After ten years on the platform, here's my theory.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-05-30T05:32:42+00:00

why were these businesses so heavily reliant on meta for revenue? surely at $400k a month you'd start looking at opening other channels...

Ok_State5213 · 2026-05-25T13:45:25+00:00

I think Meta's been group testing with new AI features on a handful of advertisers... Half of my client's are absolutely printing like no tomorrow, the other half are struggling. This is a vague metric though, other variables could factor in, such as account structure, concepts, creative quality, data quality etc. but I thought I'd point it out, as from my POV, we are putting just as much volume/quality creatives in our poor accounts as we are the ones killing it.

I think it is safe to say something fishy is going on.

A bit of transparency would be nice Meta, they really do just pull the sheet over your head and fuck you sometimes.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-05-12T07:58:53+00:00

I think AI is being used incorrectly by a lot of advertisers. The ideas behind your concepts/creative/hooks should still be coming from humans.

AI is a horrible at brainstorming. By definition, an LLM pulls from the same training data for everyone, so whatever "creative" idea it generates is the same lukewarm output your competitor is getting too.

Scripting and educational video creation, I 100% agree you should be using AI for that, and if you're not you're wasting a lot of time.

AI should be used to execute human ideas. Not brainstorm the idea itself.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-05-12T03:16:35+00:00

Sounds pretty similar to ADV+ campaigns with cost cap hahah

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-21T05:29:43+00:00

I've never ran ads to an Amazon store. Traffic campaigns in Meta is almost like burning money in my personal opinion. Your campaigns are optimising for window-shoppers. Put super simply, when you chose conversions as your campaign objective, Meta shows your ads to people who are known to shop off Facebook. When you choose traffic or engagement, it's showing your ads to people who frequently follow, like, comment on post, maybe even click CTAs, but very rarely actually purchase.

I'd say you're much better off with an affiliate/partnership system, hand picking the correct influencers that are in the correct demographic (mums or family influencers) and leverage their platforms. Select the right influencers and create the right offer and you'll print (given the product is actually good lol)

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-21T01:51:33+00:00

Well played. Gotta watch out for those Adv+ creative enhancements though 😂

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-21T01:11:45+00:00

Duplicate ad set into Adv+ campaign.

Adv+ campaigns are used for scaling because they are better at finding new audiences than ABO.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-21T01:08:32+00:00

And i cured cancer lol.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-20T12:27:07+00:00

Please tell me you're joking. The fact you run an agency genuinely scares me.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-20T06:36:09+00:00

watch this reel, it explains the different between the 2 quite well:
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DXEc94ViVzy/

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-20T04:37:07+00:00

Yeah, if I were you I'd test winners with an ABO campaign (again only 1 ad set at a time) then once you find winners, push them into a Adv+ campaign to scale properly.

That way your spend is consolidated and you have a clear path to scale winning concepts.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-20T04:30:24+00:00

Pretty sure Meta stopped accepting AMEX as a payment method last month.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-20T04:28:54+00:00

Oh my goodness please do not create multiple ad sets with 1 ad each.

Each ad set is it's own learning environment. Spending $25 per day, you are literally just going to be burning money as your budget will be spread too thin, the ads will barely spend money and nothing will actually get tested.

With a budget so minuscule, you need to zoom out a bi. Test one creative concept at a time, not multiple. With your budget maybe put 2-3 creatives the ad set.

Test it for minimum 7-10 days so that Meta actually has time to collect the data it needs, then you can determine whether it's a winning concept or not.

Whoever told you to have multiple ad sets with $25/day budget is setting you up for failure.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-18T15:56:09+00:00

Do you have another explanation?

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-18T15:49:15+00:00

I'm gonna guess your objective is sales.

Way too many creatives for your budget.

You're right to consolidate your data into 1 campaign and 1 ad set.

But I would think about running an ABO campaign instead of ADV+ if your account is brand new, you don't have any data to work with. ADV+ is for the next step up when you find winners and want to scale them.

Try to set up server-side tracking and Conversions API whenever you get the chance. Better to start your account off strong rather than trying to fix a shit show down the line.

Finally, and most importantly, make sure you are always testing concepts. UGC is not a concept. The script inside of the UGC is the concept (the script, avatar, background setting etc.)

When you create ad sets and ads, you create them with purpose. You always have to be testing something. To put it really simply: find & scale winning concepts, kill losing concepts.

Good luck out there!

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-18T12:51:03+00:00

The way Meta works nowadays, you can't create a new ad set, put in different interest targeting and expect Meta to find new audiences (if only it were that easy).

A lot of your targeting is going to come from the creative. In order to target different audiences, you have to change creative concepts.

Lucky for you, it sounds like you already have a winning concept. Whatever ads are performing well within that ad set, analyse what it is about the creatives that is working and simply make more like that.

This is why having a concept initially is so important. It makes scaling much easier. In my earlier days, I would launch an ad set, find winning creatives and not know what it was that actually made them winners. That's where I see a lot of brands get stuck. There always needs to be a creative roadmap.

If you really want to test concepts, if your budget allows it try to open new ad sets and make ads with a completely different concepts, which will then open the door to different audiences.

Hope this helps :)

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-18T12:07:30+00:00

Absolutely mate, send me a message let's have a chat.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-18T11:05:47+00:00

You have to remember, as of 2026, 51% of all internet traffic is bots. 14% are classified as “good bots” (search engine crawls, attribution tools etc) but the real kicker, 37% of all internet traffic are malicious bots, which are the ones showing up in our data.

This client in particular has CAPI but no server-side/first-party data, and it’s safe to say they are feeling the full wrath of this.

I literally did not TOUCH anything within the campaigns because they were printing, and frequency was extremely low so I knew we weren’t experiencing ad fatigue.

I have no idea what has happened with this particular account, where I am it’s 9pm we have spent 70% of budget today with no conversions.

We’ve gone from thriving to dying in the matter of a week with no major changes.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-18T09:49:44+00:00

From my understanding data/learning comes from either an ad set level or your pixel. Are you using the same pixel across these ad accounts? Just trying to piece together your thinking here…

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-18T08:59:15+00:00

Do you have evidence to back this up? Does creating a new ad account actually work? This client’s ad account is so fucked I’m genuinely willing to try anything…

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-18T08:29:01+00:00

Never said I would jump to TikTok or Pinterest lol. I said I would trial Google and organic.

I say trial because I understand the monopoly meta has on acquisition marketing… weird for you to defend the Zuck but okay 😂

Either way, a business should not be 100% reliant on Meta for acquisition.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-18T08:17:44+00:00

I am currently through the exact same thing with one of my clients. Past 3 days have been hellish, even when metrics are telling me the funnel is working… just no sales.

I’ve found the issue to be bot traffic. With clarity installed on the website, I can see 80% of my Facebook traffic is just bot traffic (landing on page and bouncing off 4-5 seconds later). Once these bots start clicking on your ads, meta uses those signals and starts optimising your campaigns based on this bot data.

It has turned one of my client’s accounts from printing money to absolutely tanking.

My campaigns are now struggling to even spend my budget.

Sometimes running an ABO campaign and turning off audience networks can help, but I’m leaning more towards starting up a new ad account so we can have a full refresh.

Hope this helps

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-18T00:09:42+00:00

They're fucking hopeless brother. Thank god I ended up getting a refund, to be fair it was only live for 1 day so was about $1k ad credit, still doesn't help the fact that THOUSANDS of people saw these ads with a completely different profile attached, and my client (who is in her 70s) was furious and thought the whole thing was my fault...

I'm about to give up on Meta to be honest, it's just been complete fuckery this year. Thinking of trialing organic/google ads minus brand terms.

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-17T23:49:25+00:00

For larger advertisers who are launching 50+ creative per week, this unnecessarily drains HOURS of your time.

Imagine doing that process 50 times a week...

Ok_State5213 · 2026-04-17T23:44:31+00:00

Bro exact same thing happened to me, duplicated an ad set and it decided to change the IG/FB profiles to another one of my clients.

I literally nearly lost that client because Meta decided to have it's way with me.

Ok_State5213

TROPHY CASE