Why Running Facebook Conversion Ads Isn’t Getting You Sales

In the world of digital marketing, we know that Facebook ads are a powerful tool. And we know that the conversion objective is the one that tells Facebook you want to drive sales.

Many business owners dive straight into running Facebook conversion ads in the hopes of boosting sales rapidly. However, this approach might not always yield the best results and can be costly.

In this blog post, we’ll explore why you should consider starting with traffic ads instead, building website traffic and engagement, and harnessing the power of pixel retargeting to achieve better results…aka more sales!

1. The Problem with Running Facebook Conversion Ads Right Away

Facebook conversion ads are optimized for encouraging users to take a specific action, usually, making a purchase. I can be tempting to want to start with conversion ads right away. After all, one would think if you have a good offer, and are telling Facebook to find buyers, that the algorithm would find you qualified and interested buyers. Why waste money on traffic campaigns when you can try to get purchases from the get-go? Well, I’m here to tell you why :-)

While these ads can be effective when targeting a warm audience who already knows and trusts your brand, they might not be as successful when targeting a cold audience who has never heard of your business.

The primary issue with running conversion ads immediately is that you risk spending a significant amount of money on an audience that lacks familiarity with your products or services. This means your conversion rates are likely to be lower, leading to higher costs per conversion and a less efficient use of your advertising budget.

I’ve even tested it out. With one of my clients, when we ran conversion campaigns without spending on traffic campaigns first, we were paying around $30 per purchase. Once we focused our efforts on building an audience first with traffic ads, that cost per purchase dropped to around $10-$15.

Which leads me to…

2. The Solution: Starting with Traffic Ads

Instead of diving straight into conversion ads, businesses should consider starting with traffic ads. These ads are designed to drive users to your website or landing page. By doing this, you achieve two essential objectives:

• Building Brand Awareness: Traffic ads expose your brand to a wider audience, creating familiarity and trust with potential customers. Users might not convert immediately, but the increased exposure to your brand lays the groundwork for future interactions.

• Collecting Valuable Data: As users visit your website, Facebook tracks their interactions using the Facebook Pixel, a piece of code placed on your site. This pixel allows you to gather valuable data about user behavior, such as page views, button clicks, and purchases. This information is vital for building an effective retargeting strategy.

So, by running traffic campaigns first, you’re priming the Facebook pixel and algorithm. You’re building an audience and telling Facebook, “hey, these are the types of people I want to buy my product eventually.”

3. The Power of Pixel Retargeting Audiences

Once you've driven traffic to your website, the Facebook Pixel collects data on user behavior. This data is then used to create custom audiences, specifically tailored for retargeting campaigns. Retargeting, also known as remarketing, involves targeting ads to people who have already interacted with your website.

For example, this blog post is about Facebook ads. In the future, if I want to promote my Facebook Ads Course, I can create a custom audience of anyone who has been to this specific URL, along with any other blog posts relating to Facebook ads, and then run a conversion campaign to this specific warm audience.

The beauty of retargeting is that you're now targeting a warm audience - people who have already shown an interest in your brand. These users are more likely to convert because they are familiar with your products or services. As a result, retargeting campaigns often lead to higher conversion rates and lower costs per conversion, making your advertising budget work harder.

Remember my example above? There’s a big difference between $30 per purchase and $10 per purchase!

Furthermore, you can also create lookalike audiences from your warm audiences. So if your warm audience is small, and you don’t want to run an ad to only 1,000 people, you can create a lookalike audience to expand on that audience. I’ll delve deeper on this in a future post about custom and lookalike audiences.

4. Why Building a Pixel Retargeting Audience Matters

By using traffic ads to drive website traffic and then creating a pixel retargeting audience, you're strategically nurturing potential customers. The audience you're retargeting already has some level of interest in what you offer, which increases the likelihood of converting them into paying customers.

Moreover, pixel retargeting audiences can be segmented based on their behavior on your website. For example, you can create separate audiences for users who abandoned their shopping carts and those who visited specific product pages. So, can you see how this level of segmentation allows you to craft highly relevant and personalized ads, further improving your conversion rates, vs. running a conversion campaign right out of the gate to a cold audience?

Conclusion

While running Facebook conversion ads might seem like the logical starting point for driving sales, it's essential to take a step back and consider a more strategic approach. As they say, slow and steady wins the race!

Starting with traffic ads to build website traffic and engagement, and then leveraging pixel retargeting audiences for conversion campaigns, will yield better results and a higher return on your advertising investment. And that’s always the ultimate goal, right?