Solved: Seeking insights on common advertising mistakes and successes

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! It's brilliant that your organic reels are already translating into daily orders – that's a fantastic foundation to build on. It shows you've got products or services that resonate with people, which is half the battle won with paid ads. You're thinking along the right lines by wanting to scale that success. Learning yourself from platforms like YouTube is a good starting point, but it's also wise to anticipate the common hurdles.

Based on my experience running paid campaigns for all sorts of businesses, from small eCom stores to B2B SaaS, there are definitely recurring themes when it comes to mistakes new advertisers make and things that consistently work. Here are some initial thoughts and guidance for you.

Getting Your Website or Store Ready is Step One

This is honestly one of the *biggest* mistakes I see. People get excited about running ads and driving traffic, but they send that traffic to a place that isn't optimised to convert visitors into customers. Think of paid advertising like paying for people to walk into your physical shop. If that shop is messy, hard to find things in, slow to serve customers, or just doesn't feel trustworthy, most people are just going to walk out without buying anything. You've paid for them to come in, but you've lost the sale.

It's the same online. Before you spend a penny on ads, your website or online store absolutely *has* to be ready. What does 'ready' mean? Well, a few things:

• Speed: Does it load quickly? People are impatient online, especially on mobile. A slow site means they bounce before they even see your products.
• Ease of Navigation: Can people easily find what they're looking for? Is the path from browsing to adding to cart to checkout smooth and intuitive?
• Clear Product Information: Are your product photos high quality? Do you have detailed, persuasive descriptions that highlight benefits, not just features? We had one client selling handcrafted jewellery, they were getting clicks but no adds to cart. Turns out their product descriptions were minimal and photos were blurry. Simple fixes there made a huge difference.
• Mobile Optimisation: Most social media traffic is on mobile. Does your site look and work perfectly on a phone?
• Trust Signals: This is huge, especially for smaller or newer businesses. Why should someone feel comfortable giving you their money and personal information? You need things like customer reviews or testimonials (even better if they're on site, not just links), clear contact information (address, email, phone number), transparent shipping and return policies, social media links showing an active presence, and maybe even payment provider logos or security badges. When I looked at one small business's site recently, it felt very bare and untrustworthy, like a temporary page. It's hard to convert visitors if they don't trust you.
• Strong Calls to Action (CTAs): Is it obvious what you want people to do? "Shop Now", "Add to Cart", "Learn More" - make them prominent and clear.

If your site isn't dialled in, you will just waste money on clicks that go nowhere. Focus on getting this right first. It's often the lowest hanging fruit for improving results.

Understanding and Targeting Your Ideal Customer

Another common pitfall is targeting too broadly or targeting the wrong people entirely. Just because someone clicks your ad doesn't mean they're going to buy. You need to reach people who are *most likely* to become paying customers.

You mentioned your reels are doing well. Who is engaging with them? Who is placing those organic orders? Try to build a picture of your ideal customer. What are their demographics (age, location, gender)? What are their interests? What problems does your product solve for them?

Once you know who you're looking for, you can use the targeting options available on platforms like Meta (Facebook/Instagram, since your reels are working there) to reach them. You can target based on interests (e.g., people interested in the type of products you sell, related hobbies), demographics, or even behaviours. As you collect data from your website, you can also use powerful options like retargeting (showing ads to people who visited your site but didn't buy) or lookalike audiences (telling the platform to find new people similar to your existing customers or website visitors). Starting with interest targeting based on your ideal customer is a good bet.

Don't be afraid to test different audiences! What you *think* is your ideal audience might not be the one that actually converts best via paid ads. Set up campaigns testing a couple of different targeting approaches to see which performs better on key metrics like cost per click (CPC), click-through rate (CTR), and most importantly, cost per purchase (CPA).

Creative is King (or Queen!)

You've already seen this with your organic reels - some perform well, others less so. The creative (the actual ad itself - the video, image, text) is probably the single most important factor in whether someone stops scrolling and clicks, and whether they're interested enough to potentially buy.

Since your reels are working organically, this is a fantastic place to start for your ad creative. Analyse *why* those reels are performing well. Is it the hook? The style of the video? The message? The music? Try adapting those winning organic concepts into paid ads. Don't just use the exact same reel; think about adding a clear call to action specifically for the ad ("Shop the collection now!", "Limited time offer!").

But don't stop there. Like with audiences, you need to test different creatives. What works organically isn't always what works best with paid traffic. Try different angles: show the product in use, highlight a specific benefit, tell a customer story, use a different visual style. Test image ads vs. video ads vs. carousel ads. Test different headlines and ad copy variations. Small tweaks to your ad copy or a completely different image can drastically change your CTR and ultimately your cost per conversion.

We've had campaigns where a new creative idea has completely transformed the performance, sometimes dropping the cost per lead or purchase by a huge percentage. It's an ongoing process of testing and learning what resonates with your paid audience.

Setting Up Tracking Properly

This is probably the most technical bit when starting out, but it's non-negotiable if you want to succeed with paid ads. You *must* set up conversion tracking on your website or store.

For Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram), this means installing the Meta Pixel and setting up standard events like 'ViewContent', 'AddToCart', and 'Purchase'. You also need to set up Conversions API for better data accuracy. This allows the platform to understand what happens *after* someone clicks your ad and visits your site. Without this, the platform can't optimise your campaigns to show ads to people most likely to buy, and you have no reliable way of knowing if your ads are actually generating sales or just traffic.

Proper tracking lets you see your Cost Per Purchase (CPA) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), which are the key metrics for an eCommerce business. You need to know if for every pound/dollar you spend on ads, you're making more than that back in sales. If you don't track, you're flying blind.

Don't Expect Overnight Miracles & Be Prepared to Optimise

Paid advertising isn't a magic button. You won't necessarily turn it on and suddenly be flooded with profitable orders on day one. It takes time, data, and iteration. The ad platform's algorithms need time to learn who is most likely to convert based on the data it collects (hence why tracking is vital).

You'll need to monitor your campaign performance regularly. Look at the key metrics: CTR (is the ad compelling enough to get clicks?), CPC (how expensive is each click?), Conversion Rate (are visitors buying once they hit your site?), and CPA/ROAS (are you making money?). Based on what the data tells you, you'll need to make adjustments. If CTR is low, test new creatives. If conversion rate is low, look at your website. If CPA is too high, test new audiences or refine your targeting. This process of testing, analysing, and optimising is continuous.

It can feel overwhelming at first, especially learning the platforms and all the terminology and settings. It requires a significant time investment to learn properly and manage effectively.

Actionable Recommendations Overview

Here's a quick summary of where I'd focus your efforts initially:

Learning to run effective paid ads is a skill, and it takes time and practice to get good at it. There are a lot of moving parts - strategy, platform specifics, tracking, creative, copywriting, data analysis, optimisation. While you absolutely *can* learn it yourself, be prepared for a steep learning curve and potentially burning some budget while you figure things out. It's a very common path for small businesses starting out.

Sometimes, working with someone who has years of experience navigating these platforms and scaling similar businesses can accelerate the process and help you avoid costly mistakes. They can help build a solid strategy, set up the technical side correctly from the start, and apply proven testing methodologies. It's something to consider down the line if you find yourself struggling to get the results you want or if the learning curve feels too steep alongside running the rest of your business.

I hope these initial thoughts give you a solid framework to start thinking about your paid advertising journey. Best of luck with it!

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh