You know what shiny object syndrome is, don’t you? Jumping from one new idea to the next without properly implementing, testing or embedding any of them …and unfortunately it’s particularly rife in the land of the entrepreneur (I’m not claiming to be totally free of the syndrome!) It’s one to steer clear of as the results are generally overwhelm, frustration and getting nowhere fast! Nothing is immune, not even the world of Facebook ads!
Facebook doesn’t help those of us with this tendency – they have a habit of bringing out juicy new features and formats with frightening regularity, tempting even the most hardened of us into ‘just testing them out!’
That’s all well and good, provided those new features could potentially help us achieve our goals faster or more effectively (or more cost-effectively.)
But, if we don’t really know what our goals are, or, worse still, haven’t really grasped the basics of Facebook ads before being lured in try the next shiny feature, then you can guess what the outcome is going to be. It’s rarely pretty!
Facebook have brought out a lot of new whizzy bits recently, and I’ve noticed ads in my newsfeed which display all the features of a shiny-object binge!
There have been ads with no benefits or call-to-action, carousel ads with images and links but no text, video ads where the video is all about the business and very vague-looking Lead Ads!
Whilst I’m all about encouraging people to jump in and have a go, what I hate is to see people wasting time, energy and money on stuff that just isn’t going to work for them (and that’s exactly what’s going to happen if you fall prey to Facebook Ads Shiny Object Syndrome.)
How can you tell if you have Facebook Ads Shiny Object Syndrome?
Well, first off, if you feel like you don’t really have a grasp of Facebook ads best practice, but you’re still spending money on them, then this is probably you.
In case you’re still not sure, I’ve put together a lil’ list of questions so that you can give yourself or your business a quick Facebook ads MOT ….
Here goes!
Facebook Ads MOT checklist:
- Do you know the difference between Facebook ads and Google ads in terms of context?
- Do you understand the difference between Campaigns, AdSets and Ads?
- When you set up your Facebook ads, are you clear about what you want to achieve?
- Do you know who you want to target with your ads, and how to go about finding them with the filters and features that Facebook gives you?
- Do you know what action you want people to take as a result of your ads/ where you want to take them as the next step/ what the follow-up needs to be?
- Do you know how to measure your results, and how to compare them to the results you have got from other results?
- Have you seen good initial results with ads that you’ve run?
If you answer no to any of these, can I suggest that you spend some time learning the basics of how Facebook ads work and current best practice? Run some simple campaigns, see how everything fits together, find out what audiences work best for you and get a feel for pulling out the data that’s important to you.
Doing this will save you oodles of time, money and stress and, more importantly, will give you results for your business that you didn’t even know were possible!
To get the low-down on what really works with Facebook ads, check out my blog on the 7 ways to get the best from Facebook ads,
and/ or my free ’10 Essential Elements to Facebook Ads Success‘ checklist.
(More advanced concepts that will really help you ramp up your results are:
Are you clear about what a ‘conversion’ means and how you could measure it?
Do you understand the concept of custom audiences and re-targeting?)
So – what do you think? Are you a FASOS sufferer? Or did you pass your MOT with flying colours?
Which areas of Facebook advertising challenge you the most?
I’d love to help if I can so please comment below with any questions you’ve got!