How to Solve a Problem in Your Ad Account

This document gives you a step-by-step breakdown of what to do when things. just aren't working.

'Cuz we all have those days, right?

Use this checklist anytime you’re hitting a wall that you can’t seem to push through. We promise, there’s ALWAYS a solution.

Let's Get Started

Your account is not performing! What do you do next?

You have just become an investigative journalist on the hunt for an issue.

STOP and take stock of your emotional state. 

Are you overwhelmed? Discouraged? Or Excited?

The goal of this document is to leave you never feeling helpless or out of control. The answer is out there. You CAN find it. 

When an account is not performing we must begin by deconstructing the issue. It’s NOT WORKING is not a helpful entry point.

What’s not working…

This giant formula gives us an entry point into breaking apart performance.

Visitors x Conversion Rate x Average Order Value = Revenue. 

A break in any part of the equation will lead to a reduction in Revenue. So let’s attack each portion.

 

Visitors: 

  • What is my click cost? 
  • Has it increased or decreased substantially?
  • Can I win at this traffic price?
  • What is my CPM? 
  • Has it increased or decreased?
  • What is my CTR?
  • Has it increased or decreased?
  • What is my frequency?
  • Is the brand’s overall site traffic down dramatically during this time period?
  • Has there been a dramatic reduction in traffic from any other source? (Organic Search, Direct, Email, Etc.)

 

Conversion Rate? 

  • What is the total Facebook conversion rate?
  • What is my cost per unique add to cart?
  • What is my cost per unique initiate checkout?
  • Are any of these up or down significantly over time?
  • Is one step of the funnel failing more than the others? Is the ratio between steps normal?
  • What is the Google Analytics last click conversion rate on Facebook traffic? mobile? desktop?
  • Is it significantly different in any of the ad sets?
  • Is my DPA and remarketing speaking to this audience (Ads matching, not generalized)
  • Am I targeting the right people? 
  • Does my message match my audience + match my communication on the website?
  • What are the key barriers to purchase?
  • Am I eliminating them in the customer journey?
  • How is my abandoned cart recovery rate? 
  • What is my site speed? Could I improve it?
  • Is there a hole in my funnel (check search competition / amazon competition)?
  • Do I have RLSA search set up? 
  • Have I clicked through the entire customer journey? Is there anything off? 
  • Do they have all available payment options (PayPal, apple pay, amazon pay etc.)
  • Is the free shipping threshold appropriately priced?
  • What is the price of shipping? 
  • Does the brand have an abandoned cart flow that is at least 3 emails long?
  • If the brand regularly discounts, does the 3rd abandoned cart email offer a discount?
  • Are there other automated flows (e.g. Browse Abandonment, On-Site Email Capture, SMS, FB Messenger) that could be added that would increase my CR during the days after the initial click?
  • Smile.io on PDP reviews

 

AOV/Unit Economics?

  • Are there any available up sells that I could add into the purchase process?
  • What is the shipping cost? Is it destroying margin?
  • What would happen if we increased the price of the product?
  • What would happen if we decreased the price of the product?
  • Is there a price-anchoring strategy that might frame the price differently?
  • Can I lead with a different product than the one I’m leading with right now?
  • Can we bundle any of the skus in a way that would be intriguing?
  • Is the ROAS expectation reasonable? If no can we affect the supply chain/margin in any way to help lower the ROAS needs?
  • Are they including any fixed costs in their required ROAS calculation?

 

LTV

  • What is the repeat purchase rate of the product?
  • What is the average time between purchases?
  • Is this product a consumable?
  • Would analyzing the 30/60/90 customer value reveal that we might actually be winning?
  • What happens in the post purchase email flow?

 

Creative Analysis (AIDA)

  • What are my 3 second view/impression rates?
  • If below 30% what can i do to improve the beginning of the ad creative?
  • What are my average video watch times? 
  • Where are they falling off?
  • What is my outbound CTR?
  • Do I have a CTA in my copy?
  • Is there a CTA in the video asset?
  • What do the best customers say about us?
  • What are the key obstacles to purchase? Do we eliminate them in re-marketing?
  • What is working better video or still image? 
  • Have we tested DPA copy? 
  • Are we allowed to run an offer?

How close/far from the target am I?

If close:

  • Am I winning anywhere?
  • What is my closest funnel (audience / ad)? 
  • Why is this funnel having success?
  • Are there any small adjustments I could make to make this funnel succeed?
  • Is your prospecting / remarketing budget allocation appropriate given their traffic?
  • Can you get more out of Remarketing?
  • Have you leveraged all available re-engagement audiences?
  • Do I have an appropriately shaped funnel? (CPA decreases down the funnel in each step)
  • Do I have an appropriate number of variables in my CBO based on the budget?
  • Could we create a tighter set of seed audiences for our lookalikes? (top customers, Facebook ad purchasers)

If far off:

  • Are you trying wild variations in creative?
  • Have you tried all available bidding strategies (bid cap, budget optimizations, manual target bids, value optimization, $1 ad sets)
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