Any business that is looking to stay in business needs a positive return on investment (ROI) to be profitable.

Spend more than you get back and you’ll be pulling the shutters down before you’ve even got your first customer.

Whenever you spend money on a Facebook Conversion Campaign, you will want to get a purchase/s that is worth more than your ad spend.

This isn’t always the case, however, and it usually boils down to the same culprits which we will explain below.

What Causes A Negative ROI?

We have listed 5 below, but they are by no means the only ones:

  1. Targeting the wrong people
  2. Nobody trusts you or your brand
  3. You’re not tracking your data properly
  4. You haven’t spent money on remarketing campaigns
  5. Your landing page/website isn’t working properly or optimized

Targeting The Wrong People:

It’s fair to say that if you’re targeting the wrong people, you may as well stop the ad and prevent any further damage. 

How do you target the right people?

  • Audiencer.io (a Facebook tool that offers targeting recommendations) 
  • Audience insights (Facebook offers an analytics tool for people who like your page)
  • Google Analytics (Gathers data from the people who engage/visit your site)

With those 3 tools above you will be getting more information on your target audience than the majority of people out there who are running Facebook Ads.

This will lead to an improvement in your campaigns immediately because you will be increasingly crucial metrics such as your click-through rate, relevancy score, and cost per conversion. 

Nobody Trusts You Or Your Brand:

If people are just seeing your ad for the first time or haven’t heard of you before then they’re less likely to convert and buy from you.

For someone to hand over money to you, they need to trust you completely before parting with cold, hard cash. 

How do you get people to trust your brand?

  • Offer free content – ebooks, how-to guides are good examples of this
  • Engage with your audience and provide value that will measurably improve their lives 
  • Filter them through your funnel (run brand awareness campaigns before conversion campaigns)

You’re Not Tracking Your Data Properly

If your data is not set up properly then you can’t attribute your conversions to the correct ad or platform.

It’s so important to have this all set-up correctly whether it’s using the Google URL builder or the Facebook Attribution tool alongside the Facebook pixel.

What are the consequences of not having your tracking set-up properly?

You may start attributing sales to the wrong channel and when this starts snowballing, the damage has been done and you’re not going to know what’s working and what isn’t – DISASTER!

You’re Not Spending Money On Remarketing Campaigns

Remarketing should be your bread and butter when running Facebook Ads, especially when your goal is to maximize your ROI.

After all…Facebook remarketing ads get 3x the engagement compared to regular ads!

The two big standouts for remarketing ads?

  1. They’re cheaper
  2. Higher chance of a conversion

There aren’t any further benefits, (nor does there need to be) from running remarketing ads.

Another great remarketing option that Facebook gives us is dynamic product ads that are specifically for e-commerce which target people to the exact product they just viewed.

Someone may be looking at the handbag section of your site and if you’re running dynamic ads, you can target them with handbag’s only and make your ad highly relevant. 

Your Landing Page Isn’t Working Properly Or Optimized

Used by many businesses/marketers to help increase conversions, landing pages should be a staple if you’re running ads.

Why?

You can create a highly tailored landing page specific to the product/service you’re selling.

If you’re using a landing page in conjunction with a Facebook Ad, then your landing page may not be optimized for conversions.

What causes a landing page not to be optimized for conversions?

  • Weak headlines 
  • Poor positioning of your CTA
  • Messy and unclear message

For best practices, have a look at some of these examples of landing page design for inspiration. 

Facebook’s Secret ROI Weapon

We briefly mentioned it above, but it’s a point in of itself.

Running remarketing ads is one of the best ways to get a positive ROI on your Facebook Ads and not enough people are using them.

Custom audiences help you create audiences specific to the action they take on your site, lead form, app and many other channels that Facebook allows you to connect to.

How does remarketing work?

  • A potential customer visits your site 
  • They’ve visited a particular page, let’s say they’ve gone on your pricing page
  • They clicked on your page, scrolled through the content your business provides on the pricing page and then clicked off
  • Chances are they clicked off because the pricing was too high
  • You create an ad targeted specifically to that person with the offer of a 10% discount on one of your plans 
  • The price is now possible so they go back to your site and purchase.

Benefits of Remarketing Ads:

  • Lower cost per click
  • Higher click-through rate – 76% higher chance
  • Reduced cost per conversion rate (CPC)

According to connectio.io, 3 out of 4 customers recognize remarketing ads and with more people using Facebook being bombarded by ads nowadays, it’s important that your ads are recognizable and stand out.

Conclusion

A poor ROI on your Facebook Ads can be due to what you’re doing, but most importantly, what you’re not doing. 

A big part of getting a positive ROI is to run remarketing ads and target those people who have already engaged. 

They’re cheaper, they’re already familiar with your brand and they need less convincing to buy from you.

You also need to look at your research beforehand into your audience, whether your data is set-up correctly and other variables such as landing page optimization.

And that is what makes up a positive ROI – variables.

There isn’t just one approach to improving your ROI, there are variations to take into account that you can tweak here and then that accrue improvements over time.

About the Author: The Good Marketer is a Marketing Agency in London which drives more traffic, generates conversions and increases sales for Small-To-Medium Sized Businesses.