Short on Time? Simple Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Ads

If you’ve ever advertised on Facebook and are unsure if you’re getting the most out of your campaign, then you have come to the right place! 

As you know, Facebook advertising presents exciting and effective ways for organizations to get their message in front of users (nearly 2 billion, actually). But sometimes, the insights available can be overwhelming, and it can be difficult to know how to optimize your ads throughout the campaign duration. If you’re short on time—like many of us are—you’ll just let your Facebook campaigns run and check in on the results when they conclude.

Here are some simple ways to optimize your Facebook campaigns to get the most bang for your buck and secure learnings for future campaigns!

#1 Explore Targeting

Once you’ve let your campaigns run for enough time—let’s say, a week—it’s time to look at how your ad sets are performing. Every campaign has a different Key Performance Indicator (KPI), so it’s important to understand what is helping you reach your campaign goals. Given the insights you’ve gained so far, broaden or narrow your targeting (by age, interest, and gender) to really focus on individuals taking the actions you’re looking—and paying—for. Adjusting your targeting can be incremental; maybe you make small changes based on what the data is telling you, like adding more interests to target in order to increase audience size or testing out a new audience—like a new remarketing audience. Let more time pass to see how those changes fare, then refine your targeting further. Ensure you’ve given yourself enough time to collect meaningful learnings that truly inform targeting parameters.

Pro Tip: Consider using lookalike audiences to reach people similar to your current audience. These audience segments are typically very cost-effective.

#2 Test, Test, Test.

Sure, you launched your campaigns with set creative and messaging, but maybe you’ve noticed certain ads are performing much better or worse than others. How will you know which variables are successful? Get the most learnings out of your ad experience by testing ad variables against one another, such as imagery, messaging, and CTA button, to see which resonate the most with your target audience. If ads are underperforming, consider swapping them out with new creative. The insights you gain here will not only help you understand your audience better but will guide you in future organic and paid campaigns.

#3 Monitor Performance

With the KPIs for your campaigns in mind, monitor performance at the ad level to see which ads are achieving your goals and which are not. Don’t be afraid to turn off underperforming ads to favor high-performing ones! Take a look at each ad set overall—how does performance compare? Ad sets may need a bit more time to run before differences in performance become clear. If you’re noticing an ad set is underperforming even after you’ve optimized targeting, don’t be afraid to turn it off and allocate spend elsewhere.

Overall, Facebook advertising can provide insightful learnings that can help you in the future – but you need to be sure to take advantage of the data available to you! For the best ad experience, ensure you’re checking in on your campaigns 2-4 times per week to see how the changes you’ve made have affected campaign performance. Happy Facebook advertising!

Want to learn more about optimizing your ads on Facebook or need help with your Facebook advertising strategy? Get in touch with us!