Facebook CampaignPerformance Playbook

5 STEPS TO HIGH-PERFORMINGFACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM ADS

Running Facebook ads can be tricky business, and it reallydoesn’t take much for your ad to get bitten by the

underperformance bug. Achieve campaign success with ease.Simply follow these 5 steps when creating or troubleshooting

campaigns to ensure optimal ad performance.

Be sure to confirm each step before moving to the next, and remember, ifchanges to the campaign are made from one step, allow the campaign to runthrough a full cycle in order to understand impact on performance.

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Performance Checklist

Step 1: Identify Underperformance

Step 2: Check for Ad Delivery Problems

Step 3: Asset Optimization

Step 4: Target Optimization

Step 5: Campaign Strategy

Metrics and Expected Results

Lots of factors can impact expected results, such as the geotargeting of thecampaign, audience constraints, and value proposition of the product/service beingoffered. Higher valued products/services may receive less clicks, but have a highervalue per click/lead in terms of potential ROI.

Interpreting the Primary Metric:

You're running an ad because you wantyour audience to take action, and thebest ads focus on just one activity, toavoid confusing the user. This desiredaction, represented by each objective’sprimary metric, should align with yourbusiness’ goals. If your businessgenerates sales from people visiting theirwebsite - a campaign that optimizes forwebsite clicks allows your business to

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Identify UnderperformanceThis step evaluates the degree of underperformanceas related to the campaign objective.

We recommend focusing on the value of the primarymetric, for example, “What is a website visitor worth toyou, the advertiser?”

This playbook provides steps that allow advertisers tooptimize towards the primary metric of the campaign.

drive traffic to your website. An objective’s primary metric is important becausewhile campaigns bid for Impressions, the campaigns are optimized for the primarymetric, and ads will be delivered to users most likely to take the intended action ofthe primary metric.

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Common Ad Delivery Issues

Potential Reach

Facebook recommends that thepotential reach of a campaignaudience be at least 10,000.Audience sizes below thisnumber may cause campaigns tounderdeliver. Update youraudience to widen your potentialreach.

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2 Check for Problems with Ad DeliveryCampaigns can underperform due to external factors beyondthe quality of the ads themselves. Checking for these couldmean uncovering a simple fix that can improve performance.

Ads that have limited delivery may underperform because they cannot winenough auctions (bids) to generate a sufficient amount of results to spend theirfull budget.

Past Campaign Errors & User Feedback

Facebook may limit delivery on ads that do not follow Facebook advertisingguidelines. User feedback can also cause limited delivery. Be sure to check your adfor policy flags.

Too Much Text in Image

Ad images that have more than20% text may have their deliverylimited. Update your image toremove text. Verify you're withinthe 20% rule with Facebook’s TextOverlay tool - available here.

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Ad Fatigue

Ads that have been running over time will incur a higher frequency and may see reducedperformance. Refresh the ad creative as a simple fix.

Supports objectiveReinforces action

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3 Asset OptimizationFacebook and Instagram ads have many components, withoutsynergy between each ad asset, campaigns may underperform.

When all the components of an ad campaignare combined, they tell a story of abusiness, product, or service, and deliver it tothe right audience to achieve the desiredobjective. The visual components of your adshould work together. Check that each assetworks well with one another.

Targeted toaudienceReinforced bycopy, media, andcall-to-action

Objective

References keyselling propositionPrompts useractionBrief and direct

Copy

Clear, properlycroppedRelevant to ad offerSupports KSP

Media

Call-to-Action

Direct the user to take a specific action at least once within the ad copy. Then, reinforcethe action with a call-to-action button.Highlight the key selling point (KSP) of whatever is being advertised at least once.Keep copy as short as possible while including necessary information.

Copy should be written in a cohesive way that supports the ad’s objective. To writeeffective copy, we recommend the following:

3 Asset OptimizationFacebook and Instagram ads have many components, withoutsynergy between each ad asset, campaigns may underperform.

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References KSP

Prompts User ActionLink Description Length: 30 Characters

Headline Length: 25 Characters

Reinforces Action

Call-to-Action Button

References KSP &Prompts User Action

Body Copy Length:90 characters

Test unique sets of copy that leverage different calls to action, key sellingpoints, or offers, to generate clear performance learnings.

Grammar

Character Limits

A/B Testing

Copy should be free of profanity, bad grammar, and poor punctuation.Symbols, numbers, and letters must be used properly.

Write for mobile first and follow the recommends copy character lengths.

Media should be used to support the ad’s objective and copy.

3 Asset OptimizationFacebook and Instagram ads have many components, withoutsynergy between each ad asset, campaigns may underperform.

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1 Relevancy: Imagery should reflect the product/service being advertised. Wherepossible try to use custom imagery specific to the advertiser.

Quality: Images should be high resolution, cropped correctly, and follow image andvideo best practices. 

A/B Testing: Test a diverse selection of relevant images to generate clearperformance learnings.

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1 2 3

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B

To allow Facebook’s optimization process to work properly, we recommendadvertisers start with a broad audience with only a geo-overlay. This preventsaudience members from potentially being excluded from targeting too early on.

4 Facebook offers powerful targeting capabilities, but harnessingthem for specific campaigns requires consideration. Even adswith optimized assets can underperform if not targeted properly.

Targeting Optimization

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Target Parameters

Facebook Optimization Based on Objective

An audience may be too broad if ittargets an audience that sits outside ofthe sales area for the end advertiser.

A local business may get most of itstraffic from users who live and workwithin just a mile or two of theirlocation. In this case, we’d recommendreducing the geo-targeted area tocover just the relevant sales area.

Facebook offers powerful targeting capabilities, but harnessingthem for specific campaigns requires consideration. Even adswith optimized assets can underperform if not targeted properly.

An audience may be too narrow if itlimits or excludes members that mightbe interested in the ad, but areremoved from the target area withdetailed targeting selections.

When applying detailed targeting, werecommend testing the targetingconstraints against one another and abroad audience. This allows users tounderstand how each detailedtargeting parameter impacts thecampaign results as a whole beforeoverlaying them.

Common Targeting Issues Impacting Performance

4 Targeting Optimization

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Specific Broad Specific Broad

Your audience is toospecific for your adsto be shown. Trymaking it broader.

Your audienceselection is fairlybroad.

Audience Too Detailed Audience Too Broad

It is possible that a campaign may need a larger structural change, suchas an objective change, to achieve the desired results for the business.This can be true for ads that have optimized assets and targeting.

Review the campaign objective against the business'goals to ensure they’re aligned.

5 Campaign Strategy

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Goals Objectives

Generate interestin your product orservice

Get people to thinkabout your businessand seek more info

Encourage peopleinterested in yourbusiness to buy or useyour product/service

Brand AwarenessReach

TrafficEngagementApp Installs

Video ViewsLead GenMessages

ConversionsCatalogue SalesStore Traffic*

Does the current objective give interested users enough to act on? If the Facebookaudience is not responding to a campaign that’s been optimized through steps 1-4,it’s possible that the business goal needs a different objective strategy.

Are there existing lead hooks that can be leveraged? Do you have an offer thatpresents a lower barrier to entry for potential new customers?

*Facebook is currently limiting usage of this objective to businesses meeting very narrow and specific criteria: musthave location Pages with complete local information (even the public WiFi name, if they use it), buildings should befree standing, and approval to use is at Facebook's discretion.

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Facebook ads are a complicated mix of traditional advertising creative anddigital best practices. All of these different elements must come together tobuild a unified ad unit. Audiences need to be relevant and made up ofinterested consumers, just as the creative needs to be compliant and resonatewith said consumers. So pay attention to the construction of your audience,the quality of your content you serve them, and most importantly –  when indoubt test it out – especially if you’ve eliminated any technical issues or simplefixes, such as removing text from your image.

Here at Tiger Pistol, our platform is designed for continuous A/B testing,automatically pushing winning ads forward and surfacing insights on particularelements such as image, copy, audience, and even down to the CTA button.Harnessing the power of social requires both a trained eye to both develop andmanage the right content, but also requires the ability to adapt based onconsumer behavior and campaign data. You too can conquer all elements ofyour social media campaign; it just takes the right mix of proactive action andsmart data insights.

Learn how Tiger Pistol can optimize theperformance of your local ads at scale.

Contributing Authors

Lisa Callahan, Creative Operations Specialist, Tiger Pistol Yanira Durant, Marketing Services Specialist, Tiger PistolChris Mayer, Solutions Engineer, Tiger PistolLaura Sebo, Software Implementation Manager, Client Success, Tiger Pistol

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