In the wake of yesterday’s announcement that General Motors is pulling down their $10 million advertising campaign on Facebook since the ads, “were not working,” we are sharing our insights on the signs that you need to watch for when running your own Facebook advertising campaign.

Generally, we will conduct a Facebook ad campaign for a client in order to:

1) Increase an audience size on a particular Facebook Page
2) Increase the level of engagement with social content
3) Sell a product or service to a very targeted consumer set

What should a successful Facebook advertising campaign accomplish?

When applying the best practices for a Facebook advertising campaign, an ad will saturate a target-rich audience, and as a result, either the Fan page audience will grow by an increase in ‘Likes,’ or the traffic to key landing pages on a web site will grow. In either case, this should increase the level of engagement taking place between the key audience and the client.

If a Facebook ad campaign is driving a video clip, or a product, there should be increased traffic, views, or clicks on that piece of content. This may seem a simple measure, but it’s important to understand what Facebook ads do – they drive traffic, or clicks of ‘Likes.’

Here’s our litmus test for gauging if your Facebook advertising campaign is working:

1) INCREASE IN ENGAGEMENT: Are actions on your page growing with the number of 'fans' you're adding?
2) TRACK YOUR WEB SITE TRAFFIC: Are conversions on your web site increasing with traffic from Facebook?
3) MESSAGING SUCCESS: Is the information you're distributing on Facebook to 'fans' getting into the narrative of these folks and other influencers?

While these may seem intuitive, these critical gauges are often overlooked – particularly when it comes to identifying influencers and understanding the external narrative around your campaign or issue. Take a few minutes to assess your own campaign, and run through our litmus test to see if you are in need of a new Facebook ad strategy, or if you are hitting the mark.