Meta plays with my nerves but I’m more stubborn than them!
Finally I succeeded in publishing my first ad on Facebook and it wasn’t a piece of cake.😵💫
In my last post I said I was preparing my business to accept leads coming from my Facebook campaigns.
This is job done now.
The most difficult wasn’t really that part. Rather, and I must admit I was expecting this a little, it was to make an ad that would be approved by Facebook.
I did several attempts but each time it was refused.😤
The Reason?
Violating Facebook policies on Fraud, Scams and Deceptive Practices.
Here is an email excerpt of the kind of message I received from Meta each time I tried with a new ad copy:
Your ads were rejected
Hi Martin,
Your ads were rejected because they don’t comply with our Fraud, Scams, and Deceptive Practices policies. This means that these ads aren’t running and will not be delivered to your audience.
We know this may impact your current business objectives. If you believe it was incorrectly rejected, you can request another review.
Of course I asked a review!
When I did, either, my ad was approved, or still got rejected. Not much details about the reason why so I had to figure-it-out.
When it was approved, each time I tried to change a little something at the ad-set, for tweaking or doing comparative experiments, the ad got rejected again.
Here are some of my ad trials that didn’t pass:
What do you think? Am I doing fraud? Scamming maybe? Or am I doing a deceptive practice?
NO! All I try to do is to promote “The Beginner’s Business Blueprint” video training by Dean Holland.
OK, if I stare at my ads too much, at the end I could find them a look a bit suspicious…
What says the Facebook policies about Fraud, Scam, and Deceptive practices?
This excerpt, taken from the “Product or Reward Fraud and Scams” section of the policy, is the only one I could figure that relates to my issues.
- Job Fraud and Scams. Content that:
- Offers jobs with an unclear or vague job description and get-rich-quick opportunities promising money with little time investment or effort.
- Offers jobs containing no job information, simply referencing job vacancies.
- Offers work from home but the job title implies the employee cannot WFH.
- Offers jobs with advance promises of salary.
- Offers guaranteed jobs.
- Offers jobs with a demand for an advance fee before the job is granted.
- Note: We also look for other signals to determine if an entity is posting legitimate, non-fraudulent content, such as when it is a verified entity
You can read all the policy here https://transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards/fraud-scams) if you want to do your Sherlock Holmes. I did it and found nothing else.
I must admit I was really frustrated. 😡
Looking at other’s ad on Facebook that were openly promoting making money online without any consequences, was getting me yelling to injustice!!
I guess that’s something where being a beginner doesn’t help.
Because I’m new to this field, without any reputation, the scam probability is surely very high. I know that Meta can’t have anything against me personally and I can’t really blame them to do such prevention even if, like in my case, it sounds unfair.
Judging by the huge experience they might have with advertising, they must certainly have had their lot of those little scam trolls and complaints.
This being said, here is now the ad that finally passed, first time:
Up to now, there is no problem with it. I can’t still but hardly speculate on why the others were rejected and not this one.
Is it the text? Is it the copy itself? Apart than what I just said about my beginner’s disadvantage, I must admit that I don’t know.
It’s still a complete mystery for me.
Any Idea? Please tell me in the comments below.
But at least with this one I can make changes to the ad set, make tests with different audience interests, regions, etc. and the ad get still approved. This is something I couldn’t do with the other ones because it was just another reason for Facebook of rejecting again the ad and another reason for me to lose more money. 😒
Lesson learned: tests only if your ad is “clean”, i.e. if it was accepted the first time unless you know exactly why it was rejected and made the appropriate corrections.
Make place to the leads!
But there isn’t just bad things with my first ad experience. Since I got an ad up and running, leads started to flow in!
YES! It really works!
My new machine to make leads is working, my contact list in Affiliate System is growing and they open my emails!
What would take months to do organically, took me only a few days with paid ads. Nice and easy.
Well, this efficacy surprised me. I now have an audience for my email marketing! 🥳
OK I most control myself not to put the kart before the horse. Those leads are still in my 15 days welcoming email sequence but unless they all unsubscribe, in a few days I’m going to have people on my list for my newsletter!
This is really exciting! …and also a bit scary because I’m entering a new world where I will need to develop new skills. I put the bar high for myself because I don’t want to disappoint my brand new audience!
Remember the four core areas of focus the affiliate marketer must do to earn money? They are: Traffic, Capture, Follow-up, Sales.
Follow-up is the new skill I need to learn and master and it’s something you’ll see me talking about more often from now on.
Just to give you an idea of how I do with my ad, I’m using metrics like CPC, CPL and CTR. My campaign is built on a budget of 5CA$ per day. This is low but I didn’t want to lose a fortune for the time I’m learning.
As I’m quite new to the game, I found myself swimming in a sea of acronyms and metrics that was a bit overwhelming at first. My intention is to describe them for you here so that you know what I’m talking about.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
First up, we have CPC, or Cost Per Click. This metric is pretty straightforward—it tells you how much you’re paying each time someone clicks on your ad. Think of it as the toll fee for driving visitors to your website.
- Why it matters: Understanding CPC helps you manage your ad spend and ensures you’re getting the most bang for your buck. A high CPC might mean you need to tweak your ad targeting or creative to be more appealing to your audience.
My actual CPC is 1.91 CA$ which is not very good I know but I will improve.
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
Next, let’s talk about CPL, which stands for Cost Per Lead. This metric measures how much you’re spending to acquire a lead. A lead can be anything from someone signing up for your newsletter to filling out a contact form—essentially, anyone who shows interest and provides their contact information.
- Why it matters: CPL is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of your lead generation efforts. If your CPL is high, you might need to re-evaluate your lead magnets or the platforms you’re using to reach your audience.
My actual CPL is 7.35 CA$ which is no good, partly due to the many attempts and trials with my rejected ads (some went running but were rejected soon after)
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Last but not least, we have CTR, or Click-Through Rate. This metric tells you the percentage of people who clicked on your ad after seeing it. It’s calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions (how many times your ad was shown) and then multiplying by 100 to get a percentage.
- Why it matters: A high CTR indicates that your ad is resonating with your audience. It’s a good indicator of how compelling your ad copy and visuals are. If your CTR is low, it might be time to refine your messaging or try different creatives.
My actual CTR is 3.45% which is no that bad despite my slow start.
Want to learn more about CTR and other metrics to boost your campaign results? Check BackLinko website here.
In the next days I will manage to play on the ad side in order to improve those metrics. I’ll let you know how I did.
Hope you enjoy diving in my first experience with Facebook lead ads.
I told you, I was a surprised having leads that fast. Paid ads are powerful and surely the best way to do to grow faster a mailing list.
Understand that those leads are not at the same “temperature” than the leads you would have had organically through a hard ground work in the social medias. Leads done organically are of better quality because they were warmed-up and they were brought to know you and maybe trust you.
It easy to understand the necessity of having a welcoming email sequence in the case of the leads coming from my lead ads. They must be warmed up.
However, my new leads and audience are real people and it’s my goal to make them to known me, like me, and trust me.
I want them to be my friends so they can exchange with me easily. l will threat them well having at heart their best interests.
I’m not chasing money. I want to help people first and be proud of it! This would be my best award.
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Take care my friend,
Martin
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