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Facebook Sponsorships: When Ads Don't Work


Facebook Sponsorships

Have you tried Facebook sponsorships but they aren't bringing the desired results?

A shower of likes on your post but no real contact?


Let's find out together what are the most common mistakes that can be made when doing sponsorships on Facebook (and Instagram).


You don't use the Facebook Ads Manager tool

There are two ways to advertise on Facebook and one of them is the death of campaigns. Which one? That magic button under the posts “ Boost the post ”.


Why? It is a very limited tool in its settings: it does not allow you to set numerous parameters, such as positioning, the specific definition of the audience, creating custom audiences (users who have visited the site, users who have interacted with the page but are not fans, lists of customer email addresses, and consequently lookalikes of these).

Furthermore, you cannot create A/B tests of the same campaign to test the performance of an audience, of the creative for the same campaign.


So it is always better to create advertising campaigns through the professional tool Ads Manager. Where can I find it? Here: https://www.facebook.com/ads/manager/


Here you can choose different placements: for example, decide whether or not to sponsor our post also on Instagram, if only in the news section of mobile devices or computers; you can choose specific objectives and target the audience we want to reach in a very detailed way.


Wrong goal


The first choice we are asked to make as soon as we click the “Create Campaign” button (in the Facebook Ads Manager) concerns the objective. Depending on the objective chosen, different formats are needed to use for creativity, possible placements but above all Facebook shows your ad to the people who are most likely to do that type of action.


An example: if my goal is to bring people to my website to tell more about my product by choosing the "Post Interaction" objective, I will have a poorly performing campaign. Facebook shows my post at the lowest possible cost to people who are likely to interact and not to click and visit my website.


The right audience


Sponsorships on Facebook Buyer Personas

One of the possible mistakes in Facebook sponsorships is the definition of the audience. Have you defined who your buyer personas are? Define your target in detail, based on their interests, lifestyle, family situation, work and geographical area.


If you are a gym can you target people who live up to 80 km from you? No! No one would travel 80 km for an hour of pilates, unless you are advertising a pilates master class taught by a pilates guru to pilates enthusiasts, which is a whole other story.

Or... Is it okay to advertise your meat restaurant and not exclude vegans? It would be a waste of budget to show them your ad.


To avoid showing your campaigns to the wrong audience, you must therefore draw up an identikit of the typical customer, or rather the typical customers of your business.


An audience that is too narrow or too broad


The size of the audience for our campaign is another crucial point.

By selecting an audience that is too narrow , you run the risk of exhausting it very quickly, showing the campaign several times (therefore having a very high frequency) and becoming a spammer. So in addition to boring the chosen audience, we spend money for no results and probably do not reach other potential interested parties that we have excluded.


Even an audience that is too large can be a source of error: an audience that is too large may not exactly reflect the target of users you want to reach. So you will spend money to reach people who are not potentially interested and not get real interactions from potential interested parties. Not to mention that you do not allow the Facebook algorithm to understand which target of people you want to address.


Funnel definition


Your Facebook ads need to be in the right place at the right time. And this place and this time are not the same for all products and services.

It is strategically essential to define the customer's purchasing path, also called Customer Journey.

So: is it correct to propose the sale of a product (perhaps for which trust is required and there is no urgency) to people who do not know it?!


Some advice: propose your product to that category of users who already know you and have already interacted with your content, create a free experience for these people, show them your added value and finally, for example, create a dedicated coupon.


Trying to sell right away is definitely a way to make your campaigns not work. Only very well-known brands or very cheap products/services can afford this luxury.


It is always important to remember that Facebook and Instagram are two social platforms, which users access for entertainment, to chat with friends and to browse the world. When a user wants to buy a certain product, they use other platforms (they search on Google, Amazon, Booking, etc.).


If you want to know more about the difference between latent and conscious demand click here and read the dedicated article.


You don't use the pixel


Not tracking users does not allow you to optimize your campaigns.

Let's start with the basics: what is a pixel? It's a plug-in you install on your website that allows you to collect data and measure the effectiveness of your advertising.

In detail, the pixel allows you to analyze the actions taken by users on the site, coming from the Facebook campaign and create retargeting campaigns (reaching users who visited the website again on social media).


Have you made any mistakes in your campaigns? Comment on this post and we will be happy to help you!

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