7 things that don't work on Meta Ads in 2024

Note: This is part 2 of a 2-part recap. The first part here: Things that work in Meta Ads right now

Seven outdated Meta ad tactics hurt your performance in 2024. Stop using narrow targeting, tiny audiences, excessive creative variants, stale ads, Meta-only attribution, single lookalikes, and complex bidding. Instead, use broad targeting, focused testing, fresh creative, third-party tracking, stacked audiences, and simplified bidding to drive results.

Key takeways

1. Use fewer variables. Let Meta's algorithm find your best audiences.
2. Ditch hyper-niche groups. Target broader segments with tailored creative.
3. Match creative variants to your budget. Run tests for at least a week.
4. Regularly update hooks, angles, and approaches to maintain engagement.
5. Use tools like Triple Whale or Northbeam. Don't rely solely on Meta's data.
6. Combine engagement sources instead of single lookalikes.
7. Use automated strategies with occasional manual adjustments.

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1. Audience targeting

Hyper-targeting audiences is less effective in 2024 than it was in the past. Instead, try these three strategies:

1. Minimize targeting variables. Focus on broader, more inclusive audience segments. This allows Meta's algorithms more room to optimize and find your most responsive audiences.
2. Use tools like Triple Whale or Northbeam for attribution. These third-party tools provide a more comprehensive view of your attribution signals, helping you understand the impact of your Meta Ads across the customer journey.
3. Combine language, location, and cultural indicators to create more nuanced targeting strategies. Avoid relying on a single localization metric. Different regions and cultures respond differently to ads.

2. Small audiences

Hyper-targeting small audiences used to be effective, but it no longer works well.

• Why it doesn’t work anymore: Overly niche and granular audiences can limit the algorithm and hurt performance.
• What to do instead: Use broad targeting with customized creative to effectively speak to your ideal consumer.

3. Too many variants

Multiple text, image, and video options with a limited budget make it difficult to run statistically significant tests for each variant.

• Why it doesn’t work anymore: If you have too many creative assets with a small budget, Meta is likely to only serve a handful of the assets, making it difficult to achieve statistical significance in tests and leading to inaccurate decision-making.
• What to do instead: Test an appropriate number of creative assets within your budget. Allow them to run for at least a week or until you gather enough conversion data to make informed decisions. Rotate in new creatives regularly to prevent your ads from becoming stale.

4. Creative inaction

Not trying new hooks, angles, and approaches, or letting winning creative fatigue without replacements can hinder success in the current advertising environment.

• Why creative inaction is a threat: Creative inaction leads to stale and unengaging ads. This results in decreased user interest, lower click-through rates, and reduced campaign performance.
• What to do instead: Keep your creative fresh and compelling to maintain audience engagement and support better campaign outcomes.

5. Measuring in Meta only

Determining success based only on what Meta tells you can be misleading.

• Why it doesn’t work: Depending on your campaign attribution settings, Meta can prioritize counting conversions in its own ecosystem, potentially overlooking the full conversion story. This can lead to misleading results and affect your campaign's performance analysis.
• What to do instead: Invest in third-party tools such as Triple Whale or Northbeam. Use a 7-day click attribution window and exclude the one-day view.

6. Lookalike audiences

The effectiveness of single lookalike audiences has decreased over time.

• Why it doesn’t work anymore: Post iOS 14, Meta has reduced insight into users' actions outside its platform, leading to smaller audience pools and impacting the effectiveness of lookalike audiences.
• What to do instead: Create a larger audience pool by stacking audiences. For example, include people who engaged with your website, Facebook page, or Instagram page.

7. Complicated bidding

Complicated bidding in Meta refers to advanced bidding strategies and options that can make campaign management more intricate. This includes various bidding types like CPC, CPM, CPA, and more sophisticated strategies like bid caps, bid controls, and automated bidding algorithms.

• Why it doesn’t work anymore: Recent changes to Meta's algorithm, platform, and privacy policies have made complex bidding strategies increasingly ineffective.
• What to do instead: Leverage automated bid strategies to provide the algorithm with flexibility. Monitor your campaign closely to ensure the algorithm performs optimally, and implement bid caps or controls as needed.

Note (again): This is part 2 of a 2-part recap. The first part here: Things that work in Meta Ads right now