To read the related blog post, go to jonloomer.com/optimization
There are two primary mistakes that advertisers make related to ad set optimization (how Meta optimizes the delivery of your ads):
1. Confusing Objective with Optimization.
The campaign objective is important because it determines many of the options available in the ad set. But it doesn't determine, by itself, how your ads are delivered.
Many advertisers assume that a Sales objective means that Meta will attempt to deliver your ads to people who are likely to buy from you. That's just not true.
For that to happen, you'd also need to select the Website conversion location, the Conversions performance goal, and the Purchase conversion event.
If you set a performance goal of link clicks, landing page views, daily unique reach, or impressions, your ads won't be shown to people likely to buy from you just because you used the Sales objective. Delivery of your ads would be the same if you had selected any of these options while using the Traffic objective.
2. Optimizing for the Wrong Action.
Meta ads optimization is literal. As a result, optimize for the action that you want. Otherwise, you're bound to get low-quality results.
Just because your landing page gets a 5% conversion rate, don't assume that you can get cute and send cheap traffic to it and get cheap purchases. You won't outsmart the algorithm.
The reason is that your performance goal tells Meta what you want and the algorithm will attempt to get you that thing. If you say that you want landing page views, you'll get lots of landing page views -- but they're very unlikely to buy.
If you want purchases, optimize for purchases. Even if you have a low budget and are unlikely to exit the learning phase, prioritize optimizing for the action that you want. At least then you will be aligned with Meta regarding what you want and how your ads will be delivered.
