16 reasons why Facebook ads are ineffective and how to fix them – Should you hire someone to run Facebook Ads?
I – Signs of an Ineffective Facebook Ad
No Interaction, No Messages
The most obvious sign of an ineffective Facebook ad campaign is the lack of engagement and messages from your target audience. In some cases, you may still be paying for each click, but no one comments or sends messages to inquire about your products or services.
Low CTR (Click Through Rate)
For Facebook Ads, the ideal CTR is about 0.9%. However, this figure can vary depending on the product you are offering, the ad campaign, the placement of your ad, etc. You should track the average industry benchmarks and those of your competitors.
According to a survey by Wordstream of 256 client accounts in the U.S., the average CTR for Facebook ads is between 0.75% – 1.25%. The highest CTR is seen in the retail industry, at 1.59%. Industries such as education, finance, banking, real estate, and automotive have lower CTRs, averaging below 0.75%.
High CPC (Cost Per Click)
According to Wordstream’s statistics, the average CPC for Facebook Ads is $1.72, with the finance and banking industry having the highest CPC at $3.77, and the fashion industry having the lowest at $0.45.
Low CR (Conversion Rate) / No Sales
A low conversion rate indicates that customers are not having a good experience on your landing page. If you’re using Facebook Ads for sales purposes, “no sales” is a clear sign that you need to reconsider your ads.
II – Why Facebook Ads Are Not Effective?

When creating a campaign, selecting an advertising objective is the first essential step. Based on this, Facebook will provide specific feature options and settings that it believes will help you achieve your goal. Therefore, if you choose the wrong objective, you may miss out on other features that could be beneficial for your campaign.
For example, the “Brand Awareness” objective allows you to select a call-to-action (CTA) button such as “Learn More” for the ad. But choosing the “Reach” objective will provide entirely different CTA options to choose from.
Solution:
Hover over the information icon to learn more details about the objectives and review Facebook’s Ads Guide to explore how each objective works.
See more products: Buy advertising accounts
Targeting Too Broad or Too Narrow
Overly Broad Audience
Targeting an audience that is too broad means you’re competing with other marketers for the attention of those individuals. This often leads to paying more for each click and possibly receiving fewer impressions and lower conversion rates. Additionally, there is no guarantee that these individuals are interested in the product or service you’re offering.
However, broad targeting can be effective in certain cases, such as when the goal is to increase brand awareness.
Overly Narrow Audience
Targeting an audience that is too narrow may limit your results. Interests and topics are not always 100% accurate, so marketers need to be careful not to target an audience that doesn’t align with their offer.
Solution:
You should select no more than 10 user behaviors and interests when defining your target audience and break them into smaller segments to run ads effectively.
For location targeting, instead of selecting “nationwide,” you should choose a maximum of 10 provinces or cities, including major cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and focus on the areas where you make the most sales based on your previous data.
Duplicate Audience
When the audience has similar interests across multiple ad groups in a campaign, Facebook will attempt to prevent your ads from competing against each other in the “auction process.” This means that Facebook will only run the ad groups it deems to perform better based on historical adset performance.
Solution:
You should review your targeting options to check how similar your audience segments are by using Facebook’s Audience Overlap Tool.

Campaign Lacking Sufficient Budget
Although advertising on Facebook is often more cost-effective than on other social media platforms like LinkedIn, you may experience poor performance if your budget is too low. Low or reduced impressions due to Facebook distributing ads below the required level is a clear sign of this issue.
While the actual campaign budget is influenced by several factors (payment events, target audience, etc.), the basic cost for campaigns ranges from $2 to $10 per ad per day. This amount typically provides Facebook enough budget to distribute your ads to a sufficiently wide audience and gather meaningful statistical data.
Solution:
Consider increasing your maximum cost-per-click bid if you are using manual bidding. If you are using automatic bidding, increase your budget and monitor your ad impressions.
Additionally, you should review how you set your budget (daily or lifetime budget):
- Lifetime Budget

Target audience for using Lifetime Budget:
– Running a campaign with a clearly defined budget and a specific end date.
– Running campaigns such as retargeting efforts or special promotions (shorter duration).
– Not concerned about consistent daily spending.
- Daily Budget


Additionally, you can also explore and refer to the strategies we provide for optimizing Facebook advertising costs, in order to optimize your budget and achieve the best results.
Errors in Facebook Ads Post Content
Errors in Expression and Writing Style
Overly long, rambling, and not to the point will make consumers quickly scroll past your post.
Words like “ours,” “we,” or “I” are ineffective. You should rewrite your ad copy using words that focus on the user, such as “you” and “your.” The more you create a conversation and interact with customers, the more likely they are to take action on the ad.
Asking Customers to Take Action Too Early
Everyone who buys goes through a series of stages leading up to the purchase, called the customer journey, which includes Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. Skipping the first two stages can result in poor conversion rates.
Spam Content
Facebook defines spam content as “ads that ask people to interact with it in specific ways, such as requesting likes, comments, or shares.” In some cases, this may be the reason why an ad is not running on Facebook, simply because the content violates Facebook’s policy.
Clickbait Language
Facebook states that clickbait language is “ads that use exaggerated headlines or demand responses from people without delivering on the landing page.”
Random Insertion of Icons or Links
Using icons in posts is a way to make it easier for users to read and visualize what you’re introducing. However, for Facebook Ads, excessive use of icons can backfire, causing users to feel confused and damaging the brand’s image.
Image Errors
Potential buyers are often looking for entertainment on Facebook. They won’t have a good experience if a luxurious company image appears out of place while they’re scrolling through posts from friends. It immediately lets users know they’re viewing an ad, which may negatively impact their response to the offer.
Incorrect Image Sizes: You can refer to the standard image sizes for Facebook Ads.

Not Using Video
Video is becoming an essential format, especially on Facebook, as the platform is currently prioritizing video content. You can easily notice on Facebook’s newsfeed that most posts are videos. This format is gradually becoming a trend to capture consumers’ attention.
Unattractive CTA
Although Facebook provides predefined CTA options to choose from, that doesn’t mean the ad copy cannot include a compelling CTA. One reason your ad may have a low click-through rate could be due to an unattractive CTA. You should convey urgency and encourage users to take a clear action.
Improper Format, Placement, and Timing of Ads
Each type of advertising objective has a format and placement that work best. Depending on your target audience and ad budget, you can choose the appropriate placement. However, statistics show that 95% of marketers prioritize and rate the “news feed” as the most effective placement for reaching customers.
You can check Facebook’s recommendations on placement and ad format for each objective here.
Additionally, you should run ads during the hours when your customers are most active online. Also, make sure to set the timezone of your ad account according to the time zone of the market you’re operating in.
Not Using a Custom Landing Page
People expect to see the same terms, CTA, and images on the website they visit as they saw on the ad they clicked through. If you’re directing customers to your homepage, you may create a poor user experience.
Using a homepage as the destination URL can also affect your Quality Score. If Facebook notices that people are clicking on the ad and quickly exiting, you’ll be assigned a low relevance score, resulting in less visibility for your post.
Solution:
Create custom landing pages for your campaigns that allow you to control the elements on the page, provide a clear conversion opportunity, match the ad copy with the landing page copy, and achieve a higher Quality Score.
See more products: Buy advertising accounts
III – Solving the Problem of Ineffective Self-Running Facebook Ads
If running ads on your own isn’t yielding results and it’s taking too much time and effort to implement all the optimization measures for Facebook Ads, you may want to consider partnering with an advertising agency. With their expertise and hands-on experience, they can help optimize your conversion rates and boost your sales revenue.
Here are some considerations when choosing an advertising agency:
- Reputable, Professional, and Experienced Agency
Be cautious of individuals/agencies that promise to boost likes at low costs, as this may not yield effective results for your campaigns. - Reasonable Budget Calculation
You should choose an agency that offers thorough consultation on budget allocation and ad goals based on the customer journey. - Create a Business Account to Protect Your Page
Losing your page is a common issue when running Facebook Ads. To minimize this risk, it’s recommended to create a business account to protect your fanpage.
With over 5 years of experience handling large and small-scale projects, buybm365.com is a trusted and professional agency providing comprehensive marketing services. Our team will consult, strategize based on the customer journey, and implement Facebook Ads campaigns, helping you increase your conversion rates and achieve your sales revenue goals.
Facebook Ads can be a great way to increase conversions and drive revenue from your target customers. However, if you’re still not seeing a satisfactory return on investment, you may be making some common mistakes that are preventing your ads from being effective and attracting the right custom audience.
If you need the most reputable payment method and advertising account provider, you can message the fanpage buybm365.com-Ads to receive advice from HT Media. In addition, you can follow the articles. Latest articles related to our Digital Marketing.