Why your Facebook ads aren’t converting (and what you can do about it)

DIY Facebook advertising looks simple enough at first. Make some content, set up payment, then just sit back and watch clicks rolling in. 

The problem is that it’s never just that easy. You have to keep an eye on various ad metrics, optimise your ad on occasion, and tweak your strategy to get results. 

And those results are usually measured in conversions. Unfortunately, many first-time advertisers find their conversions lagging far behind their targets. 

If you have the same problem or are seeing a situation where your Facebook ads stopped converting all of a sudden, this may help. We’ll take you through a simple explanation of why and how to fix it, with easy-to-follow examples.

Why campaigns stall post-launch

Many Facebook ad campaigns stall after launch for one reason: the platform’s algorithm is great at finding low-hanging fruit initially, then it flattens.

Fortunately, there’s a solution for this. Facebook’s system can actually continue doing a good job after that easy first audience is exhausted. All you need to do is guide it with data-based adjustments. 

There are several common mistakes first-timers make here. One is that they focus on Sales and forget the existence of upstream metrics. Second is that they change everything in the campaign in one fell swoop, including the parts that didn’t need adjustment.

Avoiding these begins with a disciplined approach that recognises priorities, including in the types of data you should monitor as an advertiser.

The Facebook ads key metrics to watch

The Facebook ads manager metrics to watch are usually these:

• CPM - Cost per mille or what you pay for every 1,000 impressions.

• CTR - Click-through rate or the percentage of people who clicked after seeing the ad.

• CPC - Cost per click or the actual ad spend divided by total clicks.

• ATC - Add-to-cart rate or how many viewers placed a product in the basket, signalling purchase intent.

• Conversion rate or how many viewers actually completed the purchase.

• CPA - Cost per acquisition or what one completed purchase or conversion really costs you to get.

• ROAS - Return on ad spend or revenue divided by advertising cost, which measures how profitable your advertising is.

  
  

Keeping an eye on these can help you figure out how to respond to your ad results. But of course, numbers don’t mean much without points of reference – so let’s go over baselines next.

Benchmarks and baselines for the numbers

Below are some Singapore averages from 2024 for certain ad metrics for popular industries. Comparing your figures to these can help you determine if you’re within the average, higher, or lower. Note that these are all in SGD.

Apparel e-commerce	CPC - $4.20 CPM - $37.80 CTR - 0.90% CPA - $240 Conversion rate - 1.75%
Banking & finance	CPC - $3.15 CPM - $26.78 CTR - 0.85% CPA - $196.88 Conversion rate - 1.60%
Education	CPC - $2.30 CPM - $18.40 CTR - 0.80% CPA - $153.33 Conversion rate - 1.50%
Healthcare	CPC - $4.00 CPM - $36.00 CTR - 0.90% CPA - $228.57 Conversion rate - 1.75%

Bear in mind that these can and often do change. These are average numbers for general audiences – switching to a niche service or subsection of each industry could alter them.

Reading the dashboard and reacting to it

All right, so now you know what metrics to watch and have a general idea of the baselines for some of those in your industry. Now you have to read your data and interpret what’s happening.

Here are some of the most common problems that these key metrics can show you – and illustrations of some of the changes you canmake to deal with them.

Example situation 1: You have high CPM

If your CPM is unusually high, that usually means two possibilities. 

One, you could be bidding in a highly crowded auction. Two, you could be over-targeting a really small group.

So what can you do? Try broadening interests or splitting out age ranges. 

You can even test Facebook’s Advantage+ placements, which use machine learning to find better and more opportunities. It’s a pretty good way to maximise ad spend efficiency.

Example situation 2: You have low CTR

Finding a depressingly low CTR? In most cases, that just means your hook isn’t finding its mark.

There are several options for optimising this. You can try them one-by-one or all at once to see what gets you the best results. 

Try rewriting your headline to focus on your target audience’s pain points. Try replacing the media you’re using for your ad. 

Or try front-loading the content to highlight your offer’s benefit ASAP, e.g. within the first three seconds of ad viewership.

Example situation 3: You have high CPC

In most cases, this happens because two other metrics are going awry: either your CTR is plummeting or your CPM is shooting up. 

The easiest way to fix this is to address both of those (which we’ve already provided ideas for in the first two examples).

But what if your CPC is high and things like CTR are healthy? Well then, in that case you’re looking at an ad that’s casting its net wider than it needs to. Tighten up targeting and focus it to just the people with high purchase intent.

Example situation 4: You have low ATC or conversion rate

If this is happening while you have high CTR, the problem could be one of two things:

• The promise of the ad doesn’t match the promise of the actual product or landing page.

• There are too many obstacles or hurdles to leap before the consumer can actually add something to his cart or check out. 

Check for both and fix whatever you can, e.g. if you find that there’s a lot of clicking needed just to add the product to the cart, streamline the process.

Example situation 5: You have a high CPA

In many cases, CPA will go up because CPC is swelling too. The solution here is often to revisit the creatives and see what can be done. People might have seen your ad too many times already and have gotten tired of it.

This can lead to less engagement and a lower CTR, which then prompts the Facebook algorithm to bid higher for more impressions. That’s why CPC climbs, driving up CPA with it.

Another possible thing to do here is check your cost cap or bid cap if you’re using one. You might need to tighten it so that the bidding always stays within the range of what’s still a profitable CPC for you.

Example situation 6: You have low ROAS

If your ROAS is below target while every one of the upstream metrics seems fine, the problem could be your attribution window. 

This one’s relatively easy to fix. Just lengthen the attribution window so that it properly captures delayed purchases.

If your ROAS is just declining out of the blue, though, you can try refreshing your creatives (in case it’s audience fatigue with the current ones) or just expanding your lookalike audiences (2 to 3% should do it).

Get personalised help with your Facebook ads

What’s important to remember is that the metrics are clues. Even when they’re good, they’re still clues – but this time, for scaling your campaign more than troubleshooting it.

If you want to learn more or get help with your Facebook advertising, reach out to us. We’ve run thousands of Facebook ad campaigns for Singaporean businesses in different industries. We’ve fixed our fair share of campaigns brought to us for troubleshooting too.

Reach out to us any day to let us know what your business requires. We’ll do our best to figure out what it takes to bring it to the next level!