The new Facebook campaign isn't working as it should. Your first reaction? You definitely want to make the necessary changes. Or maybe it's worth... waiting? It's all because of the learning phase, without which no campaign is complete. What exactly is the learning phase on Facebook, why is it a curse for many marketers and what can you do to get used to it?
Facebook learning phase
The learning phase will trigger every time you launch a new set of Facebook ads or make changes to an existing set. What is its purpose?
The Facebook algorithm needs time to optimize its operation and show ads to those users who will have the greatest chance of conversion: whether it be liking or buying a product.
In other words, the learning phase is there to make your campaign more effective.
Technically, the training phase involves the algorithm showing your ads to different people from your target group and then trying to determine the exact profile of the people who convert. The learning phase is therefore a kind of test during which the campaign results may be weaker.
Facebook typically needs 50 conversions (optimization events: events for which a set of ads is optimized) for the algorithm to create an effective profile of the desired user, complete the test, and start showing ads to those audiences that have the highest chance of converting.
The ad set status then changes from "Learning" to "Active". The learning phase usually lasts no longer than 7 days, but may end sooner if the ad set has generated the necessary number of events.
If your ad set is in training, you'll see a message in the "Execution" column in your ad set preview.
Limited learning
What if your ad set fails to generate 50 conversions this week? It enters the "limited learning" phase and will not achieve maximum effectiveness.
Limited learning is not a death sentence, there are campaigns whose results are acceptable in this phase. In general, however, try to avoid returning your campaign to the learning phase.
The learning phase on Facebook and its impact on the campaign
As I mentioned, during the learning phase, your campaign results may be far from expected. What does it mean? Fewer conversions, lower conversion rate, higher CPA, and it is also possible to underutilize the budget.
You'll have to accept this as long as the results aren't so bad that you can't reach 50 conversions and exit the training phase. Therefore, when planning a campaign, take into account the inevitability of the learning phase.
Are you preparing a holiday campaign or a specific promotion? Consider launching it well in advance so that the campaign doesn't get stuck in the learning phase at a key moment.
However, if your campaigns don't make it past the learning phase, don't stress. In my advertising history, I have often seen ad sets that incorrectly display the ad for a long time, sets that convert well despite supposedly being stuck in this phase... well, Facebook is full of errors.
Learning phase on Facebook – how to shorten its length?
As you can see, it is worth leaving the learning phase as soon as possible. And once you do, avoid going back to her. How to achieve this? You have some tools.
Optimization events
Each ad set should be optimized for a specific event. Remember that the set needs to collect 50 events in a week to exit the learning phase.
For some events it will be easier, for others it will be the opposite.
In general, it will be more difficult to quickly collect a sufficient number of events when optimizing for sales, application installations or lead generation. It will be much easier to deal with events that we encounter more often, such as likes or page views.
If you cannot achieve the desired number of events, consider changing your optimization model.
Example? Instead of optimizing for newsletter subscription, choose to go to the page where there is a subscription form. This will help the algorithm and the sign-up percentage should remain at a satisfactory level. Instead of optimizing for the final sale of a product, choose to display the shopping cart.
Remember that the fewer events your ad set generates per day, the longer the learning phase will take.
Optimization window
Optimization events alone are not everything. The time period in which these events are counted also matters.
If you set the conversion window to one day, you tell the algorithm to generate 50 optimization events that occurred within 1 day of the conversion over a 7-day period. A difficult task, right? Try to make it easier by setting a longer conversion window. This is especially important for developing online stores that do not yet have huge budgets and the resulting large scale of operations or B2B companies!
Budget
It also influences the length of the learning phase. If you plan to spend several thousand zlotys a day, the algorithm will quickly collect the necessary data. However, if the budget is USD 20 per day, the algorithm has a total of USD 140 per week. Which means he has USD 2.8 for each event.
If it's a click or a view, it'll probably do fine. But if you sell cars, the conversion can be a bit more expensive, to say the least. So consider how much an event that you consider a conversion might cost.
And one more thing – budget changes. Changes greater than 20% of your budget may push your active ad set back into the learning phase. Avoid drastic adjustments.
Size of the target group
Even with a high budget, a very narrow target group will make it difficult to obtain the minimum number of target events. This may happen with campaigns targeted locally or at committed, small groups. If you're having trouble getting past the learning phase, consider expanding your target audience or increasing your group membership range (in custom groups).
Plan for changes
Make any changes carefully. Most interference with a running campaign can re-enable the learning phase in the ad set. I wrote about how to avoid such a situation elsewhere. The most important thing is that with a little caution you will avoid a painful return to the learning phase.
You can treat the learning phase as a necessary evil. However, it is better to understand that it is necessary for the effective operation of the campaign. If you master the learning phase, your Facebook campaigns will surely benefit greatly.
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