they've collected. So I believe if you really wanna give Facebook ads a go, you need to commit to 90-180 days. Right? Whether you start with list building ads like we teach in our boot camp, whether you start with sales ads, you really need three months because think about everything that I just said. Right? Let's run through these mistakes one more time. Number one, if you you aren't running for an extended period of time, you didn't test. Right? You threw ads out there, you turned them off. Two, if you're trying to get that instant ROI, you you don't you don't have enough data.
[00:21:17]:
Ninety days gives you more data. The funnel looking at the funnel, you can't judge the success or value of a funnel in your business if you don't have enough data going through. If you don't have, you know, two or three months and enough volume of data, which Facebook ads helps you get, you're not gonna know if you're getting results. The faucet, if you're turning ads on and off, you don't have that consistency for all that data. Right? Then if during that time, you're messing with your ads, you're constantly changing them, and you're not getting isolated split testing, you're not gonna get good results that you can use. And if you don't install the pixel, your Facebook ad account doesn't learn over that time. Right? So all of these mistakes kinda culminate in the biggest mistake that I see people make is they don't give ads time to work because they cost money. And I get that.
[00:22:09]:
I'm not judging. I'm not saying you're made of money or you need to be made of money. But what I am saying is that if you don't give Facebook ads the time and the space to actually, like, run and test and learn and optimize and collect data, you're not gonna get good results. Right? Because if you don't if you don't commit to something for an extended period of time, you're not gonna know in two weeks if Facebook ads are a game changer for your business. Right? We have this saying in our business, like, what you do today will pan out 90-180 days from now. The ads that I run today will serve my business over the next three to six months. But if I only run ads for two weeks, I'm not gonna yield those benefits. I'm not gonna harvest those crops for 90-180 days.
[00:22:56]:
But if I'm not even running ads anymore, I'm not even gonna be able to find the correlation between those. So those are the big mistakes that people are making. I hope you got lots of value. Now if you're listening to this and you're like, oh my gosh, Zach, I don't wanna make these mistakes. I just wanna get good results with Facebook ads. I get it. I wanna invite you to join us for the Facebook and Instagram Ads for Listbuilding Bootcamp, running April 28 through May 2. Now this is a live five day boot camp that I host.
[00:23:23]:
It's $25 to join, and we're gonna help you miss out on a lot of these mistakes by walking you through how to set up ads, understanding the testing period, understanding how to collect and read your data, getting you set up ads that are running all the time instead of like a faucet, all for $25. Now you can get the full details at theadsbootcamp.com. We would love to have you. I think you would find massive value if you've been flirting with ads or thinking about ads or you're like, I really wanna get ads up and running, but I just don't know where to start. This is the boot camp you wanna be at, theadsbootcamp.com. Now I hope you got lots of value from this episode. I wanna end by saying this. If you feel like, you know, oh my gosh.
[00:24:07]:
I'm, like, nervous now because I don't wanna make these mistakes. Listen, we all make mistakes. There's nothing wrong with making mistakes. It's part of the learning process. I would just encourage you to get some training and education, whether it's our boot camp or YouTube videos or someone else you wanna learn from. Learn some foundational elements before you start advertising because it's only gonna benefit you and your business. Now if you want the show notes, you can head over to heartsoulhustle.com/nyap095. Again, that's heartsoulhustle.com/nyap095 for Not Your Average Podcast, episode number 95.
[00:24:44]:
We'll have the show notes, the transcript for you there. And I hope you got massive value today as always. If you did, don't hesitate to DM me over on Instagram @zachspuckler. I love hearing from you. I hope you have an incredible week. I hope to see you at the boot camp. And until next time, stay not so average.
