We’ve all been there: staring at Ads Manager asking why all the hard work you put into this new campaign isn’t translating into results. The reality is that ad platforms have changed fast over the last six years, so the playbook that worked “back then” won’t drive the same results in 2026.
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At Primer, we’ve audited hundreds of ad accounts and seen a pattern of repeated mistakes. Below are the five most common issues that hold performance back and the steps we recommend to solve them.

Want expert help diagnosing (and fixing) your Meta performance? Book a growth consultation with Primer. We’ll audit your account structure, creative, and landing page flow—and then give you a clear plan to improve results.

1. Your budget is spread thin across redundant campaigns

This is especially common in older ad accounts. Over time, teams build multiple campaigns, each with multiple ad sets, each with different creative angles, and each with its own budget.

The problem: When budgets aren’t large enough, you end up with a bunch of ad sets stuck in (or constantly resetting) Meta’s ad learning phase—the volatile period where Meta tests different audiences and placements to show an ad. Getting stuck in this phase is often a fatal blow for performance.

Even worse, a heavily segmented structure silos learning. The algorithm can’t efficiently gather signals, performance becomes inconsistent across ad sets, and you can end up forcing spend into creatives that simply aren’t delivering results.

How to fix it:

  • Consolidate your ad sets and campaigns. Avoid having multiple ad sets all targeting the same demographic/customer persona.
  • Use campaign budgets instead of ad set budgets.
  • Lean into Advantage+ Campaigns to get the most value out of algorithmic targeting. These AI-powered campaigns are designed to maximize performance and efficiency.
  • Ensure all campaign budgets are enough to drive 50 conversions in a week. If the full 50 isn’t possible, try to get as close as budget allows.

2. You’re not giving the algorithm clear targeting direction through your creative

One of the biggest shifts with Meta’s Andromeda-era delivery is that hyper-specific interest targeting is out. Your creative now needs to do much of the targeting work.

If your campaign mixes wildly different signals (e.g., creative featuring a “tech-enthusiast dads” persona alongside an adventurous Gen-Z persona), you’re telling the algorithm to find two different audiences at once. This slows learning and weakens performance.

How to fix it:

Clearly outline your customer personas.

  • Create a document for your internal team to reference with your main personas that can be updated over time.
  • If you have multiple products, you may need a set of personas per product.

Use those personas to inform how you design your creative.

  • Look for UGC creators that match your personas.
  • Focus on one persona’s pain points and key buying questions at a time.

Segment ad sets by persona.

  • The ideal setup here is an Advantage+ campaign with a campaign budget optimization (so we maintain our best practices from issue #1), and each ad set targeting a persona.

3. Your creative isn’t thumb stopping

A lot can go wrong between an impression and a purchase, but none of it matters if people scroll right past your ad. You can spend hours crafting the perfect CTA and addressing the persona’s needs to a tee, but none of it will work without a strong hook.

Thankfully, it’s easy to tell if this is an area you are struggling with. The key is to calculate and compare your thumb stop rate per ad creative with the following formula:

 ( 3-second video views / total impressions ) x 100

How to fix it:

Ensure your ads have strong hooks within the first 3 seconds.

  • Use motion to grab attention right away.
  • Establish a human connection with UGC.
  • Ensure your ad creative has a clear focus. Don’t overwhelm users by packing them with too much copy.

Create a thumb stop rate benchmark for your brand.

  • There’s no single rule when it comes to thumb stop rate. What number correlates to strong ad performance can vary greatly depending on industry, product, etc.
  • We work with clients where a 10% thumb stop rate drives great results, and others where a 30%+ is needed.

Identify which of your ad creatives are driving the highest thumb stop rate.

  • Identify patterns in what makes those hooks work.
  • Create iterations of these ads using the same hook but changing the main video content to see if that improves down-funnel results.

4. You don’t have enough creative diversity

It’s common for a brand to find a type of ad that works far better than anything else. You might have found a certain image format drives way higher conversion volume than the other creative you test. 

Over time, you become more and more reliant on that one winning format. But by the time fatigue sets in… there’s nothing to replace it.

How to fix it:

Plan out your creative tests at least 1 month in advance.

  • Run at least 2 creative tests per month. (Note: This may vary greatly depending on budget.)
  • This will help guarantee you have enough new ad creative flowing into the ad account on a regular basis to avoid performance stagnating.

Utilize all available ad creative formats.

  • Don’t stick to just one format—create short animations, images, and videos. 
  • This will maximize your chances for finding new wins and will provide the algorithm with plenty of ads for any placement.

Implement Meta’s AI creative enhancements.

  • Which enhancements you use can vary depending on your specific creative, but it’s an easy way to create slight variations on the fly, without more design time.

5. Your landing page experience is unoptimized

Finally, you might have great creative that is driving a high volume of traffic to your website—but if your landing page experience isn’t streamlined, your performance will suffer. 

Landing pages can break a funnel in many ways: no clear CTA, too many steps before the final conversion, not enough information to answer key buyer questions, etc. If your conversion rate is your weak spot, this is where to focus your attention.

How to fix it:

Simplify the experience.

  • Don’t allow users to click off to other pages and get lost in your website.
  • Provide a clear flow from top to bottom, with plenty of options to click straight to conversion throughout.

Provide a clear CTA.

  • Make it obvious to users what important next step they should take, whether that’s starting a free trial, booking a demo, or something else. 

Answer your prospect’s key questions.

  • These will vary depending on your product, but it’s important to identify and answer these on your landing page.
  • Consider these common questions potential buyers tend to ask: How much does your product cost? What makes it better than alternative solutions? What’s your return policy?

Ensure your Meta tracking is set up properly.

  • Nothing is worse than missing out on performance data due to a buggy pixel setup.
  • Test your pixel top to bottom to confirm all events are firing.
  • Set up the Conversion API if possible to improve event data quality.

Still having trouble?

Running an effective paid media strategy requires a lot of time and energy, with platforms and creative trends changing every day. At Primer, we specialize in crafting ad creative that actually drives results, and provide the team to test it, scale it, and grow your brand.

Your Growth Marketing Team: Partnering with Primer means we take care of everything—strategy and planning, production, reporting and media buying—to achieve your growth objectives. You can focus on your business while we deliver the results. Reach out to learn more about how we can lead and/or support your paid media strategy.