AI Facebook / Instagram Ads Con

In recent months there has been a huge increase in Facebook & Instagram adverts for companies in the aesthetics / cosmetics industries. You will probably see many similar adverts every day, promoting a specific cosmetic treatment or for aesthetics training courses, all following a very similar layout and style. In my course of work I’ve been given access to the Meta accounts running a number of these ads, and I’ve seen that there is often a catch.

What is the catch?

The companies that run these adverts get the client hooked by delivering an impressive number of sales / leads within the first few weeks. They do this by overspending on the campaign (using a previous victims credit card), basically displaying the advert to everyone they possibly can, which is bound to get a number of enquiries from the advert. But in reality, it is completely unrealistic to continue getting the same level of sales / leads, without maintaining an extremely high budget.

Admin control of Meta accounts

After the customer has been suitably impressed by the initial number of sales / leads they can achieve, the marketing company then demands total administrator access to the customer’s Meta account. This gives them absolute control of the accounts, credit cards, Facebook pages and Instagram accounts. So, if the customer later decided to leave the marketing company, they are completely powerless to do so.

Ponzi Scheme style scam

What I also witnessed in the back-end of these campaigns, is that the marketing companies run generic ads for a large number of companies. Say for example, for laser hair removal treatments. They try to get as many clinics or salons on board to run a UK wide advertising campaign. Then any leads that come through the advert get delivered to the clinic or salon that is geographically closest to the customer making the enquiry.

In theory this is quite a good idea. They can spend a lot of money on a single campaign to cover a large number of clinics. But in the background, I noticed that they remove all visibility from the client to see where their money is being spent. And I’ve seen a number of customers getting large chunks of money taken from their credit card, to pay for someone else’s campaign. They are basically using your money to pay for completely unrelated adverts. Or they use a customer’s credit card to overspend on a new customer’s campaign, to start the scam all over again.

What are the signs?

Guaranteed Leads / Sales

Most customers are initially attracted by the Guarantee of leads or sales. Even if they initially do generate a healthy amount of leads / sales, they are not telling you the amount of money being spent on the campaigns to achieve their numbers.

Requesting Admin Access

No respected marketing company should require Admin control of your Facebook accounts. There are levels of access that gives you protection, like partial / standard access. This is perfectly fine for any marketing company to manage ads. If they ask for Admin access, this is a major red flag.

Granting Partial Access

Any marketing company only requires Partial Access in order to manage your ad campaigns. The only extra functionality they get with admin access is the ability to remove your ownership. And if you are careless enough to grant this, Facebook will not intervene if you complain at a later date. The marketing company will own your Facebook / Instagram accounts, which for most companies are highly valuable assets. So, just by asking for Admin access should raise alarm bells.

Reduced Visibility

If they are granted admin access, these companies often take away your access to the accounts, so you have no idea what your money is being spent on. Again, this is a major red flag. This often results in the customer being completely powerless to stop payments being taken from their credit card, without having to cancel the card entirely.

Using the AI buzzwords

To further impress the prospective clients, these marketing companies drop in the “AI” buzzwords, as if they are experts in utilising artificial intelligence, and many clients are impressed by this. But they are basically using the Meta Advantage Plus system which uses AI to optimise campaigns, yet these companies don’t mention this and take full credit for the free AI tools provided by Meta.

In reality, anyone can use Meta Advantage Plus. With a little tech knowledge, anyone can create an extremely effective campaign themselves, which I would highly recommend – instead of giving these dodgy marketing companies total control of your accounts. What this does is ties you to these companies forever, and they have a huge amount of leverage if you did want to stop using their services.