In the dynamic realm of digital advertising, even the most seasoned marketers encounter the perplexing scenario of an ad falling short of anticipated benchmarks. It's a puzzle that demands unraveling, a challenge that compels us at Plai to seek answers.
Basics
We will show you if your ad is above or below benchmarks within 7 days of your ad going live. Until we show you a score here, please try not to make any edits to your ads.
It’s critical to understand the 'learning phase' implemented by both Google, Facebook, TikTok, and other ad platforms. During this phase, these platforms need to gather data from around 50 optimization events over 7 days to learn how best to deliver your ads.
Changes during this phase can negatively impact your campaign, delaying the optimization process. Therefore, it's best to let the algorithms do their work during this time for maximum efficiency and not make too many edits to your ads.
When we do show you a benchmark score…
- If your ad is above benchmarks, there's nothing you need to do, let the algorithms go to work.
- If your ad is below benchmarks, while we A/B test and optimize all of your targeting, creative, and other parts of your ad, these ad inputs may not be the best to optimize for, so there’s a few things you can do to give your ad the best chance of success:
Just Leave It Alone: It could be that it still needs more optimization events and therefore more time. This ad could still be driving a positive impact for your business based on metrics we can’t track. We report this score based on industry benchmarks and our own data, which may not take into account every aspect of your business.
Edit Targeting: Your target audience isn’t engaging with your ad. Edit your targeting down below to either narrow your targeting (e.g. Negative Keywords, Narrow your audience on Facebook, Target specific cities, switch to retargeting), Broaden your targeting by adding more keywords or interests, or even consider going after a different audience all together.
Edit Creative: Your creative isn’t resonating with your target audience. Edit your targeting down below and try using one of our stock videos from Shutterstock instead of an image, include an offer e.g. 20% off, add new ad copy or videos/images, or consider removing the headlines, videos, images, or other ad copy that has low performance in the Asset reporting below.
Start Fresh: Create a brand new ad on the same ad platform or even on a different ad platform with the learnings you have gained on what doesn’t work for you.
Important to note:
We show benchmarks on or before 7 days after your ad is live and again on or before 14 days. Your benchmark score will not retroactively change. For example, on the 8th day of your ad, if your performance is below benchmarks and you make edits to it, your score will still show below benchmarks on Week 1 and your new score will show on or before the end of Week 2.