How to Create and Run Facebook Ads:
The Quick-Start Framework

Why Most Facebook Ads Fail

Many Facebook and Instagram ads fail because they are built on theoretical best practices or vague strategies rather than proven frameworks that drive real results and scale. These common pitfalls can lead to a bunch of wasted money and time:

• Wrong Campaign Objectives: Choosing awareness when you need sales can cause immediate budget waste
• Poor Audience Targeting: Targeting too broad or cold audiences instead of warm prospects who are ready to buy
• Weak Ad Creative: Focusing on aesthetics instead of clear messaging and strong calls to action
• Budget Misallocation: Spreading small budgets across too many ad sets prevents algorithm learning
• Theoretical Strategies: Relying on vague best practices instead of tested, phased frameworks
• One-Size-Fits-All Approaches: Using generic strategies that don't account for budget size, execution speed, or prioritizing high-impact actions
• Misconfigured Settings: No clear step-by-step process to create the campaigns and configure the settings
• Missing Context: Not understanding why certain strategies work or when to use them

This framework is designed so you can create ads easily within hours and drive real results fast. It's proven from 20+ years of real campaign execution, company results, and continuous testing, so beginners understand exactly why each strategy works.

• Proven Performance Foundation: Start with campaign structures that have delivered results across hundreds of client accounts
• Fast Time to Market: Launch effective campaigns in days, not weeks, using pre-tested configurations and targeting strategies
• Beginner Friendly Execution: Clear, step by step instructions that eliminate guesswork while maintaining strategic sophistication
• Scalable Optimization: Built in frameworks for testing, measuring, and scaling what works without starting over
• Real World Application: Every recommendation comes from actual campaign performance, not theoretical best practices

By following this streamlined, step-by-step approach, you can avoid common pitfalls and set up Facebook ad campaigns that deliver measurable business results quickly.

Determine Your Main Goals

Before opening Ads Manager, determine your primary business goal. This determines how you structure campaigns, choose audiences, allocate budget, and design creative which increases the likelihood of success.

Example objectives and how they align to Meta campaign types:

Choose 1 or 2 main objectives. These will determine which Meta campaign type to use.

Focusing on the right objectives from the start is crucial for campaign success. If you don't pick the right objectives, you can waste significant amounts of money with little to no results.

Campaign Objectives and Budget Allocation

Budget allocation strategy directly impacts ROI and campaign learning speed. Smart marketers weight their spending toward high impact actions that generate immediate returns, then expand into awareness and brand building activities. This approach allows Meta's algorithm to gather conversion data faster while proving campaign viability quickly.

Key Benefits of Prioritizing High-Impact Actions First:

• Faster ROI proof - Immediate revenue/leads justify continued ad spend
• Algorithm optimization - More conversion data helps Meta find better prospects
• Risk mitigation - Test profitability before scaling awareness spend
• Data-driven expansion - Use conversion insights to inform awareness targeting
• Budget efficiency - Avoid spending on awareness for audiences that don't convert

Example Campaign Structure:

Allocate more budget toward high-impact objectives first to drive immediate ROI.

Audience Targeting and Campaign Structure

The difference between campaigns that generate 3-5x ROI and those that waste money comes down to how you organize your audiences and structure your campaigns. This campaign framework prioritizes warm audiences that convert at higher rates and uses lookalikes to scale proven segments so you see faster results at lower costs.

Recommended Audience Targeting by Campaign Objective:

Retargeting audiences perform best but have limited reach, so we layer lookalikes and interest-based audiences to scale effectively.

Now that we have a solid targeting foundation, the next step is to create retargeting and lookalike audiences in Ads Manager.

Create Retargeting and Lookalike Audiences

Retargeting is one of the most powerful tools in Facebook advertising because it allows you to reach people who have already shown interest in your business. These warm audiences typically convert at 3-5x higher rates than cold audiences and cost 60-80% less per conversion. By targeting website visitors, email subscribers, or people who engaged with your content, you're focusing your ad spend on prospects most likely to take action.

To build website retargeting or lookalike audiences, the Meta pixel must be installed on your website. The pixel tracks visitor behavior and creates the foundation for high-converting retargeting campaigns.

Check if the Meta Pixel is Installed

If you're unsure whether the Meta pixel is installed on your website, there are two easy methods to verify its presence and functionality.

Method 1: Using Meta Pixel Helper (Recommended)

1. Install Pixel Helper: Add the Meta Pixel Helper Chrome extension
2. Visit Your Website: Navigate to any page on your website
3. Check Extension Icon: Look for the Pixel Helper icon in your browser toolbar - it will show a number if pixels are detected
4. Review Results: Click the icon to see pixel status and any errors

Method 2: Using Events Manager

1. Access Events Manager: Go to business.facebook.com and navigate to Events Manager
2. Check Data Sources: Look for your website under "Data Sources"
3. Review Activity: Check if recent PageView events are showing in the activity log

If Meta Pixel is NOT Installed

If the Meta pixel is not installed on your website, follow these steps to set it up properly. Installing the pixel is crucial for tracking conversions, building retargeting audiences, and optimizing your ad campaigns effectively.

Step-by-Step pixel installation:

1. Access Events Manager: Go to business.facebook.com and navigate to Events Manager
2. Create Data Source: Click "Add", then "Web", then "Meta Pixel"
3. Choose Setup Method: Select "Conversions API Gateway" for best performance, or "Meta Pixel Only" for basic setup
4. Install Pixel Code: Add the base pixel code to your website header before the closing </head> tag on every page
5. Configure Standard Events: Set up Purchase, Lead, AddToCart, and other relevant events for conversion tracking
6. Test Installation: Use Meta Pixel Helper Chrome extension to verify the pixel is firing correctly
7. Wait for Data: Allow 24-48 hours for data collection before creating audiences

Common Installation Methods:

• WordPress: Use official Facebook for WordPress plugin or add code to theme's header.php
• Shopify: Navigate to Settings → Customer events → Add pixel ID
• Google Tag Manager: Add pixel as a custom HTML tag triggered on all pages
• Manual Installation: Add pixel code directly to website template before </head>

Create Retargeting and Lookalike Audiences

Once the Meta pixel is installed and collecting data, you can create powerful retargeting and lookalike audiences to enhance your ad campaigns. Retargeting allows you to reach people who have already interacted with your website, while lookalike audiences help you find new potential customers similar to your best existing ones.

Create a website retargeting audience:

1. Access Audience Manager: Go to Ads Manager → Audiences, or business.facebook.com → Audiences
2. Create Custom Audience: Click "Create Audience" → "Custom Audience" → "Website"
3. Select Your Pixel: Choose the pixel for your website from the dropdown
4. Define Audience Rules:
   • Phase 1: Start with all website visitors for the last 60 or 90 days
   • Phase 1 alternate option: if you don't have much website traffic use social media followers instead (FB/IG)
   • Phase 2: Visitors to specific pages (product pages, pricing, etc.)
   • Phase 3: Visitors who completed specific events (Purchase, Lead, etc.)
5. Set Audience Retention: Choose retention period (30-180 days recommended)
6. Name and Save: Use clear naming convention like "Website_AllVisitors_180d"

Create a lookalike audience:

1. Create Lookalike: In Audience Manager, click "Create Audience" → "Lookalike Audience"
2. Select Source: Start with website visitors or social media followers then test high-value audience as the source:
   • Start with website visitors (60-90 days)
   • FB/IG followers
   • Customer email list (if uploaded)
   • Website purchasers or converters
3. Choose Location: Select your target geographic markets. You can start at the country level (United States) then adjust later.
4. Select Audience Size: Start with 1% for highest similarity, expand to 2-3% for scale
5. Name and Create: Use naming like "LAL1%_Customers_US" for clarity

Minimum Audience Size Requirements:

• Website retargeting: 100+ visitors minimum, 1,000+ recommended
• Lookalike source audience: 1,000+ users for quality lookalikes
• Email list uploads: 1,000+ matched minimum

With these audiences created, you're now ready to build high-converting campaigns and ad sets targeting warm prospects and lookalike users.

Create Campaigns and Ad Sets

With your retargeting and lookalike audiences set up, it's time to create your Facebook ad campaigns and ad sets. Follow the steps below to create your first campaign and ad sets.

Create Your Campaign

• Beginning structure: One campaign → multiple ad sets → multiple ads per ad set
• Go to Ads Manager → Campaigns → Create
• Campaign Objective: Your first campaign should be related to Sales, Leads, or Traffic depending on your primary goal
• Campaign Name: Use a clear naming convention
  • For phase 1 use the following pattern: meta_paid_[objective]
  • Campaign names can be automatically added to the ad URLs for tracking
• Buying Type: Select "Auction" for most campaigns
• Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO): Start with CBO OFF to control budgets at the ad set level initially. This functionality can misallocate budgets if not monitored closely
• Campaign Spending Limit: Optional; set if you have a strict budget cap
• Special Ad Categories: Only select if your ads relate to credit, employment, or housing

Create Your Ad Sets

Create separate Ad Sets and budgets for different types of audience targeting. This makes it easier to determine how each target audience performs, the reach of each audience, and which audiences you should shift budget to.

Start by creating Ad Set(s) that targets warm audiences that are more likely to engage and convert.

Important notes:

• Website retargeting: need to have the Facebook pixel on your website. If you have a website audience already built, start with this.
• Social media retargeting: this can be faster if you don't have a Facebook pixel on your website yet.
• Lookalike targeting: you need to have the Facebook pixel on your website to create this audience.

Instructions to create a new ad set:

• After creating your campaign, you should be directed to create a new ad set.
• Name your ad set
  • For phase 1, use the following pattern: [audience]_[geo]_[channel]_[objective]
    Example: retarget_web_usa_fb_traffic
  • Ad set names should be automatically added to the ad URL to send data to different platforms like Google Analytics, Salesforce, Hubspot, etc.
• Make sure to exclude any internal audiences.
• Platforms:
  • Creating separate Ad Sets that target only Facebook or only Instagram can be advantageous if there is enough budget and resources to manage.
  • At first, it usually makes sense to exclude the audience network, threads, and messenger.
• Devices:
  • Start with both desktop and mobile, but in later phases creating a Desktop or Mobile specific Ad Set can be advantageous after reviewing analytics.
• Budget:
  • Usually start with a daily budget with a minimum of $15/day for each Ad Set.
  • Allocate more budget to Ad Sets that target warm audiences or lookalikes. Example: 20% for website retargeting, 20% for social follower retargeting, 60% for website lookalike.

After creating your first Ad Set, you can create additional Ad Sets targeting different audiences following the same steps above.

Next, you'll create the ads that will run within each ad set.

Create Ads

With your campaigns and ad sets in place, it's time to create the ads that will engage your target audiences. Effective ad creative is crucial for capturing attention, conveying your message, and driving conversions. Follow the guidelines below to create high-performing ads.

Best Practices for Creating Ads

Review the following best practices to help ensure your ads are optimized for performance and aligned with your campaign goals.

• Start with 2-3 ads in each ad set.
• Test different ad types, headlines and imagery. Video usually gets more reach, but can be less effective than other types.
• Make sure the ads have a clear hook, benefit or value proposition up-front. For video, in the first 3-5 seconds.
• Include a clear call-to-action telling the viewer exactly what to do.
• The landing page value proposition should tightly align to the ad.
• Mobile-first design (unless targeting only desktop): 4:5 aspect ratio for feeds, 9:16 ratio for stories or reels.
• Always add UTM or analytics tracking to the destination URL.
• Get inspiration from ad examples that follow best practices and drive results.

Use the following proven ad copy formulas as a starting point for your creative:

• Problem/Solution: "Struggling with [pain point]? [Solution] helps [target audience] [achieve outcome] in [timeframe]"
• Before/After: "From [current state] to [desired state]: How [solution] [transformation story]"
• Social Proof: "[Number] [audience type] use [solution] to [benefit]. See why [authority figure] recommends [specific feature]"

Ad Creation Instructions

1. In Ads Manager, navigate to your campaign and ad set, then click "Create Ad"
2. Name your ad:
   • For phase 1, use the following pattern: [product, service or value exchange asset]_[value prop]_[ad format]_[objective]
     Example: demo_increase_sales_video_leads
3. Select your Facebook Page and Instagram Account to associate with the ad
4. Choose your ad format (single image, video, carousel, etc.) based on your creative assets
5. Upload your media files and enter your ad copy (headline, primary text, description)
6. Add a clear call-to-action button that aligns with your campaign objective
7. Enter the destination URL with UTM parameters for tracking
   • Example URL: https://www.yourwebsite.com/landing-page?utm_medium=paid_social&utm_source={{site_source_name}}&utm_id={{adset.id}}&utm_campaign={{adset.name}}&utm_marketing_tactic={{adset.name}}&utm_content={{ad.name}}&utm_creative_format=[ad type]
   • The parameters with double curly braces will be automatically populated by Facebook, so ad set and ad naming conventions are important
   • Replace [ad type] with the specific ad format used (e.g., video, carousel)
   • Refer to the UTM Parameters section below for more details
8. Review and publish your ad

UTM Parameter Breakdown

To effectively track the performance of your Facebook ads, it's essential to use UTM parameters in your destination URLs. UTM parameters help you identify the source, medium, campaign, and other key details about your traffic in analytics platforms like Google Analytics.

• utm_medium=paid_social
  This identifies the marketing medium as paid social advertising.
• utm_source={{site_source_name}}
  This will automatically identify if the traffic came from Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Audience Network (fb, ig, an, mg).
• utm_id={{adset.id}}
  This automatically populates the unique ID of the ad set for granular tracking. You can change this to the campaign ID if you don't need granular tracking.
• utm_campaign={{adset.name}}
  This will automatically populate the ad set name. If you change the campaign name however, it will not update.
• utm_marketing_tactic={{adset.name}}
  This is optional, but it is difficult to tell how specific targeting is performing in other platforms if you don't use the Ad Set name/info in utm_campaign or utm_marketing_tactic
• utm_content={{ad.name}}
  This will automatically populate the ad name. If you change the ad name however, it will not update.
• utm_creative_format=[ad type]
  This is optional if you include ad type in ad names but can help look at aggregated ad type performance. Common ad types: image (or static), video, carousel, video_short, video_long.

With your ads created, you're now ready to launch your campaigns and start driving results. Monitor performance closely and be prepared to optimize based on data insights.

Key Takeaways

Success with Meta advertising comes down to clear goal alignment, smart budget allocation, and systematic audience targeting.

• Start with clarity: Define specific business objectives before opening Ads Manager to ensure every campaign element aligns
• Prioritize warm audiences: Allocate 70 to 80% of budget to retargeting and lookalike audiences for faster, more profitable results
• Structure for scale: Use consistent naming conventions and audience hierarchies that make optimization and expansion seamless
• Test systematically: Run 2 to 5 ads per ad set with clear variables to identify winning creative and messaging combinations
• Mobile first creative: Design all ads for mobile consumption with clear hooks in the first 3 seconds
• Track with precision: Implement proper UTM parameters and conversion tracking to measure real business impact, not vanity metrics

Resources

• UTM Tracking Strategy & Naming Convention Examples: Guide on setting up UTM parameters for accurate campaign tracking
• Facebook Ads Manager: Official platform for campaign creation and management
• Meta Pixel Helper: Chrome extension for pixel verification
• Facebook Business Help Center: Official documentation for platform features and troubleshooting
• Meta Blueprint: Free training courses directly from Meta