Should You Be Using Meta Ads? Here’s When to Say Yes – And When to Steer Clear
April 26, 2025
"We tried Meta Ads and it just didn’t work."
If we had a dollar for every time we heard that… well, you get the idea.
The truth is, Meta Ads (that’s Facebook and Instagram ads, for the unfamiliar) do work. But like any tool, they only work when used the right way and for the right business.
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We’re going to break down when Meta Ads are worth the spend – and when they’ll just eat up your budget. You’ll also learn how to use them alongside content marketing to create a system that nurtures leads and gets real results.
Meet Hannah – and Her Meta Ad Misadventure
Hannah runs a chiropractic wellness centre. She heard that Meta Ads were the fastest way to get leads, so she boosted a few posts and threw together an ad in Meta Ads Manager to promote a first time client consult… and waited.
Crickets. No sign-ups. No enquiries.
So, what went wrong?
Hannah skipped some key steps that make or break a Meta Ads campaign – and she had no system to catch the attention she did get.
Let’s unpack what should have happened instead.
✅ When You Should Use Meta Ads
1. You Have a Great Offer (and You Know It Converts)
Meta is a discovery platform, and not intent based. This means that someone jumps on their app with low or no intention of taking action with you.
This means your ads need to be visually strong AND offer something really good to get noticed in their feed.
If your offer isn’t clear, irresistible, and relevant to your audience, you’re just shouting into the void.
A good offer could be:
- A free trial or limited-time deal
- A high-value lead magnet (like a guide or checklist)
- An entry-level service or “starter” package
- Something that is driven by a deadline or reason to "buy now"
Stat check: According to WordStream, ads with a clear value proposition convert 5x higher than vague or generic promotions.
2. You're Ready to Use Advantage+ Tools in Ads Manager
Meta's Advantage+ tools use AI and machine learning to find your best-performing audiences, placements, and creatives – all in real time.
If you're manually selecting interest groups and hoping for the best, you're not using Meta to its full potential.
Instead, provide a few suggestions of the type of person who is your ideal client along with multiple creative assets, captions and headlines.
Let the algorithm do the heavy lifting to choose your winning ad combos, targeting and budget!
3. You’re Playing the Long Game
If you’re only after quick wins, Meta Ads might disappoint you. They work especially well as part of a long-term awareness strategy, building visibility and trust over time.
This eventually can lead to a conversion with more ad campaigns specifically targeted at people who are now familiar with your brand.
As mentioned before, social media is a discovery channel in marketing, so your ads may find people at any step in the customer journey - from awareness to conversion. This means not everyone is ready to act now.
Use them to:
STEP 1: Share behind the scenes content, education, or stories and case studies about your customers to build trust.
STEP 2: Start sending traffic to your website or encourage DMs to get people to take a first step with your brand.
STEP 3: As you grow your brand exposure, promote specific offers, from free resources to limited time deals.
STEP 4: Retarget warm audiences with additional offers over time - eventually some will be ready to take action.
This is a video from one of our clients that focuses on retargeting warmer audiences with an intent of getting them to take the first step.
❌ When You Shouldn’t Use Meta Ads
Meta Ads are powerful – but they’re not magic.
- You don’t have a landing page or thank you page set up
- You’re not tracking conversions properly or have a set up where you can clearly track how your ads are performing
- You’re unclear on your audience, and therefore are not clear on your message and value to them
- You’re hoping for overnight results
- You are not OK with maybe breaking even or even losing a little money at the start in order to profit long term
- You don't have a good marketing funnel or sales process ready to follow up on any leads
- You are not prepared to test different creative directions, including video
📌 The 3-Step Formula That Actually Works
This is a video from one of our clients that shares the behind the scenes of their restaurant to show people what it would be like to visit.
1. Start With Video Content
Video tends to still the best way to stop the scroll and connect quickly.
Plus you can build an audience of people who are watching your videos so you can target them in the future with additional ads.
Use these topics to warm people up to your brand:
- Behind the scenes, like the example here
- Short educational clips
- Testimonials or case studies
Once people are familiar with you, these types of videos will work:
- More user generated content (e.g. testimonials)
- Showing or telling about a specific offer you want to promote
Your video should:
- Break the pattern of the scroll with interesting content in the first 3 seconds
- Speak directly to a pain point your audience has or share why your products or services are so amazing
- Be well paced and interesting to watch
- Edited for people to watch either with sound on or off - this means to use captions or text overlays
- Be under 60 seconds if used in Reels or Stories
2. Send Them to a Good Landing Page
A landing page is simply a page people visit on your website after they click on your ad.
Your landing page should:
- Speak clearly to your offer
- Match the message of your ad - it is a continuation of the conversation you started in the ad they clicked on
- Include testimonials, benefits and next steps
- Be mobile optimised (over 90% of traffic from social media ads will be on their phones)
💡 Use the Content Marketing Checklist to ensure your page hits all the right notes.
3. Nail the Thank You Page
This is one of the most overlooked parts of the funnel. Your thank you page isn’t just a polite gesture – it’s a golden opportunity.
It's where people land after they submit a form or take a step with you on the landing page. They are warm and ready to see what else they might be able to do with your business.
Use it to:
- Upsell or cross-sell a product/service
- Invite them to book a call
- Share a bonus video or guide
- Encourage them to follow you on social
From Crickets to Clients: The End of Hannah’s Story
After working with us, we relaunched her campaign with:
- A winning offer and landing page that promoted a new client limited time special instead of a consultation.
- Candid videos filmed on a phone with 3 different angles - education, behind the scenes and user generated content.
- Using the Advantage+ settings to dynamically show winning ad combos and optimise budget.
- CRO (conversion rate optimisation) to test and measure what was working, and not working, on her landing page, so we could improve how new clients sign up.
Within 3 months she went from no leads to 65 ideal paying clients out of 76 leads that signed on her landing page!
If you're still wondering whether Meta Ads are worth it – or if you’ve been burned before – we’d love to help you get clarity and results.
👉 Reach out to us today and let’s talk strategy. We’ll help you build a content-powered funnel that turns clicks into clients.
Want more content tips? Bookmark our content marketing guide for service businesses – it’s full of real-world examples and ideas.
