There's nothing worse than setting up a campaign only to find it didn't yield good results or didn't run at all. Complete the checklist below to get great results:

(1) Is your Facebook pixel event wired properly?

This is the most common issue. Just because your development team tells you an event is set up, don't assume it's working — be sure to check yourself in Ads Manager (video guide provided at the bottom of this help document). 

Confirm that the frequency and timing of events reported for a given event matches what you normally see in Google Analytics or other tracking systems you use. E.g. if an email newsletter signup pixel event has been fired 100 times in the past 30 days, but you know you've acquired 5,000 subscribers in that time, something is amiss.

Here's how to configure the Facebook Pixel and create Custom Events.

(2) Does your event have at least 500 occurrences in the past 30 days?

Facebook needs an event to fire at least 500 times in the past 30 days in order to optimize for that event with a paid campaign. They actually recommend reaching 10,000+ occurrences for an event per month for the best results.

If your event has fewer than 500 occurrences in the past 30 days, you'll need to collect more data before optimizing for that event. If you don't have enough events yet, don't worry — try optimizing for a more general goal, like Page Views or Traffic until you reach the 500 mark. Here's Facebook's guide on minimum events needed for conversion optimization.

(3) Is your budget and run time sufficient?

Clients spend anywhere from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars on campaigns. Pick what's right for you, but it should be no smaller than the greater of the following two calculations:

      (a) $50 x total campaign days (e.g. $50 x 5 days =  $250), or

      (b) the event value x 100 (e.g. $2 per newsletter signup x 100 = $200)

You'll typically improve your conversion rates and reduce costs by letting your campaign run longer. 5-10 days is a good run time for budgets of hundreds to thousands of dollars. 2 days is generally not enough time. If you pair a large budget with a short run time, spend will be less efficient because you didn't give Facebook much time to optimize bid time or targeting. 

(4) Are you targeting the right people?

There's no one best audience, but be sure you're in the right ballpark. Getting your audience right can make or break campaign performance.

Use a broader audience of 1-10 million people. Examples: a 1% Lookalike audience based on page fans; a Custom audience comprised of website visitors in the last 90 days; a Saved audience that reflects general demographics of interest.

Experiment with targeting both broad audiences (like noted above) and more targeted audiences such as: a 1% Lookalike audience based on high value customers or people who have completed your desired event; a Custom audience comprised of high value customers or people who have completed your desired event; a Saved audience that reflects specific demographics of interest.

Go directly to your Facebook Business Manager, select the relevant ad account, click on the hamburger icon and look for "Pixel Events Manager." 

On the Pixel Events Manager Page you can manage multiple Pixels and their in-app events, custom events, or default events. 

To confirm that your Pixel is firing correctly, you can consult your Facebook Pixel Helper Add On or click into the Pixel in question to get a more detailed view. 

After clicking into the Pixel's Detail view you'll be able to see all Custom or Default events associated with a pixel, if the pixel is active, and how many events have been triggered.