21 Facebook Ad Optimisation Hacks 

Mediocre Facebook ads won't impress your boss, clients, or stakeholders. They also won't generate significant returns, which can stall your business's growth. To achieve massive success, you need amazing Facebook ads that stop people in their tracks, capture attention, and ultimately convert.

If you're tired of underperforming ads and wasted ad spend, you're in the right place. We're here to help you level up your Facebook ad game, so you get all the likes, clicks, and conversions your hard work deserves.

In this Facebook ads optimisation guide, you will learn how to:

• Increase CTR rates across your campaigns
• Improve relevance scores and lower CPCs
• Lower your ad costs and increase ROI
• Discover new audiences and maximise reach
• Utilise advanced targeting options for better ad targeting
• Use your competition to your advantage
• Increase your sales results without investing more money

With that said, let's dive into 21 ways to optimise your Facebook ads:

1. Optimise Your Advertising Account

Before we jump into the more technical aspects of ad optimisation, let's start with the basics – your Facebook advertising account. This account is essentially your ad hub, so you'll want to keep it up-to-date and organised to reap the rewards.

Here's how to optimise your ad account:

• Verify your business to use all the features that come with it.
• Include all relevant business information, including your business name, address, and a detailed description of your services or products.
• Set up a Facebook pixel to track conversions and website activity.
• Structure your ad account so it's easy to navigate and track performance.
• Use custom audiences to target specific groups of people, such as past customers or website visitors.

With your  account fully optimised, you'll have a solid foundation to create and test your ad campaigns.

2. Select the Right Campaign Objective 

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Many businesses select 'Sales' as their campaign objective. However, making direct sales through social media advertising is tough without an established brand or a well-known product.

For new or small businesses still building their audience and brand recognition, try focusing on other campaign objectives such as 'Traffic' or 'Lead Generation.' This helps you drive people to your website or landing page and start collecting valuable data through lead generation.

If you aren't sure which objective to choose, simply select one that most closely aligns with your advertising objectives.

So, for example, if you want more app downloads, you can opt for 'App Install'. Or, if you want users to sign up for a free trial, 'Lead Generation' may be the most suitable choice.

Remember that Facebook will auto-optimise your ad campaign based on your chosen objective, so choose wisely.

3. Optimise Your Ad Testing

Many marketers test too many variables simultaneously during A/B tests, leading to inconclusive results. To optimise your ad testing, you need to focus on one variable at a time. This approach clearly identifies which changes actually impacted your ad performance.

Here's how to do it:

• Choose one variable to test, such as ad copy or image.
• Create two ad versions, with all things equal except for the variable you wish to test.
• Run the A/B test with a large enough sample size to get statistically significant results.
• Analyse the data and determine which version performed better.
• Implement the winning version in your overall ad campaign.

However, you will have to wait until your test reaches statistical significance. To do so, aim for at least 100 conversions per ad for accurate comparison. If you can wait for 200 conversions, even better! This will provide more reliable results and help you make data-driven decisions for your ad campaigns.

4. Optimise Ads by Setting Up Automated Rules

Automated optimisation rules work as a virtual assistant, managing your campaigns and ad sets according to your set parameters. This saves you from manually checking your campaigns for underperforming ads and making changes.

Some popular automated rules that Facebook offers include:

• Adjusting budgets for ad sets based on performance.
• Turning off underperforming ads.
• Scheduling ads to run at certain times.
• Sending notifications when a rule is triggered.

These rules also aid in scaling your campaigns by automatically increasing budgets for high-performing ad sets. They can also be applied on all levels, (campaigns, ad sets, and ads), enhancing efficiency across your entire advertising strategy.

Here's how to  set up an automated rule for your ad campaign:

1. Go to your Facebook Ads Manager account.
2. In the main menu, click on "Rules" > "Create a New Rule."
3. Choose the condition in which you want the rule to be triggered, such as cost per result exceeding a certain threshold.
4. Determine what Facebook should do once the rule is triggered, such as pausing an underperforming ad set.
5. Specify if the triggered rule will affect the entire campaign, a specific ad set, or individual ads.
6. Enable email notifications to alert you when the rule is triggered.
7. Review your rule settings and save and activate the rule.

5. Use Facebook Audience Insights to Optimise Your Target Audience

Like your ads, your understanding of your target audience should also evolve as you accumulate more data. This allows you to continually refine your target audience, getting you closer and closer to your ideal customers.

The best way to do this is to use Facebook Audience Insights. This amazing and free tool provides a wealth of audience information, such as their demographic data, pages they liked, and even lifestyle choices.

After you've gathered enough data, you can also create ICPs (ideal customer profiles) to help you better target your ads and messaging.

5. Optimise Your Ad Schedule

Many marketers make the mistake of running their ads all day, every day.

But why is this a mistake?

Well, not all hours of the day are equal. There are certain times when your target audience is more active and likely to engage with your ad. It's a bit like TV advertising, where prime time slots—typically between 8 PM and 11 PM—cost more because viewers are tuned in.

Like how TV advertisers target specific times of day for their ads, you should also consider your audience's behaviour when scheduling your ad.

Here's how to optimise your ad schedule:

1. Go to your Facebook Ad Manager and click on the Breakdown menu.
2. Hover over ‘Delivery’ and select either 'Time of day (ad account time zone)' or 'Time of day (viewer's time zone)'.
3. Discover high-converting ads with the lowest cost per action (CPA)
4. Use these as your benchmark and start adjusting your ad schedule.

If you don't have existing ads to compare, try general peak hours such as 7 am-9 am, 1 pm-3 pm, and 7 pm-9 pm. After some time, you'll have enough data to see which hours perform best for your target audience.

6. Rotate Your Ads to Mitigate Ad Fatigue

When your target audience sees your ads four times or more, they can become desensitised and less likely to engage. This is known as ad fatigue, which can lower Facebook ad campaign's CTR and CPC (click-through rate and cost-per-click.) If the ad frequency is too high, it can even lead to 'Banner Blindness,' where users subconsciously ignore your ads.

To ensure neither happens, rotate your ads regularly to avoid over-saturating your audience with the same ads. By doing so, you'll maximise your reach and keep your ads relevant.

Here are some tips for preventing ad fatigue:

• Create ad variations with different visuals, copy, and targeting options.
• Monitor your ad frequency and rotate ads before it reaches 4-5 times.
• Test different creative elements such as videos, images, carousels, and collection ads to keep your audience interested.
• Create an ad campaign consisting of multiple ad sets featuring different ads, and schedule each ad set to run on distinct weekdays.

This optimization tip is especially useful for businesses with a smaller target audience, i.e., those with a specific geo-location, niche products, or a retargeting campaign to convert website visitors.

7. Show Ads on the Right Ad Platforms, Devices and Placements

Your Facebook ads are shown everywhere, including on mobile devices, Instagram, and Facebook's Audience Network. With so many placement options, you'll want to know which placements work best for your ads.

To optimise the above, review your ad analytics to see which placement, device, and platform perform best. Then, adjust your ad budget and targeting to focus on the most successful placements, devices, and platforms.

Here's how to do it:

1. Log into Meta Ads Manager.
2. Select Campaigns, Ad Sets, or Ads.
3. Click on the Breakdown dropdown menu located between Columns and Reports.
4. Choose the breakdown option to view performance data by platform (Facebook, Instagram), device (mobile, desktop), and placement (feed, stories).
5. See which placements, devices, and platforms are driving the most conversions.

You can now adjust your ad budget and targeting to prioritise those high-performing options, leading to better results and a higher return on investment (ROI). It also lets you create customised ads for specific placements and devices, allowing you to tailor your message to your audience's preferences.

8. Optimise Ads with Interest-based Targeting

Lookalike and custom audiences are useful, but they may not be your best targeting options. You could miss out on many potential customers outside your current audience pool.

That's where interest-based targeting comes in.

With Facebook's extensive data collection capabilities, you can improve your current target audience and reach a broader, yet still relevant, audience by targeting based on interests such as:

• Pages they like
• Events they attend
• Topics they engage with on the platform
• Purchasing behaviours outside of Facebook (e.g. online shopping habits)
• Job title
• Education level
• Relationship status

Just ensure to include interests that actually align with your target audience. Otherwise, you may risk wasting ad spend on irrelevant users.

9. Leveraging Location Targeting for Local Businesses

If you run a brick-and-mortar business, it's no use targeting audiences outside your geographical region. This is where location targeting comes in handy. With Facebook's advanced location targeting options, you can reach potential customers who are within a specific radius of your business.

Location targeting enables you to focus your ads based on:

• Country
• County
• City
• Radius
• Postcode

To maximise location targeting in 2024, consider these strategies to attract high-value customers without increasing your ad budget.

10. Create a Precise Geographic Target

Start by creating a new ad and selecting a geographic area to target. For instance, if you run a high-end bakery in London, set the drop pin in the centre of your service area and select a 5-mile radius around it. This allows you to attract customers within walking distance who are more likely to visit your store.

Add Relevant Targeting Options

Further refine your list by including relevant interests, demographics and behaviours. While not as important as location, these targeting options can help you reach a highly specific and interested audience.

Use Location-Based Creative

When creating your ad creative, incorporate local landmarks, events or popular places to spark recognition and interest from your target audience.

Account for new Census Data

Since May 2, 2023, targeting options based on the 2010 US Census have been replaced with options based on the 2020 US Census. Ensure your campaigns and saved audiences are updated accordingly to avoid any pauses in your ads.

11. Target Competitors’ Audiences

If you're stumped on who to target, try looking at your competitors. They're the closest to your target market and have already identified their audience.

However, it's important to clearly define who your competitors are.

For example, two clothing brands targeting teenagers may appear like direct competitors, but one may sell affordable streetwear while the other targets designer luxury wear. Their audiences may overlap to some extent, but they are ultimately different demographics.

So when targeting your competitors' audiences, ensure they're  truly your competitors and not just similar businesses in the same industry.

Here's how to target competitors' audiences on Facebook:

1. Log in to Facebook Ads Manager and create a new campaign.
2. Scroll down to the Audience section.
3. Type your competitor’s name or website in the Detailed Targeting box.
4. Refines the audience by using interests, behaviours, demographics, and location.
5. Add multiple characteristics to better define your target audience.
6. Create an ad that speaks directly to your competitors' audience, highlighting superior products, services or unique selling points.

12. Use Lookalike Audiences

Another effective way to expand your reach on Facebook is by creating lookalike audiences. These audiences share similar characteristics to any group of your choice, such as:

• Customers who purchased from you within the last three months.
• Engaged followers on social media.
• People who have clicked on your ad before.

Generally speaking, you'll want to select your best customers, i.e those who have recently made a purchase, as the basis for your lookalike audience. This will ensure that the new Facebook audience has the best chance of converting into customers.

Before you can create a Facebook Lookalike Audience, you must create a Custom Audience first. Facebook will use this Custom Audience to create your personalised Lookalike Audience.

To create a Custom Audience:

1. Prepare your customer list as a CSV or TXT file. Ensure your Meta Pixel is installed to track website visitors.
2. Go to “Audiences” in Ad Manager, and select “Create Custom Audience”
3. Choose a Custom Audience source: website, app activity, catalogue, customer list, or offline activity.
4. Proceed to create your Custom Audience.

To create a Lookalike Audience:

1. Go to “Audiences” in Ad Manager.
2. Select “Create a Lookalike Audience.”

3. Choose your Custom Audience as the source.
4. Select the countries or regions for your Lookalike Audience.
5. Choose the audience size (1-10 scale) to balance similarity and reach. 
6. Click Create Audience. It may take 6-24 hours to complete.

PRO TIP: Prepare a source audience between 1,000 and 5,000 people, as too small a list will not give enough data to make educated decisions. Conversely, too large a list may dilute the similarities between your current and potential customers.

13. Get Inspiration From Competitors' Ads

Don't underestimate the power of competitor research!

While we all want to believe our own creative ideas are unbeatable, it never hurts to spy on what the top dogs in your industry are doing. This can be a great source of inspiration for your own ad campaigns.

Let's say, for example, your competitors are predominantly using short and snappy video ads on Instagram to promote their products. You can take note of this and try creating your own short video ad using similar techniques.

Alternatively, your competitors may be running promotions or discounts in their ads, which could be a successful tactic for driving sales. Don't hesitate to test out similar strategies in your own campaigns.

Here's how to spy on your competitors' ads:

1. Go to the Facebook Ad Library: Type in industry-related keywords or your competitors' names to see their current and past ads.
2. Save and analyse their ads: Note the type of ad, messaging, visuals, and any promotions or discounts they're routinely offering.
3. Adopt similar strategies to your ads: Use this information to create ads that stand out and better target your audience.

To save ads from the Facebook Ad Library, use MagicBrief's Chrome extension.

Our tool lets you easily save and categorise ads from Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for quick access. Additionally, you can leverage the MagicBrief Advertising Library to analyse ad data and gain insights into competitor strategies. With over 5 million winning ads, you can search and filter results by industry, brand, format, and performance.

Sign up for a 5-day trial today and enhance your ad strategy through competitor analysis.

14. Make Ads for Your Sales Funnel

Your target audience consists of people with varying interests and needs. While some may be urging you to buy from them, others may need more convincing. This is why tailoring your ads to each stage of the sales funnel is important.

Bellow is what a full-funnel strategy looks like:

Top of the Funnel

Top of the Funnel users who don't know you yet. However, they do have a problem and are actively looking for a solution. This is where you can introduce your brand and create awareness with great visuals and informative messaging.

At this stage, your ads should showcase your brand and the products or services you offer, focusing on their benefits and unique selling points.

Use engaging content like:

• Videos
• Infographics
• Blog posts

To effectively reach these users, you can also use the following targeting options:

• Interest targeting
• Lookalike audiences
• Engagement targeting

These types of ads will help reach new prospects who can be potential customers and lead them to the next stage of your funnel.

Middle of the Funnel

At this stage, users are familiar with your brand but still need more convincing or nurturing before making a purchase. This is the time to show what differentiates your brand from competitors and why customers should choose you.

To achieve this, create ads that provide deeper insights into your products or services and highlight their benefits to the customer. Building social proof is crucial here; include testimonials, reviews, and case studies.

Effective ads for this stage include:

• Case studies
• Product demos
• Customer reviews

To reach these users effectively, utilise targeting options such as:

• Custom audiences
• Lead generation forms
• Video views

Additionally, engage with customers in the comment sections of your ads and posts, and run retargeting campaigns to keep your brand top-of-mind.

Bottom of the Funnel

This is the end of the funnel where you've built up enough of an audience that they're willing to take action. As such, your ads should be focused on conversion and retention.

Effective ads at this stage might include:

• Special discounts
• Limited-time offers
• Free trials

To reach these users effectively, use targeting options like:

• Conversion tracking
• Retargeting
• Catalogue sales

Additionally, you can promote products that customers have viewed or complementary products based on their previous purchases. By nurturing your customers even after a purchase, you encourage loyalty and potentially drive repeat purchases.

15. Use Existing Posts in Your Ads

Facebook can sometimes be a popularity contest, and the more likes, comments and shares your ad has, the more likely it is to be shown to more people. This is because likes, comments and shares signal to the algorithm that your ad is engaging and relevant.

They also act as social proof for your potential customers, giving them all more reason to give your products or services a try.

Here's how to do it:

1. Go to Ad Manager and create a new ad.
2. Under ‘Ad setup’, click on ‘use existing post.’
3. Scroll down to the ‘Ad Creative’ and click on ‘Select post.’

4. Choose a highly relevant post with the most engagement and click ‘Continue.’

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PRO TIP:  If you have multiple top-performing posts, choose one that best aligns with your current campaign goals. For example, if your ad promotes a new product, select a post that showcases customer reviews or testimonials of that product.

16. Optimise Your Landing Pages to Maximise Ad-to-Page Relevancy

Have you ever clicked an ad to find a landing page that doesn't match? This is a surefire way to lose potential customers and waste money on ad spend.

To avoid this, you'll want to optimise your landing pages to align with your ads and target audience. This means:

• Using consistent branding between your ads and landing pages
• Not switching offers or messaging on landing pages
• Keeping your landing page layout clean and easy to navigate.

You can even create tailored landing pages for specific segments of your target audience. This level of personalisation can greatly improve ad-to-page relevancy and increase conversions.

17. Use Google Tag Manager with Meta Pixel

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Google Tag Manager (GTM) allows you to track user behaviour on your website, providing valuable insights and data to inform your marketing strategies.

Think of GTM as a single dashboard for all your tracking needs. Instead of cluttering your website with multiple scripts, you use GTM to handle everything in one place. This simplifies management, reduces mistakes, and lets you easily update or tweak tracking codes whenever needed.

Using Google Tag Manager in conjunction with the Meta Pixel can help with:

• Tracking conversions
• Retargeting
• Optimising ad delivery
• Event tracking
• Optimising your ad spend

Combining both tools provides a more comprehensive and efficient approach to tracking and optimizing your digital marketing efforts.

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18. Use the FTO (fast take off) Method

It takes a little time for Facebook to optimise your ad campaign's delivery after its launch. This is especially true for newer ad accounts with little data and campaigns with smaller budgets.

To speed up this process, you can use the FTO method to quickly determine the best-performing ad set and allocate more budget to it.

Here's how to do it:

• When creating an ad campaign, use a Daily or Lifetime budget higher than your usual budget. This essentially puts your ad in a "fast lane" for Facebook's algorithm to gather data and optimise.
• Once your ads have over 10,000 impressions, look at the cost per result for each ad set.
• Pause or adjust the budget for underperforming ad sets and focus on scaling the high-performing one.
• Tweak and adjust the high-performing ad set to maximise its potential.
• Finally, reduce your budget back to your usual amount after a few days of FTO.

This method lets you quickly identify which ad set is most effective and focus on scaling it for better results.

Just note that every time you edit an ad, it takes Facebook at least 24 hours to optimise and gather data again. Edited ad campaigns, meanwhile, take as long as 48 hours, so only draw conclusions once enough time has passed.

19. Use Facebook's Dynamic Features

Facebook's dynamic features automatically display various ad creatives, headlines, and CTAs across Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network, eliminating manual testing and optimisation. Over time, Facebook's algorithm learns which combinations perform best and automatically shows the most successful ones to maximise your ad performance.

To use this feature:

• Set Up Conversion Events: Ensure you have ViewContent, AddToCart, and Purchase events properly configured on your website or app.
• Upload and Organise Your Product Catalogue: Keep it updated with detailed and accurate product information and high-quality images.
• Create Broad Product Sets: Start with large, broad product sets to maximise reach and refine based on performance.
• Enable Retargeting and Broad Audience Targeting: Use dynamic ads for retargeting and to reach new customers.
• Optimise for Conversions: Focus on conversion events to achieve lower CPA and higher ROI.

By leveraging dynamic features, you put out more personalised, relevant ads that drive higher conversions.

20. Incorporate Video Ads into Your Strategy

Did you know that users will spend five times longer looking at video content than static posts. This is because videos better capture the senses, evoking emotions and promoting engagement. Incorporating video ads into your strategy can help you stand out, build brand awareness, and drive conversions.

Here are a few tips for using video in your Facebook ads:

• Include captions, as 85% of Facebook videos are watched on mute.
• Convey your USP within the first three seconds as it accounts for 47% of the total campaign value.
• Keep video ads between 5-15 for non-skippable and up to 30 seconds for skippable ads for optimal engagement.
• Incorporate branding and logo within the first three seconds to establish brand recognition.

If you need inspiration for your next video ad, use the MagicBrief Ad Library to see what types of videos are performing well in your industry. Remember, with video ads, it's important to balance creativity and relevance to effectively capture the attention of your audience.

21. Enhance Your Facebook Ad Performance with MagicBrief

MagicBrief offers a range of sophisticated features designed to optimise the performance of your Facebook ads. In addition to allowing users to save and organise ads from the Facebook Ad Library on our platform, we provide real-time analytics tools to meticulously track ad performance.

By linking your Facebook Ad account to MagicBrief, you can:

• Swiftly evaluate and compare ad performance across various campaigns.
• Select and track custom advertising metrics, such as Cost per Lead, CTR, Add-to-Cart Purchase Ratio. 
• Use our inbuilt CoPilot to monitor ad effectiveness over specified time periods, allowing you to pause ads that need work and scale your best ads. 
• Obtain real-time insights into ad performance with MagicBrief's AI rank analysis.

With this comprehensive data, you can scale up your top-performing ads and refine underperforming ones, ultimately maximising your ROI.

Sign up to MagicBrief for a 5-day free trial.

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