I duplicated a successful ad group.

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Elliot Price

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I duplicated several successful ad groups without changing any settings. Strangely, the newly duplicated ad groups showed no results. The only one that continued to perform well was the original successful ad group. Even though the two ad groups were identical, could this be because the new ad groups hadn't completed their learning phase?
 
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Elliot Price said:
I duplicated several successful ad groups without changing any settings. Strangely, the newly duplicated ad groups showed no results. The only one that continued to perform well was the original successful ad group. Even though the two ad groups were identical, could this be because the new ad groups hadn't completed their learning phase?
Click to expand...
No idea about FB ads but with Google ads it would be because it's still in the learning phase. Might be the same case here
 
navyraiser said:
No idea about FB ads but with Google ads it would be because it's still in the learning phase. Might be the same case here
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As I suspected, I should wait a little longer and observe these ad groups. I anticipate that they will definitely yield results because there is a potential audience of buyers among them.
 
Elliot Price said:
As I suspected, I should wait a little longer and observe these ad groups. I anticipate that they will definitely yield results because there is a potential audience of buyers among them.
Click to expand...
Are they completely identical from the original ad group? Maybe the algorithm favours the old ad group since the new one is exactly the same (if that's the case)? Just like keywords, if you have the same keyword twice the numbers will falsify. No idea if that's really a thing though.
 
Yes, this is normal. The original ad group already has learning data and conversion signals, while the newly copied group is treated as a completely new group and has to start from scratch. Even with identical settings, performance can still differ because the algorithm needs time to collect and distribute data. Generally, a well-performing group should be kept intact, limiting excessive cloning in a short period.
 
Just give it more time :) Or focus on the original.
 
That will never produce good results right now; it will only cause ad groups to compete for bids. Let's create a different campaign.
 
Elliot Price said:
I duplicated several successful ad groups without changing any settings. Strangely, the newly duplicated ad groups showed no results. The only one that continued to perform well was the original successful ad group. Even though the two ad groups were identical, could this be because the new ad groups hadn't completed their learning phase?
Click to expand...
Yep, normal. Duplicates don’t keep the same learning and you can end up competing w yourself. If the original works, scale it slowly or add new creatives instead of cloning.
 
navyraiser said:
No idea about FB ads but with Google ads it would be because it's still in the learning phase. Might be the same case here
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@navyraiser is right about that, it's most likely the case.

Sometimes it might take more time for the learning phase to be accurate
 
Academic training on new advertising campaigns is often more effective than training on copied campaigns. Focus more on original campaigns.
 
Facebook's algorithm discourages duplicating ad groups; instead of copying ad groups, you can copy campaigns and use multiple ad accounts instead of just one.
 
Duplicating ad groups and running them at the same time ? Very bad idea, as the algorithms take that as an attempt to circumvent systems.
 
Yes, that’s expected behavior. The original ad set already has accumulated learning data and conversion signals, while a duplicated one is treated as new and needs time to relearn. Even with the same settings, performance can vary because the system has to gather fresh data. In general, it’s better to keep well-performing ad sets running and avoid duplicating them too frequently in a short time.
 
Yes. Partly due to the learning phase, but the main reason is that the original ad group already has good data and history, so the algorithm prioritizes distribution. The copy group loses all its history, has to learn from scratch, and faces direct competition from the original group, so it receives almost no distribution. Conclusion: copying exactly doesn't guarantee effectiveness; to scale, increase the budget for the original group or copy but change at least one element.
 
Newly copied ad groups cannot be identical to the original campaign; if you copy 5-10 new ad groups, only 1-2 will deliver good results.
 
Elliot Price said:
I duplicated several successful ad groups without changing any settings. Strangely, the newly duplicated ad groups showed no results. The only one that continued to perform well was the original successful ad group. Even though the two ad groups were identical, could this be because the new ad groups hadn't completed their learning phase?
Click to expand...
Whether copying Facebook ad sets is effective depends on how you use it. It can be highly effective if you do it correctly.
For each original ad set, you should only copy a maximum of 5 new ad sets. More effective is 3, and with different content.
Ideally, the copied sets should have a higher budget than the original.
You should change the content, display location, and slightly alter your target audience.
Each new ad set is like learning from scratch. Therefore, copying ad sets correctly will yield high results.
 
Because the new team had to rerun the machine learning phase, they didn't have enough data to optimize as effectively as the previous team.
 
Elliot Price said:
I duplicated several successful ad groups without changing any settings. Strangely, the newly duplicated ad groups showed no results. The only one that continued to perform well was the original successful ad group. Even though the two ad groups were identical, could this be because the new ad groups hadn't completed their learning phase?
Click to expand...
Are you referring to FB ad groups or FB groups in general?
 
that’s very likely because the duplicated ad groups restarted the learning phase
 
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