Meta Ads - Running & Optimising
Campaigns, Creative, Audiences, Budget
Concentrate and Compound
Find what works. Pour everything into it. Often, brands spread their budget across what they think should work rather than concentrating on what is working. The brands that scale fastest are the ones with the courage to go heavy on a winner rather than hedge their bets across mediocrity.
Key topics covered
- Campaign Architecture: The New Simplified StructureDozens of campaigns targeting different interests is counterproductive. Meta's AI needs consolidated budget and volume.
- Audience Strategy: Broad First, Signal-DrivenCreative is the targeting. A video addressing a specific pain point naturally attracts that customer.
- Creative Strategy: The Primary Performance LeverMeta's Andromeda update rewards diversity over volume. 20 versions of the same demo: low value. Different angles, formats, personas: high value.
- Budget and Bidding StrategyWhen something's working, don't move on. Wring all the juice out of it first. Most founders and operators don't do this.
- AI Tools for Creative ProductionAI lets you ship 10x more creative variations at a fraction of the cost. The tools change fast, but the categories are stable.
- Retargeting: Converting Warm AudiencesOnly 2-4% convert on first visit. ASC includes some retargeting, but dedicated campaigns outperform for high-intent segments.
- Measurement and AttributionSignal loss worsens with each OS update. Build measurement that works without perfect tracking.
- Weekly Operating RoutineWhen launching products or sales, let email and organic social do the heavy lifting first. Don't fire up paid on day one and burn budget acquiring customers who would have bought anyway.
- Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
- Benchmarks and KPIs: What Good Looks LikeVary by category, AOV, margin, and season. Directional guides only.
Section 13 built the infrastructure. This section is where you spend the money. Campaign architecture, creative strategy, audience approach, budget, measurement, and the weekly routine that keeps it all running.
Campaign Architecture: The New Simplified Structure
Dozens of campaigns targeting different interests is counterproductive. Meta's AI needs consolidated budget and volume.
Campaign 1: Advantage+ Sales Campaign (ASC) - Main Growth Engine
Full budget. Broad targeting. Multiple creative formats.
Campaign 2: Manual Campaign (Optional) - Precision Control
Smaller budget for specific tests, VIP retargeting, or new markets.
Default for most DTC: Sales objective, Purchase event, Advantage+ enabled.
ASC lets Meta's AI find your audience. Set age, gender, and country constraints; optionally provide a suggested audience. You retain control over budget, creative, exclusions, and bids. This is Shift 2 from Section 13: What Has Changed in practice: automation is default.
Most experienced buyers split:
- 80-90% into ASC for broad prospecting
- 10-20% into manual for creative tests, VIP retargeting, or new launches
The "2.5x floor" is a rough heuristic. Your real break-even depends entirely on your contribution margin before acquisition marketing. At 60% contribution margin a 1.7x ROAS breaks even; at 35% you need 2.86x just to cover product cost and fulfilment.
Keep reading in the full playbook.
All 30 sections, the diagnostic Health Check, 400+ checklist items, and 8 tools. Free and always will be.
Open the full playbookWhat you'll walk away with
- One primary ASC campaign live with broad targeting
- 10-15 diverse creative assets across 3-4 angles and 2-3 formats
- Hook Rate and Hold Rate tracked weekly for all video ads
- Recent purchasers excluded from prospecting campaigns (180-day window)
- Retargeting active for cart abandoners via DPAs
- nCAC tracked separately from blended CAC - this is the north star
- Budget scaling follows the 20% / 48-72hr rule
- Daily anomaly check, weekly creative and budget review, monthly strategic review routines in place
- Creative refresh planned: 1-3 new ads per week, pause bottom performers
- Ad frequency monitored - rotate creative when frequency exceeds 3.0x with declining CTR