Facebook Ads Made Simple: A Beginner’s Guide for Businesses

By 2025, Facebook’s advertising reach in the U.S. is projected to surpass 250 million users, climbing to over 260 million by 2028. Far from being just a social networking site for sharing updates and connecting with loved ones, Facebook has become a vital platform for businesses, with 52.8% of its users actively following or researching brands and products on the platform.

Whether you’re a business just starting with Facebook ads or looking for a clear refresher to sharpen your strategy, this guide by Strike Social will walk you through everything you need to know to create, launch, and manage effective campaigns.

What Are Facebook Ads?

Facebook ads are a powerful tool for businesses to engage with their target audience directly on Facebook and across the Meta ecosystem. These ads allow advertisers to connect with users through various platforms, including Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, all under the Meta advertising network.

Ad Specs, Formats, and Safe Zones for Facebook Ads

Because there are plenty of ways to get audience reach and engagement through Facebook ads, we’ll give a quick rundown of the different advertising formats available:

• Single image ads: Eye-catching static visuals designed to highlight promotions, brand offers, or deals in a simple and impactful way.
• Video ads: Dynamic content that captures attention through high-quality videos, suitable for feed, Stories, or Reels placements.
• Carousel ads: A swipeable series of images or videos displayed as individual ‘carousel’ cards. Each card within a Facebook carousel ad is linked to a specific product or service page.
• Collection ads: Interactive ads powered by Meta’s Instant Experience, allowing users to explore multiple products directly within the ad.

Facebook Ad Creative Guidelines

To ensure your ad creatives display perfectly across placements, it’s essential to follow Facebook’s ad size requirements. Ad formats are available in 1:1 (square), 9:16 (vertical), and 16:9 (horizontal) ratios, each designed to optimize visibility and engagement. 

Pay attention to the Facebook ad specifications so your ads fit seamlessly on your audience’s devices without being obscured by UI elements.

Another key consideration when designing your Facebook ad is the “safe zone.” Keeping essential elements like calls-to-action (CTAs) and key messages within this area ensures they remain fully visible to your audience.

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Further Reading

Facebook Reels Safe Zone Guide

With short-form video content basically taking over social media advertising, you must always make sure your critical messaging is within the safe zone. See the Meta Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok safe zone guide to help you post your ads without worrying about your profile picture, ad copy, or even the like and share buttons covering it up. 

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Additionally, text limitations for Facebook ads vary depending on the format and placement. Make sure your ad copy aligns with these requirements:

Available Campaign Objectives for Facebook Advertising

Facebook ads offer advertisers flexibility, allowing businesses to target audiences at every stage of the customer journey—from awareness to conversions. This makes them a powerful tool, especially during peak advertising seasons like Mother’s Day, the 4th of July, or Q4 holidays.

For example, Q4 holiday ad trends suggest launching awareness campaigns as early as September, followed by post-engagement campaigns through October to December, to maximize results during the busiest shopping season.

To make the most of your Facebook ad strategy, here are the key campaign objectives available:

Advantage+ Features from Meta Ads Manager

Meta’s Advantage+ suite was introduced as part of Facebook’s effort to leverage AI technology and enhance the advertiser experience. Initially launched for Shopping campaigns to improve the discovery of e-commerce ads and boost sales, it has since expanded to offer more solutions for Facebook advertisers:

Advantage+ Audience: This feature extends your audience targeting beyond the parameters you initially set, using Meta’s AI to discover and engage with new, highly relevant users.

Advantage+ Placements: For targeted campaigns, manual placements allow precise control over where your ads appear. As for broader reach, Meta Advantage+ Placements automatically optimizes your ads to appear in the most engaging placements across the Facebook app and the Meta Audience Network.

When you run Facebook ads, your Facebook video ads and image ads can appear selectively or across all of the following placements, depending on which placements work best:

Advantage+ Creative: At the ad level, Advantage+ offers tools to enhance creative assets, ensuring they resonate with audiences. These include:

• Image templates
• Image brightness and contrast
• Music
• 3D animation
• Image expansion
• Image animation

Advantage+ App Campaigns: Designed for app install campaigns, this feature streamlines ad delivery by minimizing inputs for Facebook targeting, campaign creation, and management.

Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns: The pioneering feature of the Advantage+ suite, this tool is tailored for Facebook Shops and e-commerce businesses. Advertisers have reported a 17% decrease in CPA (cost per action) and a 32% increase in ROAS (return on ad spend), proving its effectiveness as an AI solution for advertisers.

Preparing for Your Facebook Ad Campaign

Now that you’re familiar with the fundamentals of Facebook advertising, it’s time to focus on the essential preparations for a successful campaign. While the Meta Business Suite and Facebook’s AI tools simplify the process, understanding the finer details is key to maximizing ad performance.

Proper preparation ensures that your campaigns are effective and aligned with your business goals. Let’s examine the key steps before launching your Facebook advertising campaigns.

Audience Insights and Targeting

As of early 2024, Facebook has over 190 million users in the U.S., and this number is expected to grow by 9% year-over-year through 2025. But with such a large audience, it’s crucial not to target everyone. 

Wasted Facebook ad budget is a real risk if you don’t properly define and target your audience. Know the tools within Facebook Ads Manager to help you identify and target the right people.

Know your current audience with Audience Insights

Rather than relying on guesswork, start by using Facebook Audience Insights to gather data on your current audience. Here are the three key sections to explore on the Audience Insights page:

• Demographics: This section reveals key details such as age, gender, and location of your current audience. For example, if your content resonates with users primarily in Chicago, and you’re a local retail brand, you’ll want to focus on targeting Chicago and surrounding areas for better ad relevance.

• Trends: This tab helps identify organic engagement patterns. You can see when engagement spikes, such as during a specific promotional period, such as the Super Bowl. If you notice a seasonal uptick in Q1, for example, you might adjust your strategy by ramping up your budget from Q2 to Q4 for more impactful campaigns.

• Potential audience: This section shows broader audience segments who have not yet engaged with your brand but could be a good fit for your ads. If you’re currently reaching the 35-44 age group but want to expand to younger audiences like 18-24-year-olds, the potential audience data will help you determine whether this demographic is worth targeting. While not an exact prediction of success, it provides valuable insights to help guide your targeting decisions.

Reach previously engaged audiences with Retargeting tools

One of the strengths of social media advertising is the ability to retarget audiences who have already interacted with your brand. With the Facebook retargeting feature, you can reach these users based on specific actions they’ve taken across various platforms:

• Visitors to your website or specific landing pages
• Users who added items to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase
• Engagement with your Facebook page content
• Existing customer database (uploaded as a file)
• Lookalike audiences: New users who share similar characteristics to your existing customer base

Facebook Cost and Bidding Optimization

Facebook advertising costs can escalate quickly if not carefully managed. While Advantage+ provides a convenient, automated solution, relying exclusively on Meta’s technology for auction bids may not always yield the most effective outcomes.

Here’s how to better optimize your bidding strategy:

Campaign budget optimization (CBO) vs. manual bid adjustments

With Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO), Meta’s AI automatically allocates your campaign budget across different ad sets based on real-time performance.

How to calculate the cost of Facebook ads?

Facebook ads cost can vary based on your campaign goals, and understanding how to measure these costs is essential for optimizing efficiency. Here are some of the core Facebook cost metrics and how to compute them: 

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Further Reading

Inaccurate Facebook ROAS? Here’s What You Should Look For

To fix discrepancies in your Facebook ad ROAS, start by uncovering the underlying issue. Understanding the cause will help you apply the right solutions and regain dependable ROAS tracking.

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Cost and Performance Benchmarks for Facebook Ads

It’s important that before you fully curate your media plan for your 2025 Facebook campaign, you have a set of benchmarks against which to measure your performance. Understanding industry standards and comparing them to what your ad agency can deliver ensures you maximize your ad spend efficiently.

We analyzed our US campaigns using Strike Social’s in-house proprietary tool, Campaign Lab, to give you the latest cost and performance benchmarks for Facebook ads. See the varying trends based on each campaign objective from our Facebook campaigns:

While these benchmarks represent typical Facebook performance year-round, be mindful of seasonal spikes—particularly during Q4 holidays or U.S. election years, when political ad spending can drive up auction prices. To avoid these price surges, we recommend launching awareness campaigns earlier, especially during peak advertising periods.

Download the Strike Social Facebook Benchmark Report

Gain valuable takeaways from last year’s Facebook advertising trends, highlighting the key takeaways that shaped industry benchmarks. Download the Strike Social data and trends report to enhance your Facebook ad campaigns, helping you achieve your desired results.

Download the report

Maintaining Brand Safety in Facebook Ad Campaigns

One of the biggest risks in Facebook advertising is having your brand associated with harmful or explicit content. This can damage your brand’s reputation and undermine the effectiveness of your ads.

In addition to optimizing ad performance and costs, advertisers must ensure their ads aren’t displayed alongside inappropriate or exploitative content. This is where brand safety on Facebook plays a vital role.

Brand safety and suitability controls

Inventory filter: Facebook’s inventory filter is the first layer of brand safety. Similar to YouTube’s inventory types, it offers three options: Expanded, Moderate, and Limited inventory.

The recommended and default setting is Moderate inventory, which ensures ads only appear in safe content. Expanded inventory, while still filtered to comply with Facebook’s Content Monetization Policies, allows for a broader reach.

Publisher block lists: You can create a block list to exclude specific Facebook and Instagram pages, profiles, and apps from showing your ads. These lists can be uploaded as .csv or .txt files, with a maximum of 10,000 publishers per upload. However, do not overly narrow your list, as excluding too many publishers could limit your ad reach.

Content type exclusions: You can exclude your ads from appearing on non-partnered pages or profiles that have not signed up for Facebook’s monetization program. Your ads will only be shown on content produced by registered, vetted Facebook partners, subject to more stringent oversight. Content type exclusions can apply to live videos, in-stream ads, and Facebook Reels ads.

In addition to these advertiser controls, Facebook also enforces brand safety through its Community Standards and Guidelines, Content Review Teams, and quarterly Community Standards Enforcement reports, another measure the platform takes to maintain a safe advertising environment.

Facebook Campaign Guide from Setup to Publish

All set with the Facebook ads preparation! Here are the steps from start to finish to successfully launch and publish your Facebook campaign:

1. Register your Facebook page as a business account. Then, set up your Business Manager account and Ad Account to proceed.

2. Visit Facebook Ads Manager and login to your account.

3. Click the +Create button to start a new campaign.

4. Choose the appropriate campaign objective that aligns with your goals (e.g., Awareness, Traffic, Conversions), then click Continue.

5. Under the Campaign level setup, configure the following:

• Campaign Name: Use an organized naming convention for easy identification (e.g., [Campaign Duration – Objective – Product], such as “Jan-Dec 2025 – Impressions – Sleepwear”).
• Special Ad Categories (Optional; As applicable)
• Advantage+ Campaign Budget: Toggle this for automated budget management or leave it off for more manual control.
• A/B Test (Optional; As applicable)

6. On the Ad Set level, you can create multiple ad sets under one campaign. Here are the details you need to set up:

• Ad Set Name: Make it easy to identify (e.g., “2-Piece Pajama Sets – Images” if your ad set uses image creatives).
• Performance Goal: Set your desired campaign objective (e.g., clicks, impressions, conversions).
  • Facebook Page and/or Instagram Account: Choose the page or profile that will display your ads.
  • Cost Per Result: Set your auction bid if you have a target CPM or cost benchmark.
  • Frequency Cap (for Awareness campaigns): Control how often your ad is shown to each unique user.

• Dynamic Creative (Optional; As applicable)
• Budget & Schedule:
  • Budget: Select either a daily or lifetime budget for your campaign.
  • Schedule: Set a campaign start and end date.
  • Budget Scheduling: If applicable, adjust budget settings for specific times or dates to boost performance.
• Audience Controls:
  • Locations
  • Age
  • Audience list exclusions
• Advantage+ Audience: Use Meta’s AI to add audience segments based on interests, behaviors, and demographics. Click on Save audience to reuse the same audience segment for other campaigns.
• Placements:
  • Advantage+ Placements: Let Meta decide where to show your ads across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.
  • Manual Placements: If you prefer control, select specific placements like Facebook feed or Messenger.

7. Lastly, under the Ad level, you can now set up the ad creatives. Here are the items to set up:

• Ad Name
• Partnership Ad: Toggle this on if you are partnering with influencers or content creators to use a branded content ad.
• Identity: Verify the Facebook page under which your ad will appear.
• Create Ad: Choose your ad creative. Upload existing content or create a new one, ensuring it meets the recommended Facebook ad sizes.
• Languages (Optional; As applicable)
• Tracking: For ads with landing page redirects, implement UTM tracking via Facebook Events Manager.

8. On the right side of the screen, view a preview of your ad to check that it appears correctly across your selected placements on Facebook and Instagram.

9. Once everything looks good, click Publish to launch your campaign.

The ad review process typically takes up to 24 hours but can be faster. Review common reasons for ad rejection to avoid delays and make sure your campaign goes live without issues.

How a Facebook Ads Agency Can Help Manage and Optimize Your Campaigns

Trust us, setting up and launching the campaign is the easy part. What can be excruciating and require tireless work is monitoring and optimizing your Facebook campaigns as they run. 

Ad spending can inflate, performance can slow down, and audience targeting may need to be refined. These tasks require watchful eyes 24/7, and a Facebook ad agency is just what you might need.

Working with a Meta Certified Company

Strike Social is a Meta Certified Company, a prestigious recognition highlighting our expertise as an AdTech Software with a Service (SWaS) business partner. This certification reflects Meta’s trust in our ability to manage and optimize Facebook ad campaigns effectively. With over a decade of experience, we offer in-depth knowledge of Facebook advertising’s nuances, ensuring we can tackle any challenge that arises.

Our Meta-certified media buyers and planners are trained to execute campaigns with precision, leveraging their expertise to deliver outstanding results for our clients.

Integration with Meta API via Campaign Lab

Campaign Lab is a powerful tool that supports our team’s optimization efforts. Powered by AI, it provides real-time performance insights and optimization alerts, but the expertise of our media buying team remains essential to make the best use of this data.

With Campaign Lab’s alerts, we quickly identify areas for improvement, whether it’s adjusting bids or refining performance. Thanks to 24/7 optimization by the Strike Social team, we can immediately implement these changes so your campaigns achieve the best results at the most cost-effective rates.

Success in Facebook Ad Campaigns

To demonstrate how a Facebook ads agency can drive effective campaign management and optimization, nothing illustrates this better than tangible results. Here’s how our team applied tailored strategies to lower costs and boost engagement:

Your 2025 Facebook Ads Strategies in One Place

Looking for all the essential insights for your 2025 Facebook ad campaign in one place? Strike Social’s blog covers everything from Facebook ads to strategies for other social media platforms. Stay up-to-date with the latest trends, data, and guides on Facebook advertising by subscribing to our newsletter.

Ready to start your 2025 Facebook campaign? Download our Facebook Ad Sizes Guide here to get a head start.

The post Complete Guide to Facebook Advertising in 2025 appeared first on Strike Social.

How to Fix Facebook Ad ROAS Errors

The first step in effectively addressing inaccurate Facebook ad ROAS is identifying the root cause of the issue. Once you pinpoint the problem, you can implement the necessary fixes to restore reliable and accurate ROAS tracking.

One of the initial indicators that you need to fix Facebook ROAS tracking is when you calculate your revenue generated divided by your ad spend, and the result displayed on the Meta Ads Manager or your campaign dashboard does not match. Let’s take a moment to clarify how your Facebook advertising costs, particularly ROAS in Facebook ads, is calculated:

How is Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) on Facebook Calculated?

To compute your ROAS from Facebook ads, use our calculator below:

This formula is a basic approach for computing your Facebook ads ROAS, particularly for a straightforward e-commerce business where only revenue and ad spend need to be considered.

Example: A fitness apparel brand launches a Facebook ad campaign to promote its new line of workout gear, priced at $100 per unit. The campaign leads to 30 sales.

• Total Revenue: 30 sales × $100 = $3,000
• Ad Spend: $1,000

Without using the Facebook ROAS calculator, the calculation is as follows:

ROAS = Total revenue generated / Ad spend
ROAS = $3,000 / $1,000
ROAS = 3:1 or 3x

In this case, the brand’s ROAS is 3x (or 300%), meaning it generates three dollars in revenue for every dollar spent on Facebook advertising.

For other campaign objectives, the formula for calculating Return on Ad Spend can differ:

Purchase ROAS

• If your e-commerce shop is directly implemented in your Meta platforms, such as Shops, Marketplace, Pages, or Messenger, you should calculate your ROAS based on purchases. 
• The computation for Purchase ROAS should be the purchase conversion value divided by the amount spent on this specific campaign. The purchase conversion value is simply the total amount of purchases generated from sales you acquired on the aforementioned Meta apps. 
• Try out this Facebook ROAS calculator for direct purchases and compare the numbers shown in the Facebook Ads Manager to check for accuracy: 

Example: A footwear brand utilized the Collection ad format with Instant Experience to directly attribute sales from their Facebook ads. They launched a sustainable footwear line, pricing each pair at $95. The ad campaign resulted in 50 sales within one week.

• Total Revenue from Meta Sales: 50 sales × $95 = $4,750
• Ad Spend: $500

Here’s how Purchase ROAS is calculated:

Purchase ROAS = Total revenue generated from Facebook sales / Ad spend
Purchase ROAS = $4,750 / $500
Purchase ROAS = 9.5:1 or 9.5x

For this brand, the Purchase ROAS is 9.5x, meaning they earned 9.5 times their ad spend in revenue from the 7-day run of their Facebook campaign.

Website Purchase ROAS

• If your Facebook ads direct audiences to your website for purchases, then the ROAS formula is based on the total value of website purchases (acquired from the specific Facebook ads or campaign) divided by the ad or campaign spending.
• This requires setting up a Meta Pixel or Conversions API to ensure Meta Ads Manager properly records the correct value associated with each website purchase from your campaign. 
• To determine if you need to fix Facebook ROAS tracking, use this calculator to compute your Website Purchase ROAS:

Example: An eyewear brand uses multiple social media networks for advertising, including Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. To accurately track sales and traffic from each platform, all ads are directed to the website using proper UTMs. Based on their tracking system, the following website purchases were generated from Facebook ads over a 30-day campaign:

• Total Revenue from Website Purchases: 425 sales × $150 = $63,750
• Ad Spend: $10,890

Using the Website Purchase ROAS calculator, here’s how the return is calculated:

Website Purchase ROAS = Total revenue from website purchases / Ad spend
Website Purchase ROAS = $63,750 / $10,890
Website Purchase ROAS = 5.85:1 or 5.85x

This means the eyewear brand achieved a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) of 5.85x, generating $5.85 in revenue for every dollar spent on Facebook advertising during the campaign.

Mobile App Purchase ROAS

• For app advertisements on Facebook that don’t directly attribute sales, you can still track ROAS through in-app purchases.
• Meta refers to these as “shared items,” which are products or services shared between businesses to create ad campaigns. Instead of focusing on clicks or views, the emphasis is on actions taken with purchases of specific in-app items originating from Facebook ads.
• This will be recorded by connecting the mobile app through the Meta SDK, mobile measurement partner, or other third-party API connections, allowing Facebook Ads Manager to accurately calculate the value from ad conversions.
• To compute this, you need the total value of ad conversions from in-app purchases (acquired from your Facebook campaign) divided by the ad/campaign spend. Use the Facebook ROAS calculator below to see if your data matches: 

Example: A video editing app is advertising through Facebook Reels ads. While the app is free to download, it’s offering a discounted 3-month subscription for new sign-ups, which allows access to professional features. The discounted subscription is $99, and 280 users signed up by clicking on its Reels ads:

• Total Revenue from In-App Purchases: 280 subscriptions × $99 = $27,720
• Ad Spend: $3,800

Using the Facebook ROAS calculator, the Return on Ad Spend is calculated as follows:

Mobile App Purchase ROAS = Total revenue from in-app purchases / Ad spend
Mobile App Purchase ROAS = $27,720 / $3,800
Mobile App Purchase ROAS = 7.29:1 or 7.29x

This means the brand achieved a ROAS of 7.29x, effectively earning 7.29 times its ad spend by promoting the app subscription through paid ads on Reels.

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Further Reading

How to Generate Sales from Social Media Campaigns

With the right approach, increasing sales through social media advertising is possible. As social media campaigns become more influential during major retail events like Halloween and Thanksgiving, brands have significant opportunities to utilize these platforms and enhance ad conversions.

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Common Reasons Why Your Facebook Ad ROAS Might Be Inaccurate

Now that you understand how Return On Ad Spend is computed, you should have a clearer vision of your ideal Facebook ROAS figure. If it’s significantly off from your expectations, consider these common reasons why your Facebook reports might not be providing the results you desire:

Discrepancies Between Facebook and Your Site

One of the most common issues affecting your Facebook ROAS occurs when the purchase value reported on Meta Ads Manager does not align with the actual value recorded on your website. Resolving this requires thoroughly comparing data across multiple platforms to ensure consistency. Here are some steps to identify and fix these discrepancies:

• Cross-check Facebook Conversion Value vs. Actual Purchase Price on Your Website: Compare the conversion value reported by Facebook Ads Manager with the actual purchase amounts posted on your website.
  • Example: You previously promoted a product with a 20% discount during your back-to-school sale and now with a 30% discount as indicated in your current ads. Your website may show the purchase value based on the original price of $100, reflecting the 30% discount, which makes it $70. If Facebook Ads Manager still lists the conversion value as $80 (20% discount), this will lead to a $10 discrepancy in your ROAS computation.

• Compare Facebook Conversion Value with E-commerce Platform Reports: If your site runs on platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce, verify that the revenue figures reported there match what Facebook is tracking.
  • Example: Say you’re offering a product for $50 on your Shopify clothing store's website, but you’ve applied a custom field for a bundled discount. This will effectively reduce the price to $45. Facebook may still record the full $50 as the conversion value if the discount wasn’t communicated through the API, skewing your ROAS calculations by $5 per transaction.

• Cross-check Facebook Conversion Value with Google Analytics or Other Analytics Tools: If you use tools like Google Analytics or other third-party systems for conversion tracking, cross-reference these reports with your Facebook data.
  • Example: For your Amazon Prime Day campaign in October, you promote a $120 product at a limited-time offer of $100. Facebook Ads Manager shows 30 purchases at the discounted price, reporting $3,000 in revenue. In contrast, Google Analytics reports only $2,700 in revenue for the same period.
  • Upon investigating, you discover that Google Analytics attributes some purchases to direct traffic, while Facebook claims them under the ad campaign. This $300 difference could be due to the differing attribution models used by Facebook (last-click or view-through) and Google Analytics (last-non-direct click).

Improper Meta Pixel Tracking

Further investigation is needed if the error isn’t apparent in the reported conversion values. One of the first essential steps when running Facebook ads is to confirm that events such as website visits, clicks, and submissions (like contact forms or purchases) are tracked accurately. If the pixel is not installed correctly or the events it tracks are misconfigured, reported ad conversions and ROAS discrepancies can occur.

How to Troubleshoot:

Using the Meta Pixel Helper

1. Install the Meta Pixel Helper, a Google Chrome extension that checks if your pixel is firing correctly. (Note: Ensure both your Google Chrome browser and the extension are updated to avoid issues like Chrome crashing.)

2. Open a new tab and go to your website. Look for the Meta Pixel Helper icon alongside your other extensions in the top browser bar.

3. If it’s showing a number, your Meta Pixel is being recognized.

Using the Events Manager

1. Go to Events Manager, hover over the left-side menu, and select Data Sources. Choose the appropriate pixel and click on Test Events.

2. In the dropdown menu, select “Confirm your website’s events are set up correctly.” Enter your website or product URL and click “Open Website” to launch it in a new tab.

3. Attempt a test purchase or initiate a cart checkout. Return to the Events Manager window to ensure that all events, from page views to clicks and submissions, are recognized.

4. If your purchase is not recorded as a website event or other events are missing from the “Events Received” section, contact your agency or campaign manager to coordinate with your website developer for proper pixel setup.

Incorrect Conversion Value Reporting

In addition to correctly setting up the Meta Pixel, the conversion value for each sale or purchase must also be properly configured. While this primarily falls on the website developer, knowing which codes should be installed alongside the Meta Pixel is helpful for correctly recording purchase amounts as they are processed.

1. Navigate to your product’s thank you or confirmation page (where customers land after completing payment). Right-click on the page and select Inspect.

2. The HTML code will display on the right side of your Chrome browser. Search for the words “Meta Pixel.”

3. Expand the code to locate the corresponding event code (e.g., the standard event code for Purchase on the order confirmation page). If the code or value is missing or incorrect, contact your agency or campaign manager to coordinate with your website developer.

Delayed Conversion Reporting

77% of marketers today believe that last-click attribution, while the easiest, is not the most effective way to track campaign performance. However, for conversion tracking and calculating Facebook ROAS specifically, you must monitor attribution windows to avoid missing purchases that occur during your campaign period (even during the campaign cooldown period).

Facebook's default attribution window (7 days click, 28 days view) may not capture all conversions, especially for longer sales cycles. Users may click on an ad but complete their purchase days or weeks later, leading to an underreported ROAS if the attribution window is not appropriately set.

How to Fix Facebook ROAS Tracking:

Adjust your attribution settings to account for delayed conversions. Facebook allows you to customize attribution windows (e.g., 1-day click, 7-day click) based on your sales cycle.

By extending the attribution window, you can capture more conversions that occur after the initial ad engagement.

Example:

High-end electronics are usually not purchased within the same day after a user clicks on an ad. For instance, a potential customer clicks on your Facebook ad for a $1,000 laptop but doesn’t immediately make the purchase. Instead, they spend several days comparing options before finally completing the purchase 12 days later. 

In this case, Facebook’s default 7-day click window is insufficient for capturing the delayed conversion. The solution is to extend the attribution window to 28-day click to make sure purchases made up to four weeks after the ad click are counted.

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Further Reading

Understanding ROI vs. ROAS on YouTube

The key distinction between ROI and ROAS is that ROI reflects your profit after deducting expenses, while ROAS shows a ratio comparing revenue to the amount spent on ads. Learn which metric best captures your YouTube ad performance and overall campaign effectiveness.

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Steps to Prevent Issues in Facebook ROAS Reporting

While we’ve outlined common causes of inaccuracies in Facebook ads ROAS, it’s important to recognize that occasional discrepancies are inevitable. However, with the right measures, you can achieve 90% or higher accuracy in conversion tracking and reporting. 

Here’s how you can proactively prevent significant issues in your Facebook ROAS calculations:

Ensure Proper Tracking Setup

• Make sure Meta Pixel and Conversions API (if applicable) are implemented correctly to track customer actions from different touchpoints, providing more accurate attribution of sales and conversions. Familiarize yourself with the Facebook Events Manager and Conversions API Gateway so you can occasionally touch base at the ROAS computation and tell right away if it needs to be fixed.
• For advanced tracking setups, integrating your tracking tools with Google Tag Manager (GTM) offers greater flexibility and granularity, helping capture every action that leads to conversions.

Getting Accurate ROAS on Facebook Ads For Informed Decision-Making

The Facebook ROAS might appear as just another line in your report or presentation, but it’s a key factor in determining whether your ad spend delivers value. It helps you make informed decisions about your advertising budget, including how much to allocate to Facebook and what conversions you can expect based on this data.

Strike Social specializes in reducing costs while delivering outstanding results. To learn how our SwaS (software with a service) innovation can produce measurable outcomes for your campaigns, contact us for a personalized walkthrough of our technology and services.

The post Facebook Ad ROAS Not Accurate? Here’s How to Fix Tracking Errors appeared first on Strike Social.

What Are the Basic Metrics in Facebook Ads That Advertisers Should Know?

To determine the effectiveness of your Facebook advertising efforts, you must know the different Facebook ad metrics available on the platform. Whether you are doing organic posts or paid Facebook advertising, you should be able to differentiate which Facebook metrics you should be tracking.

What Are Facebook Ad Metrics?

Before we get into the details of which Facebook ad metrics you should keep an eye on for your campaigns, let’s establish a clear understanding of the definitions:

Facebook Metrics: These are all the measurable data points on Facebook related to your Page, posts, and ads. They provide insights into your Facebook presence, audience, and overall performance.

Facebook Engagement Metrics: These focus on audience engagement with your posts, such as likes, comments, and shares. You can find these within your Facebook profile’s dashboard.

Facebook Advertising Metrics: These are the Facebook KPIs to note when running paid ad campaigns on Facebook. These can be found within the Meta Ads Manager.

Dissecting the Different Facebook Advertising Metrics

Within Meta Ads Manager, you can select predefined columns that display the specific Facebook ad metrics you want to observe on your dashboard. Additionally, you can customize the columns based on your preference.

Let’s break them down to analyze each metric further.

Performance Metrics

Your Facebook ad performance metrics represent an overview of your campaign’s reach and visibility. These metrics assess how many people your ads reach and how often they are seen. Your performance metrics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Reach 
• Impressions
• Delivery
• Results (based on campaign objective, e.g., if the campaign is running on Leads objective, Results will show the number of website leads)

Engagement Metrics 

Paid ads on Facebook appear on users’ feeds, similar to regular posts. Users can also interact with them via reactions, comments, and shares.

These metrics focus on how users interact with your ads, indicating their level of interest and responsiveness. While similar to the Facebook engagement metrics we mentioned earlier, these are specifically related to your paid ads. These are the Facebook ad metrics included in this view:

For Facebook ad formats with video ads, here are the video engagement metrics you should monitor:

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Further Reading

The Complete List of Facebook Ad Sizes for Different Formats

Before starting your Facebook campaigns, one of the top priorities should be ensuring your ad creative fits the correct format. Check the most up-to-date ad sizes for each Facebook advertising format and placement.

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Conversion Metrics

These metrics correlate directly to your campaign objective and are ideal for evaluating Facebook campaigns aimed at generating leads or sales. They help determine if your ads achieve the desired outcomes and if your ad spend is cost-effective. 

Common Facebook ad metrics in this view include:

Cost Metrics

Cost metrics focus on the financial aspects of your Facebook ad campaign, helping you understand your spending and the efficiency of that spending. These metrics allow you to analyze cost rates at various levels. 

For example, you can analyze CPM against reach and frequency for Awareness, CPC against link clicks or website visits for Traffic campaigns, and CPA against leads or website actions for Leads campaigns. Key cost metrics include:

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Further Reading

Facebook Advertising Costs and Performance Benchmarks

To ensure your Facebook advertising costs stay within budget, explore the various expenses to consider and review Strike Social’s current benchmarks to assess where you stand.

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The Right Facebook Ads Metrics for Different Campaign Objectives

By discerning what each Facebook ad metric corresponds to, what it represents, and which category it belongs to, you’re on the road to identifying which metrics align with your campaign goals. 

Let’s explore various Facebook advertising objectives and the metrics you should focus on to optimize your campaigns accordingly.

Facebook Ad Metrics FAQs

Why are Facebook metrics important?

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• Media buying teams must monitor the right Facebook metrics to optimize campaigns effectively. By analyzing these metrics, teams can make informed decisions to improve their campaigns’ outcomes, such as adjusting ad set budgets, refining audience targeting, and implementing strategic modifications.

• Other teams involved in the advertising process, such as sales teams, also benefit from tracking these metrics. For example, in a back-to-school sales campaign, the sales team can gain valuable insights into the number of purchases attributed to social media advertising. This information allows them to assess the cost-effectiveness of Facebook advertising compared to other advertising mediums. Based on this analysis, they can recommend reallocating budgets or increasing investments in Facebook advertising to maximize its effectiveness in driving sales.

How do I get Facebook metrics?

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• The metrics in Facebook ads can be accessed through the Meta Ads Manager. Although the Meta Ads Manager is a combined ad management and reporting platform for the entire Meta advertising network, only Facebook metrics should appear in your Ads Manager view if you are solely running ads on Facebook. Furthermore, access is limited to the Facebook account associated with the Ads Account where your campaigns are configured.

• Strike Social clients receive these metrics through regular reports from our media buying and client services teams. Alternatively, clients can access a regularly updated dashboard, eliminating the need for weekly or monthly reports. 

• This customized dashboard is tailored to each client’s business model and connected via API integration to ensure that updates from different advertising platforms are reflected immediately.

• This allows for frequent checks and real-time insights into the performance of ongoing Facebook ad campaigns.

How are Facebook metrics calculated?

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With Meta Ads Manager, you don’t have to make manual computations to calculate the Facebook ad metrics you need to monitor.

To ensure the accuracy of the results displayed in Meta Ads Manager, keep these points in mind:

• Verify its proper installation after adding your Meta Pixel to the brand’s website. Use your browser’s Meta Pixel Helper extension to check in real-time if the Meta Pixel is detected.
  
  Once confirmed,  go to the Events Manager to set up Custom Events. For example, when running a Leads campaign, ensure that events like contact form submissions, email clicks, and phone clicks are tracked. This lets Meta record all these actions as Leads in your Ads Manager view.

• If you run a Collection ad format for a sales campaign, you will be asked to create an Instant Experience ad where you will list your products, the link to its Amazon shopping page, for example, and the price for each product. To ensure accurate Purchase ROAS calculation in Meta Ads Manager, assign the correct value to each product in your collection ads so that Meta can calculate this for you.

Importance of Aligning Your Campaigns with the Right Facebook Ad Metrics

As media buyers, it is imperative to acknowledge the different perspectives to consider when learning about Facebook ads reporting and the relevant metrics. While we have detailed the fundamental Facebook ad metrics to track based on your campaign objectives, it is equally important for you to align your reports with the team to whom you are presenting them.

For example, sales teams may prioritize results and purchases, whereas advertising teams may focus on costs and efficiency. With a clear understanding of which Facebook ad metrics matter and how they are interrelated, this aspect of your reporting should become clearer.

Get expert campaign management and efficient reporting with Strike Social. With over a decade of successful paid social media advertising and our proprietary tool, Strike Social reaches your target audiences precisely and optimizes campaigns around the clock. As industry leaders in paid social media advertising, our seasoned media buying teams help brands achieve their objectives, enhancing performance while reducing costs.

Discover how our technology can deliver better results for your brand. Fill out the form below for a personalized walkthrough from one of our sales team members. Smarter media buying starts today.

The post Which Facebook Ad Metrics Should You Use to Measure Ad Performance? appeared first on Strike Social.

This post was updated in May 2025 to provide you with the latest information.

Display Your Ads Suitably with the Right Facebook Advertising Formats

With so many different Facebook ad formats, deciding which is right for your brand can be tough. You might be tempted to try them all, but each Facebook ad campaign objective has specific formats best suited for it. With this guide, you won’t have to second-guess your choices. Below are the different types of Facebook ad formats you should know to help you explore and utilize them effectively for your campaign objectives:

Selecting the Optimal Facebook Ad Format for Your Campaigns

If you’re familiar with the Instagram advertising formats, you might assume Facebook’s are similar. However, Facebook offers a much wider range of ad formats you may not have noticed while browsing your news feed or Messenger. Let’s take a closer look:

Facebook Feed Ads

• These ads are prominently displayed within the user’s news feed, blending with organic content. They can be presented in various ad formats, including images, videos, carousels, or collection.
• Feed ads are one of the most common ad placements utilized on Facebook.

Facebook In-Stream Video Ads

• Like YouTube in-stream ads, these are 5-15-second video ads that can be played before, during, or after a video is played within the user’s feed.
• These ads can also be showcased during live streams of selected Facebook partner creators.

Facebook Video Feed Ads

• The Video Feed is a distinct section within the Facebook app on mobile that allows users to explore an array of video content (separate from the Reels feed). Akin to the Facebook home feed, ads featured within the Video Feed are integrated alongside organic video posts presented to users.

Facebook Marketplace Ads

• To distinguish them from promoted Marketplace listings, Facebook Marketplace ads are an alternative placement for ads displayed in the Feed when the Marketplace search is pertinent to the product, and the user is a target audience.
• When a user searches for a product in the Facebook Marketplace, a paid ad placement in the Marketplace will resemble a listing but will include a “Sponsored” tag.

Facebook Stories Ads

• While navigating through the Stories of your friends or followed pages, Facebook Stories advertisements will appear in between. These are specifically designed for all Facebook campaign objectives and are intended to direct engaged users to a designated landing page or shopping link provided by the advertiser.

Facebook Search Results Ads

• Similarly to Facebook Marketplace ads, these are displayed within Facebook Search Results and will appear when relevant to the search terms entered by the user. 
• These ads are designed to integrate with the specific search results, assuming a similar tile format as other search results but featuring a distinct “Sponsored” label to differentiate them from other results.

Facebook Reels Ads

• While browsing the Facebook Reels feed, Reels ads will appear alongside Reels posted by your Facebook friends and other content creators. These ads can appear post-loop or immediately after an organic Reel is done playing.
• As with any Reels content on Facebook, audiences can comment on, like, view, share, and/or skip them.

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Further Reading

How to Set Up Facebook Reels Ads

When advertising on Facebook Reels, it is important to adhere to the technical specifications to ensure that your ads comply with the platform’s requirements and are delivered efficiently to your target audience. Increase the chances of your Reels ads being approved and can deliver content that is visually appealing, engaging, and effective.

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Facebook Reels Overlay Ads

• Ads can also appear in Facebook Reels as Overlay Ads. These ads show up during the playback of an organic Reel on a user’s device, presenting as clickable banners that, upon interaction, redirect users to a predetermined landing page or link associated with the advertiser.

Facebook Business Explore Ads

• Facebook Business Explore ads are displayed whenever a user engages with an organic post from a business entity and subsequently scrolls to view additional posts from businesses operating within the same category or industry.
• In this view, users are presented with various unsponsored posts and sponsored Facebook ads from businesses similar to the post initially clicked upon.

Facebook Right Column Ads (Desktop Only)

• When your audience scrolls through your Facebook feed on the desktop website, they will see an image ad on the right side of the screen, along with their contacts and, if applicable, any Facebook Pages they manage.

Facebook Groups Feed Ads

• Furthermore, ads can also be displayed within the news feed for Facebook Groups.
• This feature is compatible with video and carousel ads, allowing your Facebook ad campaigns to be presented to groups with relevant demographics, interests, and behaviors following the targeting specifications you selected for your advertising campaigns.

Messenger Stories Ads

• Apart from the Facebook platform itself, another ad placement opportunity exists for brands within Messenger. At present, Messenger Stories advertisements are exclusively accessible for the following campaign objectives:
  • Conversions
  • App installations
  • Traffic
  • Awareness

How Do These Ad Formats Appear on Facebook

To get a better idea of what these different Facebook ad types look like within the Meta advertising network, here are some visual examples:

Image Ads

Video Ads

Carousel Ads

Collection Ads

Choosing the Best Facebook Ad Format for Your Campaign Objectives

Not all Facebook ad formats may be compatible with and align with your target audience’s preferences when they seek your product or service on the platform. Consequently, we have demonstrated how these formats appear on Facebook’s desktop or mobile application. 

Now that you are aware of the distinctions, the following are the ideal Facebook advertising formats based on the campaign objective and the intended outcome of your Facebook advertising campaigns:

Facebook Media Buyer FAQs

Getting Acquainted with Facebook Advertising Formats

Now that you’ve gained insight into how various Facebook ad formats align with campaign objectives and platform placements, you can appreciate the diversity of advertising options on Facebook. Each placement caters well to selected ad types on Facebook, which can provide a better user experience to audiences, leading to better ad performances for your campaigns. 

It’s time to move to the next part of our Facebook advertising guide: understanding the correct Facebook ad sizes and specs. This will ensure that your ads look their best when they appear on people’s screens.

The post 2025 Facebook Ad Formats to Effectively Showcase Your Ads appeared first on Strike Social.