Conquering Ad Fatigue: How D2C Startups Can Revamp Their Facebook Ad Strategy

Have you noticed that your Facebook/Meta ads result in a drop-off after the budgets are increased? If this issue has been plaguing your mind, you’re not alone. Many early to mid-stage D2C founders face this frustrating challenge when trying to scale their businesses. The good news is that there are solutions to help you overcome this hurdle and achieve the growth you desire.

In this article, I want to share six crucial lessons that will transform your scaling efforts and maximise your Facebook ad performance. These lessons are based on real data and experiences, and they have been proven to drive results for D2C founders just like you.

Lesson 1: Get Clarity — Have the Right Expectations

Scaling from $200 to $1,000 per day is an exciting goal, but it’s essential to have realistic expectations. 

As you increase your budget, don’t expect your cost of acquiring a customer (CAC) to remain constant. Initially, your CAC may increase, but once you reach optimisation, it will drop back to its original level.

Lesson 2: Creative Testing — Unleash Your Creativity

One common mistake when scaling is neglecting creative testing. To reach a broader, untapped audience, it’s crucial to test different creatives. 

However, random testing won’t yield optimal results. Develop a creative testing strategy tailored to your budget. This approach will help you identify winning creatives that resonate with your target audience.

Lesson 3: Ad Fatigue — Keep It Fresh

Ad fatigue occurs when your audience sees the same ad repeatedly, leading to a decline in campaign performance.

While scaling, combat ad fatigue by creating variations of your ads and regularly refreshing your creative strategy. By testing multiple creatives within your budget’s limits, you can avoid ad fatigue while ensuring optimal performance.

Lesson 4: Campaign Structure — Simplify For Success

Simplicity is key when structuring your ad account during scaling. Concentrating your budget on a single campaign is generally more effective than spreading it across multiple campaigns. 

By doing so, you provide Facebook’s algorithm with more data, enabling it to optimise targeting and delivery more efficiently. In contrast, dividing your budget can result in slower optimisation and weaker overall performance.

Lesson 5: Audience Targeting — Master The Art Of Scaling

Before diving into scaling campaigns, ensure you have found a winning audience for your ads. Testing audiences during scaling can be counterproductive. 

Avoid targeting look-alike or interest-based audiences, as they may limit your audience size or increase your CAC. Instead, aim for a broad audience to maintain relevance and avoid ad fatigue.

Lesson 6: Naming Convention — Organisation Is Key

Naming conventions may seem trivial, but they play a crucial role when scaling. Properly naming your campaigns, ad sets and ads provides clarity and makes it easier to remember their purpose. This level of organisation becomes invaluable as your campaigns grow in complexity.

I hope these lessons shed light on the challenges you may be facing and offer actionable solutions to enhance your Facebook ad scaling efforts. Implementing these strategies will help D2C startups achieve better results, reach wider audiences and optimise their ad performance.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.