Pressing "Boost" on a post is the quickest way to advertise, but it hides most of the choices that make ads work. Employers want marketers who can build a full campaign in an ads manager, because that is where you control the goal, audience, budget and creative. This lesson explains the structure that Meta's Ads Manager uses for Facebook and Instagram. Other platforms such as TikTok use a very similar shape.
Three layers
A campaign is organised in three layers, from the big decision down to the detail.
- Campaign. You choose the objective, the one result you want. Everything else is optimised for it.
- Ad set. You choose the audience, the placements where ads appear, the budget and the schedule. Meta also lets you set one budget for the whole campaign instead, which it shares across the ad sets. One campaign can have several ad sets, for example one for Tamale and one for Accra.
- Ad. The creative people actually see: the image or video, the text, the headline and the button, such as Send message or Learn more. One ad set can have several ads to compare.
Choosing an objective
At the time of writing, Meta's Business Help Centre lists six objectives. Platforms change their labels from time to time, so always check the current list on screen.
- Awareness: show the ad to as many relevant people as possible and help them remember it.