facebook-ad-campaign

name	facebook-ad-campaign
description	Plans Facebook/Meta ad campaigns with audience targeting, ad creative briefs, budget allocation, and testing strategy. Use when running paid ads on Meta platforms.
allowed-tools	Read Write Glob
metadata	{"author":"matthewhitcham","version":"1.0"}

Facebook Ad Campaign

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Plan a Facebook or Instagram advertising campaign from scratch
• Define audience targeting, ad creative, and budget allocation
• Build a testing strategy for ad sets, audiences, and creatives
• Create ad copy and creative briefs for multiple ad variations

DO NOT use this skill for organic social media strategy, Google Ads, or influencer marketing. This is specifically for paid Meta (Facebook/Instagram) advertising.

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Core Principle

PROFITABLE FACEBOOK ADS ARE BUILT ON THREE PILLARS: THE RIGHT AUDIENCE, A COMPELLING OFFER, AND CREATIVE THAT STOPS THE SCROLL — GET ALL THREE RIGHT AND THE ALGORITHM DOES THE REST.

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Phase 1: Campaign Brief

Required Inputs

Input	What to Ask	Default
Campaign objective	"What is the goal? (leads, sales, traffic, awareness)"	No default — must be provided
Offer	"What are you promoting? (product, lead magnet, service)"	No default — must be provided
Landing page	"Where does the ad send people?"	No default — must be provided
Budget	"What is your daily or monthly ad budget?"	$20-50/day
Target audience	"Who is your ideal customer? (demographics, interests, behaviors)"	No default — must be provided
Previous ad experience	"Have you run Meta ads before? Any data?"	No previous data

GATE: Confirm the brief before building the campaign.

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Phase 2: Campaign Architecture

Campaign Structure

## Campaign Setup

**Campaign Level:**
- Objective: [Conversions / Leads / Traffic]
- Campaign Budget Optimization: ON
- Daily budget: $[X]

**Ad Set 1: Interest-Based Targeting**
- Audience: [Interest targets]
- Age: [Range]
- Location: [Countries/regions]
- Placements: Automatic (let Meta optimize)
- Budget allocation: 40%

**Ad Set 2: Lookalike Audience** (if data available)
- Source: [Customer list / website visitors / video viewers]
- Lookalike: 1-3%
- Budget allocation: 40%

**Ad Set 3: Retargeting**
- Audience: Website visitors (last 30 days) + engaged (last 90 days)
- Exclude: customers who already purchased
- Budget allocation: 20%

Audience Targeting Details

## Audience Research

**Core Audiences (Interest-Based):**
- Interests: [List 5-10 relevant interests]
- Behaviors: [Online shopping, business owners, etc.]
- Demographics: [Age, gender, location, language]
- Audience size target: 500K-5M (not too broad, not too narrow)

**Exclusions:**
- Existing customers (upload customer email list)
- People who already converted on this offer
- [Any other exclusions]

GATE: Approve the campaign structure and audiences before writing creative.

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Phase 3: Ad Creative

Ad Copy Variations (3-5 per ad set)

Write multiple ad copy angles:

Angle 1: Problem-Agitate

Headline: [Benefit or outcome] (40 chars max)
Primary text: [Pain point hook. Agitate. Introduce solution. CTA.]
Description: [Supporting benefit] (25 chars)
CTA button: [Learn More / Sign Up / Shop Now]

Angle 2: Social Proof

Headline: [Result or testimonial]
Primary text: ["Quote from customer." Context on the result. CTA.]
Description: [Credibility signal]

Angle 3: Direct Benefit

Headline: [Clear offer statement]
Primary text: [What you get. Why it matters. How to get it.]
Description: [Urgency or bonus]

Creative Format Briefs

## Ad Creative Formats to Test

**Format 1: Static Image**
- Visual: [Description of image concept]
- Text overlay: [3-5 words max on the image]
- Dimensions: 1080x1080 (square) + 1080x1920 (story)

**Format 2: Video (15-30 seconds)**
- Hook (first 3 seconds): [Visual and text hook]
- Problem (seconds 3-10): [Show the pain]
- Solution (seconds 10-20): [Introduce your offer]
- CTA (final seconds): [Clear next step]

**Format 3: Carousel**
- Card 1: [Hook image + headline]
- Card 2: [Benefit 1]
- Card 3: [Benefit 2]
- Card 4: [Social proof]
- Card 5: [CTA]

Ad Copy Rules

• Primary text: 125 characters for optimal display (up to 3 lines before "See more")
• Headline: 40 characters max
• Hook in the first line — most people only see the first sentence
• One CTA per ad — do not split attention
• Speak to one person, not a crowd ("You" not "People")

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Phase 4: Polish

1. Testing Plan

## Week 1-2: Creative Testing
- Test 3-5 ad copies against each other
- Same audience, different creative
- Winner = lowest cost per result

## Week 3-4: Audience Testing
- Take winning creative
- Test across different audience segments
- Winner = best ROAS or lowest CPA

## Ongoing: Scale Winners
- Increase budget 20-30% every 3-4 days on winners
- Kill underperformers (2x target CPA after $20+ spent)
- Introduce new creative every 2 weeks to combat fatigue

2. Budget Allocation Guidelines

• Testing phase: $20-50/day for 2-4 weeks minimum
• Scaling phase: increase budget only on proven ad sets
• Never increase budget more than 30% in a single day
• Allocate 20% of budget to testing new creative/audiences

3. Metrics to Track

Metric	Target	Action if Below
CTR	>1%	Test new creative
CPC	<$[X]	Refine targeting
Conversion rate	>2%	Improve landing page
ROAS	>2x	Review offer and funnel
Frequency	<3	Expand audience or refresh creative

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Anti-Patterns

• Boosting posts instead of running campaigns — Ads Manager gives you targeting, testing, and optimization that Boost does not.
• One ad, one audience, one creative — you need variations to test. Start with 3-5 creative variations minimum.
• Killing ads too early — give each ad $20-50 in spend before judging. Small samples are unreliable.
• Targeting too narrowly — audiences under 100K are often too small for Meta's algorithm to optimize. Let the algorithm find your buyers.
• No retargeting — retargeting warm audiences (website visitors, video viewers) converts at 3-5x the rate of cold audiences.
• Ignoring creative fatigue — when frequency exceeds 3 and CTR drops, your audience has seen the ad too many times. Refresh creative.

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Recovery

• No pixel data or customer list: Start with interest-based targeting only. Build retargeting audiences by running traffic campaigns first.
• Budget under $10/day: Focus on one ad set with 2-3 creative variations. Testing is limited at low budgets.
• High CPC/low CTR: The creative is not stopping the scroll. Test new hooks, images, or video formats.
• Good CTR but no conversions: The landing page is the problem, not the ad. Review offer, page speed, and conversion path.
• Ad account restricted: Review Meta's ad policies, appeal if appropriate, and ensure landing pages comply with advertising standards.