How to Avoid A Poor User Experience in Facebook Ads

 Soo, you’ve spent ages creating your Facebook Ad – you’ve got a great image and spent ages writing some clever copy.

You’re all excited to see your advert live and BAM!

It’s either not approved at all, or it’s flagged as a ‘poor user experience’ and the reach of your ad is going to be limited.

Why Is My Ad Not Being Approved!? 

OR WHY IS IT BEING MARKED AS ‘POOR USER EXPERIENCE’? (And more importantly, what can I do about it?)

First of all, think of the person you’re targeting… here’s Molly, your ideal client, scrolling through Facebook, looking for something to catch her attention.

What’s Molly going to want to see?

The ad that says:

Hey Molly, this is not how it was supposed to be. You feel like rubbish about your job because your boss doesn’t see your potential, you feel ugh about all those bills to pay and you feel meh about your relationship. But don’t worry, I have a really easy solution, just click here to find out more about some confidence and assertiveness training. 

Or this one:

Hey Molly, here I am a year on since I found this thing. It’s changed my life in all these amazing ways: I applied for the most amazing job that I love, I’m part of a great team, I feel so much more confident in myself and am now in an amazing relationship, all because I took the leap and started on this journey. I want to explain how easy it was to get started, just click here and I’ll send you a free video all about this confidence and assertiveness programme you can study in your own time – no obligation to sign up – with this free video you can start to change things today. 

Which one do you think Molly is going to prefer – the ad that calls out mutiple pain points and then offers a vague, non-descript solution?  Or the ad that gives Molly hope, makes her feel there’s a solution that’s designed specifically for her and ALSO tells her what she’s going to get when she clicks through?

   

The challenge for Facebook in approving any ad is that they want people to keep coming back, and a positive experience is the best way to do that.

If an ad isn’t a good experience, it means a user is less likely to:

a) engage with your ad and

b) stay on Facebook

and also more likely to:

c) report your ad for being a poor user experience, negatively affecting your own ad account in the future.

  Misleading claims, sensational headlines, unrealistic claims – Facebook Ads are not the place for any of these. And don’t think you can have all of that on your landing page instead, that’s part of the ad experience, so is also taken in to account in the approval process.   Pop-ups on your landing page are something to watch out for too, anything that disrupts the user experience negatively is not going to be approved.   When you’re writing Ad copy, think about that perfect life feel – think Disney smiles and happy endings! You want people to see the shiny, happy, light at the end of the tunnel.  

Not in a sensationalist, false, overselling way though!

Absolutely don’t opt for clickbait or misleading ads. They’ll have your ad and account marked as a ‘poor user experience’ in no time.

What If My Ad Has Been Rejected In Error? 

  Facebook will give you reasons when they notify you that your Ad hasn’t been approved. Check the policies they refer to and try to look at your ad and any page it links to objectively – is there any language that could be interpreted in another way? One simple example, let’s say this sentence is in your ad or on your landing page:   “This is a fantastic opportunity to increase your audience, reach the right people and grow your business”.   That’s a vague sentence, and for all Facebook knows it could be selling Multi-Level Marketing, which is against Facebook policies.  The reality is this is a paid workbook and marketing kit for small business owners looking to grow their business – you can see why vague language might be enough for your ad to be refused, so be clear at every stage about what you offer and who it’s for.     

Things To Focus On In Your Copy

  If you’re going to pay for advertising then put a little time in to pulling out the big highlights of your product/service.  

• It’s your product/service and you 100% believe in it focus on that in your copy.
• What’s the top one or two things you want the user to get from this product/service?
• Call out the difference you know your product/service makes to people!
• Think about those fuzzy, heartwarming, inspirational, feel good things we all want to see in our news feed.
• Testimonials, feedback, the words people use when they buy your thing, they are all rich with content for your ads.
• Be clear about what people get, don’t mislead.

  Then you can amend your copy and try to get your ad approved again.   And bonus tip – don’t forget,  the positive experience really does need to extend to your landing page too, it is also part of the ad experience.  Make sure to review it thoroughly too.  Your ad can be refused because of the experience on the link it sends people too, so take the time to make sure that is also good quality.  

I’d love to know if you’ve found this helpful – pop me a comment and let me know.  If you know people who’d find this tip helpful, a share is always appreciated too.

Allison Christie is an online marketing tech partner, and helps businesses scale and improve their sales online via Facebook/Instagram Advertising, email list building, tech set up and Pinterest marketing.