Connecting your Facebook account
Before creating campaigns, connect your Facebook Pages and ad account.Open Ad Manager settings
Connect your Facebook account
Select your Facebook Pages
Connect your ad account
Set a default page (optional)
Meta campaign structure
Meta campaigns follow a three-tier hierarchy: Campaign, Ad Set, and Ad. Each tier controls different aspects of the campaign.Creating a Meta ad campaign
Start a new campaign
Set the campaign objective
- Lead generation — collect contact information via Facebook Lead Forms without leaving the app
- Website traffic — drive visitors to a specific landing page or funnel
- Engagement — maximize reactions, comments, shares, and page follows
- Sales through messaging — generate leads or sales via Facebook Messenger or Instagram DMs
Configure your ad set (budget and audience)
- Budget type — daily budget (spends up to the set amount per day) or lifetime budget (spends up to the total amount over the campaign duration)
- Start and end dates — when the campaign should begin and end
- Geographic targeting — countries, regions, cities, or a radius around a location
- Demographic targeting — age range, gender
- Detailed targeting — interests, behaviors, and connections
- Audience controls — add custom audiences for retargeting or exclude audiences to avoid showing ads to existing customers
Build your ad creative
- Media — upload images (recommended 1200×628px for link ads) or videos
- Primary text — the main copy that appears above the ad
- Headline — a short, attention-grabbing title
- Description — supporting text below the headline
- Call-to-action — the button label (Learn More, Sign Up, Get Quote, Download, etc.)
- Destination — the URL users are sent to after clicking, or a Facebook Lead Form for lead generation objectives
Review and publish
Audiences
Custom audiences
Retarget people who have already interacted with your business by creating a Custom Audience. Go to Ad Manager > Settings > Audiences, click + Create New Audience > Custom Audience, and choose a source:Lookalike audiences
Reach new people who share characteristics with your best existing customers. From the Budget and Audience step of campaign creation, or from the Audiences settings tab:- Click Create a Lookalike Audience
- Select a source — a Facebook Page or an existing Custom Audience
- Choose the target country and audience size percentage (1–10%)
- Click Create Audience
Facebook lead forms
For lead generation campaigns, create a Facebook Lead Form that users complete without leaving the Facebook or Instagram app. Go to Ad Manager > Settings > Lead Forms and click + Create Lead Form. Configure:- Intro screen — headline and description shown before the form
- Fields — select which contact fields to capture (name, email, phone, company, etc.)
- Privacy policy link — required for all lead forms
- Thank you screen — the message shown after submission
- Field mapping — map each form field to the corresponding CRM field so leads sync into your contacts automatically
Facebook Pixel and Conversions API
For conversion-based campaign objectives and accurate attribution:- Facebook Pixel — a snippet of code placed on your website that tracks visitor behavior and reports conversion events back to Meta. Add your Pixel ID in Settings > Integrations.
- Conversions API (CAPI) — a server-side connection that sends conversion events directly from your CRM or funnels to Meta, bypassing browser-based tracking limitations from ad blockers and privacy settings.
Managing live campaigns
From the Ad Manager campaign list, use the three-dot action menu next to any campaign to:- Edit — modify the campaign, ad set, or ad creative
- Pause — temporarily stop the campaign from serving ads
- Resume — restart a paused campaign
- Duplicate — copy a campaign to use as the basis for a new one
Frequently asked questions
Can I run ads for both Facebook and Instagram from the same campaign?
Can I run ads for both Facebook and Instagram from the same campaign?
What is the difference between a daily budget and a lifetime budget?
What is the difference between a daily budget and a lifetime budget?
How do leads from Facebook Lead Forms get into my CRM?
How do leads from Facebook Lead Forms get into my CRM?
Why was my ad rejected by Meta?
Why was my ad rejected by Meta?