Solved: Facebook Ads Only Displaying 5 Images

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some initial thoughts on your Meta ads. I read your question about the "get more messages" objective and the image limit, and to be honest, it's a very common problem we see all the time. The good news is that the solution is straightforward, though it requires a fundamental shift in how you think about running your ads.

The issue isn't really the image limit; that's just a symptom. The real problem is the objective you've chosen. You're falling into a trap that Meta has set up for small businesses, and it's likely costing you a lot of money and potential customers. Let me walk you through why that is and what you should be doing instead.

We'll need to look at... The "Get More Messages" Trap

First things first, you need to understand how the Meta algorithm actually works. It’s an incredibly powerful machine, but it’s also very literal. It will do exactly what you ask it to do, and nothing more. When you select an objective like "Reach," "Brand Awareness," or, in your case, "Get More Messages," you are giving it a very specific command: "Find me the largest number of people, for the lowest possible price, who are most likely to perform this specific action."

Sounds good on the surface, right? But think about who those people are. Who are the users inside your target audience who are most likely to send a message but not buy? They are the serial browsers, the tyre-kickers, the people who ask "how much?" on every post and then vanish. They are not in high demand from other advertisers who are optimising for valuable actions like purchases. Because they're not in demand, their attention is cheap. So, when you choose the "Get More Messages" objective, you are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product. You're optimising for conversations, not conversions.

We've seen this time and time again. A client comes to us frustrated, saying they're getting lots of messages but no sales. The first thing we look at is their campaign objective, and nine times out of ten, it's set to messages or engagement. They're stuck in a loop of low-quality interactions that never turn into revenue. It's a complete waste of ad spend. I remember one campaign we worked on where the client saw their cost per lead reduce by 84% simply by moving away from these kinds of vanity objectives and focusing on what actually matters.

The change you're seeing—the limit of 5 images instead of 10—is just Meta tweaking its interface for these simplified "Boost Post" style objectives. They're designed for ease of use, not for effectiveness. Real advertising happens in the Ads Manager, using objectives that are tied to actual business results. The fact that the platform says "these goals can't be used with your post" is your biggest clue. It's forcing you to create a new, separate ad because a proper conversion campaign is built differently from a simple boosted post. It needs a different setup, and that’s what we need to focus on.

I'd say you need to... Shift to Conversion Optimisation

So, what's the alternative? You need to start using conversion-focused objectives. This means selecting "Sales" or "Leads" when you set up your campaign in the Ads Manager. A 'conversion' is any valuable action a user takes on your website or app. It could be making a purchase, filling out a contact form, signing up for a trial, or scheduling a call. It’s the action that actually moves your business forward.

When you tell Meta to optimise for conversions, its entire mission changes. Instead of looking for the cheapest people to show your ad to, it starts hunting for users within your target audience who have a demonstrated history of performing that specific action. It looks at billions of data points to find people who look and behave just like your existing customers. These users are more expensive to reach because every other smart advertiser is also trying to reach them. But the extra cost is almost always worth it because you're fishing in a pond full of actual buyers, not just window shoppers.

Think about it like this: if you were hiring a salesperson, would you pay them based on how many conversations they started, or how many deals they closed? It's the same principle. Messages are a vanity metric. Revenue is a sanity metric. You need to align your advertising goals with your business goals.

For one of our B2B software clients, we took over a campaign that was struggling. They were getting a few sign-ups but the costs were astronomical. By restructuring their campaigns to focus purely on a "Registration" conversion event, we were able to bring in 4,622 registrations at a cost of just $2.38 each. This was only possible because we told the algorithm exactly what we wanted, and it went out and found those people for us. We had another client, a medical job matching SaaS, where we reduced their Cost Per User Acquisition from a painful £100 down to just £7. This wasn't magic; it was simply switching from a flawed objective to a proper conversion-based strategy on both Meta and Google Ads.

To do this, you'll need to have the Meta Pixel installed correctly on your website. The Pixel is a small piece of code that tracks what users do after they click your ad. You then need to set up 'Standard Events' for the actions you care about most, like 'AddToCart', 'InitiateCheckout', and 'Purchase'. Once the Pixel is sending this data back to Meta, you can create campaigns that optimise for those events. This is non-negotiable for serious advertising. Without it, you’re flying blind and letting the algorithm guess, which is never a good idea.

You probably should... Understand Your Funnel and Audience

Switching your objective is the most important step, but it works best when you also structure your campaigns around a marketing funnel. Not everyone who sees your ad is ready to buy immediately. You need to talk to people differently depending on how familiar they are with your brand. We typically break this down into three stages: Top of Funnel (ToFu), Middle of Funnel (MoFu), and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu).

Top of Funnel (ToFu): Reaching New People
This is your cold audience. These people have likely never heard of you before. Your goal here isn't necessarily an immediate sale, but to introduce them to your product and the problem it solves. Here, you'll use interest-based targeting, lookalike audiences, or broad targeting (once your pixel has enough data).

The key for ToFu is to test audiences properly. Don't just target a broad interest like "fashion" if you sell handcrafted jewellery. That's too wide. Instead, target interests of competing brands, magazines your ideal customer reads, or specific behaviours that indicate they're a potential buyer. For one of our eCommerce clients selling women's apparel, we built out dozens of these niche interest audiences and systematically tested them, which helped us achieve a 691% return on their ad spend. You need to be specific and methodical.

Middle of Funnel (MoFu): Engaging Interested Prospects
This audience consists of people who have shown some interest but haven't taken a key action yet. They might have watched one of your videos, visited your website, or engaged with your Instagram profile. They know who you are, but they need more convincing. Here, your goal is to retarget them with ads that overcome objections, showcase social proof (like reviews or testimonials), or highlight key features. You could show them a carousel ad with different products or a video demonstrating your product in use. You'd typically retarget website visitors but exclude anyone who has already added to cart or purchased.

Bottom of Funnel (BoFu): Closing the Deal
This is your warmest audience. These are the people who have shown strong buying intent. They've added a product to their cart, initiated checkout, or spent a lot of time on a specific product page. Your goal here is simple: get them over the finish line. Retarget them with ads that create urgency ("Limited stock!") or offer a small incentive ("Free shipping on your first order"). These audiences are usually small but incredibly profitable. This is where you make your money.

The "Get More Messages" objective lives somewhere vaguely at the top of the funnel, but it doesn't do a good job of moving people to the next stage. A proper funnel structure, with campaigns dedicated to each stage and using a conversion objective, is how you build a predictable and scalable advertising machine.

You'll need... to Calculate What a Customer is Really Worth

One of the biggest mental blocks people have with switching to conversion campaigns is the higher upfront cost. Clicks will be more expensive. Your cost per result will look higher than the "cost per message." But this is where you have to stop thinking like a hobbyist and start thinking like a business owner. The real question isn't "How low can my cost per click go?" but "How high a cost can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?"

To answer that, you need to know your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). This is the total profit you can expect to make from a single customer over the entire time they do business with you. Once you know this number, everything else falls into place.

Here's a simple way to calculate it:

• Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): How much does an average customer spend with you per month (or year)?
• Gross Margin %: What is your profit margin on that revenue?
• Monthly Churn Rate %: What percentage of customers do you lose each month?

The formula is: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

Let's say you run a subscription box service. The box is £50 a month (ARPA), your gross margin is 60%, and you lose about 5% of your subscribers each month (churn).

LTV = (£50 * 0.60) / 0.05
LTV = £30 / 0.05 = £600

So, each customer you acquire is worth £600 in profit to your business. A healthy business model aims for at least a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to £200 to acquire a single customer and still have a very profitable business. Suddenly, paying £10, £20, or even £50 for a purchase from a conversion campaign doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like an incredible bargain. This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth. It frees you from the tyranny of chasing cheap clicks and messages and allows you to focus on acquiring high-value, long-term customers.

For one of our subscription box clients, understanding this maths was a game-changer. We focused entirely on Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) and LTV, allowing us to scale their campaigns aggressively and ultimately achieve a 1000% return on their ad spend. They weren't scared to spend £50 to get a sale because they knew that customer was worth hundreds to them over time.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Putting it all together, moving away from "get more messages" involves a complete strategic overhaul. It’s not just about clicking a different button; it’s about building a proper advertising system. Here is the framework we woudl use to get you started on the right path.

I understand this can feel like a lot to take in, especially when you're used to the simpler interface of boosting posts. The reality of paid advertising is that the easy path is rarely the profitable one. Setting up campaigns this way takes more time and effort upfront, but the payoff is a predictable system for generating customers and revenue, rather than a slot machine for generating messages.

This is where professional help can make a huge difference. An expert can ensure your tracking is set up correctly, help you identify the most promising audiences to test, write compelling ad copy, and manage the day-to-day optimisation process. It's not just about technical setup; it's about applying years of experience from running hundreds of campaigns to get you results faster and avoid costly mistakes. We've seen so many businesses transform their results simply by applying these fundamental principles correctly.

If you'd like to go through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can look at your ad account together and map out a clear strategy for you. It's often the quickest way to see what's possible.

Hope this helps clear things up!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh