It was 2007. I was prospecting. This time I was sitting in front of a pet store owner. I asked 3 questions, how many clients do you have, how many times do they buy and how much on average do they spend?

From this, I could work out his monthly and yearly turnover in my head using some basic calculations. When I asked if I was right about his turnover, he was shocked! The number was right.

“In God we trust, for everything else, bring data” ~ E. Deming

Yesterday I had a client ask about Facebook ads, Google ads, formats, campaigns, and the like.

Because we have been working with them for over a year now, I could go back and look at the data. The worst performing ad is the type of ads he wants to see now. The data does not support that idea.

The data (aka results) show another type of ad consistently doing 300% better. The two key insights here is the consistency and the result of these campaigns.

If you had to choose between two similar cars, but one is guzzling 300% more fuel than the other, which one will you choose?

When I was a student at TUKS studying marketing, I drove a white VW Beetle. I always said, I had the performance of a 1100cc car with the fuel consumption of a 4X4. Other people put in R100, I had to put in R300 to go the same distance.

For a while I drove a “klein blou sports karretjie”. Also a 1100cc car, but WAY better fuel consumption than the VW Beetle. I filled the tank (I think it cost R400 to fill) and the onboard computer said I could go 450km. I drove to Parys from Pretoria. When I stopped in Parys, the onboard computer said I could go another 420km.

That is the difference between campaigns performing great, and those that suck cash.

I did the same check on another Facebook ads account to see which campaigns work best. They run their own campaigns together with ours. It was easy to rank all the campaigns and get some insight. The top 20% worst performing ads is something you want to stop doing, and do something else, as it was the case here.

Another client has invested over to R2 million on Facebook ads. I did the same exercise. In this case, the top 20% worst performing ads all run for a little while, only as a test. We stopped those very quickly before they bled us dry.

We will NEVER know unless we go to market. The market votes with their clicks and wallets. The trick is, do more of what works, and stop doing what does not work. The data will give you the insight to make the right decision.

I have put together my top 10 tips on How to improve FB campaigns. It is a short online course. If you are running FB ads, you will get value from this.

Get details here – How to Improve Facebook Ads Campaigns 

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