You’re Doing Too Much: Why Over-Manipulating Your Ads is Killing Your Algorithmic Efficiency and Costing You Money

Hey there, conversion marketing and algorithms enthusiasts! Today, I want to talk about something that is crucial to the success of your marketing campaigns, but is often overlooked: over-manipulating your ads.

It’s easy to get excited about testing out new ad creatives, headlines, and targeting options. After all, the more you experiment, the more likely you are to find the winning formula that will take your business to the next level. But here’s the thing: constantly changing your ads can actually hurt your algorithmic efficiency.

Let me explain. Every time you make a change to your ad, your algorithm needs to start from scratch in terms of gathering data and learning about the audience that is most likely to convert. This means that the more frequently you make changes, the less time your algorithm has to gather enough observations to make informed decisions.

Think about it this way: imagine you’re trying to teach a child how to ride a bike. You start by holding onto the back of the seat and giving them guidance and support. After a while, you let go and watch as they pedal away on their own. But if you keep changing the rules of the game every few seconds – like moving the bike to a different location, changing the seat height, or taking away the pedals – the child will never have the chance to build up their confidence and learn to ride on their own.

The same principle applies to your ads. When you constantly tweak your ads, you’re not giving your algorithm the chance to gather enough data to truly understand the best way to achieve your goals. Instead, you’re confusing it and making it harder for it to learn.

So, what’s the solution? It’s simple: give your ads time to breathe. Instead of making changes every day or even every week, aim for longer testing periods of at least a month. This will give your algorithm enough time to gather data and insights, and to adjust its strategy accordingly.

Here are some statistics to illustrate the point: according to Facebook, ad sets with at least 50 conversions per week have a much higher chance of success than those with fewer conversions. And according to Google, it takes at least two weeks for the algorithm to stabilize and start making meaningful decisions about ad performance.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should never make changes to your ads. It’s important to keep testing new ideas and iterating on what’s working. But you need to strike a balance between experimentation and stability.

To sum up, over-manipulating your ads can actually hurt your algorithmic efficiency by preventing your algorithm from gathering enough data to make informed decisions. Instead of constantly tweaking your ads, aim for longer testing periods of at least a month to give your algorithm the time it needs to learn and adjust its strategy. While it’s important to keep testing new ideas, you need to strike a balance between experimentation and stability. By giving your algorithm the chance to work its magic and gather more observations of your goal in a given context, you’ll be able to achieve a smarter, more efficient algorithm. So take a step back, resist the urge to over-manipulate, and let your algorithm do its thing!