Avoid the Bottomless Pit of Despair

I get an email summary every morning from Reddit. That’s probably a mistake, because it’s a terrible way to start my day. Without fail, the highlights always feed into what I call the bottomless pit of despair.

Now, this doesn’t just happen on Reddit, and it’s not unique to Meta advertising. But we’ll stay on topic. You’ll find the same thing in just about any Meta advertising social community.

Let me explain.

It always starts with a post that’s a plea for help. The headline says something like “My Meta ads tanked!” or “Everything stopped working!” The person says they were getting good results, and now they’re not. They list all the things they tried—different performance goals, different campaign types, Advantage Plus Audience on and off, detailed targeting and remarketing, even testing ad copy and creative separately.

And then they blame Meta. The bugs. The automation. The algorithm. Sometimes they’ll even call Meta ads a scam.

But here’s what’s missing: we don’t know anything about what actually matters. We don’t know the industry, the product, the price point, or the creative strategy. We don’t see examples of the ads or the landing page.

By itself, this kind of post shouldn’t cause a problem. But there’s one thing that turns it into the bottomless pit of despair—validation.

That post should live on an island, ignored. Instead, a crowd jumps in to agree.
“Yeah, my results tanked too.”
“Something’s wrong.”
“Meta’s broken again.”

They feed each other, like a loop of frustration. The dopamine hit from the agreement feels good, but it reinforces the wrong belief: that Meta is the problem.

Here’s the truth.
By ignoring the key details, they’re really saying that industry, product, price, and creative don’t matter. The only thing that matters, they think, is the tactic. They’re convinced that if they just set things up the right way—like the gurus tell them—they’ll succeed.

So they keep chasing tactics. One after another. When those “guaranteed” strategies don’t work, they conclude that Meta ads don’t work.

And that’s how you fall into the bottomless pit of despair. It’s a mindset built on focusing on what you can’t control instead of what you can.

So how do you avoid it?

Start by simplifying. If you’re struggling with performance, eliminate the overcomplicated tactics. They’re often just noise that makes things worse. Limit your number of campaigns and ad sets. Focus on conversions. Use broad targeting. Consolidate your budget. Remove unnecessary customization.

You can always add complexity later, but you first need to understand what’s actually working.

Next, look at your ads. That’s where your focus should be. No matter how good your ads are, they can always improve. Ask yourself: Why aren’t people acting on them?

Are you considering different customer personas and their pain points? Are you showing how your product solves those problems? Are you testing multiple formats—videos, static images, carousels? Are you providing several text options, maybe five headlines and five primary texts per ad?

Have you customized by placement so the aspect ratio fits correctly? Did you use the advanced preview to confirm everything looks right?

Then check your landing page. Does it load fast? Is it clean and professional, or does it look dated and unreliable? Is the purchase process simple, or are there too many steps? Even small friction points can hurt your results.

And finally, confirm your setup for attribution. Make sure your pixel, Conversions API, events, and deduplication are working properly.

Here’s the bottom of the glass:
I don’t want you in the bottomless pit of despair. You’ll never find control there. There’s no magic lever or tactic that can fix bad creative, a weak product, or a broken process.

When your results drop, focus on what you can control. Simplify. Improve your ads. Fix your landing page. Double-check your setup.

And if you need a place to start, I created a Meta Ads Performance Problems Troubleshooting Checklist at jonloomer.com/checklist.

Oh, and if you’re part of a community that feels like the bottomless pit of despair, do yourself a favor—leave it. It’s not helping you.