The Case for Simple Meta Ad Campaigns

I have talked a lot about applying a more simplified approach to Meta advertising in prior episodes. Today, I want to dig deeper into what that actually means.

I know this idea is not popular. You cannot sell courses on taking a simplified approach. More complicated and more sophisticated sounds better, but it often is not.

A lot of performance problems come from advertisers who overcomplicate things. They narrow their audience, remove placements, use manual bidding, create multiple campaigns and ad sets, or add complexity when it is not necessary. It is not that you should never do any of these things, but advertisers often make their results worse by trying to do too much.

Today, we will discuss the complications that hurt performance and what a simplified approach should look like instead.

The Problem with Overcomplicating Advertising

Advertisers often feel the need to make things more complicated than necessary. My theory is that this comes from a desire to prove value. If you have clients, you want to show that you are actively doing something important. More complexity seems better, but much of this busyness is counterproductive.

• You rarely need to narrow your audience. If you are optimizing for conversions, especially purchases, this is usually unnecessary. You might use remarketing sometimes, but that should be the exception rather than the rule.
• You rarely need to create multiple ad sets. Many advertisers have been running ads for years and are used to the old-school approach of creating separate ad sets for different targeting segments. This includes interests, lookalikes, and remarketing. I used to do this too, but it is inefficient now. Most audiences are expanded, especially when optimizing for conversions.
• You rarely need other customizations like manual bidding or removing placements. Many advertisers think these settings are necessary because they were in the past, but Meta actively discourages them now. Some complexity may still be needed, but you should prioritize a simplified approach first and only add complexity when necessary.

What a Simplified Approach Looks Like

A simplified approach means keeping campaign structure as simple as possible. It means starting simple and only adding complexity if needed to solve a problem.

Understand the impact of every campaign and ad set you create. I assume you do not have an unlimited budget. That means your budget will be spread across all of your assets.

For example, if you have a budget of $100 per day and are spending it on one campaign and one ad set, but then you create four additional ad sets, now each ad set only gets $20 per day. Volume is necessary for optimal results. The more fragmented your budget, the less meaningful and predictable your results become.

With that in mind, prioritize the bottom of your funnel and work up from there. Ideally, you should run a sales campaign optimized for purchase events. This could be a single ad set. If you are not focused on sales, then prioritize building your email list with a leads campaign.

It may sound crazy, but that could be all you need.

What About Awareness, Traffic, and Engagement?

Only consider a top-of-funnel campaign if it does not take budget away from your conversion campaigns. The reason is simple. The results from traffic and engagement campaigns are often low quality. While the idea is to build awareness, it is rarely worth the money.

Keep Campaign and Ad Set Customizations to a Minimum

If you are optimizing for conversions, you rarely need to make customizations to your campaign and ad set.

• Do not use manual bidding
• Do not use manual placements
• Do not overcomplicate targeting controls
• Use Advantage+ Audience

For ads, you have more room for creativity. It is fine to use multiple text options or create multiple ads in different formats, but do not create more than six ads per ad set. Even Meta states that there is no benefit beyond six, and in most cases, you may not need more than two or three.

Should You Create Separate Campaigns for Testing?

Many advertisers create separate testing campaigns, but in most cases, it is not worth the extra budget. If your ads are not working the way you want, simply create new ads within your active campaigns.

I know this sounds too simple, but it works.

Recap

1. Minimize the number of campaigns and prioritize conversions. Only run top-of-funnel campaigns if they do not take budget from conversion campaigns.
2. Minimize the number of ad sets within each campaign. In most cases, a single ad set is enough.
3. Minimize ad set customizations. This is especially true when optimizing for conversions.

This does not mean you should never add complexity. Sometimes, you may need an extra campaign, an additional ad set, or a targeting adjustment. But always prioritize a minimalistic approach and only add complexity when it solves a specific problem.

I have covered some of these situations in previous episodes, so check those out if you need more guidance.

When you consolidate your budget into fewer campaigns and ad sets, your results become more meaningful. It becomes easier to see what is working and what is not. Giving each ad set more budget gives it a better chance to succeed.

This allows you to focus on what truly impacts performance:

• Ad copy
• Creative
• Offer
• Landing page experience
• Attribution settings

A simplified approach does not mean being hands-off. It means focusing on what matters most. I have found that this method is freeing because you are no longer distracted by a million things that might be affecting your results.

If you want to learn more about simplifying your approach, check out my blog post at jonloomer.com/simple.