How to Run Meta Ad
Thinking about running ads on Facebook and Instagram? Good call. With billions of active users, Meta's ad platform is one of the most powerful tools available for reaching new customers and growing your business. This guide will walk you through setting up and launching your first campaign, step-by-step, without unnecessary complexity.
First Things First: Your Pre-Flight Checklist
Before you can launch a campaign, you need a few foundational pieces in place. If you've already got these covered, feel free to skip to the next section. If not, knock these out first to ensure your campaigns can run smoothly and be tracked effectively.
1. Create a Facebook Business Page
You can't run ads from a personal profile. Every ad needs to be connected to a Facebook Business Page. It acts as your brand's identity on the platform. It's free and only takes a few minutes to set up. Make sure you fill out all the details, including your business description, website, and a professional profile and cover photo.
2. Set Up Your Meta Business Suite &, Ad Account
The Meta Business Suite (formerly Business Manager) is the central hub where you manage your pages, ad accounts, and other business assets. Inside the Business Suite, you'll create an Ad Account. This is where your campaigns will live and where you'll set up your billing information.
Go to https://business.facebook.com/ to create your Business Suite account.
Once inside, navigate to 'Settings' and then 'Ad Accounts'.
Click 'Add' and then 'Create a new ad account'. Follow the prompts for your account name, time zone, and currency.
3. Install the Meta Pixel
The Meta Pixel is a small piece of code you install on your website. This step is incredibly important, so don't skip it. The pixel tracks actions visitors take on your site after clicking your ad, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or adding an item to their cart.
Why is this so critical? Three main reasons:
Conversion Tracking: The pixel tells you which ads are actually driving sales or leads, allowing you to calculate your return on ad spend (ROAS). Without it, you're flying blind.
Optimization: You can tell Meta to optimize your campaigns for specific actions (like 'Purchases'). The algorithm will then use the pixel data to show your ads to people who are most likely to take that action.
Retargeting: It allows you to create Custom Audiences of people who have visited your website and show them follow-up ads. Think of it as a second chance to convert someone who showed interest.
You can create and find instructions for installing your pixel inside the 'Events Manager' section of your Meta Business Suite.
Understanding Meta's Campaign Structure
Every ad on Meta is organized into a three-level hierarchy. Understanding this structure is essential for building and managing your campaigns effectively.
Campaign: The top level. Here, you choose your primary advertising objective. Are you trying to generate sales, get video views, or drive traffic to your website? That decision is made at the campaign level.
Ad Set: The middle level. An individual campaign can have multiple ad sets. At the ad set level, you define your targeting (who you show ads to), budget, schedule, auction bidding, and placement (where your ads appear, like Instagram Stories or Facebook Feed).
Ad: The bottom level. Each ad set can contain multiple ads. The ad level is where you set up your creative - the actual image, video, caption, headline, and link that people see.
This structure lets you organize your tests. For example, you could have one campaign with a "Sales" objective. Within it, you could run two ad sets targeting two different audiences (e.g., Audience A: dog lovers, Audience B: new homeowners). Within each ad set, you could test two different ads (e.g., Ad 1: a video, Ad 2: an image) to see which combination performs best.
Step-by-Step: Creating Your First Ad Campaign
With the foundations in place, it's time to build your campaign in Ads Manager.
Step 1: Choose Your Campaign Objective
After navigating to Ads Manager and clicking the green 'Create' button, the first thing you'll do is choose an objective. Meta tailors the campaign settings and bidding options based on the goal you select. The options are grouped into categories, but here are the most common choices for beginners:
Traffic: The goal is to send as many people as possible to your website or app. This is good for driving visitors to a blog post or landing page.
Engagement: This focuses on getting likes, comments, shares, or even page likes. Useful for building social proof or promoting posts.
Leads: Use this to collect information from potential customers, such as email addresses, directly on Facebook using an Instant Form or by sending them to your site.
Sales: This is the one you'll use most often if you have an e-commerce store. It tells Meta's algorithm to prioritize showing your ads to people most likely to make a purchase. The pixel is essential for this objective.
For our example, let's say we're an online store selling eco-friendly pet supplies. We'll choose the Sales objective.
Step 2: Define Your Audience at the Ad Set Level
This is where the real magic happens. Accurate targeting separates successful advertisers from those who waste money. Meta offers powerful targeting options.
Core Audiences
These are built using Meta's data. Here, you can define an audience based on:
Location: Country, state, city, and even a specific radius
Age: What age range are you targeting?
Gender: All, men, or women
Detailed Targeting: This has the core set where you can target people based on a massive array of demographics, interests, and behaviors. In our pet supplies example, we could use:
Demographics: Like 'College grad', 'Parents', or 'Pet owners'
Interests: People who are interested in dogs (and interests like 'dog treats', 'Beagles', or 'Pet care').
Custom Audiences
These allow you to target people who have already interacted with your brand. Most commonly, this is done through website visits as tracked by your pixel.
Lookalike Audiences
Based on custom audiences, this helps in expanding your reach by finding new audiences similar to your best customers.
Step 3: Set Placements, Budget, & Schedule
Once you've defined your audience, it's time to decide where and when your ads will appear.
Placements: You can either select 'Automatic Placements' or choose manually where your ad should appear (in places like Instagram Stories or Facebook News Feed).
Budget: Set either a daily or lifetime budget. A daily budget is the average amount you are willing to spend per day, while a lifetime budget is a fixed total amount for the entire campaign's duration.
Schedule: Determine when your ad should start and stop running.
Step 4: Design Your Ad Creative
This is the part most advertisers enjoy. It's time to create the ad itself. Choose between different formats (single image or video, carousel, etc.), depending on your objective.
Single Image or Video: Great for straightforward messages.
Carousel: Allows you to showcase multiple images or videos in a single ad.
Collection: A great choice for showcasing product catalogs.
Each format requires specific dimensions and creative assets, so be sure to use high-quality images or video that align with Meta's ad specifications.
Step 5: Review and Launch
Before hitting publish, review all your selections. Make sure everything aligns with your brand and campaign goals. Once satisfied, click 'Publish', and your ad will start running based on your defined schedule and budget.
Final Thoughts
Running a successful ad campaign on Meta takes some time and effort, but it's definitely rewarding. By understanding the platform's robust targeting options and creative capabilities, you can effectively reach your intended audience and achieve your advertising goals. With tools like Graphed, you simply connect your Meta Ads and Shopify accounts once, and ask for what you want in plain English. It takes seconds instead of hours, so you get to focus more on work that drives the most value, not just administrative tasks.