( Learn Meta ads )
Meta ads, from the start
What every word in Ads Manager means, how to read Ads in Postfolio, and a first boost step by step. Written for people who have never run an ad. You don’t need an ad account to read it.
01Setting up
Done once per brand, before the first ad.
Ad account
The account at Meta that holds your ads and pays for them.
Every ad on Instagram and Facebook runs from an ad account. It has its own card, currency and time zone. Meta charges that card for what the ads spend; Postfolio never charges ad spend. An agency connects each client’s own ad account, so the spend sits with the client.
In Postfolio · Ads › Settings › Ad account. Connected once per brand.
Meta pixel
A short piece of code on your website that tells Meta when someone visits, adds to cart or buys.
Without it, Meta can show you reach and clicks but not what was sold. With it, a purchase on your site is matched to the ad the person saw, so you see purchases, cost per purchase and return on ad spend. It goes in your site’s header once and works on every page.
In Postfolio · Ads › Settings › Meta pixel: pick it, then Check now shows the events Meta has seen.
Conversions API
The same signals as the pixel, sent from a server instead of the browser.
Some browsers and ad blockers stop the pixel. The Conversions API sends the purchase from a server, so it still counts. Use both: Meta removes the duplicates.
In Postfolio · Ads › Settings › Meta pixel › Conversions API.
02How an ad is built
Meta’s three levels, and the simple way in.
Campaign
One goal: sales, website visits or reach.
Ad set
Who sees it, where, when and how much: audience, placements, dates, budget.
Ad · the reel, the words, Order now
Ad · the carousel, the words, Order now
Campaign
The top level of an ad: one goal, such as sales, website visits or reach.
A campaign holds one or more ad sets. The goal you pick tells Meta who to show the ad to: a sales goal finds people likely to buy, a reach goal finds as many people as it can for the money.
In Postfolio · Ads › Campaigns lists every campaign and boost for the brand.
Ad set
Who sees the ad, where, when, and how much to spend.
An ad set holds the audience (a place and ages, interests, past customers or people like them), the placements (Feed, Stories, Reels), the dates and the budget. A campaign can test two ad sets against each other.
Ad
What people see: the photo or video, the words and the button.
An ad sits inside an ad set. Meta reviews every ad before it runs, usually within a day. Until then it shows as In review.
Boost
Turning a post you already posted into an ad.
A boost uses the post as it is, with its likes and comments. Postfolio makes the campaign, ad set and ad for you, so a boost is the simplest way to start. A post that did well on its own is usually the best one to boost.
In Postfolio · Boost on a live post in the Grid, Boost a post in Ads, or Set it up on a Plan card.
Budget
The most Meta will spend: per day (daily) or over the whole run (total).
With a daily budget Meta may spend a little more on a good day and less on a slow one, and keeps to the daily amount on average. With a total budget it spreads the amount over the dates you pick. You can pause or lower it at any time.
In Postfolio · The Boost sheet, and Edit budget in Ads › Campaigns.
Audience
The people the ad is shown to.
Three kinds: around a place (a radius around a shop, with ages and interests), saved (people who already know you, such as site visitors or followers) and lookalike (new people who resemble your customers). Saved and lookalike audiences come from your Meta ad account.
In Postfolio · Ads › Audiences, and the Audience step of the Boost sheet.
03The numbers
What each number means and how it is worked out. Examples use round numbers.
Ad spend
What the ads cost in the dates you are looking at.
The amount Meta charged the ad account. It can be below the budget when the ad found fewer people than expected.
Counted by Meta
Reach
How many different people saw the ad at least once.
Each person counts once, however many times they saw it. Instagram Reach on a post works the same way, which is why Postfolio can put a post’s organic reach next to its ad reach.
Counted by Meta
Impressions
How many times the ad was shown, counting repeats.
One person seeing the ad three times is one reach and three impressions.
Counted by Meta
Frequency
How many times, on average, each person saw the ad.
Above about 3 in a week, people start scrolling past it. Then it is time for a new photo or video, or a wider audience.
Impressions ÷ reach
30,000 impressions ÷ 12,000 people = 2.5
Link clicks
Taps on the ad’s button or link that went to your site or shop.
Likes and comments are not link clicks. A click is not a sale: someone can tap and leave.
Counted by Meta
CPM
Cost per 1,000 impressions: what it costs to be seen.
CPM goes up when many brands want the same people (before the holidays, for example) and with narrow audiences. It says nothing about whether the ad worked.
Spend ÷ impressions × 1,000
$60 for 20,000 impressions = $3.00 CPM
CPC
Cost per link click: what each tap through to your site cost.
A lower CPC means more visits for the money. Read it next to cost per purchase: cheap clicks that never buy are not a bargain.
Spend ÷ link clicks
$60 for 150 link clicks = $0.40 CPC
CTR
Click-through rate: the share of impressions that turned into a link click.
CTR tells you whether the ad itself makes people want to know more. A low CTR usually means the first second of the video, the photo or the words need work, not the budget.
Link clicks ÷ impressions × 100
150 clicks from 20,000 impressions = 0.75%
Conversions
An action you care about, counted by the pixel or the Conversions API: a purchase, a sign-up, a booking.
Purchases are the conversion most shops track. Meta counts a purchase for an ad when the person bought within 7 days of clicking it, or 1 day of seeing it.
Counted by Meta
Purchases
Sales on your site that Meta matched to the ad.
Counted by the pixel and the Conversions API. Without either one, this stays empty.
Counted by Meta
Cost per purchase
What each sale cost in ads.
The number to compare posts by when the goal is sales. If it is higher than what you make on a sale, the ad is losing money.
Spend ÷ purchases
$150 for 20 purchases = $7.50 each
ROAS
Return on ad spend: sales from the ads for each dollar spent.
3.0x means $3 of sales for each $1 of ads. It is sales, not profit: take off what the product costs you before calling an ad a winner.
Purchase value ÷ spend
$450 of sales from $150 of ads = 3.0x
04Reading Ads in Postfolio
Five pages under the Ads bar. Each one starts with what to look at first.
Overview
One period read two ways: how each post did on Instagram, and what it cost and sold as an ad. The top line is spend, reach, link clicks, purchases, cost per purchase and return on ad spend against the period before.
Start with Posts that work twice: posts people saved and shared on Instagram that also sold as ads. Those are the ones to put money behind.
Plan
Moves for the coming week, worked out from your own numbers: scale a post that sells cheaply, boost a post that did well on its own and never ran as an ad, pause one that costs more than it brings in.
Each card says why with the numbers. Set it up opens the Boost sheet filled in; nothing is spent until you, and your client when they approve spend, say yes.
Campaigns
Every boost and campaign for the brand: running, waiting (on the client or Meta’s review), paused, ended and drafts, with spend, results and cost each.
Look at the cost per result column. Pause, Resume and Edit budget work right in the list.
Audiences
The audiences this brand’s ads have used, and the saved and lookalike audiences in its Meta ad account.
Reuse an audience that sold before rather than starting fresh each time.
Settings
The brand’s Meta ad account, the Meta pixel and Conversions API, and who approves ad spend: the client before anything starts, or the team up to a weekly limit.
Connect the ad account first. Add the pixel if the brand sells online, so purchases show.
05Your first boost
Eight steps. Nothing is spent until you, and your client if they approve spend, say yes.
- 01Connect the ad accountOpen Ads, pick the brand and press Connect in Settings. Sign in with the Facebook account that manages the brand’s ad account and pick it. The Instagram account already connected to the brand is used.
- 02Add the pixel if the brand sells onlinePut the pixel code from Meta Events Manager in the site’s header, pick the pixel in Ads › Settings › Meta pixel, then press Check now. Skip this for a first boost meant for reach or profile visits.
- 03Pick a post that already worksOverview lists posts people saved and shared most. A post that did well on its own usually does well as an ad. Press Boost on it, or on any live post in the Grid.
- 04Choose the goalPurchases if the pixel is set up, Traffic to send people to the site, Reach to be seen by as many people nearby as possible. The goal decides who Meta shows it to.
- 05Set a budget you are comfortable spendingStart small and run it for 5 to 7 days, so Meta has time to learn who responds. A total budget with an end date stops on its own.
- 06Choose who sees itAround the shop with ages and a few interests is a good first audience for a local business. Lookalike audiences work once the pixel has seen enough customers.
- 07Send itIf the client approves ad spend, it goes to them first, in their Approvals and by email, with the amount on the button. Otherwise Start now sends it to Meta. Meta reviews every ad, usually within a day.
- 08Read it after three daysLook at CTR first (is the ad interesting) and then cost per result (is it worth it). Reach alone says little. Change one thing at a time.
Ads, inside Postfolio
$49 a month. Posts that work on Instagram next to what sells as an ad, and where to put the money next.