Stop Throwing Money Into the Void: How to Actually Optimise Your Facebook Ads

Marketing hat on — now you’ve got to navigate your paid ads. And notoriously, business owners have found that to be…

Challenging.

“I boosted a post but didn’t really know what I was doing.”
“I’m getting clicks but no sales — what am I doing wrong?”
“It feels like throwing money into the void.”

Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Running ads without seeing results is frustrating and, unfortunately, very common. But here’s the thing: there’s more to it than boosting a post or setting up a single campaign. The secret ingredient that often gets overlooked?

Optimisation.

Businesses that optimise their paid ads see 2x higher ROI than those that don’t. In fact, paid search visitors are 35% more likely to convert than organic search visitors (source).

So, if you want your ads to actually work — especially in today’s fast-paced digital landscape — you need to prioritise optimisation.
And that’s exactly what this blog will help you do.

In this blog, we’ll cover:

What it really means to optimise ads
7 simple ways to optimise your Facebook ads
Free tools to support your ad strategy

What Does It Actually Mean to Optimise an Ad?

Let’s bust a myth real quick: optimisation does not mean spending more money.
Instead, it means spending smarter.

Optimisation is the process of continuously improving your ad campaigns by adjusting things like audience targeting, copy, creatives, landing pages, and performance based on actual results (source).

Without optimisation, you risk:

Wasting budget on the wrong audience
Low engagement and click-through rates
Reaching people who will never convert
Getting zero return on your ad spend

Simply put — boosting without a strategy is just guessing. And guessing doesn’t grow your business.

7 Beginner-Friendly Ways to Optimise Your Facebook Ads

1. Know Thy Audience Inside and Out

Even if you’ve already done market research, optimisation gives you a chance to dive deeper.

Low reach? Your audience may be too narrow.
Low engagement? Your ad creative may not be resonating while they continue to doom scroll.

Use audience personas to visualise who you’re speaking to — their goals, pain points, and what would motivate them to take action. The more refined your targeting, the more efficient your spend becomes.

2. Make Your Ad Copy Emotionally Engaging

Once you understand your audience’s pain points, speak directly to their experiences.

Don’t just list benefits. Instead, build an emotional bridge between your brand and your audience.

Ads with above-average emotional responses drive a 23% increase in sales volume (source).

So yes — it pays to connect with your audience on a human level.

3. Utilise A/B Testing

You don’t have to guess what works — you can test it.

Run two versions of your ad (with different headlines, images, or copy) and see which performs better (source). Then refine your approach based on data.

No more hunches — just informed decisions.

4. Use Your Data as Clues

If it can be tracked, it can be improved.

Your ad dashboard holds clues about what’s working and what’s not. Start by setting realistic conversion goals, and use your analytics to see if you’re meeting them.

Falling short? Time to tweak your targeting, creative, or offer. Crushing your goals? Scale what’s working.

Your numbers tell a story — read it.

5. Use a Landing Page That Converts

Your landing page is everything. If your ad is the handshake, the landing page is the sales pitch.

Make it fast, mobile-friendly, and crystal-clear.
Remove unnecessary clicks or distractions.

Pages that take longer than 2 seconds to load can lose up to 4.42% of conversions per second (source).

Don't lose a potential customer because of a sluggish site.

6. Retarget Your Warm Audience

Not everyone buys the first time — and that’s okay. But it doesn’t mean you’ve lost them.

Use retargeting ads to reconnect with people who:

Visited your website
Abandoned their cart
Clicked your ad but didn’t convert

Retargeting is one of the most cost-effective ways to turn warm leads into paying customers (source).

7. Regularly Refresh Your Ads

Even well-performing ads will eventually plateau. Refreshing your creative weekly or bi-weekly can help avoid ad fatigue.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel — just update headlines, swap images, or tweak your offer.
Treat optimisation as a routine, not a one-off task.

Free & Beginner-Friendly Tools to Support Your Ad Optimisation

Canva

Create professional, on-brand creatives (carousels, videos, posters, and reels) without needing a design degree. Bonus: it's great for business cards, presentations, and more.

Google Ads

Not social media — but still powerful. Google Ads can be quickly set up and are especially useful for local businesses or anyone being actively searched on Google.

Facebook Meta

This is where most of your ad magic happens. With Facebook’s Meta Business Suite, you can manage campaigns across Facebook and Instagram, use Threads, and access built-in AI tools to help with A/B testing.

While We're on the Topic of AI…

ChatGPT

Use ChatGPT to:

Refine your ad copy
Test different tones for your target audience
Improve clarity or emotional pull

If there is one thing that we recommend it would be to don’t rely on it to write everything.
Why? Because other marketers are doing the same and sounding the same. The goal is to stand out, not blend in.

Final Thoughts: You Don’t Need a Huge Budget — Just a Smart Strategy

You don’t have to throw more money at your ads to get results.
You just need a strategy rooted in data, emotional understanding, and consistent optimisation.

Start small. Track your results. Adjust with intention. Rinse and repeat.

Your next high-converting ad isn’t about luck — it’s about learning what works and doing it on purpose.

Need help building or optimising your ads? Let’s chat. I love helping businesses stop guessing and start scaling — one smart ad at a time.