More than 65 percent of Americans are on Facebook, but it’s still difficult for businesses to connect organically with target audiences on this platform. The average organic reach hovers around 6 percent of the total number of likes on a page. If 100 people like your page, only about six see any given post.

The right use of sponsored posts and Facebook ads solves this problem. But check out the “don’ts” of Facebook home improvement advertising below to avoid pitfalls that have you paying for reach you never actually see.

1. Don’t avoid the work of targeting the right audience.
   Facebook lets you target audiences by a range of factors, including age, location, and interest. Home improvement companies serving a specific region or city don’t want to pay to show ads to users three states away. You might also want to target people who are likely to be homeowners, among other things.Targeting ads is easy via Facebook and other third-party ad creation wizards, but you do have to put in some work to determine who your audience is. Ask yourself:
   • Where is your service area?
   • What age are most of your clients?
   • What are the interests of people most likely to need your services?
   • Does income play a role? For example, if you offer luxury window products, you might want to show more ads to people with higher disposable incomes.
2. Don’t only run a single ad set in your campaign.
   Facebook lets you create multiple ad sets within any campaign, so you can target different subsets of your audience. You might create one set marketing your budget services and another for your luxury line.You could also create ad sets devoted to retargeting—showing ads repeatedly to people across numerous networks to move them further through the sales funnel and buying journey. Ad sets targeted to people who previously visited your website or put something in a shopping cart but didn’t follow through on the purchase are examples of retargeting.
3. Don’t forget to track the performance of campaigns and ads.
   Append tracking data to all your ad sets and campaigns so you can view analytics on performance. Tracking your campaigns lets you understand:
   • Which ads are generating the most interest with various audience segments
   • What times of day seem best for launching ads
   • How ads fit into your overall funnel—whether people are converting immediately from ads or using ads as a jumping off point to find out more

This type of information helps you constantly improve your Facebook ad performance so every campaign generates more return than the last.