Assembling Campaigns and Ad Sets for Facebook Ads: The Beginner’s Guide

How you structure your Facebook and Instagram campaigns and ad sets impacts performance. This guide covers optimization best practices.

Facebook advertising is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes to reach their target audience and achieve their marketing goals. But with so many options and features available, it can be tough to know where to start.

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Campaign Best Practices

Your campaigns are the high-level containers for your advertising initiatives.

How you organize campaigns provides focus for measurement, budgeting, and optimization. Structure campaigns around business objectives, target customers, funnel stage, or distinguishing initiatives. Keep the architecture simple early on as you test and expand.

Some ways to structure campaigns include:

• Business objectives like conversions or traffic

• Target customer groups

• Lead gen vs brand awareness

• Differentiating initiatives or segments

Ad Set Best Practices

Within each campaign, ad sets allow you to isolate variables for testing and observation.

Keep ad sets tightly themed around elements like audience, placement, creatives, or offers. This organization enables optimization.

Some ways to organize ad sets include:

• Audiences and detailed targeting

• Placements - Facebook vs Instagram

• Ad variations - creatives

• Offers or products

Tech Note

Campaigns and ad sets provide structure for you to control, analyze, and manage performance. But Facebook still determines optimal ad delivery between campaigns based on algorithms. The containers don't actually limit how ads are shown.

Reporting and Optimization

Thoughtful campaign and ad set structures enable:

• Grouping data by initiatives

• Comparing performance

• Pausing poor performers

• Budgeting control

• Improving through iteration

Carefully assembled campaigns and ad sets provide the framework for tailoring, executing, and optimizing successful Facebook ad strategies aligned to your unique business needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are 20 example FAQs covering campaigns and ad sets for Facebook ads:

How many campaigns should I start with?

2-4 campaigns per initiative or segment is a good starting point for most advertisers.

When should I create new campaigns?

Create new campaigns when adding new initiatives, products, or customer targets to keep efforts organized.

How many ad sets should I have per campaign?

3-6 ad sets in each campaign allows testing while keeping things focused.

How do I structure ad sets for testing?

Make copies of existing ad sets and change one variable like audience or creative to test.

Should I organize by product or audience?

Grouping ad sets by product, offer or audience lets you optimize each one.

How often should I refresh ad creative?

Test new creatives every 2-3 weeks in refreshed ad sets to keep campaigns fresh.

What’s the right number of ads per ad set?

2-4 ads allows testing with statistical significance without overcomplicating.

When should I pause poor performing ad sets?

Pause ad sets if the CTR, CPM, or desired conversions lag consistently.

Can I duplicate existing campaigns?

Yes, you can duplicate campaigns if you want to rerun or build on past efforts.

Is it better to have broad or narrow ad sets?

Keep ad sets focused around specific elements, then broaden campaign reach with more ad sets.

Should I organize by device platform?

You can break out ad sets by desktop vs mobile if optimizing for each separately.

How frequently can I change campaign structures?

You have flexibility to add/edit/pause campaigns and ad sets at any time.

Do campaigns and ad sets limit how ads are shown?

No, Facebook determines optimal delivery - campaigns/ad sets just provide structure.

Can I manage Instagram campaigns in Facebook Ads Manager?

Yes, you can manage Instagram and Facebook campaigns within the same interface.

Is it better to have more smaller ad sets or fewer bigger ones?

More smaller, tightly themed ad sets generally allow better optimization capabilities.

How often should I review campaign structure?

Review campaign organizational structure monthly as part of your regular optimization regimen.

How many ad sets can I have per campaign?

There are no specific limits, but aim to keep it reasonably organized. Test consolidating if you have 100s.

Can I schedule ad sets instead of ads?

Yes, you can configure ad set start/end times and schedules.

Should I include the company name in campaign names?

Yes, including your brand name helps keep things organized in Ads Manager.

Can I duplicate ad sets across campaigns?

Yes, you can reuse high performing ad sets in new campaigns if relevant.