Running advertisements on Meta can greatly impact the success of your business. Successful ads build awareness for your brand and its products, but also can – and should be – a sales driver when executed properly.

Yet many brands find themselves running ads and viewing the expense as a cost of doing business. They don’t see the return on investment and hope that the long-term awareness they are getting from the ads pays off.

No ad should be a process of hoping for results. With the right ad strategy, you’ll know without a doubt whether your ads are performing the way they should. After decades of experience in online ads, Two Wheels Marketing offers you this guide to solving underperforming Meta ads in a few simple, yet critical, steps.

How to Know When Your Ad Targeting is Off

The first step to improving your Meta ads is understanding whether your ads are performing the way they should. A good place to start is to look at your ad targeting.

Ad targeting does not just refer to the audience you’re aiming to reach with your ad but also a variety of other aspects that determine whether the ad resonates with that audience.

Spend time reviewing the following details.

• The ad: Think like your target audience. Evaluate whether the ad is compelling based on their interests, pain points and needs.
• The offer: What are you promising the customer? Is it the same thing they could get if they landed on your website or have browsed that website before? If so, it probably won’t compel them to take the next step with you. Whether it’s as simple as free shipping or a special discount just for social followers, it should be something that motivates them to take action immediately.
• The landing page: One of the most important elements of your Meta ad is the landing page. It should show versus tell using as few words as possible, at a fifth-grade level or easier, show well on mobile, use social proof, have a simple form or conversion process, and be backed with an email marketing strategy that follows up with the customer quickly. While that sounds complex, changes as simple as having no navigation bar on your landing page can increase conversions up to 336%.
• The conversion journey: A single ad generally doesn’t result in purchase. Cold prospects can take as many as 50 touches to convert. While that likely sounds long and overwhelming, a touch can be as simple as the customer seeing an organic post from your company on social media, a follow-up email, or a secondary visit to your website the day after interacting with your ad. You should think about the conversion journey before launching a Meta ad for best results.
• The signal quality: The problem with your Meta ads could have nothing to do with the ad itself. Instead, you might have problems with your tracking that are making it look as though your ad is underperforming. Some examples of poor signal quality include events not tracking well, attribution changes, or problems with your pixel or API. Run some tests to ensure nothing has broken since you launched your ads.

Metrics That Indicate Where Your Problem Lies

Even once you identify that there is a problem with your ads, it can be challenging to know where the problem is coming from because your team came up with the ad strategy and creative, which could blind you to what’s going on.

In those cases, you can dig into these metrics to evaluate whether something might be wrong.

• ROAS: Return-on-ad spend is a crucial metric. Don’t wait around assuming that you’re build good brand awareness while sinking money into your ads. Instead, commit to return on ad spend metrics that have a real impact on your bottom line.
• Cost per lead: Before you start a marketing campaign, you should know what you can afford as your cost per lead. It should be a number that keeps your profit margins where they need to be based on your overall expenses to provide your products or services. Most businesses find that a cost per lead that is 20-60% of their sale price is reasonable. But that’s obviously a very large range and some companies might not be priced or equipped to accept a cost per lead of 60%.
• Conversion value: If the revenue from your ads is too low, it could indicate a problem with your ads or the conversion journey attached to those ads. Low revenue from ads, whether that be immediately after a customer sees the ad or weeks or months down the line could indicate that you need to reevaluate aspects of your strategy.
• CTR vs CPC vs CPA: As you dig into your metrics, you should evaluate your metrics in this order. First look at your click-through-rate (CTR). This indicates whether people are interested in your ad. If it’s low, it could indicate that your ad targeting is off, your messaging is weak, or your creative blends in. Next, look at the cost per click (CPC). This metric tells you how expensive it is to generate traffic to your site. A low CTR and high CPC combined is a serious signal that your ads need reworked. Finally, look at your cost per acquisition (CPA). This indicates the quality of your landing page, the conversion funnel experience, your offer and pricing, conversion tracking issues or that you’ve targeted an audience with low purchase intent.

Reasons Why Meta Ads Underperform

Meta ads are successful for a variety of business types. WordStream suggests that the following lead objectives are reasonable for Meta ads:

• 2.59% click-through rate
• $1.92 cost per click
• 7.72% conversion rate
• $27.66 cost per lead

If your metrics are well below those numbers, it is time to evaluate these reasons why your ads are underperforming.

1. Poor Landing Page

We touched on this above as a way to know if your ad targeting is off. But it’s really the most crucial element in determining whether a customer converts. If all is well with your ad creative and you have a strong click-through rate but low conversion rate, it’s likely your landing page or lack thereof. 

Failing to use a landing page and directing prospects to a general webpage on your site will have a negative impact on your conversion rates. 

So if your ads are currently going directly to your website, this might be a fast fix for you as long as you follow the guidelines for the elements of a successful landing page listed above.

2. Lack of a Compelling Offer

The second most impactful element of your ads that might be pulling down their conversion rates is the offer. When ads don’t have a compelling, eye-catching offer, people keep scrolling without clicking or engaging in any way with your ads. Your offer should include the following elements:

• Offer clear and immediate value (such as a discount, free consult or limited time incentive)
• Reduce risk for the customer (a free trial, satisfaction guarantee, no obligation)
• Include social proof or authority that builds consumer confidence
• Includes a sense of urgency or scarcity to ensure the customer acts now

3. Old Creative

Ad fatigue pulls down your ad metrics quickly. Regular creative updates and a variety of ad sets will help your ads be more successful. 

Even the best ads become less effective with time as customers start to recognize them, know what they are selling, and scroll right past. What seemed like an urgent sale or offer has become commonplace, and the ad creative blends in with everything else on their feed.

Bring in the Experts to Pinpoint What’s Underperforming and Why 

Meta ad performance usually comes down to a small number of simple, high-impact adjustments to see results almost immediately. But knowing where to start can be challenging if you don’t spend your days working with Meta ads.

Trust your ads (and your conversion metrics) to Two Wheels Marketing. Our team has helped countless businesses evaluate their ads and turn them around into high-performing lead and sales engines for their businesses.

Contact us now to learn more about how we can take your Meta ads to the next level.