FB ADs Learning Phase Explained and Optimization Hacks
If you’re familiar with Facebook ads, you’re aware of its unmatched targeting power and audience reach. (If this is the first you’re hearing about it, go back to our guide to Facebook ads. This blog will make a lot more sense.)
Despite what it may seem, Facebook is not a magician. Behind the curtains, it’s all down to trial and error.
When you launch an ad set, Facebook’s ads delivery system runs every possible combination of creative, placement, audience, posting time, etc. until it finds the optimal method of delivery for your ad. This testing period on the road to optimization is called the Facebook learning phase, and it lays the groundwork for a successful advertising campaign.
What is the FB ADs Learning Phase?
The FB ads learning phase occurs when you create a new ad set or significantly edit an existing one. The algorithm tests different ways of optimizing your ads to find what combination of elements (creative, audience targeting, time, and place) that creates the most conversions. During this time, performance is less stable and your cost per action will be higher.
The FB ads learning phase typically runs until you reach 50 optimization actions in 7 days. (An optimization event is a metric that shows how well your bid strategy meets your goals.) 50 is not necessarily a fixed value, and is based on the characteristics of the ad. The quality of the conversion matters, but that’s up to the Facebook algorithm and is not always in your control.
What Type of Campaigns Use the FB ADs Learning Phase?
The learning phase is primarily for objectives that are optimized for an on-site action. For example, conversion and catalog sales. Not traffic, video views, or brand awareness.
Tips to Optimize Your Spend
1. Avoid editing your ADs frequently
Manual optimizations, or edits, stall your ads from exiting the learning phase, which negatively impacts their performance. Certain actions will reset the learning phase, such as dramatically altering your budget, bid amount, targeting, placement, creative, or pausing your ads for more than one week.
2. Don’t create too many ad sets
Having a high ad set volume will also prolong the FB ads learning phase. When you run too many ad sets at once, each set delivers less often. This means that you spend more before the delivery system has fully optimized performance.
3. Don’t try to skip the FB learning phase
While it’s important to avoid behaviors that prevent ad sets from exiting the FB learning phase is important, you can’t really avoid this trial-and-error period completely. Testing out new creative and marketing strategies is essential for improving your ad performance over time. The FB learning phase is necessary to help the delivery system optimize your new ads.
What Happens After the FB ADs Learning Phase?
Once your ad set exits the learning phase, it will either become:
- Active – your ad is up and running with improved accuracy
- Learning Limited – the delivery system could not complete its learning within a week.
Here’s what you can do to help your ads if you enter the Learning Limited status:
Combine ADs sets and campaigns: With multiple ad sets under a single campaign, your budget is spread out. This makes it difficult to achieve the recommended 50 optimization events in a week. Combining them helps to get more stable results.
Expand your audience: Expanding your target audience set helps your ads reach more people, further increasing your optimization events.
Increase your budget: If your budget is too low to receive 50 optimization events, then increasing it will help.
Change your optimization event: You can change your optimization event to the one that occurs frequently or the one people prefer.
Still Struggling to Get the Hang of the FB ADs Learning Phase?
We get it, ads on Facebook are complicated and there’s no CliffsNotes to build a great marketing strategy.
At KARMA jack, we’ve studied the intricacies of every social advertising channel and stay up to date on the best strategies for growth. Our performance-based approach focuses on getting you more leads and better outcomes for your business. Schedule a call with us.
