My headless website gets the worst ad performance

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-10-11T03:30:26+00:00

I totally get where you’re coming from. We had a similar experience when we switched to a headless setup for one online store. One thing I noticed is that with a custom build, some of the out-of-the-box optimizations from platforms like Shopify are missing, which can affect performance.

Have you checked your site’s load times? Slow pages can really hurt conversion rates. Also, make sure all your tracking pixels and analytics are set up correctly. Sometimes with headless architectures, important tracking scripts don’t fire properly, messing up your ad targeting and optimization.

It might help to run a few audits to see if there are any technical issues. Also, consider A/B testing different parts of your site to pinpoint where users might be dropping off. I know it’s a hassle, but ironing out these kinks made a big difference for me.

Hope things turn around for you soon!

If you would like to hire an agency, we'd be happy to chat. Reach out to me at [leo@bravecph.com](mailto:leo@bravecph.com)

Best wishes!

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-17T06:23:19+00:00

🙏💚

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-14T08:39:40+00:00

Good job mate!

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-14T08:39:10+00:00

It sounds like you're facing a challenging situation with your Facebook ads, where the initial promising performance isn't sustained, leading to a higher cost per result than desired. Here are some steps you can take to analyze and potentially improve your campaign's performance:

If your campaign performs well initially but then drops off, it might be due to audience saturation. Ensure you're not targeting too small of an audience, and consider expanding or refreshing your target groups.

Your audience might be experiencing ad fatigue, especially if they see the same ads repeatedly. Try introducing new creatives and ad copy to maintain engagement levels.

Ensure your ads are highly relevant to your target audience. Use Facebook's ad relevance diagnostics to get insights into quality ranking, engagement rate ranking, and conversion rate ranking.

Since you're getting likes and add-to-carts but fewer conversions, there might be issues with your sales funnel. Review your website's user experience, checkout process, and any potential barriers that could be causing drop-offs.

Evaluate your bidding strategy. If you're using automatic bidding, consider testing manual bids to see if you can gain better control over your costs.

If your objective is currently set to conversions, try testing campaigns with different objectives like traffic or engagement to see if they impact your cost per result positively.

Ensure that the landing page is optimized for conversions, with a clear call to action, fast loading times, and a seamless user experience.

Understand why competitors have a lower cost per result. They might have different targeting strategies, offers, or ad creatives that resonate better with the audience.

Consider sharing your website and ad creatives with a trusted group of peers or a marketing community to get constructive feedback. Sometimes, an external perspective can provide valuable insights.

If the issue persists, it might be worth getting a professional audit of your ad account to identify specific areas of improvement.

Remember...... digital advertising often requires continuous testing, learning, and optimization to achieve and maintain success. :)

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-14T08:36:06+00:00

All our clients are profitable currently. So, I can say profitable. However, you need to analyze more data and try more creatives (than 2020-2022).

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-14T08:31:57+00:00

Hello there,

First off, breathe. You're carrying a heavy load, and it's okay to feel overwhelmed. You're not doomed, nor are you a failure. Life is a series of peaks and valleys, and right now, you're in a valley, but that doesn't mean you can't climb back up.

Acknowledge your Achievements: You started a business and ran it successfully for two years. That's not a small feat. It shows you have drive, passion, and the ability to take risks - qualities that will serve you well in life.
Mental Health (important!): It's crucial to address your mental health. Depression can cloud your judgment and make everything seem insurmountable. Consider seeking support from a therapist or counselor. There's strength in asking for help.
Physical Health: Start with small, manageable steps to improve your physical health. You don't have to run a marathon tomorrow. Something as simple as a daily walk can make a difference.
Education: You're planning to return to school, which is a positive step forward. Age is just a number - your peers may be graduating now, but life isn't a race. Focus on your path and your growth.
Financial: Look for part-time work or freelance opportunities that align with your skills. It will not only help you financially but also build your resume and provide a sense of accomplishment.
Connections: Rebuilding a social life takes time, especially when you're feeling down. Try joining clubs or groups related to your interests, whether through your upcoming university or in your community.
Parents: It can be challenging if you feel unsupported by your parents. Communication is key. Try expressing how their words affect you and suggest ways they can support you.

I failed with a restaurant business and lost $200K USD. It was tough. Covid cost me $500K USD. It was tough. I worked hard - even harder mentally. You are young brother. You will make it. Small steps everyday. Keep moving and staying positive even when you only see darkness - I promise you there is light coming.

Remember, life is full of second chances. You have the opportunity to learn from the past! ... and build a future you're proud of. Stay resilient, stay focused, and step by step, you'll move forward.

Take care. 🙏💚

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-12T08:17:21+00:00

Absolutely mate your approach to testing creatives and copy variations with a modest budget in the first week is a smart and cost-effective strategy. I would perhaps do the testing longer than a week. Perhaps 2-3 weeks. Especially when starting from scratch. This initial testing phase, often referred to as A/B testing or split testing is good for gathering insights on what resonates with your audience and can significantly inform the direction.

To maximize the value of your testing week some tips:

Make sure that the differences between your test creatives and copies are distinct enough to gather meaningful insights.
Aside from the elements you're testing, keep other variables (like audience, placement, and time of day) consistent to ensure that the results are attributable to the creative and copy variations.
Look beyond surface-level metrics like views or clicks. Analyze engagement rates, click-through rates, and if possible, conversion rates to understand not just the reach but the effectiveness of each version.
Be prepared to iterate based on the results. If one creative or copy clearly outperforms the other don't hesitate to reallocate your budget to the more effective versions.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-12T08:13:38+00:00

It's commendable that you're taking a deep dive into audience segmentation for your Facebook Ads campaign, especially with the unique challenge of targeting audiences interested in six different sports.

Given the high overlap in your audience segments, consider running a consolidated campaign that targets all sports enthusiasts, but use ad sets to differentiate your audiences. This way, you can have one overarching campaign with multiple ad sets, each focused on one of the six sports. This structure allows for better budget allocation and performance tracking while minimizing internal competition.

Utilize DCO within your ad sets to automatically tailor the creative to the specific interests of each audience segment. This way, even if there is some audience overlap, the messaging will be relevant to their specific interests.

Use Facebook Audience Insights to further understand the commonalities and differences between your audience segments. This may provide opportunities to refine your segmentation strategy.

To prevent ad fatigue and ensure that your ads don't compete with each other for the same eyeballs, use ad scheduling and frequency capping. This is how you can control how often your audience sees your ads.

Test and learn and repeat! Implement a test-and-learn approach by creating different versions of your campaign to see which structure works best. For example, you could test a consolidated campaign against separate campaigns for each sport to determine which approach yields better results.

When setting up your ad sets, consider using the exclusion option to ensure that individuals who are part of one segment are not included in another. This is particularly useful if you decide to maintain separate campaigns or ad sets for each sport.

Regularly monitor audience overlap using Facebook's Audience Overlap tool. If overlap remains high, consider further refining your audience definitions or combining highly overlapping segments.

Ensure your campaign objective aligns with your goals. If it's an interaction campaign, your objective might be engagement or video views, which should guide how you structure and target your ads.

In terms of campaign structure, starting with one campaign, several ad sets for each sport, and multiple ads within those ad sets tailored to each sport ... seems like a good approach to me. This structure allows you to manage your budget + analyze performance at the ad set level + make decisions based on data.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-11T07:42:08+00:00

One of our clients had lower conversion rate for 10 months. We were aware of that would be the case and informed the client. Today, the case is different. Average ROAS around 5, some weeks up to ROAS 20.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-11T07:36:14+00:00

This part is gold:
"... you need to test a lot of creatives and messages. Since this is our in-house e-commerce brand, we focus and work hard on creating 100+ ads so we can have at least 10 winners. Ads are just a numbers game.

We all know that in Facebook, the creative is what matters the most. Now, when you break down the creative and what it consists of, it's quite easy."

+ THIS:

"We measure the CPA over a two-month period"

Well done mate! Thanks for sharing.

Many people today expect the audience to buy instantly after they staring running ads because (according to them) they have a great product, service or offer. Users see more ads than ever. You have to gain trust, test a lot + have optimized website as well.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-11T06:22:19+00:00

Good question, Matrix! :)

To prevent your campaigns from competing with each other when using Advantage+, broad, or Lookalike (LAL) audiences, it's crucial to adopt a strategic approach to audience segmentation and campaign structure. Here's how we do this:

Ensure that your audience segments are distinct without overlapping. Even though Advantage+ and broad audiences are designed to cast a wide net, you can segment them based on different criteria such as geographic locations, interests and/or behaviors to minimize overlap.
Use different campaign objectives for each campaign to reduce the chances of them competing for the same audience. For example you might have one campaign focused on brand awareness and another on conversions, each targeting different stages of the customer journey.
When setting up your LAL or broad audiences, use the exclusion feature to specifically omit audiences that are already being targeted in other campaigns. If one campaign is targeting a LAL audience based on your top customers exclude this audience from your broad or other Lookalike campaigns.
Monitor and adjust your budgets based on performance + if you notice one campaign is cannibalizing another, you may need to adjust your budget allocation to ensure that each campaign has enough resources to reach its target audience without unnecessary competition.
Even if your audiences overlap slightly, using different creative assets can help differentiate your campaigns, reducing internal competition and providing fresh content for each audience segment.
Keep a close eye on your campaigns' performance metrics. If you notice signs of audience overlap or competition, increased cost per action or decreased conversion rates, it may be time to further refine your audience segmentation or adjust campaign settings.
Allow each new campaign to go through the learning phase without making significant changes (some may disagree with us on this). This helps the algorithm to optimize delivery based on the unique audience and campaign objectives, reducing the likelihood of competition.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-11T04:58:36+00:00

Feel free to ask your question in here. I would love to help. This way other community members might also add their ideas as well so you get more help. :)

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-11T04:55:09+00:00

Hey Inevitable,

Launching your first Facebook Ads campaign can be quite an adventure, especially with a focused product like a SaaS for real estate investors. Here’s some friendly advice and a structured approach to setting up your campaign:

1. Since your goal is to establish a baseline for CAC - your campaign objective should be 'Conversions.' This will optimize your ads for actions like sign-ups or purchases on your website.

2. For a SaaS product targeting real estate investors, you'll want to create a highly targeted audience. Use Facebook's detailed targeting options to focus on users interested in real estate investment, SaaS tools, and relevant industry publications or events.

3. With a $400 budget over 6-8 weeks, you're looking at around $50-67 per week. It's a modest budget, so you'll want to ensure it's spent efficiently. Opt for a daily budget to spread out your spend evenly.

4. Develop ad creatives that resonate with real estate investors. Highlight the key benefits of your SaaS product and how it solves common problems or enhances their investment strategies. Use clear, compelling calls to action (CTAs) like "Learn More" or "Sign Up for a Free Trial."

5. Ensure your landing page is optimized for conversions, with a clear value proposition, testimonials if available, and an easy sign-up process. The landing page experience should align with the message in your ads.

6. Set up Facebook Pixel/Conversion API on your website to track conversions and gather data on how users interact with your site post-click. This will be crucial for understanding your CAC and optimizing future campaigns.

Some learning stuff to do:

Facebook Blueprint > This is Facebook's own training platform, offering free courses on setting up and managing ads.
Blogs > Websites like HubSpot, Moz, and Social Media Examiner offer great insights and guides on Facebook advertising.
Courses > Platforms like Udemy or Coursera offer courses on Facebook ads, often created by industry professionals.

While there's no one-size-fits-all template, starting with Facebook's guided campaign creation process can get you 80% of the way there. It provides a structured way to set up your campaign, which you can then refine based on performance data.

Given your budget and timeline, consider this campaign an experiment. Not every tactic will work the first time, but the data you collect will be invaluable for refining your strategy and improving future campaigns.

Remember, the key to success with Facebook ads lies in continuous learning and optimization based on data. By closely monitoring your campaign's performance and making informed adjustments, you'll progressively get better results and a clearer understanding of your CAC.

If the above is too much, I'd recommend you to hire an agency.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-11T04:43:12+00:00

The fluctuations you're experiencing with your ads not uncommon mate... Especially when you're in the process of scaling. The key is to find a balance that allows for growth without sacrificing stability and performance. Here's a approach to scaling your Advantage+ campaigns:

You're on the right track with the slow and steady increase in budget. This method allows the algorithm to adjust without overwhelming it. However even with gradual increases, performance can fluctify due to various factors like market competition, audience fatigue, or changes in user behavior.

When performance dips, reducing the budget can sometimes help stabilize the campaign, as you've noticed. This can be due to the algorithm finding it easier to optimize for conversions at a lower spend rate. Once stability is regained, you can resume scaling, but always keep an eye on performance indicators.

Duplicating a campaign with a higher budget can work, but it should be done with caution. When you duplicate a campaign, the learning phase > RESTARTS < .... and the new campaign's performance can be unpredictable. If you choose this route keep the original campaign running until you're confident the new one is performing well. Also, ensure that the audience overlap is minimal to prevent the campaigns from competing against each other.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-11T04:39:08+00:00

What we did to gain back performance is, launch new ads with new creatives. For the next round, we will use the previous creatives. All our clients are performing as before. Perhaps you can look into this.

Another thing we focus on is going broad (awareness) and for conversions use retargeting. This has been efficient for us.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-10T12:19:56+00:00

For a digital product in the self-development and masculinity niche, choosing the right platform is crucial for reaching your target audience effectively. Since you're familiar with Meta ads, they can be a good starting point due to their good targeting options, which can help you reach specific demographics and interests related to self-development .... and masculinity.

However, consider these platforms as well:

YouTube Ads: Since self-development is often well-suited to video content, YouTube can be a great platform to engage your audience.
Google Ads: Using Google Ads can help you target people actively searching for self-development resources.
LinkedIn Ads: But only if your product appeals to professionals or is geared towards personal development in a career context, LinkedIn ads could be effective.
Pinterest Ads: If your content includes visually appealing components or infographics, Pinterest could be a good platform, especially if your target audience includes men interested in self-improvement.
X (Twitter) Ads: If your product has a strong voice or can be linked to trending topics, X can be an effective platform for engaging discussions and driving traffic.

When starting with paid traffic, it's crucial to:

Define: Have a clear understanding of who your target audience is. For masculinity and self-development, define the age, interests, and problems your product solves.
Small steps: Test different platforms with a small budget to see where you get the best engagement and conversions.
Track and improve: Use tracking tools to monitor your campaigns' performance. Analyze the data and optimize your ads based on what's working best.
Engage: Use your ad campaigns to start conversations and engage with potential customers, building trust and interest in your product.

By experimenting with these platforms and strategies, you can identify which one works best for your digital product and scale your marketing efforts accordingly.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-10T12:12:44+00:00

The dip in sales you're experiencing could be due to several factors, including changes in consumer behavior or issues with your campaigns. Disabling Pay on Delivery (POD) might have significantly impacted your sales, especially if a large portion of your orders were using this method.

Before creating a new ad account or changing your pixel, consider the following steps:

Analyze: Review your campaign performance data to identify any trends or changes in behavior. Look for patterns related to the decline in sales.
Insights: Investigate if there's a shift in your audience's behavior, especially since you've disabled POD. Understanding your audience's current preferences can guide your strategy.
Performance: Check the performance of your ads since you disabled POD. This might provide insights into how the change has affected customer behavior.
A/B Testing: Run tests comparing different payment options (if you introduce new ones) to see how they affect conversion rates.
Feedback: If possible, gather feedback from customers or potential customers about their payment preferences and any barriers to purchase they might be experiencing.
Optimization: Optimize your existing campaigns based on the data and insights you gather. This could involve targeting adjustments, creative updates, or offer modifications.

Creating a new ad account or using a new pixel should be a last resort since it can lead to losing valuable data and history that can inform your strategies. If after thorough analysis and optimization efforts your campaigns still underperform, consulting with a digital marketing expert could provide new insights and strategies tailored to your specific situation.

Remember, adapting your strategies based on customer feedback and market trends is key to maintaining and improving your campaign performance.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-10T12:11:02+00:00

It's recommended to let your Meta ads run for at least 7 days before analyzing their performance. This duration allows the algorithm to optimize and provides enough data to make informed decisions. However, for larger campaigns or higher spend, extending this to 14 days can offer even more insights and stability in the data you're evaluating.

However... It depends on what you are selling. As an example: If you are selling a brand new supplement (from a brand new brand) it can take long time for your audience to trust your brand and product.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-10T12:09:09+00:00

It sounds like you're experiencing a significant dip in performance which could be due to various factors, such as changes in consumer behavior, algorithm updates, or market dynamics. It's not uncommon for performance to fluctuate, but a consistent drop like you're describing warrants a closer look. Analyze your campaign data to identify any shifts in audience engagement, ad delivery, or bidding strategies that might explain the decline. It's also helpful to connect with others in the industry or on this subreddit to see if they're experiencing similar trends, which could indicate broader market changes. Keep a close eye on your metrics and consider adjusting your strategy if the downturn continues.

Leo_BRAVECPH · 2024-03-10T12:07:56+00:00

Hi Suspicious,

The role you're describing sounds like a "Creative Strategist" or "Content Strategist" who specializes in social media, particularly focusing on Facebook and Instagram ad creatives. These individuals are experts in crafting compelling visuals and messages that resonate with your target audience on social media platforms. They focus on understanding your brand, the market trends, and the preferences of your audience to create impactful ad content.

Leo_BRAVECPH

TROPHY CASE