Facebook Reach from 1,200 to less than 20 in 24 hours?

[Thos003]

I created ad #1 in facebook ran it for a marked time frame. Target audience 1200. Reached 248.

Created ad #2. Wanted to test it against ad #1 for same audience, but now Facebook says the target audience is less than 20 people. Huh?

Facebook can't be loosing people that fast.

Why would this happen? Is it simply a glitch?

[AdoptionHelp]

My guess is this has to do with potentially two factors: (1) The reported target audience is an imprecise number and (2) the number was recently revised based on newer data.

This is only my guess, I have no hard data to back this up.

[Thos003]

The difference happened after 24 hours. So I ran it yesterday for a time block. Was going to run it today for the same time block. The ad reached 248 people. The next day... the audience is too small.

Could it be that the audience X the ad? Is there a way of knowing when this happens?

Just tried again and the count is still down to 20 people.

[MarieHaynes]

Are you absolutely sure the demographics are the same?  With a target that small, one factor could make a huge difference!

[RyanKent]

Out of curiosity would your ad be targeted to people under the age of 18?

[Thos003]

Absolutely sure.  I even tried upping the miles around the city to see if I could grab a larger audience.

[Thos003]

No. 18 and older.

[Thos003]

BTW.. when did you make guru status?  Very nice. Congrats.

[Thos003]

I am using the sponsored stories so... maybe my influencers un-liked us, but my likes are still showing the same.

[RyanKent]

Thanks Thomas. I quietly sneaked in a few days ago.

Is 18+ a requirement for your ads? The reason I am asking is I recall an incident where a gaming facebook page lost thousands of Likes overnight. What happened is the game officially became rated as 17+. The next day facebook removed all fans who were 16 and under. I am just wondering if anything like that could affect your ad campaign.

[Thos003]

Ouch... No. Pest control isn't that sexy.

[JamesNorquay]

Weird, what was the area if you don't mind asking.

I have seen Facebook be a bit buggy with ads recently, but all the campaigns I have done usually target very large demos and broad groups I don't do niche targeting.

My advice is to wait a week, try some new ad creative i.e. new images and what not and see if any changes happen. Or you could even try running the campaign off another account from the business.

Kind Regards,

James