This is your blinking red light…
This is something I’ve been trying to get through to Meta advertisers for a while now, but many are too stubborn to listen.
I know that you value your targeting inputs. They give us a sense of control — a lever that we can pull to show that we made an impact on the results. It doesn’t mean they don’t matter at all, but many put way too much value on this step.
You’ve been creating several ad sets per campaign for cold targeting for years and you swear it works. Like those targeting inputs, this is a way of showing your value. A complex strategy to test and isolate your ideal audienceThis is the group of people who can potentially see your ads. You help influence this by adjusting age, gender, location, detailed targeting (interests and behaviors), custom audiences, and more. More that you’re doing and many others aren’t. You see it as a separator.
But think about this.
Meta says that on average, Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns lead to a 17-percent better Cost Per Acquisition and a 32-percent increase in Return on Ad Spend.
If targeting inputs are so critical and worth the amount of time you spend on them, how is this possible? Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns don’t allow for any targeting inputs.
Is it magic?
If multiple cold targeting ad setsAn ad set is a Facebook ads grouping where settings like targeting, scheduling, optimization, and placement are determined. More are so important, how can Advantage+ Shopping campaignsThe campaign is the foundation of your Facebook ad. This is where you'll set an advertising objective, which defines what you want your ad to achieve. More work with only one?
It doesn’t mean that Advantage+ Shopping will always work better than manual sales campaigns. But it does mean that we can learn something from how they work.
Targeting inputs aren’t as impactful as they once were. There are many reasons for this, but a big part of it is the expansion of targeting, Advantage+ Audience, and Meta’s improvement in ad delivery using machine learning and automation.
Creating multiple ad sets may have been beneficial once, but now they just create auction overlap and drive up your costs. This is largely because of that expansion. Your inputs may be unique from ad set to ad set, but the expanded audience won’t be. That creates an inefficiency.
It’s not always easy to adjust to a changing landscape. I get it. But make sure that your strategies continue to make sense in light of the way things work now. Otherwise, your stubbornness to evolve may limit your growth.
Things are changing. Are you ready?
