5 Meta Ads Mistakes Costing You Money in 2025

Running Meta ads but not seeing the returns you expected? You’re not alone. Here are the five most common mistakes we see brands make—and how to fix them.

1. Targeting Too Broad (or Too Narrow)

The sweet spot for Meta targeting has changed dramatically with iOS 14.5 and beyond. Many advertisers are either casting too wide a net or over-restricting their audiences.

The Fix: Start with broader audiences and let Meta’s algorithm find your buyers. Use Advantage+ placements and trust the machine learning—it’s gotten remarkably good.

2. Ignoring Creative Fatigue

Your best-performing ad will eventually stop performing. The average creative lifespan on Meta is now just 2-3 weeks.

The Fix: Build a creative testing pipeline. We recommend launching 3-5 new creatives every week and killing underperformers quickly.

3. Wrong Campaign Objective

Optimizing for link clicks when you want purchases? You’ll get exactly what you asked for—clicks from people who never buy.

The Fix: Always optimize for your end goal. If you want purchases, optimize for purchases. Meta will find buyers, not clickers.

4. Neglecting Retargeting

We see brands spending 90%+ of their budget on cold audiences while ignoring warm prospects who already know them.

The Fix: Allocate 20-30% of your budget to retargeting. These audiences convert at 3-5x the rate of cold traffic.

5. No Attribution Understanding

If you’re only looking at Meta’s reported numbers without understanding attribution, you’re flying blind.

The Fix: Use UTM parameters, set up server-side tracking where possible, and understand the limitations of platform-reported data.

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