10 years of Facebook Ads 10 Essential Lessons for Success

I launched in my first Facebook Ad campaign in 2014, exactly a decade ago.

I did not know anything about:

•  Social Media (which was mostly Facebook, at that time)

• Media Buying

• Ad creative

• Design

• Ad copywriting

• Selling products online or about Digital Marketing, in general.

Surprisingly, my first campaign was successful.

And the one after that, as well.

I have made my first $1 online. (What a felling, by the way.)

I managed to sell a couple of T-shirts in a 3 days with a platform called teespring.com, that have generated me a monthly minimum wage at that time.

Here is a LinkedIn post about this story:

That “Aha!” moment set me on a path I never imagined.

I realized I could make money with Facebook Ads, and not just for myself, but for others too.

So, I kicked off as a freelancer, then set up my own marketing agency, focusing mainly on performance-based Facebook Ads.

Now, let’s talk about the 10 most important lessons I’ve learnt over these years of Facebook Ad adventures:

1. Change is the only constant

Everything in advertising has shifted over the years, from ad design to the details of ad account management.

Starting from ad creative, which were mostly static designs, to ads manager functions, ad account layout, ad delivery, ad account structures, scaling, budgeting, metrics and tracking.

It's simple, adapt or be left behind.

2. Volatility

Social media, especially Facebook Ads, is like a roller coaster.

One day you’re on top of the world with a sky-high Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), the next day it’s like your ad budget disappeared into a black hole.

Everyone who buys ads on Facebook & Instagram has to understand this and adapt.

3. Budgets Matter

Business owners and marketers, as well have to acknowledge that in the end that money talks.

When it comes to ads, money talks louder than a horn in a library.

More Money = More Eyeballs = More Revenue

Having a bigger budget than your competitor means you can buy more advertising spots. Same as in traditional advertising, such as TV, radio or newspapers.

However, I have to add you can have great results with small budgets.

Facebook ads with low budgets can preform to if you know what you are doing. I want to emphasize this for small business owners who do their ad buying in-house.

If you pay attention to Facebook Advertising trends and stay up-to-date with the platform's evolution then you can have great ROI with Meta Ads.

4. Tracking is essential

Now, more than ever tracking is essential to Facebook Ads.

Imagine Facebook’s ad algorithm as a super-smart robot. To keep it running smoothly, you gotta feed it accurate data.

That’s where tracking comes in – it’s like giving the robot its daily dose of oil.

Make sure that the Pixel (Dataset) and Conversions API are set up correctly.

5. Testing Ads

Testing in marketing was and always will be important. But now, more than ever testing ad creatives and ad copy is the no.1 thing I would do.

Try out different ad images, words, and videos like you’re a scientist in a lab, experimenting with potions.

Stop using stock photos/videos. Rather use a picture or a video taken with a smartphone.

You can test up to 5 headlines, 5 body texts, and 5 descriptions. Make sure you do this regurarly. People get use to seeing the same ads over and over again.

6. Campaign Objectives

Still this is the most common mistake I see in most Ad Accounts.

Picking the right campaign objective is crucial. It’s like choosing the right tool for the job. You wouldn’t use a spoon to dig a hole, would you?

Stop running Traffic Campaigns. This will only generate clicks, which is a misleading metric.

Clicks are like somebody looking at your store window for 3 seconds while passing by. It does not mean anything.

And you are paying for it, as well. Peaking at the store window (clicks) does not translate to revenue, does it?

7. Targeting Audiences

Targeting and audiences are the biggest change in the last year or so. When I started a decade ago, narrow targeting with interests were a huge thing.

You could almost narrow it down to 100 people and the ad would run.

Now, with A.I. narrow audiences are dead and broad audiences and the new "Advantage+" product line Meta is taking care of this.

It’s all about broad audiences and letting Meta work its magic.

8. Ad account Structure

Simplicity always wins.

Even in the early days if you would run multiple campaigns with 10+ ad sets it would hurt performance in the long run, so one would add more and more campaigns and ad sets.

It was a common way to scale by duplicating campaigns and ad sets.

But in the end, simplicity wins.

Now you can test ads with one campaign. You can use the MVAC - Minimum Viable Ad Campaign Framework. I wrote about this in DAS #04.

Have one campaign to scale and maybe one more for remarketing.

Have max. 1-2 adsets in each campaign and less than 5 ads active at once.

Stick to the essentials and watch your ads soar!

9. Meta Recommendations & Suggestions

Meta in-account recommendations and suggestions are worthless. 

DO NOT turn on or tick recommendations in Ads Manager, without researching and testing it manually.

Learning phase, Limited Learning is a way for Meta take more money out of your pocket.

Boosting posts is a waste, in most cases.

Meta representatives don't know better. They are still recommending to use brand awareness and traffic campaigns.

Don't listen to them. Period.

Focus on your goals and monitor the metrics that help you achieve your goals.

Stick to your goals like glue, and don’t let the noise distract you.

10. Know Your ABCs (Analytics, Budgets, and Conversions)

Last but not least, know your metrics. In digital marketing it's easier to measure results as you can track almost everything from views, clicks, downloads, engaged views, to add to carts and purchases.

First of all, know your business KPIs (AOV, LTV, CAC).

Secondly, know your marketing metrics, such as ROAS, Conversion Value, Conversions, CTR, CPM etc.

I talked about these in DAS #01 - Facebook Ads Metrics: What Matters and What Doesn't.

Know your metrics like you know your favorite pizza toppings!

Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned pro, I hope these tips bring a little extra sparkle to your Facebook Ads journey.

Got questions or just wanna chat?

Hit me up on LinkedIn or X and let’s keep this conversation rolling!