[Guide] How to run a Facebook Ads campaign step-by-step

More than 2 billion people use Facebook every month, so whatever your business target audience is, you can be sure to find it on one of the group's platforms.

Now that you know the reasons why you should include Facebook in your digital marketing strategy, let's discover how to launch Facebook Ads campaigns step by step. 

#0 Basics
#1 Choose the objective of your campaign
#2 Choose the audience to reach with your campaign
#3 Choose the placement of your ad
#4 Define your campaign budget
#5 Choose the format of your ads
#6 Launch your campaign
#7 Measure the performance of your ads

#0 Basics

By way of introduction, let's take a look at the three parts that make up Facebook Ads:

• Campaign: This is the umbrella concept for the whole process. Targeting and payment method are decided at this point.

• AdSet: This is a set of ads, a campaign can have one or several ads. Decisions related to the AdSet are audience, placement, duration and budget.

• Ads: These are the ads themselves; the format, the creative and the message.

Campaigns, audiences, ads, budgets and other elements are managed from the Ads Manager: Facebook's ads tool within the Business Manager, which is the space that encompasses all types of business-related management.  

In addition to the Ads Manager there are also other tools such as the Event Manager for the pixel or the Catalog Manager for everything related to product feeds and catalogues. As we said, they are all included in the Facebook Business Manager, and from there it is divided into 6 major tools:

Now that we know the basics of running a Facebook Ads campaign, let's look at the first step.

#1 Choose the objective of your campaign

In order to correctly create Facebook Ads campaigns you must be clear about the objective you want to achieve. On Facebook there are different types of objectives depending on the degree of interaction you want the audience to have.

Awareness

These are the most upper funnel objectives and serve to raise brand awareness.

• Brand awareness: Getting more people to discover your brand and become potential customers who think about your product or service at the time of purchase.

• Reach: Show the ad to as many users as possible, within your audience.

Consideration

This type of objective is used when we want to increase the interaction that people have with the brand.

• Traffic: Increase visitors to your website, app or Messenger conversation. 

• Engagement: Get more people to follow your page or interact with your content (comments, likes, shares...).

• App Installs: Increase downloads of your brand's app through direct links in your Ads to the App Store and Google Play Store.

• Video Views: Show your brand's videos to people who are more interested in your content. 

• Lead Generation (LeadGen): Establish connections with potential customers (leads) to drive conversions. Simplify connections with those interested in your brand.

• Messaging: Encourage people to interact with your brand through conversations in Messages.

Conversion

These are the lowest objectives in the funnel, leaving loyalty aside, and aim to get more people to take action.

• Conversions: Convert users who discover you into final customers. Get them to carry out specific actions such as buying, adding to cart, downloading the application...

• Catalog sales: Increase sales from your website or Facebook application, for example on Instagram Shopping. Add your product catalogue to Facebook, open an online shop and create the campaign. Through Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) we manage to show the right product and target the right user at the right time.

• Visits to the shop: Reduce the separation between online and offline processes by taking your audience from the Internet to physical shops. Achieve in-store visits, sales or other valuable in-store actions. Several additional requirements are needed, e.g. having the shop registered in your Business Manager and validated by Facebook.

#2 Choose the audience to reach with your campaign

Once you have defined the objective of your Facebook Ads campaign, the next step is to define the audience you want to impact. There are three types of audiences.

Core Audiences

Also known as prospecting or interest audiences. Define your target audience according to different parameters: location, demographics, interests, behaviours and connections.

Lookalike Audiences

It is called Meta Advantage's similar audiences. It is an effective way to bring your brand closer to people with similar characteristics to your current customers.

To create a lookalike audience, you need to choose a custom audience that functions as a source audience.

Custom Audiences

These are personalized audiences. They allow you to re-engage customers who have already shown interest in your brand. Do you know the importance of the conversion pixel or SDK in the case of app campaigns? These codes allow us to deliver ads to people who have already interacted online with a brand. This practice is known as retargeting.

#3 Choose the placement of your ad

Choosing the placement of your Ads is one of the most important steps of your Facebook Ads campaign. There are a multitude of placements between the different Facebook platforms: Feed, Stories, Search, Messages, Apps...

Having multiple placements increases the number of people who see your ad and also contributes to better results.

Now, with the Advantage+ Locations (formerly known as "automatic placements") setting for your ads, it allows Meta's delivery system to make the most of your budget.
 

Feed

Within the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger Feeds, we find different options: Facebook News Feed, Instagram Feed, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Video Feeds, Facebook Right Column, Instagram "Explore" section or Messenger Inbox.

Stories & Reels

In this case the choice depends on the platform: Facebook, Instagram or Messenger.

In-stream video

The two options for video formats are: Facebook in-stream videos or IGTV videos.

Search

Facebook search results are another option for placing your Facebook Ads campaign.

Messages

Sponsored messages can also be placed in the Messenger application, let's see how:

In the article

Facebook also allows you to place ads in your Instant Articles.

Apps

There are different types of placements in the Facebook Audience Network. The options in applications are native ads, banner ads, interstitial ads or reward videos.

• Ads on Audience Network: Your ads are displayed in Audience Network apps in formats such as native, banner and interstitial.

• Reward videos on Audience Network: Your ads are shown as videos that users can watch for in-app rewards.  

#4 Define your campaign budget

Just as there are different types of Facebook Ads campaigns, there are also different buying types for your brand's campaign.

You can set the daily or total budget and posting period for your ads to ensure you never overspend. Once the ad is submitted, it is entered into our auction to ensure it is shown to the right people.

Auction purchase

Allows ads to run on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network. Based on budget, audience and the content of your Ads, the auction delivers your ad to the people most likely to engage with it. Always for the price of your bid or less.

Purchase of range and frequency

In this case, Facebook gives you the possibility to deliver ads in a predictable and controlled way at a fixed price. Plan all the details in advance: how many people you want to see the ad and how often. Ads can run on Facebook and Instagram, and only with some specific campaign objectives also on Audience Network.

Facebook offers brands a wide variety of formats, placements and targets to run an Ads campaign. Before launching your campaign, consider the design specifications and technical requirements for each format.
 
These are the formats available for Facebook Ads: 

Don't forget to review the technical specifications of each of the formats in our Social Media Ad Formats Guide 2023.

Once you have established the objective of your Facebook Ads campaign, the audience, the placement, the budget and the format with which to impact your target audience, it's time to create and launch the ads.
 
Do you know the best creative practices to make your Facebook ads more engaging? Vertical videos, images with little text, multiple images in the format per sequence, movement in the ads, boost calls to action? Check out all the recommendations before launching your campaign!

#7 Measure the performance of your ads

Once the campaign has been launched, it is essential to continuously monitor the performance of the Ads to know if the results set by the objectives are being achieved. Knowing how to take advantage of marketing reports to maximise the ROAS of the campaign will allow you to convert the data collected into applicable insights. In the event that this does not happen, measuring the performance allows us to modify what is not working or, in the worst case, to pause the campaign completely.
 
If you have Adsmurai Marketing Platform you can track your campaigns across all platforms.

Connect your ad accounts and easily see which platforms you are advertising on and how your campaigns are performing.

Save time by comparing, grouping and analysing the performance of all your campaigns and ads in one place.