If you want to create and manage ad sets, Facebook Ads Manager is the tool you’ll rely on. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to use Facebook Ads Manager to create ads, organize campaigns, and manage your Facebook advertising effectively.
The internet has become an integral part of our daily lives—whether for business or personal use. Its influence is everywhere, and Facebook remains one of the earliest and largest platforms within that digital ecosystem. With billions of users worldwide, Facebook continues to be a key player in online marketing.
In this blog, we’ll take a deep dive into Facebook Business Manager and show you how to use it to improve lead generation, boost conversions, and get better results from your Facebook advertising efforts. Let’s jump right in.
Facebook Ads Manager is an essential tool for anyone looking to promote their products or services effectively on Facebook and Instagram. It provides marketers with everything they need to plan, launch, manage, and analyze ad campaigns. Here’s what you can do with Facebook Ads Manager:
a. Optimize your ad campaigns
Ads Manager helps you fine-tune your campaigns so you can maximize reach and results while minimizing wasted effort and budget. Optimization tools make it easier to improve performance based on real-time data.
b. Manage your Facebook ad bids
Bidding strategy plays a major role in how your campaigns perform. Through Ads Manager, you can control and adjust your bids to ensure your ads stay competitive and cost-efficient.
c. Target a wide range of audiences
The success of any campaign depends heavily on targeting the right people. Facebook Ads Manager allows you to reach highly specific audiences based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and more—giving you access to a broad and diverse customer base.
d. Track your campaign performance
Monitoring results is crucial for understanding what’s working. Ads Manager provides detailed performance metrics so you can measure success, identify trends, and make informed decisions.
e. Create new and compelling ads
Strong creative is key to grabbing attention. Facebook Ads Manager offers tools to design and test engaging ads, increasing your chances of catching your audience’s interest and driving conversions.
Because of Facebook’s massive and diverse user base, businesses of all sizes and industries can benefit from advertising on the platform. Whether you’re a small local shop or a large enterprise, Facebook ads can help you achieve a variety of marketing goals, including:
a. Increasing awareness
Reaching new audiences and building brand visibility.
b. Encouraging consideration
Driving website traffic, engagement, app installs, video views, or generating leads.
c. Driving conversions
Boosting sales, promoting product catalogs, and increasing store visits.
There are several steps involved in launching a Facebook ad campaign through Facebook Ads Manager. Here’s how to get started:
Creating a Business Manager account is easier than it looks. To get started:
Once your account is created, you’ll need to set up Advertising Access to run ads:
Facebook Ads Manager is housed within your Business Manager account and offers a wide range of powerful features. You can access it by clicking the drop-down arrow in the upper-right corner of your Facebook page and selecting Ads Manager.
Here are some of the core functions you’ll find in Ads Manager:
And best of all, Ads Manager gives you access to detailed performance metrics, allowing you to analyze how your ads are performing and make informed optimizations.
Before launching a campaign, you need to be clear about your objective. Start by asking yourself why you’re running the campaign—this determines the direction, strategy, and format of your ads.
Once you understand the goal, you can choose the most appropriate objective inside Facebook Ads Manager. Some common options include brand awareness, reach, local awareness, traffic, engagement, app installs, video views, lead generation, conversions, product catalog sales, store traffic, and messages.
Selecting the right campaign objective is one of the most important steps in Ads Manager. Facebook uses your chosen objective to decide key elements like available ad formats, bidding methods, and how the system optimizes your campaign.
Your objective should always match the outcome you want. For example, if you’re promoting a website and want users to take action, a conversion campaign is typically the best choice.
Mastering objective selection is one of the most essential skills you’ll learn when working with Facebook Ads Manager.
Naming your ad campaign may seem simple, but it’s an important step. A well-chosen name should clearly reflect the purpose and focus of the campaign, making it easier to stay organized and understand its intent at a glance.
A strong naming convention helps Facebook Ads Manager users—especially when managing multiple campaigns—quickly identify and distinguish campaigns, improving workflow and communication across teams.
This step becomes even more critical as your advertising efforts grow. Establishing a clear naming system from the beginning will save time, reduce confusion, and make managing campaigns at scale far easier.
You can choose from various naming conventions, but the key is consistency. Start with a format that includes relevant details such as campaign objective, audience, date, or offer. A clear, structured name sets the foundation for better campaign organization inside Facebook Ads Manager.
One of the most important steps in setting up a campaign with Facebook Ads Manager is defining your audience. In this stage, Ads Manager gives you several targeting options to choose from:
You can target users based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and even their interactions with your website or previous ads. As you configure your audience, Facebook Ads Manager will display an estimated reach to help you understand whether your audience is too broad, too narrow, or just right.
For the best campaign results, take the time to learn how audience building works in Ads Manager. It’s one of the most crucial skills in running effective Facebook advertising campaigns.
Facebook gives you a variety of placement options, so deciding where your ad will run is an important part of the setup process. Your ad can appear across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and even partner apps and websites. One of the most common and effective placements is:
Desktop/Mobile News Feed:
Your ad appears directly in the user’s News Feed, similar to posts from friends and family. This placement is great for building brand awareness and driving traffic, as it blends naturally into the user’s scrolling experience.
Once your campaign objective and audience are set, it’s time to create the ad itself. Facebook offers several ad formats you can choose from, depending on your goals and creative assets:
Carousel:
Show up to 10 scrollable images or videos within a single ad. Each card can have its own headline, description, and link—making it great for showcasing multiple products or features.
Tip: Make sure your landing pages are optimized for mobile to provide a smooth user experience.
Single Image:
A simple, highly popular ad format—ideal for beginners. You can use various file types such as JPG or PNG, though these are the most recommended for quality and consistency.
Single Video:
Video ads are more dynamic and eye-catching, helping you capture attention quickly. When executed well, they can dramatically boost engagement.
Slideshow:
Create lightweight, GIF-like ads using high-quality still images. This format is effective if you want movement without producing a full video.
Collection:
A powerful format for e-commerce brands. It opens into an Instant Experience, allowing you to combine images and video to showcase your product catalog in a highly engaging, mobile-friendly layout.
After choosing your ad format, you’ll select your visuals and write compelling copy. Facebook recommends keeping these guidelines in mind:
Use high-quality images or video—your ad is competing with posts from friends, family, and countless other advertisers. Your creative needs to be attention-grabbing enough to stop the scroll.
Finally, always include a clear call-to-action (CTA). Whether your goal is to drive website visits, webinar registrations, or purchases, a strong CTA significantly boosts the effectiveness of your ad.
Once your ad is set up and ready to go, simply click “Place Order.” Facebook will then review your ad for approval. Once approved, it will be published and begin running according to the settings you selected.
Launching your ad is only the beginning—measuring performance is just as important. You can track all your ad results directly in Facebook Ads Manager. Monitoring your campaigns allows you to calculate ROI and understand how effectively your ads are performing.
It’s essential that your return on investment exceeds what you spend. Look beyond the basic metrics and review others such as cost per conversion, engagement rate, and frequency. Track performance daily or weekly to ensure you’re optimizing consistently and catching issues early.
Financial planning is a core part of every ad campaign. Your ad budget should be determined ahead of time so you can create a clear strategy and allocate resources effectively. With proper budgeting, you can reach the right audience and maximize results through Facebook Ads Manager.
Some companies choose to outsource their Facebook advertising to specialized agencies. In these cases, bidding is often part of the process, helping businesses select the right partner to manage, optimize, and distribute ads across various platforms—including Facebook.
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