How to Make a Good Facebook Ad

Creating a Facebook ad that just runs is easy, creating one that actually gets results is a whole different story. If you've ever put money into a campaign and only heard crickets, you know how frustrating it can be. This guide breaks down the essential formula for making good Facebook ads, walking you through everything from understanding your audience to crafting creative that converts and measuring what matters.

First, Get Your Strategy Straight

Jumping straight into Facebook Ads Manager is a recipe for wasted money. The best ads are built on a solid foundation long before you click "Publish." A little planning upfront will save you from making costly mistakes later.

Define Your One True Goal

What do you really want people to do after seeing your ad? Facebook calls this your "Campaign Objective," and it's the first and most important choice you'll make. The platform's algorithm is incredibly powerful, and it will optimize your ad delivery to find people most likely to perform the action you select.

Don't pick "Engagement" if you want sales. Don't pick "Traffic" if you want newsletter signups. Be honest about your goal:

• Awareness: You want to introduce your brand to a new audience. Think of this as a digital billboard. Best for reaching lots of people for a low cost.
• Consideration (Traffic, Engagement, App Installs, etc.): You want people to take a small step, like visiting your website, watching a video, or sending a message.
• Conversion (Sales, Leads): This is the money-maker. You're asking people to make a purchase, fill out a lead form, or sign up for a demo. This objective requires the Meta Pixel to be installed on your website but delivers the highest-quality traffic for that goal.

Actionable Tip: For 90% of small businesses, your goal will be Conversions. Start there. Tell Facebook you want sales, and it will go find people who are likely to buy.

Go Deep on Your Audience Targeting

Blasting your ad to everyone is like shouting into the void. The power of Facebook is its targeting. You need to know who you're talking to before you can craft a message that resonates. Don't just guess.

Building a Lookalike Audience

This is your most powerful tool. A lookalike audience allows you to upload a list of your existing customers (or website visitors, or email subscribers), and Facebook will go find millions of other people who share similar characteristics. It's like cloning your best customers.

• Start with a strong source: A list of past purchasers is the gold standard. If you don't have that, a list of your email subscribers or people who have engaged with your Instagram profile can also work.
• Keep it focused: Start with a 1% Lookalike in your target country. This creates a highly concentrated audience that closely matches your source list. You can expand to 2%, 3%, or more as you scale.

Using Interest and Behavior Targeting

If you don't have a customer list to build a lookalike from, you can build an audience from scratch using what people have told Facebook they're interested in.

• Be Specific: Instead of targeting a broad interest like "Fitness," get granular. Did they just buy Lululemon? "Lululemon Athletica" is an interest. Do they follow a specific influencer? "Kayla Itsines" is an interest. Think about brands, thought leaders, magazines, events, and software your ideal customer uses.
• Layer Interests: Combine interests to narrow your audience. You can require someone to be interested in "Yoga" AND "Sustainable Clothing" to see your ad for eco-friendly yoga mats. This ensures you're reaching a much more qualified group.

Actionable Tip: Your best audience might be hiding where you least expect it. Look at the brands your competitors’ followers are tagging. What other hobbies and interests do your followers have? Use that data to fuel your ad targeting ideas.

Crafting Creative That Converts

Once you know who you’re talking to and what you want them to do, it's time to build the ad itself. This is where art meets science. A perfect audience won't respond to a bad ad.

Your Image or Video is 90% of the Battle

Your ad's visual is the first thing people see. It needs to stop them dead in their scroll. Today, that means prioritizing video, but strong images still work when done right.

Video is King

Short-form video is dominating social feeds, and your ads should reflect that. For ads, videos don't need to be Hollywood productions. Sometimes, simpler is better.

• Start with a strong hook: The first 3 seconds are everything. Show a problem, a surprising result, or an engaging face. Don't waste time with a slow logo intro.
• Design for sound-off viewing: Most people watch videos without sound. Use captions, text overlays, and clear visual storytelling to get your message across.
• Embrace User-Generated Content (UGC): Ads that look like an authentic testimonial from a real customer often outperform glossy, professional videos. Collect reviews and videos from your customers and ask for their permission to use them in ads. It builds immediate trust.

Images That Grab Attention

If you’re using static images, they need to stand out from the sea of selfies and vacation photos.

• Show, Don't Tell: Instead of an image of just your product, show it in use. Who is using it? What problem are they solving? Tell a story with the image.
• Use High Contrast and Bright Colors: Your image needs to pop against the white-and-blue interface of Facebook. Avoid muted or "busy" images where the subject is hard to see.
• Carousel Ads: Use these to showcase multiple product features, tell a step-by-step story, or display different product variations. Let the user swipe through and discover more.

Writing Copy That Connects

Your visual stops the scroll, but your copy seals the deal. People don't want to be "sold to." They want their problems solved. Speak their language and address them directly.

The Hook: Your First Sentence

Much like your video's hook, the first line of your text is critical. Only the first two or three lines are visible before users have to click "See More." Use it wisely.

• Ask a Question: "Tired of your coffee getting cold before you finish it?"
• State a Pain Point: "Juggling multiple social media accounts is exhausting."
• Make a Bold Statement: "This is the last planner you'll ever need."

The Body: Offer the Solution

After your hook, explain how your product or service solves the problem you just introduced. Use simple language and short, scannable sentences. Bullet points are great for this.

Instead of saying: "Our proprietary ceramic-coated travel mug offers advanced thermal retention technology to maintain optimal beverage temperature."

Try: "Your coffee stays hot for 12 hours. Here's a few other things you'll love:"

• Leak-proof lid (for real)
• Fits in your car's cupholder
• Totally dishwasher safe

See the difference? One is corporate jargon, the other is a conversation.

The Call to Action (CTA): Tell Them What to Do Next

Be painfully clear about the next step. Match Facebook's CTA button ("Shop Now," "Learn More," "Sign Up") with the final sentence in your ad copy.

Example: "Tap 'Shop Now' to get yours and enjoy hot coffee all morning long." This reinforces the action and connects the ad to the button, creating a smooth experience for the user.

Setting Campaign Structure Up for Success

You have your strategy and creative ready to go. Now it's time to put it all together in Ads Manager. A clean, organized structure will make it much easier to test and optimize.

ABO vs. CBO: Where to Put Your Budget

Facebook gives you two ways to manage your ad spend:

• Ad Set Budget Optimization (ABO): You set a specific budget for each ad set (each audience). This gives you control over how much you spend testing a particular audience. This is the best place to start for testing.
• Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO): You set one budget at the campaign level, and Facebook automatically distributes the money to the best-performing ad sets inside it. Use this after you've identified your winning audiences and creatives.

Actionable Tip: Start by launching a new testing campaign using ABO. Create three to five different ad sets, each targeting a different audience. Give each one a small daily budget (e.g., $10/day). After a few days, you'll see which audiences are responding, and you can turn off the losers.

Test, Learn, and Iterate

Your first guess is rarely an ad's final form. A good Facebook ad is the result of continuous testing and improvement. Never get attached to a single ad or audience.

When you test, only change one variable at a time. Otherwise, you won't know what actually caused the improvement.

• Creative Testing: Pit two very different images or videos against each other using the same ad copy and audience.
• Copy Testing: Use the same visual but test a long-form story against short, punchy bullet points.
• Audience Testing: Run the exact same ad to different lookalike audiences or interest groups.

Focus on the Metrics That Pay the Bills

Ads Manager is full of data, and it's easy to get overwhelmed. Ignore vanity metrics like "Reach" or "Impressions." Focus on the metrics tied directly to your objective. If your goal is sales (Conversions), the most important numbers are:

• Cost Per Purchase (CPA): How much are you paying for each sale? This is your North Star.
• Return On Ad Spend (ROAS): For every dollar you put in, how many dollars are you getting out? A 2x ROAS means you made $2 for every $1 spent.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): What percentage of people who saw your ad clicked on it? A low CTR often indicates your creative isn't resonating with your audience.

Final Thoughts

A successful Facebook ad isn't about having a secret trick or a magic button. It's about a disciplined process: understanding your audience deeply, creating content that speaks to their problems, setting up your campaign to find them efficiently, and constantly testing to see what works best.

Once your ads start bringing new people to your brand, managing the organic side of your social media - planning content, engaging with all the new comments, and seeing what’s working becomes a bigger challenge. At our company, we built Postbase to solve this by providing a clean, modern way to plan, schedule, and analyze all your social content from one seamless dashboard, so you can focus on building the community your ads helped create.