You’d think by now, after decades of digital marketers collectively pouring billions into Facebook Ads, we’d have learned how to stop cocking it up.
Yet, here we are in 2025, still seeing the same Facebook ad mistakes that haunted us in the dark ages of 2016. Only now, there’s AI (artificial intelligence) whispering in your ear and Meta threatening to charge you for basic reach. It’s a minefield.
So, let’s talk about the five cardinal sins we keep seeing in Facebook advertising. If you’re making these mistakes, it’s not just your budget that’s going to suffer – it’s your credibility.
Targeting like it’s 2013
Facebook’s targeting tools have changed more than the platform’s name. Gone are the days of laser-focused, stalker-level audience building. Thanks to privacy changes, iOS updates and Meta’s endless tinkering, most of your ‘interest-based’ audiences are now vague guesses at best. And yet, some advertisers are still selecting bizarre combinations like “People who like golf and The Apprentice but also own cats.”
Stop. In 2025, broad targeting paired with strong creative and proper campaign objectives is often more effective than trying to be clever with micro-audiences that no longer exist. Facebook’s machine learning wants data. Feed the beast. Let it optimise. You’re not smarter than the algorithm. At least not here.
Still no creative testing. Seriously?
If your ad still features a generic stock photo of someone high fiving in an office, please have a word with yourself. Even worse if it’s the only creative in your campaign.
The winning ad in 2025 is usually not the one you’d expect. Sometimes it’s your janky, handheld iPhone video shot in portrait mode while your dog barked in the background. The point is: you need to test. Variants. Angles. Hooks. Text-first creatives. Reels. Static memes. If you’re not split-testing creative, you’re just chucking darts at a dartboard blindfolded after six pints.
Ignoring the landing page like it’s someone else’s problem
We still see Facebook ads leading to landing pages that take 12 seconds to load, have 14 different CTAs, and look like they were built during the MySpace era. If your ads are half-decent but conversions are garbage, the problem is usually not the ad. It’s the experience after the click.
Fix your landing page. Make sure it loads fast on 4G. Strip it down to one job. One message. One action. No sliders. No newsletter popups appearing before the page even finishes loading. Think speed, simplicity, clarity.
Misunderstanding the objective (or choosing the wrong one)
Running a traffic campaign and wondering why no one’s buying? That’s because you told Facebook to get you traffic, not conversions. And Facebook delivered.
Your campaign objective tells Facebook what success looks like. Choose the wrong one and the algorithm will optimise for something you don’t actually want. If you’re after leads, choose leads. If you want purchases, choose conversions. It’s not rocket science. It’s just painfully easy to overlook when you’re rushing through campaign setup at 4.45pm.
Letting it run wild and hoping for the best
You’d be amazed how many campaigns we audit that haven’t been touched in weeks. The same ad, same copy, same budget, just coasting along like it’s stuck in a time loop.
Facebook ads are not a slow cooker. You can’t just set them and forget them.
You need to check performance, kill off underperformers, scale the winners, refresh the creatives, and adapt when Meta inevitably pulls another change out of its algorithmic arse. If you’re not tweaking, testing or analysing at least weekly, you’re flushing cash.
Facebook advertising in 2025 is still one of the most powerful tools in your digital arsenal – if you know how to use it. But if you’re targeting like it’s the early 2010s, running one-size-fits-all creatives, and ignoring what happens after the click, you’re just paying Mark Zuckerberg for the privilege of shouting into the void.
Fix the mistakes above and your ads won’t just survive the algorithm – they’ll thrive in it.
Need help making your Facebook ads suck less? Get in touch. Here at Engage Web, we’re very good at that sort of thing.
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