Solved: Ads using Facebook page reset on Instagram update?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some initial thoughts on your situation. It's a common question, and the answer isn't as simple as a yes or no. The fact you're even asking about learning and social proof tells me you're thinking about this the right way, but I reckon the things you're worried about might not be the real things holding your account back. We'll get into that.

Below is a proper deep dive into what's actually going on when you make a change like this, and a framework for how I'd approach it based on what we've seen work for our clients. It's a bit of a read, but should give you everything you need.

Let's talk about the "Learning Phase"... what is it really?

First up, let's tackle the big scary monster: resetting the 'learning phase'. Meta makes it sound like this mysterious, fragile state and if you breathe on it wrong, your entire account will implode. Tbh, that's a bit of an exaggeration.

All the 'learning phase' means is that the algorithm is gathering data. It needs about 50 conversions (like a sale or a lead) in a 7-day window for a specific ad set to figure out who is most likely to convert. It's testing your ad on different pockets of people within your target audience to see who bites. When you change the ad's identity, you are fundamentally changing the ad. It becomes a new entity in the system, so its data collection starts from zero. There's no way around that, I'm afraid.

But here’s the contrarian view that most people miss: a reset isn't always a bad thing.

If an ad set is stuck in "Learning Limited" or the performance is just a bit rubbish, a reset is exactly what you need. It forces the algorithm to re-evaluate and find new pockets of customers. More importantly, if your fundamentals are solid – a compelling offer, good creative that stops the scroll, and decent targeting – the new ad will exit the learning phase just as quickly as the old one did. The algorithm is smart. It's not starting from scratch on your *account*, just on that *ad*.

Think of it like this. The learning phase is just the algorithm's short-term memory. The real brain is your overall pixel data, your customer lists, and your understanding of your audience. Those aren't going anywhere.

You'll need to stop obsessing over "Social Proof"

Okay, now for the social proof part. Yes, you will loose all the likes, comments, and shares on your existing ads. They are tied to the specific ad ID, and when you change the identity, you create a new ad with a new ID. The old one is gone, along with its engagement.

My brutally honest advice? Get over it.

Social proof is one of the most overrated vanity metrics in paid advertising. I've audited hundreds of ad accounts. I've seen ads with thousands of likes get zero sales, and I've seen ads with 3 likes and a bunch of angry comments generate hundreds of thousands in revenue. I remember one campaign we worked on for a subscription box company that achieved a 1000% return on ad spend, and their best performing ads never had more than a handful of comments.

Here’s the thing: the only people who care about how many likes your ad has are other marketers. Your customers don't. They care about whether your product solves their problem. Your ad's only job is to communicate that value proposition so effectively that they click. That's it.

You mentioned wanting to delete comments. This tells me you're getting some negative feedback or spam. Let me ask you this: is it actually hurting your sales? Sometimes, a bit of controversy in the comments can actually *increase* engagement and get the algorithm to show your ad to more people. Negative comments can also be a valuable source of customer feedback. If everyone is saying your shipping is too expensive, maybe it is!

The obsession with maintaining a perfectly polished, universally loved ad is a trap. It leads to bland creative and targeting that's too narrow. The goal isn't to be liked; it's to be profitable. Don't sacrifice performance for vanity.

I'd say you should focus on the *real* reason to switch

So if resetting learning isn't a disaster and social proof doesn't matter, why should you even bother switching? Because you've stumbled upon the actual reason, even if it's not the one you were focused on: brand experience and trust.

When someone on Instagram sees an ad and taps on the profile picture, they expect to land on that brand's Instagram profile. When they're taken to a Facebook page instead, it's a jarring experience. It feels disjointed, less professional, and frankly, a bit spammy. It breaks the user's trust before they've even had a chance to visit your website.

This is particularly important for brands that rely on strong visual identity and community building. We worked on a launch campaign for a luxury brand that got over 10 million views. For them, controlling every single touchpoint of the brand experience was non-negotiable. Using the Facebook page identity would have been unthinkable because it would have cheapened the perception of their brand. Every comment, every interaction had to be perfectly on-brand, which is only possible when you're managing it from the native platform.

So, the ability to delete comments isn't just about hiding negative feedback. It's about curation. It's about maintaining your brand's voice and ensuring the ad experience is seamless from first impression to final click. A user who has a smooth, trustworthy experience is far more likely to convert than one who feels something is a bit 'off'. This improvement in conversion rate will, over time, far outweigh any temporary dip from resetting the learning phase.

You probably should calculate the risk before you leap

Even though I think it's the right move long-term, it's not a decision to be taken lightly, especially if you have highly profitable ads running right now. You're right to be cautious. The switch *will* cause a temporary dip in performance as the new ads go through their learning phase.

So, let's quantify it. How much of a dip can you tolerate, and for how long? This is where you need to move from guessing to calculating. I've built a little calculator for you below. Play around with the sliders to model different scenarios. This will help you understand the financial impact of the reset and decide whether now is the right time to do it.

For example, if your ads dip by 20% for two weeks, what does that cost you in lost revenue? And how much of an increase in your website's conversion rate would you need to make that money back over the next few months? Answering these questions turns a scary decision into a calculated business risk.

You'll need a proper plan to make the switch safely

So, you've decided the long-term brand benefit outweighs the short-term risk. Great. Now, don't just go in and edit your live ads. That's a recipe for disaster. You need a structured, methodical approach to test the new identity and transition over smoothly. This is how we'd do it for a client.

Step 1: Don't Edit, Duplicate.
Go to your best-performing campaign. Select your best ad set and your best ad creative within that ad set. Duplicate them. Never, ever edit a live, performing asset if you can avoid it. By duplicating, you create a perfect copy that you can change, while the original continues to run and make you money.

Step 2: Change the Identity in the Duplicate.
In your newly duplicated ad set and ad, go to the ad level. You'll see the 'Identity' section where you've currently selected your Facebook Page. Change this to your actual Instagram account. Everything else – the creative, the copy, the headline, the audience targeting – should remain identical. This is a scientific test; you only want to change one variable at a time.

Step 3: Launch as a Controlled Test.
Launch this new, duplicated ad set with the Instagram identity. But here's the important bit: give it a controlled budget. Don't just let it run wild. I'd typically assign it about 20-30% of the original ad set's budget. You want to give it enough spend to get through the learning phase, but not so much that it drains your bank account if it performs poorly at first.

Step 4: Monitor and Compare.
Now you have two ad sets running in parallel: the original (FB Page identity) and the test (IG account identity). Let them run for at least 7-14 days. You need to give the new ad set enough time to exit the learning phase and stabilise. After that period, compare the core metrics. Don't look at likes. Look at Cost Per Purchase, Return on Ad Spend, Cost Per Lead. Which one is actually performing better for the business?

Step 5: Scale the Winner.
If the new ad set with the Instagram identity is performing as well as, or better than, the original, it's time to transition. Gradually start shifting the budget from the old ad set to the new one over a few days. Once the new one has fully taken over the budget and is stable, you can turn the old one off. You've now successfully transitioned without a massive, scary drop in performance.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below in a table to give you a clear overview of this testing structure.

We'll need to look at what really moves the needle

Making this switch is a good tactical move. But it's just one piece of the puzzle. If you really want to improve performance, you need to look beyond which profile you're using and focus on the three pillars that actually drive results in paid ads: your offer, your audience, and your creative.

The number one reason campaigns fail is a weak offer. Not a bad creative, not a wonky algorithm, but an offer that doesn't solve an urgent, expensive problem for a specific group of people. I've seen so many businesses burn cash on ads trying to promote a product nobody really needs. You need to make sure your offer is a "hell yes" for your ideal customer before you spend another pound on ads. I remember one campaign for a client with a high-ticket B2B service that was completely flopping. The issue wasn't the targeting or the creative, but the offer itself: a vague "consultancy" service. Once the client clarified their offer into a productised "1-Day Strategy Workshop" with specific deliverables, the ads we ran started converting almost overnight. It's a prime example of how a clear, tangible, and less risky offer is the foundation of a successful campaign.

Then there's your audience. Are you truly targeting your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)? Or are you just using broad interests like "business" or "fashion"? You need to get hyper-specific. What podcasts do they listen to? What newsletters do they read? Who do they follow on LinkedIn? What software do they already use? Layering these interests and behaviours is how you find pockets of high-intent customers. Once you get some data, you should prioritise your audiences based on their position in the funnel. Retargeting people who abandoned their cart (BoFu) will almost always be more profitable than targeting a cold interest-based audience (ToFu).

And finally, your creative. Your ad needs to speak directly to the pain point your offer solves. Use a Problem-Agitate-Solve framework. "Struggling with X? It's probably making you feel Y. Our product Z solves this by..." This is far more effective than just listing features. For a B2B SaaS client we worked with, we changed their ad copy from listing technical features to a "Before-After-Bridge" story about the stress of managing cloud bills. We got them 4,622 registrations at just $2.38 each because the message finally resonated on an emotional level.

Fixing your ad identity is good housekeeping. But focusing on these three pillars is how you build a truly scalable and profitable advertising machine.

This is a lot to take in, I know. The key takeaway is that you're right to want to switch to your Instagram identity, but you should do it for the right reasons (brand experience) and in a controlled, methodical way. Don't let the fear of resetting the learning phase or losing vanity metrics stop you from making a smart long-term decision for your brand.

If you go through this process and still find you're not getting the results you want, it might be a sign that there are deeper strategic issues with your account structure, targeting, or offer. This is where getting an expert eye on things can make a huge difference. We do this stuff day in, day out, and can often spot opportunities or problems in a 20-minute call that might take you months to figure out on your own.

We offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session where we can go through your ad account with you and give you a few actionable recommendations. If you're interested, feel free to get in touch to schedule one.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh