Don't make these 5 common mistakes on your Meta ads

I have been in over 100 ad accounts.

I have seen brands scale past $100,000,000.

I have also seen other brands struggle to reach their goals and ambitions.

There are patterns of the winners.

There are patterns of the losers.

Let’s make sure you become a winner by avoid these 5 mistakes on Meta.

1. Afraid to test content

The ads that I have seen with my two eyes go on to scale millions and take a brand to the next level usually do not look like what is in the account currently.

If you are only open to creating more of what is in the account, and the account is not scaling, you can’t assume you are going to get a better result.

You have to be willing to try different ideas.

Different formats.

Different ways of speaking.

There is usually a correlation with brands willingness to try things and their performance.

I am always shocked when there is a ton of pushback on what can be run in the ad account when they are also saying that they aren’t getting performance on Meta.

Maybe your filter is broken, and you need Meta to help improve your filter for your brand.

Also, if you want to get to new customers, you need to do new things.

These new customers are different than your current cohort of customers, which means they need different messaging and formats that speak to them.

Inherently, the ads must be different.

2. Not willing to spend money on creative production

I see people spending $100,000 a month on Meta, but the ads aren't performing and they're not willing to spend $10,000 on creative production.

Alternatively, they could spend $10,000 on new ads and $90,000 on ad spend which would probably end up performing better and help you scale past $100,000 in ad spend.

And yet most people are not okay with lowering ad spend to invest in creative but complain about efficiency and performance.

Make that make sense…

But that ends up happening a lot.

People look at creative production as a cost and they don't look at how that can actually completely change the economics of their efficiency in their ad account.

They think that not spend on creative production is saving money.

They don’t think improving ad performance is saving money or they don’t see as ad spend as wasting money.

If you look at creative production as a cost and only as a cost, you're probably never going to spend enough on creative production.

But then again, your ad account won't scale and you'll still be frustrated.

Maybe it's because you need to spend more on your creative production.

3. No new formats or styles

Many people are just not spending enough time to be creative.

Take a step back.

What content is being watched on YouTube? How can you make that into an ad?

What content is being watched on TikTok? How can you make that into an ad?

Find new ways to talk about your product is so important.

Spend the time with a pen and paper to just come up with ideas.

Also just look at other content and see how we can have that type of content in our ad account.

4. Copying other people and not having original ideas

At the end of the day, for you to stand out, you need to find something that is original.

What is your voice?

If you are only look at what your competitors are saying, how will YOU stand out?

Because your competitor ads and your ads are going to be served to the same person on Instagram or on Facebook.

You have to say something different.

You have to find ways to be unique.

Most people are just trying to keep up and copy others and not spending enough time on what is your alpha - what makes you unique as a brand, as a product.

You need to make sure that your content speaks about how you are unique.

5. Spend more time thinking about media buying and not creative strategy

If you are spending more time clicking on Facebook Ads Manager than you are spending thinking about your positioning, what makes you unique, what other ad formats, the creative strategy behind the ads that are being run, then you're not gonna make it.

In 2026, it's 80% creative, 20% media buying.

Let me be VERY clear - media buying is important.

There are times when media buying gets in the way of scale and creative testing.

That being said, 80% of the time, changing up your campaign structure is not the thing that's going to make content scale and your ad account scale.

It's going to be coming up with great ideas.

You should be putting most of your focus there and most people just aren't willing to do that, and that's why they're not able to scale their ad account.

Get back to scaling your ads

These are common traps that I even can fall into if I am not careful.

I want you to be a winner.

I want you to grow the business beyond your dreams.

And for most people, that will come down to great content in your ad account.

Don’t be afraid to try ideas.

Put focus, energy, and money towards new content.

You are not alone, but don’t complain - it is time to fix your ad problems.

Enough of me talking, let’s get back to scaling your ads.

Keep creating!

Matthew Gattozzi

PS. As I said, we are building out Youtube channel out to be the go-to resource for creative strategy and ads. I would love for you to subscribe and take a look.

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