In 2017, a new optimisation tool was added to the Facebook advertising platform. According to the platform’s press release, this tool could be used to allocate a budget per campaign, not per ad set. The presumed benefit of this was the campaign would be optimised automatically, without the need for human monitoring and management.
Last week, Facebook announced they have taken this one step further and will only let you allocate budgets at a campaign level. The way it works is that you set a limit on each ad set. Facebook then runs the campaign, and after a short testing time, allocates a larger split of the budget to the top-performing ads with lower running costs.
On the surface, the update seems amazing, and it could be—however, it could also be cutting your social media strategy short of its potential. Here’s how.
Related: The Future of Social Media in 2019
The Pros
Can Save the Business Money
If you’re running your own social media, having Facebook optimise your ad spend is great. You don’t need to break down and allocate your budget to individual ad sets and you don’t need to reallocate budgets to better performing ads when you have a winner. It’s all done on autopilot.
And of course, this will save you something else too.
Can Save the Busy Business Owner Time
This update means you don’t have to spend time analysing what paid posts are or aren’t working. You simply allocate the budget you wish to spend, put in your two, three or ten ads and away you go. You can rest easy knowing Facebook is only showing the ad that is going to have the biggest impact. If that is more than one ad, then the platform will split the budget between them.
Improves the Quality of Facebook Advertising
By leaving optimisation up to Facebook, you get an unbiased answer to what actually works best. Your own opinions and bias are left out of the equation and you may just be surprised at the imagery and text that really resonates with your audience.
The Cons
Limits Your Ability to Create a True A/B Test
A/B, or split, testing is the process of creating two separate ads with the same goal to see which variation is most effective. Running a split test could be as simple as changing the image, the text or even your offer.
As the Facebook advertising optimising tool automatically allocates budget to performing ads, it won’t give each ad the full budget. So, your split test may not be a true reflection of what your target audience prefers.
Results May Be Skewed
Remember, Facebook is a business too. They want people to enjoy using their platform, meaning they care about people engaging with your posts and ads, stopping scrolling and reading, hitting like, commenting, etc.
What this means is that if lots of people ‘like’ one of your ads, Facebook will declare this as the winner and funnel your budget into it. However, likes on a post don’t pay your bills. If people are liking your posts but not converting into leads or sales, it really hasn’t done what you wanted it to do.
In short, the risk is this; you could have two posts, one with lots of likes that isn’t bringing you many customers and one with not many likes that is bringing you customers. Facebook is most likely going to prioritise the one with the most likes and there’s not much you can do about it, Furthermore, you may not even get the chance to discover its potential.
How to See Results with the Update
At the end of the day, these updates are amazing for businesses who only run an ad here and there. For the business owner looking to use social media to grow their business, it’s not such great news. But Localsearch is here to help.
Our social medial services can help you make the most of your Facebook advertising. Our experts know the ins and outs of ensuring your ads are approved, optimised for lead generation and build your reputation. Visit our social media marketing page for more information.