Improve Facebook Ad Performance: Learning Phase Essentials

Your business is probably busy setting up for the holiday shopping period right now. Each department is busy with making sure everything is in order. Even if you run a small mom-and-pop shop or have an online business selling services, the preparation cycle overlaps similarly.

From shipping, supply chain, inventory, staff training, customer support, and most importantly, marketing, these processes make up the bulk of shopping season preparedness.

Don't forget the learning phase, however.

Facebook Ads Learning Phase

The Learning Phase in Facebook ads refers to the initial period when Facebook's ad delivery system gathers data and works to optimize your ad campaign performance.

During this time, your ad set, a group of ads in your campaign, goes through a combination of audience demographics based on the attribution settings you decided to market to.

While in this phase, your ads would be marked as 'Learning'. Facebook then tests the optimal combination of creative, time, audience, and place for your ad set.

It's normal to see less stable performance and a cost per result that would scare you. As per the algorithm, once your ad set has achieved 50 optimization events, be it clicks, leads, or purchases, it moves out of the phase.

Facebook applies the' Learning Limited' tag to the ad set if the algorithm cannot grab enough data due to lower optimization events.

Don't Get Limited

Here are some ways to get the limited tag off your ad sets.

• Combining ad sets and campaigns can help get more stable and faster results.
• Broaden your target audience, as this provides more opportunities to complete the required 50 optimization events.
• Even though you may not like it, you probably have to raise your budget so your ad gets served enough to hit the 50 events.
• You can also change the 'event' itself. It may have been a purchase in the past; you can try page visits or email leads.

Let's look at some recommendations to help you exit the phase quickly.

Learning Phase Essentials

Budget: Set adequate funding so the system can target enough people within your targeting requirements to complete the events. It may seem unreasonable to have Facebook tell you that, but they have one of the busiest sites on the planet, with a wide variety of people accessing it daily. So the faster you get those 50 events in, the quicker you can get to the business end of the holidays.

Editing: It isn't good. Don't do it. Every time you edit your ad set, with either some new creative or text changes, the system resets the learning phase period.

Even changing the budget can reset the phase, so ensure you're generous and confident from the launch.

High-Quality Creative: Create visually appealing ad creatives with engaging images or videos and compelling ad copy. High-quality creative can attract more engagement and conversions.

One Goal: Focus on a single optimization goal (e.g., website conversions and lead generation) for each ad set. Doing so helps Facebook's algorithms understand your campaign's primary objective.

Optimize Landing Pages: Ensure that the landing pages your ads link to are well-designed and optimized for conversions. A seamless user experience can positively impact ad performance.

Use the Facebook Pixel: Implement the Facebook Pixel on your website to track conversions and gather valuable data. The Pixel helps Facebook's algorithms understand user behavior and optimize ad delivery.

Campaign Objective and Ad Type: Choose the most appropriate campaign objective and ad format for your specific goals. Different purposes may require other optimization techniques.

The learning phase can take several days, and performance may be less predictable during this time. Give Facebook's algorithms time to gather data and optimize your campaign.

By implementing the above practices, you can quickly ensure your ads get out of the learning phase to proceed full-fledged with your campaigns.