Set up a campaign
The first step of a new campaign. Name it, pick an objective, choose an ad account, and decide how the budget works.
Select New Campaign on the Ads page. The builder opens with the progress strip Setup, Campaign, Build and Review across the top. Setup and Campaign are the same screen, headed Campaign setup.
Use the Beginner / Advanced switch in the header to control how many options you see. Refresh next to it re-reads your Pages and pixels from Meta.
Before you start
An ad account has to be connected. If none is, the builder shows "Connect Meta First" with a link to Open Facebook Ads Settings. See Connecting Meta.
The fields
Name the campaign
Type a Campaign name. It is what you will see in the table and in Meta.
Pick an objective
Campaign objective is what you want people to do after seeing the ad. Sales is selected by default. The objectives are described below.
Choose the ad account
Pick the Ad account the campaign will be created in.
Decide how the budget works
Budget optimization has two options. Campaign budget sets one amount and lets Meta share it across ad sets. Ad set budgets means you set an amount on each ad set instead, in the next step.
Set the amount
With Campaign budget, choose Daily budget or Lifetime budget under Budget type and type the amount. The quick picks are $200/day, $1,000/day and $5,000/day.
Pick a bid strategy
Highest volume gets the most results for your budget and is the usual choice. Cost cap sets a target average cost per result. Bid cap sets the most you will bid in any auction, and may not spend the full budget.
Declare a special ad category if it applies
Leave Special ad category on None unless your ads are about Credit, Employment, Housing, or Social issues, elections or politics. Meta requires it for those.
Continue
Select Next. It stays greyed until the name, ad account and a valid budget are filled.
Objectives
In Beginner you will see six.
| Objective | Best for |
|---|---|
| Awareness | Reaching the most people likely to remember your ad. Brand building. |
| Traffic | Sending people to a website, app or Messenger. Optimised for clicks and landing-page views. |
| Engagement | More messages, video views, post engagement, Page likes or event responses. |
| Leads | Collecting leads through instant forms, calls, app sign-ups or Messenger. |
| App Promotion | Finding new app users or re-engaging existing ones. Needs a connected mobile app. |
| Sales | Finding people likely to buy. A Meta pixel is strongly recommended. |
Advanced adds Website Conversions, Catalog Sales, Store Visits, App Installs, Post Engagement, Page Likes, Event Responses and Messages. Some carry warnings when you pick them: Catalog Sales needs a product catalog and may need finishing in Meta, Store Visits needs Page locations, and Page Likes and Event Responses are not available on newer Meta accounts.
What you can't change later
Once a campaign is launched, its objective, ad account, budget mode, bid strategy and special ad category are locked. You can still change the budget amount, targeting, ads and schedule. Get these five right here.