Business
9 Costly Mistakes Brands Make
Facebook ads management often sounds easier than it is. Many businesses expect quick wins once ads go live. Pick an audience. Write an ad. Set a budget. Results should follow. After all, Facebook is one of the top three ROI drivers among marketers, according to a 2025 report.
That idea causes trouble fast. Campaigns start strong, then stall. Costs rise. Leads slow down. The problem usually isn’t the platform. It’s how the ads are managed. The mistakes below show up again and again, especially in growing ad accounts.
Treating Facebook Ads as “Set It and Forget It”
Launching a campaign is only the first step. Performance changes once ads hit real users.
Audiences get tired. Competition shifts. Costs move. When campaigns go unchecked, ad spend keeps flowing even after results dip. Small issues turn into bigger ones simply because no one steps in early. Consistent review keeps problems contained before they affect the entire ad account.
Weak Target Audience Definition
Targeting choices shape every part of a campaign. When the audience is off, everything else struggles.
Broad targeting looks safe at first. Reach increases. Clicks follow. Still, the conversion rate stays low. That usually happens when interest-based targeting is used without signals tied to real intent.
Custom Audiences vs. Lookalike Audiences
Custom audiences often perform better because they come from real engagement. Past visitors, email lists, and prior leads already know the brand. Lookalike audiences can scale results, but only when the source audience reflects quality users. Weak source data leads to a weak scale.
Choosing the Wrong Campaign Objectives
Campaign objectives guide how Facebook delivers ads. When the goal is off, delivery follows the wrong path.
Traffic campaigns push clicks. Lead generation campaigns push form fills. Neither guarantees strong outcomes on its own. Many teams choose objectives based on surface-level numbers instead of downstream results. Platform data shows that campaigns optimized for conversions often drive stronger business outcomes, even with fewer clicks.
When this gap shows up, it’s usually because no one is pressure-testing the strategy from end to end. Campaigns are launched, but the structure, goals, and signals don’t line up.
This is often where businesses start looking for outside perspective, especially from teams that focus on fixing setup and performance issues rather than just running ads.
Agencies like Adacted work in this space by helping brands clean up targeting, objectives, and campaign structure before scaling spend.
Focusing on Ad Creative Too Late
Creative problems rarely exist on their own. They usually trace back to planning gaps.
Ads perform better when the creative supports a clear offer from the start. When visuals and copy come last, messaging feels generic. The ad may look fine, but fail to connect with the right audience.
Ad Copy and Visuals That Don’t Match the Offer
Message gaps hurt performance quickly. When ads promise one thing, and the landing page delivers another, users leave. Industry research shows that moving page load time from one second to three seconds raises bounce rates by about 50%. Slow pages paired with mixed messaging make lead generation harder, even with strong targeting.
Ignoring A/B Testing or Doing It Incorrectly
Testing helps teams learn what actually works. Many tests fail because they lack focus.
Facebook supports A/B testing inside Ads Manager. Trouble starts when too many variables change at once. Results become unclear, and decisions turn into guesses.
Common A/B Testing Errors
- Changing multiple variables in one test
- Ending tests before enough data builds
- Judging winners based on clicks alone
Clean tests lead to clean decisions. Poor tests lead to repeated mistakes.
Poor Ad Placement Decisions
Placements influence cost, attention, and intent. Automatic placements can work, but only when reviewed.
Some placements drive views without meaningful action. Others perform better for awareness than lead generation. When placement data goes unchecked, low-value inventory stays active. Manual ad placement often helps when budgets tighten or results vary by device.
Mismanaging the Ad Account Structure
Account structure affects how easily campaigns can scale. Messy accounts slow progress.
Clear campaigns focus on one goal. Each ad set tests one audience or strategy. Mixing multiple goals inside the same campaign blurs performance data and complicates optimization.
Budget Issues at the Ad Set Level
Thin budgets limit delivery. Scaling ad spend too early creates unstable results. Strong ad accounts give winning ad sets room to perform instead of spreading the budget across too many ideas. This is a crucial consideration, considering the fact that Facebook ad costs jump 21% last year.
Sending Traffic to the Wrong Landing Page
Where users land matters as much as the ad itself.
Many campaigns send traffic to a Facebook page or homepage. These destinations rarely support focused actions.Dedicated landing pages convert better because they remove distractions and guide users toward one step.
Industry benchmarks show that the average Facebook ad click-through rate across industries stays at around 1.57%. Each click has a cost, and weak landing pages burn that spend quickly.
Watching the Wrong Performance Metrics
Metrics guide decisions only when they reflect real goals.
Clicks and impressions show activity, not results. Strong Facebook ads management focuses on cost per lead, conversion rate, and lead quality over time. Context matters. A higher cost per lead can still work if close rates improve later.
Fix the Basics Before Scaling
Most Facebook ad problems don’t come from the platform itself. They come from a rushed setup and uneven follow-through. Businesses that treat Facebook ads management as an ongoing process see steadier performance, clearer data, and fewer surprises as campaigns grow.
Business
Hims & Hers Health: Don’t Fall For The Hysteria (NYSE:HIMS)
Stone Fox Capital is an RIA from Oklahoma. Mark Holder is a CPA with degrees in Accounting and Finance. He is also Series 65 licensed and has 30 years of investing experience, including 15 years as a portfolio manager. Mark leads the investing group Out Fox The Street where he shares stock picks and deep research to help readers uncover potential multibaggers while managing portfolio risk via diversification. Features include various model portfolios, stock picks with identifiable catalysts, daily updates, real-time alerts, and access to community chat and direct chat with Mark for questions. Learn more.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of HIMS either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
The information contained herein is for informational purposes only. Nothing in this article should be taken as a solicitation to purchase or sell securities. Before buying or selling any stock, you should do your own research and reach your own conclusion or consult a financial advisor. Investing includes risks, including loss of principal.
Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Business
BIV: Intermediate Fixed Income Diversified Across Treasuries And Corporates (BIV)
Monte Independent Investment Research: Michael Del Monte is a buy-side equity analyst with expertise in the technology, energy, industrials, and materials sectors. Prior to working in the investment management industry, Michael spent over a decade in professional services working across industries that include O&G, OFS, Midstream, Industrials, Information Technology, EPC Services, and consumer discretionary.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Business
KeyCorp (KEY) Presents at UBS Financial Services Conference 2026 Transcript
L. Erika Penala
UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
All right. Good afternoon, everybody. So rounding off the corporate presentation today, we have KeyCorp. And we had Ken Gavrity. He is the Head of the Commercial Bank. And before he sits down with me for a fireside chat, he wanted to share a few slides. Ken, thank you for coming.
Ken Gavrity
Head of Commercial Banking
Perfect. Well, thanks for having me, Erika, pleased to be here, of course. So as Erika said, I lead Key’s Commercial Banking business, which includes our Middle Market business segment as well as our Commercial Payments platform, and as a reminder, we define the middle market segment as companies with annual revenue size from $10 million in revenue, up to as high as $1 billion in revenue. And our commercial payments organization serves a broader range of customers that goes all the way down from small business through middle market, up to our corporate and institutional clients as well.
So before I jump into the slides, I’ve been asked to read the following in the back of today’s presentation, which you can find in the Investor Relations section of key.com website. You’ll find our statements on forward-looking disclosures. These statements cover our presentation and related comments as well as the question-and-answer segment of today’s webcast.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of today, February 9, 2026. So with that, okay, I’m going to start on Slide 2, overview of the Commercial Bank. So from a size and scale perspective, you can see on the right-hand side of the page, it’s a significant portion of Key’s overall revenue and core
Business
Buy Or Sell Kevin Warsh?
Buy Or Sell Kevin Warsh?
Business
WaFd: 7.3% Yielding Preferred Share Good For Income Investors (NASDAQ:WAFD)
Other writing on Substack: https://yieldstrategies.substack.com/I am currently focused on income investing through either common shares, preferred shares, or bonds. I will occasionally break away and write about the economy at large or a special situation involving a company I’ve been researching in. I target two articles per week for publication on Monday and Tuesday.About My Background: Bachelors in history/political science, Masters in Business Administration with a specialization in Finance and Economics. I enjoy numbers. I have been investing since 2000. Professionally, I am the CEO of an independent living retirement community in Illinois.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of WAFDP either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Business
Starbucks: The Growth Story Is Not Compelling Enough At The Current Valuation (Rating Downgrade)
Starbucks: The Growth Story Is Not Compelling Enough At The Current Valuation (Rating Downgrade)
Business
Businesses face extinction unless they protect nature, major report warns
Experts call for urgent action by businesses to restore the natural systems that keep them running.
Business
Instagram and YouTube owners built 'addiction machines', lawyers say
The tech giants are under scrutiny over social media addiction in a landmark jury trial in Los Angeles
Business
War Department to partner with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into GenAI.mil platform
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the launch of GenAI.mil, a military-focused AI platform is designed to give personnel direct access to AI tools to help “revolutioniz[e] the way we win.” (Department of War)
EXCLUSIVE – The War Department will partner with OpenAI to integrate the chatbot into GenAI.mil, a tool for military service members.
The move will make OpenAI’s advanced language models “readily available to all 3 million War Department personnel,” the agency said.
“ChatGPT will be made available to enhance mission execution and readiness, delivering reliable capabilities to the joint force,” a War Department news release states.
The agency has committed to becoming an AI-first enterprise, reflected by GenAI.mil, it said.
GOOGLE CEO CALLS FOR NATIONAL AI REGULATION TO COMPETE WITH CHINA MORE EFFECTIVELY

GenAI.mil’s rapid growth continues with OpenAI ChatGPT integration. (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“The platform’s proven reliability, evidenced by its 100% uptime since launch and its robust infrastructure, has established it as the trusted AI platform across the Department,” the agency said.
Its adoption is already “accelerating operational tempo and sharpening the decision superiority of its users,” it said.
War Department personnel are being trained to integrate AI capabilities into their daily workflow, officials said.
In December, the Pentagon announced the launch of GenAI.mil, which is powered by Google Gemini and has surpassed one million unique users in the two months since its deployment.
“The future of American warfare is here, and it’s spelled AI,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video obtained by FOX Business at the time. “As technologies advance, so do our adversaries. But here at the War Department, we are not sitting idly by.”
The platform puts “the world’s most powerful frontier AI models, starting with Google Gemini, directly into the hands of every American warrior,” he added.

The Pentagon launched a platform powered by Google Gemini called GenAI.mil, giving 3 million military personnel access to advanced AI tools. (Getty Images)
Google CEO Sundar Pichai noted that the company has partnered with government agencies for decades, but emphasized the significance of the new project.
“Through this deployment of Google Cloud’s ‘Gemini for Government’ offering, more than 3 million civilian and military personnel will be able to access the same advanced AI that businesses use every day to drive administrative efficiency and greater business productivity,” said Pichai.
In January, the War Department announced the launch of its Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy, an initiative intended to eliminate legacy bureaucratic blockers, and integrate the leading edge of frontier AI capabilities across every mission area.
The wartime approach is based on the emphasis of three tenets: warfighting, intelligence and enterprise operations.
“Speed defines victory in the AI era, and the War Department will match the velocity of America’s AI industry,” Emil Michael, undersecretary of war for research and engineering, said previously. “We’re pulling in the best talent, the most cutting‑edge technology, and embedding the top frontier AI models into the workforce — all at a rapid wartime pace.”

The Pentagon is launching GenAI.mil – a military-focused AI platform powered by Google Gemini. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
GOOGLE CEO CALLS FOR NATIONAL AI REGULATION TO COMPETE WITH CHINA MORE EFFECTIVELY
The Trump administration has made AI a priority as adversaries such as China continue to develop and experiment with the technology. In December, President Donald Trump announced that he would be reversing a Biden-era restriction on high-end chip exports, permitting Nvidia to export its artificial-intelligence chips to China and other countries.
The H200 chips are high-performance processors made by Nvidia that help run artificial intelligence programs, like chatbots, machine learning and data-center tasks.
FOX Business’ Andrea Margolis and Lorraine Taylor contributed to this report.
Business
Form 144 GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC For: 9 February

Form 144 GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC For: 9 February
-
Video7 days agoWhen Money Enters #motivation #mindset #selfimprovement
-
Tech6 days agoWikipedia volunteers spent years cataloging AI tells. Now there’s a plugin to avoid them.
-
Politics1 day agoWhy Israel is blocking foreign journalists from entering
-
Sports3 days agoJD Vance booed as Team USA enters Winter Olympics opening ceremony
-
Tech3 days agoFirst multi-coronavirus vaccine enters human testing, built on UW Medicine technology
-
NewsBeat3 hours agoMia Brookes misses out on Winter Olympics medal in snowboard big air
-
NewsBeat23 hours agoWinter Olympics 2026: Team GB’s Mia Brookes through to snowboard big air final, and curling pair beat Italy
-
NewsBeat7 days agoUS-brokered Russia-Ukraine talks are resuming this week
-
Business1 day agoLLP registrations cross 10,000 mark for first time in Jan
-
Sports19 hours agoBenjamin Karl strips clothes celebrating snowboard gold medal at Olympics
-
Sports2 days ago
Former Viking Enters Hall of Fame
-
Politics1 day agoThe Health Dangers Of Browning Your Food
-
Sports4 days ago
New and Huge Defender Enter Vikings’ Mock Draft Orbit
-
Business1 day agoJulius Baer CEO calls for Swiss public register of rogue bankers to protect reputation
-
NewsBeat3 days agoSavannah Guthrie’s mother’s blood was found on porch of home, police confirm as search enters sixth day: Live
-
Business4 days agoQuiz enters administration for third time
-
NewsBeat14 hours agoResidents say city high street with ‘boarded up’ shops ‘could be better’
-
Sports2 hours ago
Kirk Cousins Officially Enters the Vikings’ Offseason Puzzle
-
NewsBeat4 days agoStill time to enter Bolton News’ Best Hairdresser 2026 competition
-
NewsBeat3 days agoDriving instructor urges all learners to do 1 check before entering roundabout
