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You are here: Home / Blog / 10 Facebook Ad Optimization Hacks for Massive Success

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10 Facebook Ad Optimization Hacks for Massive Success

May 8, 2017 37 Comments Karola Karlson

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Ther’s a ton of articles about Facebook ad optimization.

However, most of them are full of basic advice like “Install a Facebook Pixel” or “Create a Facebook audience.”

That’s not very helpful, is it?

Optimization implies that your campaign outcomes will improve as a result.

It is among the key things that separate the successful unicorn ad campaigns from the rest.

This article is about the Facebook ad optimization hacks that really help you take your campaign to the next level.

Let’s get straight to the point, in this guide you will learn how to:

  • Increase your ads’ click-through rates
  • Lower your ad campaign’s cost-per-click
  • Reach even more high-ROI audiences
  • Lower your cost-per-acquisition
  • Increase your sales results at the same ad budget

Sounds like a difficult promise to keep? That’s because it is.

If you want to reach all your target audience members and outpace your competition, you’ll need to optimize your campaigns both before and after publishing them on Facebook.

The good news is that this time and effort will be worth your while.

So what are these 10 powerful Facebook ad optimization hacks I’m talking about?

Read on and find out!

1. Optimize your Facebook ads’ likes and shares

The likes and shares under your Facebook posts (and ads) are a pure form of social proof. If others like the ad, it means the product must be pretty good.

When setting up a Facebook ad campaign, you’ve got two options, the default being: create new ads for every ad set and campaign.

create new ad on facebookOften, the “Use Existing Post” option goes unseen.

However, it’s an incredibly efficient way of optimizing your ads’ likes and shares.

The “Use Existing Post” gives you the opportunity to gather all the campaigns’ post engagements under a single ad.

If you’ve been wondering how some advertisers have hundreds or thousands of likes under their Facebook campaigns, chances are they’re using the same optimization hack.

Wix facebook ad example

The easiest way to set up multiple ad campaigns using the same post is to first publish the promotional post on your company’s Facebook Page.

Next, you can select this post every time you’re setting up new ad campaigns or new A/B test variations.

2. Use the FTO (fast take off) method

Sometimes, it can take a couple of days before you have enough campaign results to start optimizing.

Especially when you’re working with small budgets, the campaign take-off can take some time:

facebook campaign reportThat’s why I like to accelerate the optimization process by using FTO (fast take off) tactic.

Here’s how the FTO method works:

  • When launching a new campaign, assign Daily or Lifetime budgets that exceed your planned budget
  • You don’t want to use the Accelerated Delivery as Facebook will then focus on the speed of ad delivery over quality and cost
  • After your ads have 10,000+ impressions, you can evaluate what’s working and what need improvement
  • After the initial campaign takeoff, you can lower your budgets back to match your planned total budget

increase your budgets

However, keep in mind that you need to give Facebook at least 24 hours to adjust the performance of your ads after every new edit.

Every time you make substantial changes to your campaigns, consider waiting for at least 24-48 hours before drawing any conclusions.

Read more: 22 Silly No-Brainer Reasons Why Your Facebook Ad Campaigns Fail

3. Optimize your ad schedule

Are your Facebook campaigns running 24/7, reaching the target audience regardless of the time or weekday?

When analyzing Facebook ad accounts, I’ve noticed that there are always some days and hours that outperform the rest.

To see which weekdays contribute to the most conversions at the lowest CPA, go to your Facebook Ads Manager reports and use the Breakdown menu to break down your campaigns by Day.

facebook campaign breakdown by timeYou can use the performance data from multiple Facebook campaigns to discover the best time for advertising.

Next, you can set your campaigns on a custom schedule, so that you only reach your prospects at the time with the highest potential.

facebook custom ad schedule

In AdEspresso, we have the audience inspector tool which allows you to recognize the best performing time of the day for your campaigns. This data allows you to quickly see exactly what hours of the day (in either the impression timezone or your ad account timezone) are performing the best, according to the KPI most important to you.

This data allows you to quickly see exactly what hours of the day (in either the impression timezone or your ad account timezone) are performing the best, according to the KPI most important to you.

You are then able to use this info to apply a dayparting schedule to your campaigns, making sure your campaign is running only at the most engaged hours of the day.

Another reason to keep your ad campaigns on a custom schedule is to decrease Ad Frequency – people will see your ads less often, and won’t get bored with them as quickly.

AdEspresso has the option to create custom optimization rules that can work as a “frequency cap” that you can apply to all of your campaigns!

4. Fight ad fatigue with ad rotation

AdEspresso did an analysis on how ad frequency affects the click-through rate, cost-per-click, and cost-per-conversion of Facebook ad campaigns. Here’s what they found:

The more people see your ads, the more bored they’ll get.

facebook-ad-frequency

This means that after your target audience has seen your Facebook ad for four times or more, the cost-per-click will increase significantly.

So how can you optimize your Facebook ad campaign to avoid people getting tired of your ads?

Here’s a simple optimization hack for fighting ad fatigue:

  • Create several ad variations with different Facebook ad designs
  • Set up an ad campaign with multiple ad sets with different ads and schedule every ad set to be active on a different weekday

This way, people will see a different ad every day and your ads won’t seem repetitive.

multiple ad variationsI’ve found this optimization hack especially helpful when running campaigns with small audiences, e.g. remarketing campaigns.

In that case, people may see your ads a couple of times per day, meaning you should take extra care not to display a single ad creative over and over again.

5. Optimize your ad placement

When advertising on Facebook, your ad placement has a huge impact on advertising costs.

So much so, that according to AdEspresso’s data, the CPC can vary over 550%, depending on different ad placements.

ad cost by placementTo uncover your top-performing ad placements, log in to Facebook Ads Manager and use the Breakdown menu to break down your campaigns by Placement.

ad placement reports

After you’ve discovered your top-performing ad placements, go ahead and optimize your campaigns accordingly:

  • Increase your bids on the top-performing ad placements
  • If an ad placement performs below all expectations, simply remove it from your ad set

6. Always A/B test your ideas

One of the key parts of Facebook ad optimization is finding out what works.

And what better way to discover new best-performing ad creatives, messages or audiences that running a quick Facebook A/B test.

For example, AdEspresso’s regularly testing new ad designs.

adespresso-facebook-ad-test

However, you shouldn’t A/B test everything.

When searching for Facebook ad A/B testing ideas, think which ad element could have the highest effect on the click-through and conversion rates.

I recommend that you start by testing your:

  • Ad design
  • Ad copy, especially the headline
  • Your unique value offer
  • Ad placements
  • Call-to-action buttons
  • Bidding methods
  • Campaign objectives

7. Test highly differentiated variations

Many Facebook advertisers make the mistake of testing too many ad elements at once.

For your experiment results to be relevant, you need to collect at least 100 conversions (i.e. clicks or leads) per variation before making any conclusions. Even better if you can wait until you have 300 or 500 conversions per variation.

When working with small advertising budgets, waiting for so long can be pretty frustrating.

To discover new engaging ad elements quicker, use the following formula:

1. First, test 2-3 highly differentiated variations to find out which general theme works best.

scoro test examples

2. Take the winning ad from the first test and expand on its variations in the next Facebook A/B test.

Scoro ad variations 2

This way, you save the time and resources you would have spent A/B testing multiple variations of all your initial ideas.

8. Select the right campaign objective

As you set up a new Facebook ad campaign, the first selection you’ll have to make is choosing the campaign objective.

facebook campaign objectives

The campaign objective tells Facebook what’s the ultimate goal of your advertising campaign, and helps its algorithms optimize your ad delivery for best results.

So basically, you’re telling Facebook how to auto-optimize your ad campaign.

It is critical that you select the right Facebook advertising goal during the campaign setup process as it will determine your ads’ delivery and cost-per-result.

But how can you know which one of the 10+ campaign objectives is the right one?

help gifAlways choose the campaign objective that matches your advertising goals.

E.g. if you’re after new trial signups, select the “Conversions” objective. If your goal is to increase brand awareness in a given location, select the “Local awareness” objective.

This way, Facebook will know how to optimize your campaign’s reach and ad delivery.

9. Exclude “converted” from your target audience

Another way to expand your campaign’s reach without breaking the budget is optimizing your Facebook and Instagram targeting.

It doesn’t make sense to keep delivering the same ads to a person who has already converted on the offer. These leads should be moved to the next stage of your marketing funnel and targeted with new messages.

For example, if you’re promoting a free eBook and someone downloads it, you shouldn’t spend additional ad budget on displaying your ad to this person again.

Instead, you can create a Facebook Custom Audience of the converted and exclude them from your campaign’s audience.

exclude custom audiences

To exclude past converted from your Facebook audience:

  1. Create a Custom Audience of people who have visited specific web pages (e.g. your thank you page or a blog article)
  2. Use the EXCLUDE feature when setting up your ad campaign to stop targeting people who have already converted on this particular offer.

10. Set up auto-optimization rules

Did you know that you can set up automated optimization rules in Facebook Ads Manager?

This feature is called Facebook Automated Rules. And it’s available for free to anyone advertising on Facebook.

If the rule conditions are satisfied, four things can automatically happen:

  • Turn off  your campaign, ad set or ad
  • Send notification to the ad manager
  • Adjust budget (increase/decrease daily/lifetime budget by…)
  • Adjust manual bid (increase/decrease bid by…)

And while Facebook’s busy on the auto-optimizing your ads based on your set rules…

lounging gif… You can turn your focus on brainstorming new campaign ideas.

How to set up Facebook auto-optimization rules:

1. Go to Facebook Ads Manager
2. Select one or multiple campaigns/ad sets/ads
3. Click on the “Edit” icon in the right-hand menu
4. Click on the “Create Rule” button

set up facebook automated rule

5. Set up your automated rule’s conditions

save custom rule facebook

For example, you could tell Facebook to pause any ad that reaches the frequency of 5 ad views. Or lower the bid on ad sets with a high cost-per-result.

I also recommend that you also set up an email notification to receive an overview of the last 24h automated changes to your campaigns.

Conclusion

Facebook ad optimization is a continuous process of trial and error. While it’s not an easy process, it will save you a significant amount of time and resources in the long term.

Here’s a quick overview of Facebook ad optimization tactics discussed in this article:

  1. Optimize your Facebook ads’ likes and shares
  2. Use the FTO (fast take off) method
  3. Optimize your ad schedule
  4. Fight ad fatigue with image rotation
  5. Optimize your ad placement
  6. Always A/B test your ideas
  7. Test highly differentiated variations
  8. Select the right campaign objective
  9. Exclude past converters from your target audience
  10. Set up auto-optimization rules

Any hacks you’d like to add to this list? Leave a comment!

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You may also like reading:

  • The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Remarketing
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  • The 27 Facebook Statistics that Every Marketer Must Know To Win in 2021
  • 7 Mistakes To Avoid When Promoting Your Small Business Facebook Page

Comments

  1. Martha says

    May 8, 2017 at 4:04 pm

    Valuable insights to take into consideration on my next campaign, thank you so much!

    Reply
    • Karola Karlson says

      May 9, 2017 at 10:11 pm

      Thank you Martha!

      Reply
  2. Farabi says

    May 8, 2017 at 11:21 pm

    Great Trips Karlson,
    Now-a-days, it is really tough to get traffic as well sales from Facebook Advertising. I’m trying to increase my site traffic from Facebook and also increase post engagement. Hope your tips will help.

    Reply
    • Karola Karlson says

      May 10, 2017 at 11:00 pm

      Thx Farabi!
      I wish you the best of luck with your campaigns 🏆

      Reply
    • Nicholas Castanheira says

      January 25, 2018 at 8:28 am

      This is one of the best articles I’ve read about Facebook in a looooooonnnng time. Thanks so much ! Loved it

      Reply
  3. Babs says

    May 10, 2017 at 9:45 am

    Thanks for sharing these tips Karlson.

    I really could use some of these..

    Reply
    • Karola Karlson says

      May 10, 2017 at 11:00 pm

      Thank you Babs! 🙏💥

      Reply
  4. Rick says

    May 10, 2017 at 12:24 pm

    Hell yeazy, thanks Karlson. This was a good crash course on some intermediate (possibly advanced?) tips. I’m new to the game and these nuggets of wisdom are useful.

    Would you recommend doing everything in Ads Manager? So far I’ve been using the Power Editor.

    Reply
    • Karola Karlson says

      May 10, 2017 at 10:59 pm

      Hey Rick!

      Thanks a bunch!
      I personally like to use AdEspresso for campaign setup – it makes A/B testing super easy. And for reporting, I prefer the Ads Manager.
      If you’re already using the Power Editor, I wouldn’t recommend moving back to the Ads Manager that is more limited.

      Hope this helps! 🙌

      Reply
  5. Alison says

    May 10, 2017 at 2:15 pm

    Got so much actionable items from this article. Many thanks.

    Reply
    • Karola Karlson says

      May 10, 2017 at 10:59 pm

      Thank you Alison! 🎈

      Reply
  6. Nitin Saxena says

    May 10, 2017 at 10:56 pm

    Wow… I want to say just wow… You know I have read so many articles in my digital marketing career but this article is 500 times better, when I read the article I always miss the part of step by step guide. Mostly brands talk about themselves only with so little information thats why I hate reading but now I have found something really good brand where I can find exactly what I was looking for. Even when started reading articles of adespresso from few week back I was shocked that is this really helping people to get better in their career? And now see I Neve miss any of article. I’m really glad to be a reader of adespresso.com thank you so much to helping people in their career by sharing your experiences. Thanks a lot.

    Reply
    • Karola Karlson says

      May 11, 2017 at 7:29 am

      Oh wow we’re so grateful for your kind comment!
      We’ll do our best to keep up the good work 🙌

      Reply
  7. Muhammad says

    May 11, 2017 at 1:14 am

    Hi,
    Thank you for the insights.

    I’ve noticed that you are only focusing on 600 x 315 ads. Do you have anything coming up for carousel ads?

    Our CTR & CPC is pretty good for 600 x 315 ads, however, carousel ads aren’t performing well. Would you like to shed some light?

    Reply
    • Karola Karlson says

      May 11, 2017 at 7:30 am

      Hi Muhammad,

      Yes, that’s something I’ve noticed as well with some SaaS campaigns I manage – carousel ads tend to have a really high CPC. I suggest that you simply run an A/B test to find the best-performing ad type and then use it across your Facebook campaigns. 😉

      Karola

      Reply
  8. Rami says

    May 12, 2017 at 9:34 pm

    Great tips Karlson!
    I just stopped at 1st tip ( Optimize your Facebook ads’ likes and shares ).
    Sorry i feel that i am missing something here! how i can use the original post to create a new ad? since i cant change/add a new image to the original post.

    Thanks

    Reply
  9. Holly says

    May 15, 2017 at 11:40 pm

    Awesome post! Thank you!

    Reply
  10. Samet Durgun says

    May 16, 2017 at 12:20 am

    Hey! Very useful, thanks for sharing this with us.

    I just have one question: Where do you see the “use existing post” option that you explained in #1?

    Is it for brand awareness campaigns, sponsored posts or even for app install campaigns?

    Is it also both available on power editor and business manager?

    Thank you so much for the answers.

    Reply
  11. Max Peters says

    May 16, 2017 at 3:21 am

    Ok, that was really valuable… Thanks a lot

    Reply
  12. IADMS says

    May 30, 2017 at 3:05 am

    Thanks for sharing the Facebook ad optimization hacks, bookmarked this post, surely going to keep in mind the above tips while optimizing Facebook ad.

    Reply
  13. inventoswiki.com says

    September 23, 2017 at 8:11 am

    Hace mucho tiempo que aprendimos que somos el otro.

    Reply
  14. John says

    January 24, 2018 at 11:26 am

    Hi,
    Thank you !! Great article.

    Reply
  15. katherinenora says

    January 25, 2018 at 9:48 pm

    Thanks for describing details about Facebook ad optimization.

    Reply
  16. Jimothy Hummel says

    March 9, 2018 at 7:24 am

    Certainly a lot of great takeaways in here! Thanks, Karola Karlson!

    Reply
  17. Sahil Gumber says

    March 22, 2018 at 8:30 pm

    Thanks guys , the article was amazing. Great learning and it can help me for my automations too.

    Reply
  18. PI in Oakville says

    September 17, 2018 at 11:23 am

    Grrr, A blog is had by me on my website and
    it sucks. I actually
    removed it, but may have to bring it back again. You gave me
    inspiration!
    Keep on writing!

    Reply
  19. eve says

    October 4, 2018 at 4:52 pm

    Nice post. I learn something totally new
    and challenging on websites I stumbleupon every day.
    It will always be helpful to read through articles from other authors and use
    a little something from their web sites.

    Reply
  20. bv says

    October 16, 2018 at 8:02 pm

    Thank!

    Reply
  21. evie says

    October 19, 2018 at 5:00 am

    Hello friends, this is an impressive article and completely explained, keep it up all the time.

    Reply
  22. eve says

    October 29, 2018 at 11:31 am

    Your style is unique compared to other people I’ve read stuff from.
    Thank you for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I’ll just bookmark this
    site.

    Reply
  23. John Gallie says

    December 18, 2018 at 5:58 am

    I always remove the ads with the highest cost per click. You get more for your money as long as the people are seeing your ads. As well I always Target local as people feel more comfortable being closer to their purchase

    Reply
  24. Ankit Chafle says

    December 28, 2018 at 10:17 pm

    I submitted Website Link which will display with my Ad. I want this Submitted Link details on by Billing Receipt, How I will get this?

    Reply
  25. Alex says

    January 22, 2019 at 3:42 am

    Very useful methods) It’s also better to improve the audience’s quality. Targeting competitors’ audience is a good way. There are tools that give you the opportunity to get competitors’ custom list which you can use for running your ads on Facebook.

    Reply
  26. Scott Ginsberg says

    February 13, 2019 at 7:12 am

    Cool post! Thanks for sharing.

    Wanted to throw in my $0.02 on optimizing.

    The beauty of Facebook is, you can to take advantage of their machine learning capability to finding the right customer at the right time with the best creative. The more ads you run, the more you learn about your customers, and the more you can create winning digital experiences and interactions.

    My suggestion: Even if your ads aren’t converting, trust that you can learn from all of your leads, even the wrong ones. The insights you gain from data on click through rate, cost per click and conversion rate can still be meaningful, even if the leads themselves aren’t ideal. You can use that data to get smarter, quicker.

    Anyway, we wrote a longer post about this on our blog today if you want to read more: https://bit.ly/2CwcyIX

    Hope that helps! Good luck.

    Reply
  27. Sam says

    March 26, 2019 at 8:16 pm

    Thanks for the insights! Just curious, will changing my Facebook Ad Optimization affect the result of a running ad?

    Reply
  28. Digital Santhosh says

    May 7, 2019 at 4:23 am

    Great tips. I liked the fact that how engagements could increase social proof. While ultimately gives a great positive impact on the brand. Most people think getting the sale is about throwing an ad for conversion objective. But they don’t understand the whole process behind achieving sales.

    Reply
  29. Ahsan Tahir says

    June 1, 2020 at 2:52 am

    These are some of the useful factors of how Facebook ads are optimized. I love to read these ideas.

    Reply

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