How to Ensure Meta Spends on Each of Your Ad Creatives

Stop if you’ve been down this road before.

You invested time, effort, and money into producing a batch of Meta ads for creative testing. 

You set up your campaign and create several ad sets with a few ads in them to test.

You notice the bulk of your budget is allocated to just one of those ad sets. However, your ad sets contain multiple ads, some of which haven’t spent any money.

You may be scratching your head, wondering, “Then how does Meta know when your ads are losers if there’s no spend?”

How do you ensure Meta hasn’t missed out on another winning ad if it hasn’t been tested sufficiently?

Why does this happen?

Meta’s developers created an algorithm that efficiently identifies one winning ad in an ad set at lightning speed. 

It predicts the outcomes based on the first few interactions with the ads. It analyzes the results, determines the winner, and redirects your ad spend to scale it.

This is brilliant for scaling, but you first need to test your creatives before you scale them, and you should adjust your tactic. 

Testing multiple ads in the same ad set may leave top-tier but insufficiently tested creatives on the cutting room floor.

It’s vital not to skip the testing phase if you don’t want to waste the cost of producing your ads. We have an excellent article explaining the best way to run creative testing. This is the Madgicx way.

How the budget allocation works

The algorithm analyzes the initial results across all ads using what Meta calls the “Estimated Action Rate,” which is a combination of engagement metrics, like clicks and dwell time. The algorithm predicts performance and finds one clear winner from the start.

Once a winner is identified, it doesn’t matter if the others haven’t spent anything. 

So, what if the winner only has 5% better performance than another ad within the ad set? It will still get 10x more budget than the other ads even if it won by a small margin.

The budget is funneled into the winner to prevent advertisers from spending too much on loser ads. However, this also means that potential high-performers in the loser pile aren’t sufficiently tested. You can see this in the lack of spend.

Ad 1 in the image above didn’t get a proper shot. It didn’t spend nearly enough for sufficient testing, yet it was sidelined by Ad 2, which received the bulk of the budget.

Ad 1 should be tested, especially considering it was right on the heels of Ad 2.

So, if you have a different goal, like testing ad variations, you must approach it differently before you want to scale.

The workaround

If you want to test ad creatives, put one ad inside each ad set so it gets the full budget. Then, you can analyze and compare the campaign results to find your winners. 

With too many variables in the copy, design, and messaging pitted against each other, you can’t tell what worked in the winning ad that separated it from the others. 

To put it plainly, you’re comparing apples with oranges. Doing this isn’t ideal for testing creatives.

Not only that, the algorithm doesn’t care about subtle differences in messaging in your ad set. It cares about spotting the best performer.

Once you’ve determined your ad superstars, you can create new iterations with slight differences and scale them using Meta’s Advantage campaign budget. 

The Meta algorithm is a secret weapon you should know when to use and when not to.

Common mistakes media buyers make

• They use Meta Advantage campaign budget for creative testing (it’s the default now) instead of testing your creatives first.
• During creative testing, they don’t create runoff campaigns from the ads that didn’t win to find more scaling opportunities and boost revenue. It’s always a process of elimination.
• When testing creatives, they put more than one ad per ad set. With just one ad, your budget is guaranteed and won’t be reallocated.
• When using Meta Advantage campaign budget, they put too many wildly different ads with nuanced variations in the same ad set. Meta Advantage campaign budget should only be used for scaling, not testing.
• Setting the budget at the campaign level for creative testing. You should set this at the ad set level to ensure your ad gets enough spend.

How Madgicx can help

When an ad creative is insufficiently tested, the AI Marketer notices and recommends launching it in a new ad set to fix the problem.

Or, if you have creatives that weren’t delivered, the AI Marketer will let you know and prompt you to launch them.

No more first-rate ads slipping through the cracks.

Plus, these are just a few of the tasks the AI Marketer will recommend to increase performance.

My goal with Madgicx has always been to streamline the media buying process to the maximum, making it easier to manage. At the heart of my vision is the AI Marketer. 

The AI Marketer is your trusted paid media concierge. It analyzes your ad account, identifies areas for improvement, and makes recommendations based on these results. It checks your ad account daily for opportunities.

With the AI Marketer in your back pocket, you can navigate the complex world of advertising on Meta with confidence. Plus, all you need to do is click a few buttons to implement the suggestions. You have full control. 

Try Madgicx and see what I mean.