Run a Facebook Ad Inspection – TIER Example

If you have in the past or decided now to run a Facebook ad—you should know about health checks that Facebook runs on your ad.
So, did you know that Facebook ranks your ads in the backend and qualifies them? These quality scores and your budget directly impact your auction chances, meaning your ads are served to desired audiences before your competitors. Facebook uses advanced algorithms to weigh budget-quality scores to give advantages and disadvantages in auctions.
What determines your Facebook ad quality score is a combination of variables such as:
- Ad relevancy
- Engagement ratio
- Image quality
- Conversion rate and more
In this review, we will look at a couple of ads by TIER—one of the biggest mobility apps that advertise on Facebook to drive app installs and rides.
Run a Facebook Ad: Inspection and Ranking
Although the weighing of the two elements is not disclosed to the public, the common sense is that “the higher the budget, the more chance you get in the auction,” and “the more your quality score is, the more chance you have in the auction.”
Although the weight is not disclosed, you can still observe your quality ranking in Facebook Ads Manager. There are many instances that even with a double size budget, your ad might lose the auction to your competitors, should your quality score rank worse than theirs.
Now, let’s focus on TIER and see what problem lies there.
Health Check: Background
TIER is a mobility app that offers scooter and motorbike rides in operating cities. In addition, we looked at their ads on Facebook Ads Library and found areas that need improvement. The problems are the following:
- Exclusions not implemented
- Bad choice of thumbnails
- Too much text on images
So, we will now focus on these areas and explain in-depth what the problem is and what the solution is as well.
1. Targeting Exclusion
I am an active user of TIER and kept seeing the below ad on Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network until I hid it. We can see that the ad offers two free rides to new clients with the specific code.
The problem is that I installed the app and used the code a long time ago.
Note: If you decide to run a Facebook Ad, remember that advertising platforms give opportunities to exclude certain audiences from your ads.
Clearly, TIER does not use this feature. Moreover, with the iOS 14 update, certain inclusions and exclusions are limited. However, I am an Android user, and including-excluding audiences on Android is not a problem.
Run a Facebook Ad: The TIER Problem
So, what happened with this particular ad? Even though I used the code before, I kept seeing the ad frequently (frequency is another important topic), and in the end, I hid the advertisement by selecting “Already purchased” and “I see it too often.”
If you plan to run a Facebook Ad, you should know that these actions on Facebook greatly impact the quality score and auction chances. Moreover, Facebook wants its users to have a good time when navigating through Facebook and Instagram.
That is why engagement (likes, clicks, comments) and user reporting play a crucial role for Facebook in determining what to showcase. In addition, thinking about the fact that they don’t make the necessary targeting exclusion is a big issue here. Moreover, I am certainly not the only one who keeps seeing the same ad copy over and over again, even if they have already converted.
2. Video Thumbnails
TIER has many competitors, and the market is overwhelmed. To stand out, they need “Concept – Correct Targeting – Quality Images – Concise Ad Copy.”
Now, the Facebook ads below are delivered actively, and whatever the video content is, the thumbnails do not look so appealing, at least to me. In addition, they are of low quality. In Facebook video format, thumbnails are the most important elements that drive users to watch the video, and you can adjust your thumbnails from the video sequences.
Nevertheless, user behavior and characteristics vary. However, many people would definitely skip this ad without engagement.
3. Message and Text on Image
Until the past year, Facebook used to penalize ads that had too much text on the images. This is no longer an issue. At least the algorithm doesn’t deliberately lower your reach. However, it is always recommended to use as little text as possible.
One thing to remember is that Facebook marketing ads that don’t really look like “ads” usually perform better. Imagine the user flow on Facebook and Instagram after navigating through your friend’s posts or stories —you experience something that has very long text, is repetitive, and doesn’t actually look good. The ad below from TIER is a good example.
We can see that the same message—”Get the code”—is repeated in the primary text, on the image, and also on the headline.
It looks like the users are “forced” to take action. Remember that people spend time on Facebook and Instagram to enjoy, not to be forced. If you wish to run a Facebook ad, the best strategy is to create copies that match the natural feed-story flow and let users really “want” to explore more of your product.
Another issue with the above ad is the Call-To-Action button. The ad link directs users to the App Store, where they can install or open the app if already installed (it would also be wise to use deep linking).
Moreover, after separating the audiences correctly, you can have “Install Now,” “Download,” or “Use App” CTA’s. Since the action takes place within the app, “Sign Up” does not cover the real meaning of the intended action.
Conclusion and a Few Tips
The analysis above is, of course, limited to what information is available on Facebook Ads Library. Although we cannot see their overall concept and targeting—based on what is available—we can say that ads from TIER need improvements in the following areas:
- Use targeting exclusion
- Separate messages, CTA’s for the audience segmentation
- Use short and concise ad copies
- Lower the amount of text on images
- Use eye-catching thumbnails on videos
- Don’t be repetitive in messaging
Are you planning to run a Facebook ad, or are you tired of leaking ads? Start by getting in touch with us and see how we can improve your marketing game.