Ready to create the perfect Facebook ad?
There’s no magic trick. Just mastering the basics and improving with each attempt.
“Being advanced means never not doing the basics,” says the muscular business bro Alex Hormozi. But the quest for making a perfect ad isn’t about just one piece of the puzzle.
This guide breaks down everything into simple steps, from choosing the right campaign objectives to crafting compelling creatives and tracking the right metrics.
Once you learn how to set up your campaign, I’ll challenge you with quests to apply to your next ad.
Each quest is based on proven best practices, like testing your hooks, refining your brand promise, and more. And don’t worry, I’ll also arm you with the best gear to help you succeed.
Start your ad quest below 👇
The best Facebook ads don’t just have great copy, or just great visuals. They’re a harmony of multiple elements. Those elements include:
According to GWI, 59% of Facebook users watch videos on the platform. So, if you’re going to compete with native content and other ads, each of these elements needs to be on point.
However, successful Facebook ads are both an art and a science. You need to have that creative intuition, but you should have solid performance data to guide it. Here are some KPIs for measuring Facebook ads:
You’ll be able to measure your performance with these metrics and create benchmarks to beat for your next campaign.
A powerful Facebook ads analytics tool will help you keep on top of these metrics, but more on that later.
Now you know the basic components of a great Facebook ad campaign, let’s put it all together step-by-step to build the bigger picture.
When you’re setting up a Facebook ad campaign, you need to choose the right objective. In Ads Manager, you’ve got a choice of six objectives:
Each objective is better at achieving a particular goal.
Got a new product launch coming up? Choose “Traffic” to get people to check out your landing page. Got a loyalty program you want to build up? Get people to sign up without leaving Facebook with the Leads objective.
Once you’ve defined the objective of your ad, you need to figure out who you want to see it. In Ads Manager ad targeting, there are a few approaches you can take.
The default option is “Create new audience.” This option gives you the option to refine by location, age, gender, language, and interests/behaviors. This is a good option to choose if you’re just starting out and don’t have any real audience data yet.
The next option is “Choose a Custom Audience Source.” This option lets you retarget people who’ve already interacted with your brand in some way, like people who:
This option is good for when you’ve built up enough audience data for the custom audience to be accurate.
The last option is creating a “Lookalike Audience” that’s based on your existing custom audience. This approach is for targeting people who share interests with your current customers.
How much money are you willing to spend on your ad?
Meta gives you two main options for setting ad budgets: a Daily budget and a Lifetime budget, to make sure you don’t burn through all of your cash.
With the daily budget option, Meta will use your “daily” figure as an average over the course of a week. In other words, the platform’s bidding strategy might go up to 75% over your regular budget to maximize opportunities.
The lifetime budget option limits the amount you’re willing to spend over the entire run of a campaign. This option can be better if you want more daily flexibility, but still have an upper-ceiling limit.
But that’s just the ad itself. Don’t forget about budgeting in the cost of building ad creative and any tools you might use outside of Meta.
Here’s the part you were probably thinking of when you clicked on this guide.
The meat of the sandwich.
Your ad creative is made up of three main components: the script/ad copy, the visuals, and the CTA. Here are a few tips for getting them right (including tips from Savannah Sanchez):
Always lead with a strong hook. This can be an unexpected visual, a thought-provoking question, or a relatable scenario.
Savannah emphasizes spending most effort on the hook since it stops the scroll.
“I really spend about 90% of my effort coming up with the hook. The rest of the ad is following the formula: problem–solution. We’re talking about the value props and a strong call-to-action, but it’s about mastering that hook that’s going to get someone to stop.”
For example, ClickUp’s ad starts with “you should never click on the link in a shady email.” We all have either done this, or know someone who has. Then it is followed by other relatable “don’t do” situations.
Then follow a simple formula: problem → solution → value proposition → clear CTA.
Use consumer psychology to engage viewers by:
Visuals don’t need to be cinematic (unless that’s part of your brand), but they do need to resonate and stop the scroll.
Jess Bachman, the Creative Strategy Director and Co-Founder of the agency Fire Team, recommends practicing creativity regularly and feeding it with diverse inputs.
“It’s no different than something like archery. You will get better with practice—and if you stop doing it, you will start losing the skill. But the more you do it, the better you will get.”
Building a swipe file and researching competitor ads can help.
Use our Facebook Ads Research Tool to discover winning visuals and organize them in your Creative Research Library.
Your CTA should be a clear, single instruction that reflects your script, visuals, and brand voice.
It can be clever and tailored, like PlannerFlix’s “Alt+Ctrl+Delete your old system – Shop now.”
Or it can be as simple as “Start your free trial today.”
Above all, your audience needs to know what you want them to do next.
Use our Facebook Ads Research Tool to explore effective CTAs from competitors. Then, A/B test different CTAs and other creative elements with our Ad Creative Analysis Tool to find what drives the best CTR and conversions.
We already talked about metrics in the TL;DR at the beginning of the guide. But here’s a quick reminder of the ones that matter for Facebook ads:
Tracking and monitoring these metrics are what separates your campaigns from guesswork to real strategy. You’ll be able to see what’s working and what’s not.
That’s also when the right tools in place can make a huge difference.
We designed Motion to provide accurate Facebook ads analytics and cut the fluff and track what actually matters. We can show you when you can scale with confidence. Check it out:
[embed: https://youtu.be/UL-6LfCSLvs ]
Metrics alone ain’t gonna cut it.
When you’re knee-deep in a campaign and getting good results, you don’t want to stop, right? But you might be wondering if it could be doing better.
That’s where testing comes in handy. Traditional A/B tests let you keep a campaign running but test your original against a single variant. Most ad platforms will have some form of A/B testing feature, including the native Facebook Ads Manager.
But what really kicks it all up a notch is being able to test each element, each variable of your ad to find combinations that work the best.
This level of real-time creative analysis unlocks the best insights for your campaigns.
You know that phrase, “madness is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results”?
The last step to nailing your Facebook ad campaign is taking everything you learn from the metrics and tests, and iterating on your creative.
If you don’t change anything about your ad creative, your performance won’t change. If anything, you’ll end up seeing ad fatigue.
From your tests, you should have a pretty good idea of what part of your ads needs changing—or at least, where it wouldn’t hurt to freshen things up.
Just remember to stay organized and document everything. You won’t want to miss out on any game-changing insights because stuff got deleted.
Now you know the process for creating winning ads, let’s talk about those quests I mentioned in the intro.
If you’ve followed all the above steps and you’re still seeing a dip or nothing special, here are a few best practice strategies (*cough* quests) that you can try.
POV is still one of the most viral organic formats. It’s easy for people to create, and it will continue to dominate TikTok and Reels for years to come.
The problem is that brands have gotten quite lazy with this format. Often, it is not even a POV—it’s just a text overlay with “POV: something, something” and then shot in the 3rd person!
Here are a few examples of brands who got more creative with their POV.
Savannah Sanchez shared this clever example she made for Fi. The ad comes from a dog’s POV using a Trickster voiceover.
McDonald's gave delivery ads a new twist, showing what the food sees.
How could you blow people away with an unexpected perspective? Get creative and go beyond the standard camera angles.
⚔️ Your quest ⚔️
Use ChatGPT to brainstorm creative angles to tell your story. Ask ChatGPT to think of unexpected angles. Refine the ideas. And come up with a POV that you haven’t used before.
🛡️ Your gear 🛡️
If ChatGPT doesn’t inspire you, maybe some of your competitors’ ads will. Motion can be your go-to Facebook ads research tool and help you see what types of POVs work well for your competitors and adopt a similar one.
If you find a few competitor ads you like a lot, maybe you’ll want to reference them again in the future. For that, you can build a swipe file for creative research—after all, “good artists copy, great artists steal”—maybe Picasso first said it, but who knows.
This creative research process gives you an opportunity to figure out what already works for other brands in your niche, while also inspiring your own creativity.
Every product has a certain mood that will sell it best.
Think of luxury goods. There is a reason why they all have beautiful stores, meticulously placed products, and stylish staff. It creates an environment to buy.
Here’s an ad I loved from Bumble.
It’s so personal. It feels like you’re going through someone’s camera roll, which perfectly fits the product being sold—finding someone to create a life with.
Creative diversity isn’t just about videos vs. static ads. It’s about the different concepts and aesthetics you’re testing.
⚔️ Your quest ⚔️
Read the section on the eight core human psychological triggers in Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman. See if there is a new emotional angle you could test. Brainstorm how you might express the mood of this emotion—what will the ad look like?
🛡️ Your gear 🛡️
Testing new vibes is easy with a Facebook creative analysis tool. Mix and match your creatives to see which combo works best for your campaign. For example, let’s say you have some great product shots, but you want to test how the ad would perform with a person in them instead.
The creative analysis tool can test the difference and give you comparative metrics like CTR, CVR, ROAS, and Thumbstop rate.
“This year, brands are asking me for more and more organic-looking content,” Savannah Sanchez told us recently.
“Brands are saying—’don’t do 3-reasons why ads, don’t do formulaic, we want it to look like a regular TikTok video.’”
To make ads that feel native, you need to spend more time beyond your own FYP. The algo has no doubt stuffed it with marketing content by now.
I like to log out of TikTok and then open TikTok’s Explore Page in Incognito mode.
Then, I start absorbing organic trends, aesthetic choices, and angles.
I like to dive into the different categories of the Explore Page.
For example, use the Technology tab if you sell an app, mobile game, or tech product. You’ll see interesting tutorials and ways of showing off products.
In my research for this issue, I found this viral organic series below. I think the simple, dramatic editing style could be applied to before-after and problem-solution ads.
Pure absorption of organic TikTok content will fill your head with ad ideas. So pick a category and start scrolling.
⚔️ Your quest ⚔️
Spend 30 minutes on TikTok’s Explore Page.
Dive into a specific area—such as ‘Technology’—and make a note of the new angles you’re seeing, editing styles, and voice-over techniques. Bring these back to your ads.
For example, let’s say I work at Ruggable. Would applying the dramatic before-after style I found above work to show a room without and with a rug?
🛡️ Your gear 🛡️
If you want to avoid a doom-scroll session, you can try using a third-party TikTok ads dashboard for inspiration.
Otherwise, if you want to stick strictly to the Facebook platform, the Meta ads library is free and available for anyone to browse. You can use it to try searching for competitors’ ads to see what types of native-looking content works for them.
In 2024, researchers analyzed data from over 2,000 campaigns and published their findings in the Harvard Business Review.
They evaluated ads based on whether the ads made an explicit and verifiable promise to customers.
The TL;DR?
Effective ads often have a “clear and specific promise to the customer that can be demonstrably fulfilled.”
Think of True Classic. They make a clear promise to customers—that our shirts will fit you better than anything else at this price point.
The first thing you’ll hear about in their ads is their fit. Their homepage even shows you side-by-side, True Classic’s fit vs. other brands.
But your promise can’t be fluffy.
The researchers wrote, “the value of any customer promise is precisely that it is a guarantee, which requires that the customer be able to determine that the promise was fulfilled.”
For example, when I bought my first True Classic product, I was excited to test it out. “Okay,” I said to myself, “Let’s see if this shirt actually fits better.”
⚔️ Your quest ⚔️
Is your brand promise specific and demonstrable?
Come up with a new static ad that tries a more specific version of your brand promise.
Or if you have a strong brand promise, think of ways to further invite customers to prove it like True Classic does on their homepage.
The perfect ad needs amazing lighting.
With iPhones, you can shoot a decent ad without much lighting knowledge.
But going a little deeper into your lighting knowledge will help you make beautiful ads like this 👇
I love the warm colors, the depth created by other lights in the room, and the overall cozy aesthetic that is essential for selling things like furniture.
To create an ad like this, you can’t just point and shoot in any light condition.
You need to know how to get the right light temperature (aka Kelvin scale).
⚔️ Your quest ⚔️
This video shows you mistakes to avoid and different moods you can create with lighting. Give it a watch and see if you can add any tips to your briefings.
Then, download an app like BeastCam and spend 30 minutes playing with Kelvin settings. After that, compare how different light temperatures change the mood and story of your shots.
Play with 5600K (outside light temperature) and 3200K (indoor light temperature) and see if you can recreate the vibe of the ad above with the warm colors.
As you can see below, these two settings dramatically change the mood.
If you just point and shoot with the iPhone, this is what you get. It’s good but isn’t a cozy mood.
If you warm the colors using BeastCam, a little closer to the ad above, this is what you get.
And this is what you get if you use a lower Kelvin setting—though, this would work if you want a less cozy vibe.
Plenty of brands are reporting that UGC isn’t working like it used to. But often, the UGC acting is low-energy, not believable, and the ads have become too formulaic.
“The energy of your creators,” says Savannah Sanchez, “is incredibly important to the success of your ad. No one wants to listen to someone just ramble off product value props.”
Savannah says one of her secrets to success is that she is like a talent scout.
She finds people who can deliver on camera and have great energy, and then trains them to create ads.
⚔️ Your quest ⚔️
Take a stroll down Instagram or TikTok. Find a high-energy creator who is not yet popular. Think like a talent scout, looking for potential. Try them out in an ad.
Demonstration is powerful. As advertisers, we should always be thinking about new ways to give people irrefutable proof that our product works.
But most demonstrations are quite boring. How can you dramatize your key product strengths? Make it wild and totally persuasive.
⚔️ Your quest ⚔️
Spend 10 minutes reading this past Thumbstop issue on demonstration ads, covering the art of making demonstration ads. We’ve included some amazing ad examples.
Then, brainstorm a creative demonstration with lots of drama and a scroll-stopping test of your product’s strengths.
Long-term success with Facebook ads isn’t just about launching a great campaign. It’s also about staying agile and evolving your approach. Let’s break down how to do this without losing momentum.
This approach of monitoring, optimizing, and scaling is what will help you keep a sustainable rhythm of ad campaigns that take your brand to the next level.
Finally, the best ads defy formalization. You can apply all the principles you like, but originality is the true point of creativity.
As Ryan Bartlett, the Co-founder and CEO of True Classic, told me:
“To marketers trying to check the box on creative: start treating it like it’s real art, and you’ll be amazed at the difference in performance. Thoughtfulness is always the most important ingredient.”
So, try something completely new. Test a wild swing. Trust your creative instinct. You might just uncover the next trendy ad format in DTC.
If you’re ready to start your quest, book a demo with our team today.
Depends on your goals, but video ads typically get higher engagement, and they have more versatile ad placement options.
You need to measure and test all the different ad variables. Without testing, you won’t have the results you need to make comparisons.
The general best practice is every 1–2 weeks, or when you notice a decline in KPI metrics, but it varies depending on your specific campaign performance.
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It originally appeared in Thumbstop—a free weekly newsletter filled with tips to help you ship winning Meta, TikTok, and YouTube ads.
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