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🚀 4 Media Buying Mistakes Holding Back Performance

Media buying on Meta requires precision, yet even seasoned marketers fall into common traps that limit scalability and efficiency. These advanced mistakes and solutions can help you align strategies for sustainable growth.

1️⃣ Failing to Cap Returning Customers in ASC

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC) often overspend on retargeting existing customers while claiming credit for bottom-of-funnel conversions. Without proper exclusions, budgets are skewed toward users already familiar with your brand, leaving net new acquisition opportunities untapped.

How to Fix It:

• Implement dynamic exclusion lists to separate existing customers from acquisition efforts. Update these lists regularly using first-party data.

• Complement ASC campaigns with targeted prospecting campaigns to ensure a balanced focus on both new and returning customers.

2️⃣ Over-Tweaking Campaigns

Frequent changes to bids, budgets, and targeting disrupt Meta’s optimization algorithms, inflating CPAs and hampering efficiency. The temptation to adjust campaigns daily often comes from overanalyzing short-term metrics.

How to Fix It:

• Adopt a set-it-and-watch approach: Allow campaigns to run for 5-7 days without changes during the learning phase.

• Use automated rules to scale budgets or pause underperforming ads based on pre-defined CPA or ROAS benchmarks.

• Evaluate performance through a multi-week lens rather than daily fluctuations.

3️⃣ Incomplete Testing Across All Campaign Phases

Creative testing is often limited to prospecting ads, leaving other campaign phases—like retargeting and ASC—neglected. Without testing creatives for each stage, performance bottlenecks remain unidentified.

How to Fix It:

• Dedicate 20-30% of your budget to testing creatives for all campaign stages: prospecting, retargeting, and ASC.

• Test multiple variables, including hooks, formats, emotional triggers, and even audience-specific messaging.

• Use platforms like Neurons AI to simulate audience responses and identify high-performing visuals and messaging before launch, saving time and money.

4️⃣ Overcomplicating Campaign Structures

Complex campaign setups with too many ad sets and narrow targeting dilute budgets and reduce Meta’s optimization efficiency.

How to Fix It:

• Consolidate campaigns into fewer, intent-based structures. For example, separate campaigns for high-intent (retargeting) and low-intent (prospecting) audiences.

• Use Dynamic Creative Testing (DCT) within consolidated campaigns to scale winning creatives without fragmentation.

Mastering media buying in 2025 requires a smarter approach: balancing automation with oversight, testing at every phase, and avoiding inefficiencies like over-tweaking or bloated campaign setups. By refining processes and leveraging tools like Neurons AI to optimize creatives before launch, media buyers can unlock scalable growth with precision. 🚀

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🌟 Navigating Martech Complexities for Better Targeting
Insights from SEJ

Reaching the right audience has become a growing challenge for marketers due to fragmented martech systems and overwhelming tool stacks. According to a recent Forrester study, a striking 70% of marketing leaders report difficulties in identifying and engaging their target audiences across multiple channels.

The Breakdown:

• Use Data to Target Effectively: Moving beyond basic demographics, marketers can harness behavioral data, purchase patterns, and social interactions to create more targeted audience profiles. Tools like customer data platforms (CDPs) enable unified views, enhancing precision in messaging.
  
• Streamline Martech with Integration: Integrating data across multiple tools with identity resolution offers clearer customer insights reducing inefficiencies and creating personalized pathways for streamlined campaigns.
  
• Embrace Omnichannel Consistency: Consistent messaging across email, social media, mobile apps, and physical stores ensures seamless customer experiences. Cross-channel retargeting and unified campaigns amplify engagement and reach, optimizing customer touchpoints.
  
• Leverage Quality Content: Create tailored, research-backed content and amplify it through social media and influencer collaborations for greater reach.

Disjointed martech systems cost marketers time, efficiency, and results. Connecting tools with these strategies empowers brands to deliver impactful campaigns. Achieving clarity in customer understanding isn’t just a technical challenge—it’s the key to thriving in today’s competitive landscape.

🎯Quick Hits

❌ How do you get 2x conversions by pre-testing your ads? Trusted by major brands like Coca Cola, TikTok, and Google, Neurons taps into 20+ years of neuroscience research to give you immediate feedback on your visuals and optimize ads with AI recommendations. Book a free demo today and start improving your ads!

💵 Google Ads now offers budget reallocation experiments for Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, enabling advertisers to test shifting budgets from Dynamic Search Ads or Display campaigns. Marketers can use the experiment tool to evaluate PMax performance with controlled setups, traffic splits, and tailored configurations. 

🛍️ 40% of consumers support brands joining trends, citing reasons like cultural relevance, authenticity, and quick execution within 24-48 hours. However, 33% find it embarrassing if done poorly. Generational divides show Gen Z favors trend participation for connection, while Boomers are less supportive. 

🤳🏻 25% of U.S. TikTok users, especially women (29%), use the platform for brand discovery, citing diverse content (49%), short videos (42%), and effective algorithms (40%). Two-thirds of those discovering brands made purchases, with Gen X leading in TikTok Shop usage (50%).

That’s a wrap for today! As we line up more Shorts, tell us what you thought about today's content! And don’t hesitate to share this with someone who’d adore it. 🥰