Go to business.facebook.com and create a Business Manager account. Inside you’ll create your Ad Account, connect your Facebook Page and Instagram account, and install the Meta Pixel on your website. The Pixel is essential — it tracks conversions and builds the data needed to optimize your ads over time.

• Create a Business Manager at business.facebook.com
• Add your Facebook Page and Instagram account
• Create an Ad Account and add your payment method
• Install the Meta Pixel on your website (Shopify and WordPress both have simple one-click installs)

This step most beginners skip — and it’s why their ads fail. Your landing page must match your ad exactly. If your ad says “Free guide to email marketing,” your landing page must immediately deliver on that promise. No homepage. No distractions. One clear offer, one form, one button.

Meta Ads Manager asks you to choose an objective — what you want your ad to achieve. Choosing the wrong one is a common and expensive mistake.

• Lead generation: Best for service businesses collecting inquiry forms and email addresses
• Conversions: Best for e-commerce and anyone sending traffic to a landing page. Requires the Pixel.
• Traffic: Sends people to your website or landing page. Good for testing new audiences cheaply.
• Awareness/Reach: Shows your ad to as many people as possible. Good for brand building — not for direct response.

For most small businesses: start with Lead Generation or Conversions.

Meta’s targeting options are genuinely extraordinary. You can target by age, location, interests, behaviors, job title, income level, and more. But more targeting is not always better — overly narrow audiences increase your costs. Start broader than you think you need to.

• Interest targeting: Target people who follow competitors or related content
• Lookalike audiences: Upload your existing customer list and Meta finds similar people — usually the highest-converting targeting available
• Retargeting: Show ads to people who visited your website but didn’t convert — your warmest possible audience
• Broad targeting: Let Meta’s AI find your best customers with minimal targeting restrictions — increasingly effective with more Pixel data

Your ad creative (image or video + copy) determines whether people stop scrolling. You have about 1.5 seconds to capture attention in a feed. Here’s what works:

• Video beats static images for most campaigns — even a simple 15-second talking head video outperforms polished graphics
• Lead with the benefit, not the product — “Get 10 clients in 30 days” not “Our coaching program”
• Use real photos over stock photos — authentic content consistently outperforms polished stock imagery
• Test 3–5 creatives per campaign — you can never predict what will resonate without testing

Start with $10–$20/day per ad set. This gives the algorithm enough data to optimize within a week without risking large amounts on untested campaigns. Set a daily budget rather than a lifetime budget — it gives you more control.

Check your campaigns every 2–3 days, not daily — too-frequent changes prevent the algorithm from optimizing properly. Look at cost per lead or cost per purchase as your primary metric. Turn off underperforming ad sets and scale budget on winners.

• After 7–14 days, duplicate your winning ad set and increase the budget
• Test new creative against your control every 2–4 weeks
• Build retargeting audiences from website visitors and video viewers
• As Pixel data accumulates, shift toward broader audiences and let Meta optimize