Ads FAQs
My ad was rejected. What should I do?
You know your ads are rejected when you see the little red triangle as your delivery status (you will find this at the adset level). It looks like this:
First, go into the ad level, and see why it was rejected. It should look like this:
Skim through your ad a few times and triple check to make sure you are not violating any of Facebook’s advertising policies. If necessary, make some adjustments to the ad copy to make sure your ad is above board.
After updating your ad, hit PUBLISH and it will go under review again.
If you are confident that you are NOT violating the ad policy, and your ad was incorrectly rejected (one of our accounting students got her ad rejected because for some reason Facebook thought she was selling alcohol!), you can click the “Request Review” button.
Occasionally ads will be rejected after running for several months. This happens because as you scale your ad, you will inevitably get higher volumes of people reporting your ad as spam...no matter how good your targeting is. It’s just the nature of being in front of that many people. In that case, you can request a review but will rarely get it reactivated. That is why we always have multiple ads running.
No matter how much you may love an ad, you need to be willing to let it go. If you request a review too many times or try to “beat the system” by uploading it again in a fresh adset, you may trigger Facebook to deactivate your entire ad account.
Relax. A rejected ad is not the end of the world. You have all the tools to confidently set up another ad and keep moving forward.
My ad account was shut down. How can I recover it?
Every once in a while, someone gets their ad account disabled by Facebook. It usually feels random and can be extremely discouraging.
Here are a few reasons Facebook may have disabled your account: Misleading claims, dysfunctional landing page, Adult content, repeated ad policy violations, using a fake name, impersonating someone.
If you’re an Ads Magic member, I’m sure you didn’t do any of those things, so don’t sweat it. Fortunately, it’s usually pretty simple to recover your account.
First, request a review. The button for a review request will be right at the top of your Ads Manager screen when you try to log in.
Next, chat with someone from Facebook directly. Not everyone has this option, but you can try!
Go to the Facebook Business Help Center by clicking this link: https://www.facebook.com/business/help
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the blue “Get Started Button.”
Select Ad Management Tools.
There, if you have the option to chat with Facebook, you’ll see a “Chat with a Representative” option at the bottom of the screen. If you don’t see it there, you can select “My Ad Account was disabled” and follow the instructions on that page.
How do I caption my video ads?
Here’s a link directly from Facebook that walks you step-by-step through the process of adding captions to your video ads: https://www.facebook.com/help/261764017354370
How should I handle negative comments on my ad?
- First, be brutally honest with yourself. Was there something confusing in your ad, or any truth in the negative comments? Maybe you need to rework the ad to better communicate your point.
- Do not take offense to tricky questions. Sometimes, it feels like the commenters are attacking you, but they’re truly just looking for answers. Some of the skeptics may be your most loyal fans if you take a moment and answer them in a non-defensive way. Rise above all criticism. Use it all as an opportunity to politely explain yourself. Even if the negative commenter remains negative, your kind and thoughtful reply may win over someone who is scrolling through the comments to make their decision.
- There will always be an occasional troll, but if you’re getting a ton of negative comments, try adjusting your targeting. Generally, you can’t say the right things to the wrong people, and you can’t say the wrong things to the right people!
- Do not delete the comment, unless it is a death threat (yes, sometimes this happens) or sexual comment. The more conversation that happens on your ad the better. Attention is currency, and even negative comments boost your post’s engagement rate rankings in Facebook which means cheaper cost per reach! Remember, for everything there is an equal and opposite reaction - for every negative comment you get, you’re also getting new subscribers and new loyal fans. The proof is in your Cost Per Result. If that’s suffering, then it’s time to reevaluate.
- One of the best ways to beat skepticism and negativity is to boost your credibility. If you are currently using exclusions in your ad audience, remove them right away. This will allow your ad to run in front of people who already know you. Many times, they’ll defend you and praise you in the comments.
What’s the deal with “learning mode?”
I recently spoke with a Facebook ads specialist who told me that the Facebook pixel must have 50 events in one week in order for the pixel to exit learning mode. He also said if the pixel is still in learning mode and 50 events haven't fired within a week that you can't trust the data which will make the data untrustworthy when trying to scale. Can you successfully run and optimize ads if the pixel doesn't have the 50 events fire in one week? I'm having a hard time seeing how starting with a smaller budget would work because even if you have $500 per mo. budget - at a $3 CPL with a perfect campaign that would still only be about 41 events per week. Would love to know thoughts on this because if all of this is true, then that would mean you could never properly run ads on a small budget.
Some of this is true. Your ads will stay in learning mode until you're getting 50+ events/week. That being said, it's smarter to stick to a budget you can afford and stay in learning mode than to overspend on ads just to get yourself out of learning mode. There's nothing wrong with hanging out in the Learning Mode.
Learning mode is basically the phase where Facebook is working to RANK you. They rank you based on your perceived ad quality, ad engagement, and conversions. They compare your ads to other ads, and rank you as Below Average, Average, or Above Average in each of the three categories. When you exit the learning phase, if your ads are ranked Below Average, your cost per 1000 reached may spike. Facebook wants to keep its users happy, so if your ad is low quality in their book, they'll give priority to other ads and you'll end up spending more money to get your ad pushed out. If your ads are ranked Average or Above Average, however, your ads costs will stay the same or improve as Facebook begins to prioritize getting your ad into the feed (since they know people like seeing your ad).
Yes, your cost per lead may fluctuate as you exit the learning phase, but if your ads are good ads, you shouldn't notice a huge difference. We've had no issues relying on data from the learning phase. We LIVED in the learning phase for WEEKS when we tested new ads for our mini course, Untemplated.
The main thing with ads is that you have to be on the ball. Just check your analytics every couple days and see what's going on. Your costs will fluctuate. They'll go up or down when you're exiting learning phases, they'll go up on the weekends, they'll randomly spike for 3 days and then go back down. Your cost per lead may increase as your ad budget increases. Keep an eye on weekly averages to make your decisions.
If you're trying to get an ad out of learning mode quickly, you can change the objective of the ad just to be clicks instead of opt-ins so that Facebook will see that you're getting results. We did this for our retargeting campaign to fill Ads Magic. Although I would have rather tracked to see how many purchases came from the ads, I wanted the ads to optimize quickly so I just made the objective “Clicks.” Normally, if there's not a deadline, I'd rather just go slow.
What is the best way to test ads?
I'd like some clarification on the best way to test. Are you setting up a new campaign every time you'd like to test new ads/audiences/creative etc? Or are you rotating in new ads, audiences, etc. into an existing campaign? Also, if you're rotating in new ads to test, wouldn't that send your ads back into learning mode?
We keep everything in one campaign, but rotate in new ad sets and ads with different creatives and audiences. And yes, those ads will be in learning mode....but that is okay. Whether or not you're in learning mode, the % of people who click on your ad or engage with your ad is NOT going to vary. Facebook doesn't control the way people respond to your ad - The only thing that varies is how cheaply FB decides to put your ad in front of people for. But even that will vary based on how many other people are trying to run ads in front of your audience....You have very little control over this part of the ads. Focus on amazing creatives, good sales language and an incredible offer...the rest will fall into place.
What is better - a webinar or a video series?
I know you mentioned we should aim for around a $3 CPL. I see you all do a 4 part video series. Is there a reason you all opted for a video series instead of a webinar (as it seems most coaches/consultants run webinars)? Do you think the CPL is lower for series versus a webinar?
These are all things we teach inside our Signature Program, Launch 1M. There are many pros and cons to a webinar vs. a video series. The only way to know for certain is to test and see how your audience responds. In short, webinar leads are usually a little bit more expensive, but they're often great leads because they're sitting down and carving out an entire chunk of time to watch. For our audience, the video series was refreshing since EVERYONE in our industry was doing the webinar. Since many of our people have young families, it's also so much easier for them to have short videos instead of a long one - that's just a big commitment. We also liked building rapport over many days and then asking for the sale instead of coming out of the gate with a big ask.
Should I run ads to a freebie or a low-ticket offer?
I had a quick question for you about some retargeting ads I saw in the Ads Showcase Library. You had put up ads that directed people to your membership sales page and I was wondering if I should do the same?
I was thinking of doing an ad that directed people (cold traffic...I don't yet have a warm audience) to my 4-part mini course freebie to be added to my email funnel and then directed to my membership sales page.
But seeing the results you got from your ads, I'm wondering if I should direct my ads to my sales page instead of my freebie?"
(I will be selling a life coaching membership priced at $89/mth after the first 100 sign ups)
It all boils down to the math. You could honestly go either way. That being said, the reason our ads into the membership converted so well was because we ran them to an existing audience. It would not have converted like that if it was to a cold audience! I wish I had all the answers, but there is going to be some level of trial and error.
Anything under the $50 mark usually sells pretty well to a cold audience. When you start asking for $90 RECURRING from someone who doesn't know or trust you yet, it can be a stretch. BUT, you also have $89 to acquire the client and break even - assuming your retention rates are good, that could work really well! So even if you're at 0 for month one, you could make back all your adspend month two. If you're going to try this, you will need a really good sales page and I'd even throw a short video at the top of it!
Remember, the math for the free gift route will only work if you have a higher ticket item to sell in addition to your membership! If you do it out...you're paying $3/lead and if 2% of those leads convert you're paying $150/new student - which you won't see a return on until month 3. I want you to see an ROI within a couple weeks! So the free gift model is amazing, but only if you have something worth $500+.
We've tested our $49 UnTemplated offer both ways to a cold audience, and there's pros and cons to both. Here's a comparison:
A) Running ads to the 4 part video series for FREE -
$10k in adspend @ $4 CPL = 2500 new leads and 25 sales with a 1% conversion rate. That's $62,500 in sales (the course is $2,500) with a $52,500 in profit.
No matter what, just do out your math and play with the numbers so you can move forward confidently and with specific numeric targets in mind! You got this!
Why are more leads showing up in Ads Manager than in my CRM system?
There are several different reasons why this may be happening.
- You have shared the "Thank you page" link in multiple locations.
If you share the thank you page link in your email sequence, every time someone clicks on the link, the pixel event code will fire and FB reads that data as another sign up. Use your thank you page for FB ads ONLY and do not share that same link anywhere else. If you need to, duplicate the page and share one with a different URL that is not attached to the event code. The customer experience is exactly the same but your backend numbers won't be messed up! - People are sharing the link.
If you have an awesome PDF or video on the thank you page, your subscribers may text it or email it to a friend or family member. Then, when they visit the page, the pixel will fire again. No worries! This happens sometimes. The only thing you can do is check your CRM to make sure there's not a crazy big difference. 100% perfect data is rare. - Subscribers may enter fake emails.
When this happens, your CRM may block the email subscriber from joining your list. FB counts this as a new lead, because they did make it to the thank you page, but no follow up emails will be sent afterwards. - Double opt in settings may be on.
Double opt in is when someone signs up for your list but gets an email that basically says, "Do you want to be on this list" and they have to confirm their subscription before receiving the first email in your sequence. If they don't confirm subscription, they won't be a new subscriber in your CRM, but again, FB has counted them as a success because they did hit your thank you page.
**Note: Depending on what country you're in, double opt in may be required.
Don't obsess over this - it can drive you insane! But if you're getting an INSANE variation between what you're seeing in FB and your CRM, then investigate to see where you can make adjustments.
How do you run ads to people in a FB group?
Whether it's your group or someone else's group, there's no "official" way to do this. That being said, there is a little loophole if you're up for it!
STEP 1:
Choose a specific FB group you would like to target with an ad and ask to join it.
STEP 2:
Create a value-add video to post inside that FB group.
STEP 3:
Post the video to your Business FB Page:
STEP 4:
Share the video on your Business Page inside the FB group using your personal FB account.
Note: Since most FB groups do not allow promotional posts without prior permission, make sure your video is value-add content and not promotional.
STEP 5:
Make sure your post gets lots of engagement (lots of likes and comments). To help boost engagement, reply to comments personally and keep the conversation going.
Note: If you are not getting engagement with this post, it may not be a great ad to run. Make sure you get lots of engagement before you move on to the next step!
STEP 6:
Create your custom audience inside Ads Manager. Select "Videos" as the source:
Then on the next screen select "People who viewed at least 3 seconds of your video":
Then click "Choose Videos" and select the video you posted to your Business FB Page.
Finally, create a lookalike audience based on the custom audience you just created.
There you go! That's a little loophole for running ads to a FB group.
Should I panic about the iOS 14 Update?! How does the iOS 14 update affect my ads?
There are so many doom and gloom messages buzzing around the internet right now about how the iOS 14 update will affect Facebook ads! Everyone is freaking out because there is a lot of uncertainty and it’s easy to panic when you don’t know what’s going to happen.
The truth is, ad tracking will definitely be affected by this update. And optimizing and scaling ads is going to be tricky when you don’t know which ads or which audiences are performing best.
A few third party software platforms have popped up that are still able to track ad and ad set performance (we started using Hyros). It’s a bit of an investment, so we wouldn’t recommend everyone use it, but it may be worth it if you have a large ad budget. The software has two main functions:
1. Reports accurate conversion data by integrating with Facebook and your backend systems to tell you which sales came from which ads
2. Sends the results back to a Facebook pixel so your pixel can still learn and get smarter
For anyone not willing to make the investment in a third party software, it is even more important to create high quality ad content, landing pages and follow up email sequences. Your adspend will still generate traffic, so you will still be able to make sales/grow your email list. Since the pixel isn’t getting accurate data and can’t fully know who’s converting best, most likely costs will stay higher than normal.
The FB pixel wasn’t always around and people still advertised on Facebook. So without the 3rd party software, you’ll just have to set things up the old fashion way. The best way to bootstrap during this season is to create a separate landing page or sales page for each ad set/audience, run the ads in those ad sets to that unique landing page, and analyze your backend systems to see how many conversions you had from each ad set. Look at the budget and your conversion results and plug them into a spreadsheet to calculate CPL and any other metric you need to analyze. If you want to know how each ad is doing, you’ll have to set up a separate landing page for each ad (such a pain!!).
The online space adapts quickly when there is a huge need/gap in the market, so I'm confident as time goes on there will be other ways to get around these new iOS restrictions (stick around Ads Magic for updates!).
