That’s MYTH #1.
In fact, here is a screenshot of a non video campaign to prove that ads don’t have to be video to work.
There are so many myths around Facebook advertising that can completely screw up your results. In this post I’m going to debunk another 49 Facebook advertising myths, so that you have the chance to get better advertising results! I’ve broken them down into the five pillars of Facebook advertising.
Pillar #1 Targeting
There is a lot of nonsense about what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to Facebook targeting. I’m going to clear those up in this section.
Myth #2: You want to target as specifically as you can for your Facebook ad campaigns.
This is not true. It will lead to audiences that are TOO SMALL and get worse results.
Myth #3: You should always use broad/open targeting.
This isn’t always the best way to get great results. We use sometimes use broad targeting in a likes campaign to get some initial social proof on a page. But broad open targeting is not always the best way to go, particularly for brand new ad accounts that have no history of conversions for Facebook to work from.
Myth #4: Lookalike audiences don’t work post iOS 14.
This is simply not true. You just need to change the source of your lookalike audiences for them to work well. Instead of using external sources to Facebook like website visitors, you want to us in-app sources such as video views, page engagement, or in-app lead forms.
Myth #5: Retargeting is now pointless.
This is similar to myth #4 and is also false. You definitely want to be retargeting with your Facebook ad campaigns. It is slightly less effective, but retargeting is usually still the most profitable portion of a campaign.
Myth #6: You should only advertise on feeds and stories.
Myth #7: You should only advertise on Instagram and not Facebook.
Myth #8: You should only advertise in big cities and not the rest of the country.
I’ve grouped these three myths together because they are all about where you should or should not advertise and they are all nonsense. There are MANY scenarios where you don’t want to follow the advice of any of these three myths.
Myth #9: Only old people use Facebook.
While it is true that Facebook has an older demographic, it’s not true that it’s old. That’s definitely an over exaggeration. It’s also not consistent across the entire planet. There are countries where younger people use Facebook a lot more than they do in the US.
Another thing to consider is that older people have money. One of the most predictable indicators of someone’s personal net worth is age. I’m not sure why marketers want to always advertise to 18 to 22 year old people when older people almost always have more money.
Myth #10: Short retargeting windows produce the best results.
You see a lot of people create their retargeting windows from website visitors that have been to their sites in the last 7 days. Some people make this window as short as 3 days. The thinking is that those people are the most likely to buy.
Facebook knows that “fresh” prospects are more likely to buy. So if you create a longer website retargeting audience window of 90 or 180 days then Facebook will start advertising to people who have visited your site more recently and then expand out to the rest of the audience and find other buyers.
I’m not a big fan of short window retargeting audiences. There is just no point and you need to expand those out.
Myth #11: You should not advertise on Instagram.
Just like there are people who say you should ONLY advertise on Instagram, there are also people who say you should NOT advertise on Instagram. This is outdated advice. It used to be the case that you get your best results from Facebook. But that’s not the case anymore and the vast majority of businesses advertise on both Facebook and Instagram.
Myth #12: Targeting is the ONLY THING that matters.
This is the most pervasive myth around targeting that I see. And it’s simply not true. Each piece of the advertising puzzle matters. You have to get your creative right, your offer right, and your targeting right in order for your ad to work. Targeting will not fix a bad offer.
Pillar #2: Advertising Strategy
In this section I want to go over all the myths around advertising strategy and there are a lot of them!
Myth #14: You have to start with a traffic campaign in a new Facebook ad account.
People say that you can’t run a conversions campaign and you can’t optimize for what you actually want. This has never made ANY sense to me.
You can absolutely run conversion campaigns with a brand new ad account. You can run sales campaigns or lead campaigns without a problem. You aren’t likely to get great results at first, but as the data accumulates in your ad account, your results are going to get better and better.
Remember if you have a traffic campaign you are ONLY optimizing for link clicks and not conversions, so you’ll be feeding Facebook the wrong data for conversions anyway. Running a traffic campaign when you want conversions is like training someone for a marathon by asking them to swim instead of run.
For most Facebook advertisers starting with conversions is the way to go.
Myth # 15: You have to duplicate a campaign when scaling.
False!
In my agency we increase the budget within an existing campaign that’s doing well. This is by far my preferred method of scaling.
Myth #16: You have to run complex sales funnels.
Myth #17: Facebook ads only work for ecommerce businesses.
Myth #18: You can’t advertise service businesses or a B2B business.
These there myths that are all wrong.
You can run direct to offer conversion campaigns on Facebook if you have a compelling offer.
We also often see the best results for Facebook ads for service or B2B businesses because the average customer value is often quite high in a service based business.
Myth #19: Facebook advertising doesn’t work.
What I find that people are saying when they say that is that I couldn’t get Facebook ads to work in the timeframe that I tested them. This is often a tiny timeframe of 3, 7, or 10 days.
People sometimes expect to be amazing at Facebook ads to work without developing the skills and expertise needed, but there are millions of advertisers generating billions in revenue for Facebook advertisers. Facebook advertising works.
Myth #20: You can sell anything with good enough Facebook ad campaigns.
This is the other end of the myth spectrum and it’s just not true.
If your service or product isn’t appealing enough to real people then it doesn’t matter how good the Facebook ad campaign is. It won’t work. It’s as simple as that and it’s the same with all marketing.
You have to market a product or service that there is a demand for at a price point that people want to buy.
Myth #21: Facebook followers/page likes don’t matter.
While it’s true that Facebook likes and page followers used to be much more valuable, they are still important. That’s because likes and followers give you credibility as a business. You don’t want to be advertising a page with no followers. When your ads pop up people come check it out. If you don’t look like a legitimate business then they won’t want to stick around.
Myth #22: Facebook advertising best practices and strategy changes every 5 minutes.
That’s not true, but lots of people think it is. I get comments on my videos all the time like “This video is six months old, does this still work?” And the answer is nearly always yes.
The details around the edges can change but strategy and best practices have stayed consistent for years and I expect that to continue.
That’s because we’re advertising to people and people are motivated to take action on the same stuff as they were 100 years ago as they are now.
Myth #23: There’s one Facebook ad strategy that works for everyone.
No. Just no.
You need to sell a $10 ecommerce product very, very differently than a $50,000 consulting package. And obviously there is everything in between so you need different strategies for different types of products and services. There is no one-size-fits all approach to Facebook advertising.
Myth #24: There are tons of Facebook advertising experts out there.
Here’s the reality. There are lots and lots of people that offer Facebook advertising services, but not many of them are true experts that have done the experimentation and have the experience to truly be experts.
Myth #25: No one uses Facebook anymore.
What that person is really saying is “I don’t use Facebook anymore.” And that’s fine. But to extrapolate their personal experiences to everyone else is completely unrealistic.
We know by looking at the data that Facebook still has an absolute monstrous user base.
Just because you don’t use something doesn’t mean that everyone’s doing the same thing.
Myth #26: People ignore Facebook ads because they are ads.
Now… it is true that a lot of people think that they don’t buy based on ads. It’s just not true.
We can see from the data that when you put ads in front of people you get clicks and people go and purchase.
Myth #27: If other Facebook advertisers leave the platform, you should too.
This is complete herd mentality.
The idea that there being less advertisers on Facebook means that there are less Facebook advertisers and Facebook is about to die is ridiculous.
If there are actually fewer advertisers on Facebook that means that ad costs will go down and you can make more money. That’s a GREAT scenario.
Myth #29: Facebook advertising is easy.
Facebook advertising is NOT easy. It’s a competitive environment. The best advertisers are getting the best results.
You need to know what you’re doing from a creative standpoint, a strategy standpoint, and an offer standpoint.
Pillar #3: Creative & Offer
There are also a lot of myths around creatives and offers. I’ll go over those in this section.
Myth #30: High quality ad creative is difficult to produce
It can be difficult to create if you don’t have the skills, but there are tons of people who DO have the skills to create engaging ad creatives and they really don’t charge that much.
Places like Upwork and Fiverr are good resources to use to find people who can put really nice video together, or put together beautiful imagery for slideshows or photo ads.
It’s well worth the investment and it’s really easy to get good creatives made for not a ton of money.
Myth #31 & #32: Home-recorded style videos or selfie style videos produce the best results.
That’s not true. You CAN get great results with both homestyle and professional type videos. A lot of what works depends on your market and offer.
Myth #33: Branding doesn’t matter.
Of course branding matters. An established brand will get better results.
Myth #34: You have to send people to your website.
Myth #35: You have to have lots of social proof in your ads.
Myth #36: You have to use a discount in your ads.
These are all myths around what you HAVE to do to get Facebook ads to work. I can think of scenarios where all three of these have not been followed and have gotten great results.
Pillar #4: Budget & Finance
There are a lot of very persistent myths in this category.
Myth #37: Facebook ads can be scaled infinitely.
No they can’t! You are advertising to real people and there is a finite amount of people that are going to be interested in any specific offer. You might be able to scale massively, but not infinately.
Myth #38: You can only scale in 10% budget increments.
Not true. You can always scale in larger budget increments than that, particularly if you are using lower budgets.
Myth #39: You should always use campaign budget optimization.
I’m a fan of campaign budget optimization, but should you always use it? Nope. Absolutely not.
Myth #40: Cost caps reduce your cost per conversion.
This isn’t the case. Cost caps actually reduce your as spend if you aren’t able to reach your cost per conversion. This is quite a different thing than reducing your actual cost per conversion.
Myth #41: You need to spend more if you want to target larger audiences.
That’s just not how Facebook works. This one is totally not true.
Myth #42: Facebook ads only work if you have a large budget.
That’s not true and it’s just an excuse. It’s people who don’t have a large budget and weren’t able to get their campaigns to work that are using it as an excuse.
I recommend you start with a small budget before you scale. This can absolutely work.
Myth #43: Facebook advertising is too expensive.
That’s a myth.
The truth is that you need to be able to find a way to pay more to acquire a customer.
That might mean upsells, increasing your price, increasing your customer retention or other methods of increasing the amount you can spend to acquire a customer.
Myth #44: There’s a correct Facebook ads budget.
This is a myth I hear all the time. People believe that there is a right amount to spend on a campaign.
The reality is that for your business your Facebook ads budget might be $1,000 a day or $3.00 a day. It depends on your objectives and what you sell. There’s no good amount for everyone.
Pillar #5: Ad accounts and support
In this category I’m going to start with a funny myth.
Myth #45: Facebook bans ad accounts to get you.
There are so many people that really seem to feel that Facebook is out to get them.
The reality is that Facebook bans ad accounts to protect their platform. Sometimes they get it wrong, but they aren’t trying to punish you as an advertiser.
Myth #46: Recommend features within your ad account are always beneficial.
Facebook will always recommend things that are within Facebooks interest.
Myth #47: Facebook reps are always helpful.
They’re just not. Often they will give you advice that’s good. Often they’ll give you advice that just benefits Facebook.
Here’s an example:
At the end of the day if a Facebook rep is telling you to spend more money it might be because they are a business and want you to spend more money. That’s important to keep in mind.
Myth #48: The Facebook ads learning phase should be feared.
Yikes!
I’ve seen it over and over. There are lots of advertisers on Facebook that will never test anything rather than get put back into the learning phase. Unfortunately, not testing will do far more damage to your campaign than being in the learning phase will.
Myth #49: Facebook only wants advertisers in developed countries.
This is definitely not the case.
It would be very easy for Facebook to decide that they will only allow developed countries to advertise. This isn’t what they do.
Developing countries are important to Facebook and are likely to become more important in the future.
Myth #50: Facebook hates small business and only wants to work with large companies.
Actually, the majority of Facebook advertisers are small businesses, and the majority of their advertising revenue as a whole comes from small businesses.