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How To Master Facebook Ads in Just 7 Days

By Chris Shaffer •  Updated: 11/27/20 •  20 min read

Hello and welcome to 7 Days to Mastering Facebook Ads.

Today we’re going to take a look at exactly how to set up, research, build, and maintain a Facebook ad following a simple, 7-day approach. 

It’s relatively easy, straightforward, and doable. (In other words, not so advanced and confusing that you’ll be pulling your hair out and cursing at your computer screen.)

Creating Facebook Ads isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, there’s no denying that. 

But, if done well and consistently managed, they’re one of the best ways to drive potential customers to your landing page, funnel, product page, or website….and, truth be told, they’re not as difficult to create as you might imagine.

In fact, if you take your time and follow these 7 simple steps correctly, within a week, you’ll have mastered how to set up a Facebook ad and be going about the process with relative ease.

There’s minimal terminology to learn, and the technical headaches are few and far between.

We suggest you take your time and don’t rush ahead. Follow the 7 steps, one per day, and in a week, you’ll be a Facebook Ads expert. (We promise!) 

Day #1- How To Install Your Pixel

Installing a Facebook Ads Pixel is a straightforward process, especially if you’re using WordPress.

First, point your mouse to your Ads Manager, which is either ads.facebook.com or business.facebook.com 

Then look for the tab that says ‘Events Manager.’

Keep in mind that Facebook has a habit of hiding things in several different places. The Pixel setup is either going to be directly along the left-hand side, in your shortcuts at the top.

There's a little menu icon that looks like nine circles, and when you click it, it will expand out the menu. You’ll see things like account, quality, billing, brand-safe, and so forth. So click on ‘Events manager,’ and then you want to click on ‘settings.’ 

You’ll then see ‘Pixel ID,’ and you need to click on that. Clicking on it lets Facebook know that you want to copy the Pixel to your computer and place it on your clipboard. So click on Pixel.

Keep in mind that this process will vary slightly if you’re using Shopify or another website platform. 

Next, go down to the bottom of the page, left-hand side, and click ‘Plugins.’ Then, search the word ‘Facebook.’ What you want to look for is the “Official Facebook Pixel” plugin for WordPress. 

Click “Install Now’ and then ‘Activate’ and then you can click to paste in your Pixel ID. Then click ‘save changes.’ (It’s a simple copy and paste process.)

On Day #1, that’s all you need to do, install your Facebook Pixel. We suggest going through this process even if you’re not going to do Day 2 through 7. The sooner you install the Pixel, the better.

Day #1 Action Steps

Day #2- Find The Perfect Audience

Day #2 is the day we find our perfect audiences. You need to keep in mind that Facebook has different, powerful ways of targeting different people. These, however, break down into two main categories:Interest Based Audiences and Data Based Audiences

Interest Based Audiences

Interest-based audiences are people like ‘cat lovers,’ for example. These are folks on FB or IG looking at cat photos for fun, but it can be anyone based on what you’re selling.

Realistically speaking, these are the types of people you're going to be looking for 99% of the time. As your business grows and scales, you can start to focus on other audiences but, for now, interest based audiences are your bread and butter. 

Creating An Interest Based Audience

Now, grab your notebook and a pen and go inside your Facebook Ads manager. Then click on ‘menu’ and next on ‘audiences.’ Then, ‘create audiences’ and next ‘saved audiences.’

This will take you to the Detailed Targeting section of Facebook Ads. (By default, you’ll see your exact location and your native language. You can change this if you are targeting a different country or language.) 

Next, type in the Main Keyword for your market and see what comes up on the screen. Some will be pages, others will be ‘interests,’ etc. What you’re looking for are different audiences that have, at minimum, 1 million people.

Next, using your handy, dandy notebook, jot down the audiences you found that are over the 1 million people mark. Keep in mind that that can be 300 audiences long or may only be 5 or 6 audiences. The good news is that all you really need is 4 audiences, the so-called “sweet spot.” 

Behavior Based Audiences

These are audiences that are based on where people are showing up inside the internet. Just like, for example, your passport shows where you’ve traveled, your Facebook Pixel shows where you’ve been on the Internet. 

Now go back to the Audiences tab and click on ‘custom audience.’ You'll find that Facebook gives you three different ways to create behavior based audiences. 

Keep in mind that 90% of the time, you're going to rely on what potential customers have done on your website. 

Lookalike Behavior Audiences 

There are 2 different types of behavioral audiences, the actual behavioral audiences, and then the “look-alike” behavioral audiences. 

Look-alike behavioral audiences are, in a word, fantastic. These are sort of the ‘identical twins’ of the people you’re looking at as clients and customers.

The reason why they’re great is that, after you've seen everybody that has signed up for your lead magnet or bought your digital product, you can go back to Facebook at some point (a few weeks or even a few months later) and ask Facebook to find you people who look exactly like that audience.

Why? Because the chances are that if someone is very similar to your actual audience and behaves as they do, they will be much more likely to opt into your lead magnet or opt in to buy. 

So what you want to do is select your source and your country and let Facebook go out and find the 1% of people in, for example, the United States, who look and act like your best audience. 

Using look-alike audiences is very handy when you begin to scale your ads, and you're looking for more and better places to show them.

Day #2 Action Steps

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Day #3- Competitive Research

Welcome to day 3! Today you’re going to do competitive research before we start creating our ads. The reason why is that you want to see what's working in the market first. 

At this point, you should already have your offer and either digital or physical product, and your call to action. What you want to find out now is the types of images, wording, and videos working consistently on other Facebook ads

In the Facebook ads library, you can search for any ad that's currently running on Facebook. (By the way, this is the perfect location to look for lead magnets!) The ad must be currently running to be able to see how long it’s been running. 

For example, if you're in the “plant-based diet” space, and you see an ad that's been running for over a year, you know that it must be doing something well. The creative side, including content copy, pictures, videos, and so forth, must be working if it is. 

Grab your notebook and start writing down what’s working. What you’re looking for here are simply themes. You should look at 3 to 5 of your competitors to see what their theme looks like, including;

Day #3 Action Steps

Day #4- Assemble Your Pieces

Today we're going to be putting together everything you need to create your actual ad and convince people to click, purchase, fill in a form, etc.

First, You need to Create a ‘Hook.’ This is the ‘bait,’ if you will, convinces a person to do what you want them to do. (The clicking, purchasing, filling-in stuff.) Three of the easiest ways to do this include:

The question creates a hook by asking a question and seeing what the answer is. For example, “do you like watching baseball on TV?’

If a FB user answers “no” to that, then they aren’t in your audience. On the other hand, if they answer “yes,” then you’ve “hooked” them with your question and know that you can continue to advertise to them because they’re part of your target audience. 

Leaving an open loop is sort of a ‘cliffhanger’ type of deal similar to a TV show. You leave them wanting more information after being satisfied all season. For example, “Will baseball be able to survive this crisis…?”

You can also create a hook by asking a controversial question that grabs their attention. (Not too controversial, of course.) For example, “Is baseball getting too boring and stupid?”

Your task is to jot down a few different hooks based on all three in your notebook.

Getting Creative With Powerful Pictures

If you’re the kind of person that takes good notes, you should put a ‘star’ next to this. The reason why is that many people get this wrong. 

See, the images you use in your Facebook ads are essential and very powerful if used correctly.

What you want, basically, is a photo that makes people stop in their tracks and ask, “what's that?” why is that there, who the heck is that, etc. If you can do that, get someone to stop what they're doing, and take a look at the picture you have on your Facebook ad, the chance that they’ll continue and do what you want them to do is much higher. 

PRO TIP- pexels.com is an excellent resource for pictures and videos.

IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGY

Ad Campaign– The ‘bucket’ holds everything together, including the hook, creative, etc.

Ad Group– The people you want to target with your ad. (The audiences you’ve been looking at.) You want at least 4 of these interest-based audiences to start.

Ads– These are the same in every ad group. The difference is how they’re targeted.

Custom Conversion– Facebook tracks many different things, but they don’t always know what your customer has made a conversion. They filled out their contact information, for example. That’s a conversion, but FB won’t necessarily mark it as such. So, what you need to do is create a custom conversion so that you can track conversions. 

DAY #5- CREATING YOUR AD

Today is the day we’re going to (finally) create your FB Ad and send it out live to the world. The following steps are crucial to the success of your Ads.

Creating a Custom Conversion

First, we’re going to create your Custom Conversion. To do that, go back to Ads Manager, then click on ‘Create’ and then on ‘Custom Conversion.’

The first thing you want to do is name your custom conversion. Anything that relates to your ad campaign should work.

Then you need to let FB know which page indicates a conversion. That’s whatever page a potential customer is taken to once they make the conversion (so you’ll need that page’s URL).

Facebook will also ask you to assign a conversion value to that conversion. If the customer makes a purchase, the value is whatever that purchase is worth, obviously. If it's simply a lead, you can assign it a value of $1.00. Although this is an optional field, we recommend that you always fill it in. 

Setting Up Your FB Ad

Once the custom conversion is ready, it's time actually to set up your Facebook ad. You need to go back to the Ads Manager and click on ‘Create Campaign.’ Then you need to give your campaign a name, based on your particular campaign, industry, product, etc.

Next, click on the ‘Campaign Objective’ tab. 99% of the time, you’re going to optimize your campaign for conversions. (If you’re just starting, always optimize for conversions.) The reason why is that, once set, FB will go out and try to find the people who are most likely to opt-in to your FB ad!

The beauty here is that FB will then spend most of your ad campaign’s money, showing your ads to people who are more likely to opt-in. (Pretty neat, right?!) 

The reason why you don't want to leave it on “traffic” is that it doesn't really matter how much traffic actually lands on your landing page. What you’re much more interested in are the people who landed on your landing page and then clicked to give their information, purchase, or whatever. (i.e., the people who actually converted.) 

Next, turn OFF Campaign Budget Optimization. (FB likes to leave that one turned ON or enabled because they’re sneaky.) You don’t want FB to do this automatically, you want to do this manually. So, again, toggle it to OFF. (It will show as gray, not blue, on the icon.)

Next, you’re going to name the Ad Set and then name your first FB Ad. 

We suggest naming the ad set for the target audience on which it's based. For example, if it was ‘watching baseball on TV’ you can name it that. Then name the FB ad based on the creative that you’re going to use. For example, ‘baseball video’ if you’re using a baseball video as your creative.

Naming your Facebook ads this way makes it much easier to go back and maintain your ads later. 

Next, click ‘save to draft,’ which will take you to the editing page. Make sure to note that under Campaign Details, it’s been set to “Conversions” and that “Campaign Budget Optimization” is set to OFF.

Next, you want to set your custom conversion by clicking the drop-down menu and finding the custom conversion you created for this particular ad. (It Will likely show as red and not green, which is OK. It only means that you haven't had any traffic to your ad yet, which is correct.)

Setting Your Daily Budget

Facebook usually sets your daily budget at $20. However, we suggest that you start your budget at $3.00 to $5.00 a day per audience.

That way, if you have 4  audiences, you’ll be spending $20.00 total per day among all 4. (This can be changed later as you figure out how all of this works and, more importantly, which Ads are working for you.)

Picking Your Audience and Creating Your Ad.

Using the audience research tool, click on the ‘Detailed Targeting’ section, and search for the audiences you wrote down in your notebook on Day #2. Select one of them, and you’re set.

By the way, always leave ON ‘automatic placements.’ This gives FB the most places available to show the Ad. (It can be changed later if you like.)

NOTE: At the right bottom corner is a box that says both ‘Discard Draft’ and ‘Publish. DO NOT CLICK EITHER OF THESE. Instead, at the top, middle of the page, click “1 Ad”. This will take you directly into the ad creation screen. Next:

Once all this is in place, you're technically done, but, again, do not click on either of the “discard draft” or “publish” icons in the lower right-hand corner of the page. Instead, to the left, click on the open, large blank space. This will take you back to the Campaign Settings page. 

Next, click on ‘Ad Sets,’ which will take you back to the ad settings page. You should now see your 1 Ad with your Ad Sets already in it. 

Duplicating An Ad

Now you want to Duplicate your Ad by making 1 copy of it. Then click back to the page (NOT publish or discard changes!), and then you’re going to duplicate the Ad Set also.

This will keep you from having to go back and create a new ad every time you want to start a new ad campaign. The only thing you’ll have to do is simply change the targeting protocols. 

Since you want a minimum of 4 audiences, you should copy your Ad, and your ad sets 3 times to make a total of 4 campaigns (and 8 ads). All of the ads are now the same across all different ad sets.

Now you just need to go in and edit one of the Ad Sets. To do that, simply highlight it and click the “edit” button.

Once your audience and the details on all 3 of the Ad Sets are changed, you can finally click the “Review and Publish” button. (Hooray, you made it!)

You will then have 1 campaign targeting 4 different groups of people. All four will have the correct ads inside of them. By doing this once and then duplicating, it makes the process much faster and simpler. 

ACTION STEPS DAY #5

Day #6- Set Things Up To Scale

Once you’ve hit ‘Review and Publish’ it typically takes about 24 hours for Facebook to approve your ad. Now that you’ve gone through the entire Ad creation process, you want to set yourself up to be able to scale your Facebook ads.

There are basically 2 ways to do this (if your Ads are working, of course. No need to scale up an ad that’s not working.)

Frankly, it's much easier to scale your budget simply. If your ads are performing, you can easily scale your budget to that group of people. The easiest way to do that is by using what Facebook Ads calls “Automated Rules.”

Creating an Automated Rule

To do this, click on the ‘Automated Rules’ section and click ‘Create a Rule.’ This allows you to customize when you want FB to automate something.

Step 1- Give the new Rule a name. (This will auto-apply to all of your ads at $5.00 a day, or whatever your budget happens to be.)

Step 2- Increase the Daily Budget by between 10% and 20% to react when something happens. (More than 20% isn’t a good idea as FB will ‘break’ trying to figure out where to spend the extra $$.)

Step 3- Set a Condition using the dropdown menu. The beauty is that once you’ve set your Automated Rule, FB will automatically apply it to your Ads, leaving you to concentrate on other things. 

Step 4- Tell FB when to run Rule. We suggest running it every other day so that it runs three times a week. Every two days seems to be the sweet spot for Facebook. 

ACTION STEPS DAY #6

Day #7-Maintain & Grow

At this point, your ads will hopefully be bringing in new customers and collecting data. Now it’s time to:

Monitor Your Metrics


The 3 Metrics that matter the most are:


All other metrics are interesting but not really important. We suggest that you check your metrics every two or three days to ensure that everything looks good. This allows you to have a bit more control over what's going on and, if necessary, scale up or scale down your ads and your ad spend.

Monitor Your Comments

This is extremely important but something that many people forget to do. We suggest monitoring your comments every day. 

To do this, go into the particular campaign on the FB ads platform and then click on the ads section. This will take you to the ad editor, where you can click the drop-down list on the right. (‘Share a Link’ is the first prompt you’ll see.)

Further down, you’ll see “Facebook Post With Comments” and “Instagram Post With Comments.” Clicking on either one of these buttons will take it to the actual post itself, where you can see everything that has been left there, comment-wise.

Here you can see all of the comments that are being left and also questions that you may want and need to answer.

ACTION STEPS DAY #7

Basically, if an Ad is doing well, you let it run and bring in new customers. If it’s not doing well, you can turn it off and stop spending $$ on a worthless Ad.

We get it; Facebook Ads can be extremely confusing. However, if you follow the steps we've laid out for you here, it takes the mystery and frustration out and allows you to run them easily, quickly, and, most importantly, successfully. (i.e., profitably.)

Here's a Quick Overview:

You should now be able to create and run a Facebook Ad Campaign, or several of them, with relative ease. We highly suggest you practice these steps, get to know the FB Ads platform, and get back to us if you have questions and let us know.

Best of luck creating clickable, profitable Facebook Ads!

Chris Shaffer

Chris lives at the intersection of business strategy and growth tactics. Having consulted with dozens of different businesses (as well as building several of his own), he brings a unique perspective on what's working across the eCommerce world in businesses of all shapes and sizes.
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