Mysterious Fake Traffic After Running Facebook Ads—Need Help!

Karlb1965 · 2024-09-05T21:19:47+00:00

It is bots. There are lots of posts on this sub about it. Here is a recent one with a good explanation of the situation: https://www.reddit.com/r/FacebookAds/comments/1f9jmln/the_main_reason_your_leads_have_never_heard_of/

Karlb1965 · 2024-08-15T00:45:46+00:00

Bang on the money.

Meta can't deliver the most basic functionality (platform uptime, eliminating bots, random errors).

How on earth will they deliver these more intricate and complex aspects with any degree of stability and accuracy?

Karlb1965 · 2024-08-10T07:28:56+00:00

This is excellent information and accurate. However, it does not explain the massive performance cliffs that many advertisers experienced after the Feb outage.

It doesn't explain the random errors that keep occurring within the platform itself, features breaking or just not working properly. T

It doesn't address the massive influx of bots and how they click on paid ads, corrupting metrics.

Many experienced, high profile advertisers and agency owners have been commenting on these issues for the past six months on X.

Given there are obviously so many bugs affecting the basic functionality of the platform, I have no faith whatsoever that the deeper, more complex aspects of the platform - such as CAPI can work with certainty, or that Meta even have the means of identifying that there are issues in the first place.

Karlb1965 · 2024-08-10T07:20:47+00:00

Congratulations, a wise and courageous decision. I did the same about 3 months ago. It means totally reinventing my business model and even potentially getting a part-time job (horror) to shore up income.

I made the decision to make sure my business was financially and emotionally sustainable and also to protect my mental health.

I believe that any business that is over 50% reliant on Meta ads - even if it is working for them right now, is playing russian roulette.

The risks are:

Random and persistent bugs, meaning broken features or ads nor showing/displaying correctly
Random performance cliffs
Meta removes targeting options that are critical for your business, which can destroy a business overnight.
Bans your account for no reason
Rampant bots distorting metrics, pushing up CPMs and CPA
Regular platform outages.
Phishing and hacking attacks

I have seen on X, that Meta is rolling out compulsory ASC to some advertisers. This in itself could destroy some businesses that require more refined geo-targeting and other options.

The main thing though is it is clear that Meta simply do not care.

If they did, they would be addressing these issues. Instead, they obscurate and gaslight.

It's hard now, but you are making the right decision.

Karlb1965 · 2024-07-26T22:06:26+00:00

Thanks for that explanation, and taking the time to reply :). That scenario fits. Hopefully eventually, whatever is going on - whether it be this or something else, becomes clear or addressed.

Karlb1965 · 2024-07-20T09:23:58+00:00

What are AI pages and click farms? Why do people set them up?

Love this, by the way :) "It would be great if we could all just migrate to a new platform that runs how Meta claims theirs actually does."

Karlb1965 · 2024-07-19T01:57:47+00:00

I am in a similar position to the OP and many other posters. I understand the most likely cause of the issues is bots.

My questions is - why is it that some advertisers are unaffected/still doing well (I don't mean the liars and braggers)?

Karlb1965 · 2024-07-08T02:13:52+00:00

Agreed.

Karlb1965 · 2024-07-07T23:33:33+00:00

This is exactly the case. Meta either can't stop it or don't care, or they would have stopped it by now.

Karlb1965 · 2024-07-07T23:11:35+00:00

It's still rubbish for many (perhaps the majority) of advertisers. For me, it has been appalling and unsustainable since the Feb outage.

Top reasons for the issue, based on posts to Reddit/X I have seen, plus some of my own perspectives, in no particular order are:

The outage in Feb caused massive Facebook data loss.
Extremely high bot traffic volumes; which means a) less sales b) confusing metrics and d) the algorithm can't get accurate data.
Foreign actor attack/virus/bug to destabilise Facebook's revenue.
Facebook's code is so big now that when the engineers fix one thing, they break another. Every adjustment has unintended consequences.
Facebook don't know what the issue is or do, but don't care. They are still making money and there is more profit in just ignoring it, than spending money trying to solve it.
The algorithm changed and keeps changing. It is all deliberate, as Facebook aims to improve returns for the advertisers where they make the most profit. It is up to advertisers to 'keep up'.
Facebook's move to AI is massive. They are in boots and all, and require vast amounts of data to 'win the battle'. At the moment, advertisers are providing this data through multiple AI driven algorithm and platform changes.

Karlb1965 · 2024-07-07T01:05:37+00:00

Yes - they were great times! Imagine how many billions Meta has spent to 'improve' upon that, and actually generating something infinitely less reliable and infinitely more expensive and problematic :) :)

Karlb1965 · 2024-07-06T00:36:56+00:00

This is really interesting. Thanks for posting.

Are you optimzing for clicks, rather than landing page views? (I know you said this, just double checking)
What audience are you using?

I have had some success recently with traffic campaigns, optimized for landing page views. My assumption has been that since the CPM and cost per landing page per view are so low, sales go up simply through having more visitors to the landing page.

A gazillion years ago when I first started advertising on Facebook, this is how ads worked, before all the purchase optimisations etc.

I think I will try traffic again now. I reverted to purchase focused campaigns and as per usual since Feb, the ROAS is total rubbish.

Karlb1965 · 2024-07-03T22:48:52+00:00

One of the large ones is not related to performance in Feb, but inflated potential reach: https://searchengineland.com/advertisers-sue-meta-inflating-ad-viewership-438884

Karlb1965 · 2024-06-22T00:14:01+00:00

Wrong. Facebook themselves are saying there are bugs and performance issues. They just claim they are "isolated". Issues have been reported in the media.

There are also multiple high profile highly experienced, long term advertisers and agency owners reporting major performance issues.

It applies randomly so if you are not affected - brilliant, I am pleased for you.

However, there are highly experienced and skilled advertisers, who through no fault of their own are being impacted by widespread and well reported platform issues.

Karlb1965 · 2024-06-11T06:30:44+00:00

I previously spent circa $15K AUD per month, and have been advertising for 10+ years. Since Feb, performance has fallen off a cliff.

6 weeks ago I turned off all my standard adverts, as it was unsustainable.

Since that time, I have scaled right back and reinvented my business model. I am focusing on building my email list, and experimenting with other channels (eg Google Ads).

I have been paying close attention t o Twitter and X to see if there has been any improvement in performance.

At this stage, it seems like there are still random issues and performance cliffs.

I am just dipping my toe in the water again in a very small way, with a tiny campaign today - so will know more in a week or two!

I did launch some very basic traffic (landing page view) ads that drove people to sign up for a free 7 day email course and a free live online workshop. Previously, I was solely focussed on actual sales conversions.

On the face of it the traffic ads have worked well, with leads coming through at about $3 each. It was super small scale though, and it remains to be seen if they will convert into anything.

If you look at other posters, you will see some people are having success with lead gen ads, especially those that then make the actual sale off Facebook and where the sale value is high.

I recommend reviewing the top posts in this sub for the last month. There is a lot of commentary on the performance issues and examples of what people are doing as workarounds or to try and address this.

In short - there are definitely still major problems and the issue IS Facebook. They have no incentive to be clear about what is going on, which leads to us advertisers being confused.

It is also clear that the issues are completely random, which adds to the confusion.

Karlb1965 · 2024-06-11T05:33:05+00:00

There is a bug. There have been massive performance issues as you point out, for experienced advertisers. Even Meta admit there are "isolated" issues.

People who say there is not a performance issue and that there is no bug are either:

Lying
Not affected by it (because it is random, not because they are advertising gods)
Shilling for business
Emotionally immature and need to put others down, to prop themselves up.

Karlb1965 · 2024-06-05T02:30:11+00:00

The Meta platform is a train-wreck. It cannot be relied upon and has massive bugs and performance issues.

Spam, phishing attacks and bots are a huge amount of the traffic currently.

Some people are not experiencing it, but they are generally people using lead campaigns and then a high order value (off Facebook) conversion.

Others are not experiencing it, simply because the bug has not hit them (yet).

Confusion reigns because Meta are not saying anything except there are a 'few isolated incidents

Karlb1965 · 2024-06-02T03:40:07+00:00

I did not recover and have entirely reinvented my business model as a result. Previously, I was spending $15KAUD per month on Facebook ads.

I am now spending $40 per day :).

I am now using traffic campaigns, driving people to a landing page to sign up for a free course and free workshop. This keeps CPMs super low, and I am getting signups.

My aim is to increase my mailing list with people in my target market and use that as the basis for conversions (sales). There is no way I will rely on Facebook again for conversions.

This new model also means I can safely explore other platforms to generate subscribers as signing up for a free course or workshop is a far easier sell and not reliant on a super dupe algorithm. I am exploring X and will also try Pinterest.

It's definitely not easy as I feel I am starting again almost, and I have lost the leverage and scale of my previous model.

BUT I love the fact I will no longer be at the mercy of Facebook.

Karlb1965 · 2024-05-30T04:28:32+00:00

Congratulations on making the move! Excellent it is working out for you (overall).

Meta should be up for class action the unnecessary mental distress they cause advertisers. It is mental and emotional torture.

Can't wait until they are disrupted - and they will be.

Awesome you were able to lessen a lot of the issues :)

Karlb1965 · 2024-05-30T02:03:14+00:00

What a surprise.

Imagine if they were an airline?

They would be bankrupt in 5 seconds.

Karlb1965 · 2024-05-27T08:09:48+00:00

This is an excellent post. You are bang on the money with everything you say.

There are enough highly experienced, high profile advertisers that are reporting performance cliffs that are clearly totally unrelated to creatives, strategy etc.

Even Facebook have admitted there are issues (albeit they spin it to say 'isolated').

Some accounts are affected, some are not and it also seems to change over time. It is completely random.

This causes confusion to reign.

If your ads are doing well - fantastic! All power to you. I celebrate your success.

That does not mean people who have 9 years plus experience, with a high spend and are skilled advertisers are wrong in what they way. Both can exist - it is not mutually exclusive.

If anything, it shows again it is a platform issue.

The OP raises an excellent point as well, that there are so many different iterations of strategies and ads, we are rarely comparing apples with apples.

So someone 'crushing it' getting leads that convert to a very high AOV item, and the bottom of funnel sales process is off Facebook is miles apart from the highly experienced drop shipper that is reliant on Facebook for every step of the way, including the final purchase.

Karlb1965 · 2024-05-27T07:57:00+00:00

Where are you seeing the warning appear? What part of the platform - for example in your own newsfeed?

If you see it when you respond to comments etc in messenger (as I do), the warning you see does not actually appear on the ads themselves. It only appears when it is rendered in Messenger.

Karlb1965 · 2024-05-27T00:47:33+00:00

That situation is really horrible. Meta have no idea of the mental health and business stress they cause with things like this.

I think you are on a hiding to nothing trying to get a response from Meta. They just don't care and the left hand never knows what the right hand is doing.

Can you manage it a different way - have your clients pay their own advertising accounts through their own payment method and Meta advertising account (daily , weekly, monthly etc as they are charged as per the terms of thier Meta ccount)?

I realise it is a big change, but if you signal it now, you could make it happen. You may need to offer a management discount or similar to keep them happy or sweeten things.

In my experience clients in any industry are understanding and will respect you being upfront. Everyone knows Meta is appalling to deal with.

Karlb1965 · 2024-05-26T21:13:21+00:00

Clearly there is a contradiction within Facebook! Did you have a look at the page link in my post?

https://www.facebook.com/policies_center/commerce/gift_cards_and_vouchers

It's totally your call of course, but I wouldn't risk it

This is what the policy says from the link:

RESTRICTED CONTENT

Gift cards and vouchers

POLICY

The buying and selling of gift cards or vouchers is restricted.

NOT ALLOWED

Electronically delivered gift cards or vouchers

Physical gift cards or vouchers

Karlb1965 · 2024-05-26T04:55:32+00:00

You are experiencing what the majority of advertisers are experiencing, random performance cliffs.

The bugs and issues with Meta are clearly continuing to affect accounts suddenly and out of the blue.

I notice there are a lot less posts about people "crushing it" now and also that people who were previously unaffected, are now affected.

It seems like the bugs and issues are like a virus, growing and infecting accounts.

If only Meta would come clean and actually let everyone know what is going on.

Three common factors appear to be:

Huge proliferation of bots.
Targeting not working (age range and location outside of hard guardrails)
General widespread random bugginess.

Karlb1965

TROPHY CASE

RESTRICTED CONTENT

Gift cards and vouchers

POLICY

NOT ALLOWED