You start Facebook ads and are excited about the results you’re going to get. After all you see people all the time who do great with Facebook ads, and you want a piece of that success too!
So, you set up your ads with high expectations and zero sales! Ugh! What do you do in this situation? It’s very frustrating.
Maybe you’ve tested a bunch of things and nothing’s working. Perhaps it’s zero sales or maybe it’s a couple of sales, but you’re just not getting ANY real results.
Let’s dive into one of the main reasons this is happening!
The Reasons Your Facebook Ads Aren’t Returning Sales
Your Offer Isn’t Grabbing Attention
We’ve seen ads with the best creatives and great targeting completely fall flat because the offer is overpriced or there isn’t enough demand for it.
An incredible offer can often make up for a bad campaign, but a bad offer can’t usually be rescued by a good campaign.
As an aside, I want to stress here that when you have a campaign that is making sales you should further optimise the campaign to squeeze as much out of it as possible.
If you are selling something that you KNOW other people are selling, well then it might be your price point that’s the issue.
People can and do comparison shop online and if someone else is selling a product for $5, $10, or $20 less then they are likely to go buy from your competition.
This is especially true for drop shipping products where many people are selling the EXACT same item.
Poor Targeting
Another common reason why Facebook ads may struggle to convert is because they fail to target the right audience.
Facebook has approximately 2.93 billion monthly active users and in Australia it’s the most popular social media platform – so if you’re blaming your lack of success with Facebook ads on the fact that your audience isn’t on the platform, it is highly likely this isn’t the case.
Facebook has very powerful targeting abilities allowing marketers access to custom and AI audiences. Your ads can be shown to a very precise audience who are selected based on their location, interests, demographics, and digital behaviour.
On the flip side, if you’re ads are poorly targeted, your ads will be shown across the platform to an audience who does not care for them at all, leading to poor site conversions and sales.
For example – if you aren’t interested in fishing, but a poorly targeted ad tries to promote fishing rods to you, even the best-looking fishing rod ad isn’t going to suddenly change your mind.
So, knowing your target market and customer personas is important.
Right Audience, Wrong Message
Ever run into a stranger on the street and ask them to marry you? It’s unlikely right – and the same thing goes for advertising on Facebook. Your ads might be failing to convert because you’re targeting people who could be the perfect customer in the future, with the wrong ads for where they are now in the marketing funnel.
It’s important to segment your audience by different stages in the customer buying journey and serve them ads according to where they fit in.
The Facebook ads you serve for a cold audience in the awareness stage will be (and should be – hint hint) entirely different to the ads you deliver to a warm or hot audience in the consideration or purchase stage of the funnel.
If you are asking people who have just discovered your brand to buy now before giving any credible or trustworthy information about your brand, you’re going to have a hard time generating sales.
But let’s be clear – that’s not to say you should never run sales-focused ads on Facebook, you certainly can. However, there is a strategic method to doing this, a method we’ve seen work countless times.
Solutions to Start Making Sales
Don’t be afraid to experiment with your offer
This is where a little bit of creative thinking can make a HUGE difference. Sometimes switching to a different product or service is enough.
But sometimes you can package a product differently to increase the perceived value.
You might create a ‘buy one get one free’ offer or a limited-time discount.
If you have a superior product that justifies charging more, then you will need to find a way to differentiate your product to the competition.
It’s important to remember that you are advertising real stuff to real people and real people are going to make rational, logical decisions based on perceived quality and price.
I know this is frustrating to hear, but after helping hundreds of clients generate thousands and thousands of sales on Facebook, I can tell you that the offer is EVERYTHING.
The higher price your product or service, the more you need to spend in testing to determine if something will work.
If you are stuck for ideas about how to craft a GREAT Facebook ad & offer, that is something that Business Assist does very well, our results prove that.
Know your audience before you create your ads
We’re killing two birds with one stone here. Knowing the ins and outs of your target audience and segmenting them properly allows you to target the right people at the right time with the right message.
If you want to target your ads correctly, you must first assess who your customer is and build a custom audience profile. Before building out your audience in Facebook, we recommend taking some time to create customer personas.
Investigate traits & characteristics like:
- Age & Gender
- Location
- Interests/Hobbies
- Language
- Who/what influences them
- Employment status
- Etc…
The following example depicts three distinct customer personas for a fineness academy client of ours, set up in Facebook Ads Manager.
Who would be interested in doing a personal training course? What do they look like? Why would they be interested?
Asking these questions allowed us to come up with three segments…
- Fitness Fanatics: Those who love fitness, sport, staying active and may be looking to turn their passion/hobby into a career.
- Career Changers: Those who are looking to explore a new career path.
- In the Market: Those lower down in the funnel who are ready to explore a fitness course & may be assessing their options.
Now – in building out these personas/segments we could also determine where they might be situated in the marketing funnel.
For example, those in the market right now, looking to solve their need or problem are likely to be closer to the evaluation & purchase stages. Therefore, the messaging here need to be closely related to the customers evaluation criteria or customer value drivers. This may come down to price, brand image, design, functionality, complementary products.
On the hand, the Fitness Fanatics segment may be a little higher up in the funnel in the awareness stage; they’re passionate about fitness but perhaps have not considered undertaking a personal training course. For this segment, ad should be focused on getting your brand in front of the customer. Why are they relevant and how can they help.
The Bottom Line on Facebook Ads That Don’t Generate Sales
If you have Facebook Ads that don’t generate sales, it could very well be your offer or targeting techniques that is the problem.
Need help readjusting your offer or filling out your customer personas? Contact Business Assist today to help your business create a bulletproof social strategy that will help your business boost sales and increase your ROI.
