Starting with the campaign setup
So last Monday I decided to boost my new product post on Facebook. Had my coffee ready, felt super focused. Went into Ads Manager, selected the audience, set daily budget at $50 – meant to run two weeks max. Double-checked everything? Thought I did.
Where things went wrong
Three days later I’m checking analytics and boom – campaign burned $327 already! My stomach dropped. Dug into settings and found three massive mistakes:
- Forgot end date: Left “Run continuously” checked by accident
- Wrong optimization: Chose “Reach” instead of “Conversions”
- Location targeting mess: Included Antarctica somehow? Yeah seriously
Total facepalm moment. Wasted cash showing ads to penguins while missing actual customers.
Emergency damage control
Grabbed my laptop panicking. Here’s exactly how I stopped the bleeding:
- Immediately paused ALL ad sets – like slamming emergency brake
- Copied performing ads into new campaign with hard end date this time
- Re-targeted using my warm audience list – no more frozen wastelands
- Set optimization for link clicks since pixel wasn’t fully cooked yet
Whole process took 18 minutes according to my timer. Drank half a cold coffee afterwards shaking.
The ugly aftermath
Checked next morning – new campaign spent $11 with 42 real clicks. Old campaign? $478 down the drain. Hurt like stepping on LEGOs barefoot. Key lesson drilled in: never rush campaign launches when distracted. Now I physically cover the “Publish” button with post-it saying “Check end date?” before clicking.
Still mad about the Antarctica thing though. At least penguins saw cool shoes.