Process Flow
Animated overview of the full workflow
TL;DR
Meta ads follow a three-level hierarchy: Campaign > Ad Set > Ad. The Campaign level sets your objective (what you want to achieve) and optionally your budget (via CBO). The Ad Set level controls targeting (who sees your ads), placements (where ads appear), budget (if not using CBO), schedule, and conversion event. The Ad level is your creative — images/videos, copy, headlines, CTA, and destination URL.
Step-by-Step Guide
Follow these 4 steps to complete this guide
- 1
Campaign Level
Choose one of six objectives: Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App Promotion, or Sales. This tells Meta's algorithm what outcome to optimise for. Campaign Budget Optimisation (CBO) optionally sets budget here and lets Meta distribute across ad sets.
- 2
Ad Set Level
This is where targeting lives: audience definition (demographics, interests, behaviours, custom audiences, lookalikes), placements (Facebook Feed, Instagram Stories, Reels, Messenger, Audience Network), budget and schedule (if not using CBO), and the conversion event (Lead, Purchase, etc.).
- 3
Ad Level
Your creative: image or video, primary text, headline, description, CTA button, and destination URL. You can have multiple ads per ad set for testing.
- 4
Structure Best Practices
Keep it simple: 2-3 ad sets per campaign testing different audiences, 3-5 ads per ad set testing different creatives. Avoid creating too many ad sets with small budgets — each ad set needs enough budget for 50 conversions per week to exit the learning phase.
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