Solved: When to Stop a Facebook Ad with Low Call Backs?

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch. I saw your post and I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what you've shared. It's completely normal to feel a bit lost when an ad campaign doesn't take off straight away, especially when you're putting your own money on the line. Paid advertising can be a bit of a minefield to start with, but with a few tweaks to your approch, I think you could see much better results. So, let's get into it.

The first thing I want to say is that you've done the right thing by starting, testing, and looking at the data. That puts you ahead of most people. Now we just need to figure out what that data is telling us and what to do next.

We'll need to look at your initial test...

Alright, let's talk about the numbers you shared. You've spent $25 over two days. Honestly, in the world of paid ads, that's barely a drop in the ocean. The Facebook algorithm needs more time and more data (which means more spend) to learn who your ideal customer is and how to find more people like them. It's a learning proccess for the system as much as it is for you. Think of it like this: you've sent a scout out with a tenner and asked him to find a very specific type of person in a massive city. He's only managed to walk around one block so far. He needs more time and a bigger budget to explore properly.

As a general rule of thumb, I'd say you need to let a test run for at least 5-7 days and spend a minimum of £50-£100 before you can make any real judgements. This gives the campaign enough time to exit the 'learning phase' and gives you a more stable, reliable set of data to look at. Killing a campaign after two days is almost always premature, you just don't have enough information to know if it's a dud or if it just needs more time to find its feet.

Now, onto your metrics. A 30% hook rate (the percentage of people who watch at least 3 seconds of your video) is actually pretty decent. It means your initial visual or the first line of your ad is catching people's attention as they scroll. That's a good start. However, your hold rate of 15.12% tells a different story. This means that of the people who were hooked, a large majority are dropping off very quickly afterwards. Something in your video after the 3-second mark isn't holding their interest or connecting with them.

You need to ask yourself some hard questions about the video content.
-> Is the value of the class immediately clear? What problem are you solving for them? Are you helping them fight loneliness, learn a new skill, stay mentally active?
-> Is the pacing right for a 50+ audience? Sometimes flashy, fast-paced videos that work for younger demographics can be off-putting.
-> What's the quality like? Is the audio clear? Is the video well-lit? Amateurish production can erode trust instantly.
-> Are you, or the instructor, in the video? For something personal like a class, seeing a friendly, relatable face can make a huge difference. A faceless video feels more corporate and less personal, which is likely the opposite of what you want to acheive.

So while the initial campaign hasn't worked, it's already given us a valuable clue: your hook is okay, but your main message or presentation needs work. But honestly, I think your biggest problem lies elsewhere. The video is just one part of a bigger picture, and there's a more fundamental issue with your strategy.

I'd say you need to rethink your funnel and Call-To-Action...

This is probably the single most important bit of advice I can give you. The "call me" Call-To-Action (CTA) is, quite frankly, killing your campaign before it even has a chance. Let's walk through the user journey from your target customer's perspective.

Imagine Barbara, she's 65, scrolling through Facebook to see pictures of her grandchildren. She sees your ad. The first three seconds catch her eye. It's a video about a Zoom class. Interesting. She watches a few more seconds. Now, Facebook prompts her to 'Call' you. A complete stranger. From an ad she's seen for all of 10 seconds. What do you think she does? She keeps scrolling. It's too much, too soon. It feels invasive, potentially like a scam, and it requires a huge amount of commitment and trust that you simply haven't earned yet.

Asking for a phone call from a cold social media ad is like asking someone to marry you on a first date. You need to warm them up first. You need to build a relationship, establish trust, and give them all the information they need before asking for that level of commitment. This is true for any audience, but I'd argue it's even more pertinent for an older demographic who may be more cautious online.

What you need is a proper sales funnel. In its simplest form for your business, it should look like this:

Facebook Ad -> Landing Page -> Purchase Page

Instead of a "Call Me" button, your ad's CTA should be "Learn More". This is a low-commitment, low-pressure next step. When someone clicks it, they aren't agreeing to a sales call; they're just agreeing to see more information. This one change will definately increase the number of people who click your ad.

The "Learn More" button would take them to a dedicated landing page on a website. This page has one job and one job only: to sell your $47 Zoom class. It's your digital salesperson, working 24/7. It's where you build the trust, explain the value, answer the questions, and convince Barbara that this class is exactly what she's been looking for. Without this step, you're asking the ad to do all the heavy lifting, which it's just not designed for. The ad's job is to get the click; the landing page's job is to get the sale.

You probably should focus on the landing page first...

Before you even think about spending another dollar on ads, you need to build this landing page. A good landing page is the foundation of a successful ad campaign. Sending traffic from an ad to a poor page (or in your case, no page at all) is like pouring water into a leaky bucket. You'll just waste your ad spend.

So, what makes a good landing page for your Zoom classes? It needs to be simple, persuasive, and trustworthy. We build these for clients all the time, and there are some non-negotiable elements it must have:

1. A Clear, Compelling Headline: This should grab their attention and state the main benefit immediately. Something like "Rediscover Your Passion for [Hobby] from the Comfort of Your Home" or "Join a Community of Friendly 50+ Learners in Our Live Online Classes."

2. Persuasive Copy: The text on the page needs to speak directly to your audience's pains and desires. Are they bored? Lonely? Want to keep their mind sharp? Address that. Explain exactly what the class is, who the instructor is, what they'll learn, and how it will make their life better. Professional sales copy here can make a world of difference.

3. Trust Signals: This is huge. People need to feel safe giving you their money.
-> About the Instructor: A warm, friendly photo of the instructor with a short bio. People buy from people.
-> Testimonials: Social proof is incredibly powerful. If you don't have any customers yet, offer the class for free to a few friends or family members in your target demographic in exchange for an honest testimonial with their photo.
-> FAQs: Answer all their potential questions upfront. "What if I'm not good with computers?", "What do I need to join?", "Is it interactive?", "What if I miss a class?". This removes barriers to purchase.
-> Professional Design: The page needs to look clean, modern, and professional. No clutter. Lots of white space. Easy-to-read font. If it looks homemade or dated, it will lose credibility.

4. Clear Call-to-Action: A big, obvious button that says something like "Book Your Spot Now for $47" or "Enrol in the Class". This button should lead to a very simple and secure checkout page where they can enter their payment details. Make this proccess as easy as possible.

Building this page is your absolute priorty number one. I've seen it time and time again with clients; a well-optimised landing page can dramatically lower your cost per sale and make a previously unprofitable campaign highly profitable. Without it, you're just fighting an uphill battle.

You'll need to get your targeting right...

Once you have a solid landing page, we can turn our attention back to the ads, specifically who we're showing them to. Targeting "people ages 50+" is far too broad. You're targeting millions of people with vastly different interests, hobbies, and income levels. We need to narrow this down significantly to find the people within that age group who are most likely to be interested in your specific class.

This is where we use Meta's detailed targeting options. The goal is to create audiences based on what your ideal customer is interested in. You need to build a persona. What does she read? What TV shows does she watch? What are her hobbies? What other brands does she like?

I would structure your campaign with different ad sets, each testing a different 'theme' of interests. Here are some ideas to get you started:

Audience Ideas for a 50+ Demographic:

You would create a seperate ad set for each theme (e.g., one for Media, one for Hobbies) and let them run. After a few days, you'll see which audience is responding best (giving you the cheapest clicks and, eventually, sales) and you can allocate more budget to the winners and turn off the losers. This is the process of optimisation.

Further down the line, once you have traffic to your landing page, you can unlock Meta's most powerful tools: Retargeting and Lookalike Audiences.

-> Retargeting (MoFu/BoFu - Middle/Bottom of Funnel): This involves showing specific ads to people who have already visited your landing page but didn't buy. They're already familiar with you, so you can show them a different ad, maybe with a testimonial or a reminder about the class starting soon. This is often where the majority of sales come from.

-> Lookalike Audiences (ToFu - Top of Funnel): Once you get at least 100 people to buy your class, you can ask Facebook to create a "Lookalike" audience. It will analyse the characteristics of your buyers and go find millions of other people who look just like them. This is far more effective than manual interest targeting, but you need that initial sales data to build it.

Getting the targeting right is a process of systematic testing. But it starts with thinking deeply about your customer and using interests that are specific enough to filter out the irrelevant masses.

Let's talk about ad creative and costs...

Even with the right funnel and targeting, you still need an ad that resonates. Since your hold rate was low, your video needs another look. My advice is to test multiple different ads. Don't just rely on one video.

Creative Ideas to Test:

1. The "Warm Welcome" Video: The instructor speaks directly to the camera. No fancy graphics. Just a warm, genuine, and personal invitation. They can talk about their passion for the subject and how excited they are to welcome new students. Authenticity builds trust.

2. The "Student Story" Video: A short, simple video of a (real or pretend) past student talking about their experience. "I was a bit nervous about Zoom, but it was so easy, and I've met some lovely people. I look forward to the class every week." User-Generated Content (UGC) style creative is incredibly powerful.

3. The "Benefit-Focused" Image Ad: Don't underestimate a simple, well-designed image. It can communicate the key information much faster than a video. Use a great photo (maybe of happy older people in a learning environment) with clear text overlay: "Online [Your Topic] Class for Over-50s. Live & Interactive. Book Your Spot - Only $47."

You should be testing at least 2-3 different creatives at all times to see what resonates most with your audience.

Now, for the scary bit: costs and expectations.

Selling a $47 product with paid ads can be tough because the margins are tight. You need to be very efficient. Based on my experience running campaigns for courses, let's run some ballpark numbers. We'll use the ranges for developed countries like the US.

The cost per click (CPC) on your ads could be anywhere from $0.50 to $1.50, depending on your targeting and creative. A reasonable conversion rate for a product like this on a good landing page is between 2% and 5%.

Let's see what that means for your Cost Per Purchase (CPA):

As you can see, in a realistic scenario, you might be spending $33 to make a $47 sale, leaving you with about $14 profit per customer. In the pessimistic case, you'd be losing money on every sale. This is why every single part of the process – the ad creative, the targeting, the landing page copy – needs to be optimised to push your costs towards the optimistic end of the scale. I remember one campaign we worked on for online courses where we generated $115k in revenue, but that was after a period of intense testing and optimisation to get the CPA down to a profitable level. It's absolutly achievable, but it's not automatic.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know this is a lot of information to take in. To make it simpler, here is a summary of my recomendations in order of priority.

As you can probably tell, getting a paid ad campaign to work profitably involves a lot more than just boosting a post or running a simple video ad. It's a multi-faceted process of strategy, psychology, copywriting, design, and data analysis. Each element has to work in harmony with the others.

It's not just about setting up an ad and hoping for the best. It's about understanding your audience deeply, building a funnel that guides them from stranger to customer, optimising your targeting relentlessly, creating compelling ads, and fine-tuning your landing page until it converts effeciently.

That's where working with an expert can make a huge difference. An experienced eye can spot the critical flaws in a strategy (like the "Call Me" CTA) instantly and implement a proven framework for testing and optimisation that will get you to profitability much faster, saving you a lot of wasted ad spend and frustration along the way. We can provide insights you might not have thought of and take over the entire implementation and optimisation process for you.

If you'd like to chat through this in more detail and see how we could help you build out this funnel and launch a succesful campaign, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We could have a proper look at your plans and give you a clear roadmap for moving forward.

Whatever you decide, I hope this detailed breakdown has been genuinely helpful and gives you a much clearer path forward. You've got the seed of a great business here; it just needs the right conditions to grow.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh