Last Updated on October 23, 2024
Although Meta Ads are conceptually very similar to Google Ads, there are distinct differences between the two. In general, Google offers more “bottom-of-funnel” options while Meta allows you to cast a wide net at the top of the funnel. Meta can do more than just awareness campaigns, though. For example, retargeting with Facebook is a very powerful tool. Not to mention, with more than 3 billion monthly active users, it’s no surprise that Facebook remains the top choice for advertising on social media. For the most part, Google Ads and Meta Ads can be used in tandem to great effect.
Facebook has TONS of user data that can be leveraged in targeting. The thing that really sets them apart is their lifestyle-based targeting options like interests, behaviors, political affiliation, major life events, and spoken languages in addition to demographic information, etc.
Navigating Meta Ads Manager (Account Structure)
Meta Ads are much more similar to Google Ads than you might suspect. There are some massive differences: The platform and structure of Meta Ads Manager vs. Google Ads, the different targeting options (more audience-focused rather than keyword-focused), and ad/asset optimization techniques. Being able to navigate Meta Ads Manager will also likely have a large learning curve. However, most everything else will feel fairly similar: campaign management, goal setting, data interpretation, etc.
Once logged in, you will see a large toolbar on the left-hand side of the screen:
- Account Overview
- Campaigns
- Ads Reporting
- Audience Manager
- Advertising Settings
- Billing & Payments
- Events Manager
In this training, we’ll go over what each of these tabs does. We will keep it fairly high-level here. Future trainings will dive into each section in more depth.
Account Overview
This section contains exactly what you would expect it to — a high-level overview of your Ads account. It contains some recommendations, a summary of results (Reach, CPM, Amount spent) over the last 7 days, Campaign trends, etc.
You most likely won’t spend much time in this section unless you need a very quick, at-a-glance overview of how things are going in your account.
Campaigns
This is the default/main section in Meta Ads. Or, at least, this is the section in which you will probably spend most of your time.
The campaign manager is broken down into 3 sections: Campaigns, Ad Sets, and Ads. Much like Google Ads, Campaigns are the biggest box. You can have 1 or multiple Ad sets within each campaign, and you can have one or many Ads within an Ad set.
From the campaigns dashboard, you can create, edit, duplicate, and A/B test your campaigns, ad sets, and ads. You can also adjust columns and add breakdowns in order to better understand the performance data given.
You can also view some basic charts for each of these things by selecting the campaign/ad set/ad and clicking “View charts”.
Ads Reporting
Ads Reporting is another section in which you will likely spend a lot of time. This is where almost all graphs, charts, and other reporting tools live.
There are 3 main options for data visualization:
- Pivot Table
- Trend
- Bar
Each of these three visualizations can be broken down by things like demographics, ad placement, day/time, etc. You can also add/remove metrics such as reach, cost/purchase, clicks, impressions, etc. In summary, if you are trying to dive into data, diagnose performance issues, or create a report for a client, this is the best place to do it.
Audience Manager
Audience Manager is where you create and maintain your audiences. Audiences are vital to Meta Ads; most of the targeting we are able to do is audience-based. There are 2 main audience types: Custom Audiences and Lookalike Audiences.
Audiences are mostly going to be implemented ad an Ad Set level, but if you are needing to view all of your audiences in one place or create an audience independent of an Ad set, Audience Manager is the place to do it.
Advertising Settings
Advertising Settings is ac section that contains some of the general settings for your Ads account. Don’t confuse this one with “Business Settings” (which are settings that affect the Business Portfolio — in our case, Sebo Marketing).
This section doesn’t have a ton of settings, but there are some Ad account-level controls that can be set here:
- Advantage+ Creative can be turned on/off
- Name templates can be set for campaigns, ad sets, and ads
- Default beneficiaries and payers can be set
Billing & Payments
This section contains exactly what you are expecting — payment and billing settings, payment activity, and invoices. That’s about it.
Events Manager
Events Manager is the closest thing to a “Conversions” section that Meta Ads has.
This is where you set up “Data Sources” which, in most cases, is going to be the Meta Pixel. The Meta Pixel is more or less the equivalent of Google Analytics tracking code — a piece of code that needs to be placed on your website to track activity there. Although things that happen directly on Facebook can be tracked without the pixel, it is necessary to track anything that happens on your website.