[0:00]If you're not using Meta ads, you're kind of missing out, because this platform absolutely dominates the ad game, because it has the best targeting options that will allow you to reach the exact audience you need. And with Meta ads, you'll be able to advertise on Instagram, Facebook, and even WhatsApp if you want to. And while the platform may be a bit intimidating when starting out, don't you worry, because in this video, I'll go over everything from what Meta ads are to setting them up and analyzing their performance. So, without further ado, let's get into it. All right, so let's start from the top. What exactly are Meta ads, and why should you even care about them? Well, they are the advertisements you see on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and as I already said, sometimes even WhatsApp. And they're all managed from one single place, which is Meta ads manager. Now, you might be thinking of something like Google ads, where you target people based on what they're searching for right now, but Meta is a bit different. It targets people based on who they are, like their interests, their age, location, and just overall online behavior. And the best part about it, it's incredibly easy to get started with as a beginner, and you do not need a huge budget for it either. You can test campaigns for just a few dollars a day, which is really good. And the secret sauce here is Meta's algorithm. When you run an ad, the platform goes through a learning phase, and it needs about 50 conversion events, like 50 sales or sign-ups to figure out who is most likely to take the action that you actually want. And during this phase, performance might be a bit unpredictable, but that's completely normal, as Meta decides who sees your ad through an automatic digital auction based on total value. And this includes your bid, the ad's quality, and how likely someone is to interact with it. And this means that even with a smaller budget, a high quality, relevant ad can actually win the game. And the big question really is here, is Meta ads still worth it in 2025? The answer, yes, it is! But your return on investment really depends on a lot of things, like your strategy, your creatives, and your targeting, the offer you're making, and your landing page also. Oh, and also testing. Lots and lots of testing, and yes, you might spend some time kicking this whole thing off, but if you have something to promote on a budget, this might just be one of the best decisions you will ever make. So, the first thing to focus on is learning. Your goal with your first campaign isn't to attract, you know, a million visitors, it's to understand what works, reach real people and get results in a cost-effective way. And by the way, helping you understand exactly what works is what Hostinger Academy is all about with lots of useful guides, just like this one that you're watching right now. So, make sure to hit that subscribe button, and that way you will not miss any of our future tutorials. All right, guys, now let's roll up our sleeves and get things set up. And trust me, it's not as difficult as it may sound, and step one of this is creating your Meta Business portfolio. This is basically where you'll manage all of your assets, like Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, and of course, your ad account as well. First thing, you're going to want to do is head over to business.facebook.com and click on Create Account right over here. Then just enter your business name, your name, and your business email address. Then you can just go through these steps and enter the required information to complete the setup. And that's it. You're now in, but to run actual ads, you'll need to connect your Facebook page, and if you have one, then your Instagram account as well. Now, from the Meta Business suite, just go to settings, like I'm doing right now. Now, when we're in the settings, just under accounts here, select pages. Look up a page you manage via the search bar and hit Add. Then just follow the prompts until you're done. You can also add your Instagram account just as easily, just select Instagram under accounts from the settings and just follow the same exact process. And with all of that out of the way, let's create your ad account. Now, on the left sidebar, right underneath pages, right here, you'll find ad accounts, so click Add and choose Create a new ad account. Then enter its name, select a time zone right here, choose your currency, and yeah, that's pretty much it. Then just assign the ad account to your business, and you can also add your payment info right away over here, just follow the prompts to do so and press Save at the end because we don't want anything to uh end up not being saved. And that's pretty much the initial setup that is now complete, but now before you launch your first campaign, it's really crucial to understand how Meta ads manager structures your ads. So, there are actually three levels to this. Now, the first is campaign, this is where you set your advertising objectives, like what you want people to do when they see your ad. Now it might be visiting your site, it might be engaging with the post, or just making a purchase. Then comes in the ad set. Now, here you mainly define your audience and placements, that's where your ad will appear, basically. And finally, the actual ad, and this is the creative part and what people will actually see, like your images, videos, ad copies, call to actions, all that. So, just remember these three levels that I just mentioned, and also, guys, in just one campaign, you can have multiple ad sets with different audiences, for example, and in each ad set you can have multiple ads with different creatives. All right, now that your Meta ad account is ready to go, it's time to make your first big decision, and that's picking your campaign objective. And I know what you're thinking, can't I just boost a post and hope for the best? Well, technically, yes, you can, but if you want results you can actually measure and improve on, you'll have to do it the right way, and I will show you what that way is in a second. Now, the first objective here is awareness. Now, it's great if you're launching something new and just want people to know you exist. Now, with this campaign objective, Meta will show your ad to as many people as possible, who are likely to remember it, so according to the algorithm, basically. Now, the second one is traffic. Now, this one sends people to a specific destination, like your website, product page, or blog, for example. And the third objective is engagement. That helps you get likes, comments, shares, and other interactions on your posts or your page. Now, if you want to build a social presence or community, this is the one you should really pick, and if you're trying to collect emails, sign-ups or customer info, the leads objective is for you. It even lets you use forms right inside the ad, so users never have to leave the app, basically. Now, another one is sales, and it's a bit more advanced and it optimizes your ads for purchases or conversions on your website. Now, tracking the results of these campaigns is a bit more tricky, but also not impossible, you can still totally do it. And the last one is app promotion, which helps you get installs for, yet, you guessed it, a mobile app. So now, which one should you start with? Now, if you're a beginner, I highly recommend starting with either traffic or engagement. They're really simple, really straightforward, and they help you learn how the platform works without getting bogged down in advanced setups. So, I mean, if you want more people on your site or your landing page, go with traffic, and if you want to grow your audience or get more interaction on your actual post, engagement is your best friend here. But now, let's dive into campaign to see what things actually look like. So, basically, to set the campaign, go to Ads from your left sidebar and choose Ads Manager right here. Once the interface opens up, just hit Create and then pick the campaign objective. Now, remember, we just talked about the objectives, so just pick one here, set it up, and if you're prompted, check manual ad setup here, give your campaign a name and then press Next. And we always want to go manual with Meta ads. Now, you'll arrive on this panel where you can modify the campaign level, and that's the level with the objectives. Here, you know, see this little panel on the left, here you can navigate between each of the levels. And when you're all ready to proceed to the ad set, just click Next. Now, once you're there, just scroll down until you reach Audience controls, just like I'm doing here, and this is exactly where you can adjust the audience targeting and aim for the people that you think are most likely to convert. And this part is super, super important because even the most brilliant ad won't do much if it's shown to the wrong people. So, first up, what you'll do here, is you'll define your core audience based on a few key details. You can edit the location to choose where you want your ads to be shown. You can get super specific here as you want, and you can pick countries, cities, or even a specific mile radius around your store. Then, all right, here you can set the age to target people who are most likely to be interested in your offer, and I mean, for example, if you're selling, let's say, trendy phone cases, then pick something between 18 to 34-year-olds, that might be a great pick. And after that, you can target all genders or narrow it down depending on what you offer. And finally, the language option here is super useful if your audience speaks a specific language that isn't common to your selected location. So once you have all that set up, then just scroll down a bit and click Audience suggestion under Advantage plus audience. And now this is going to be the fun part here, guys, which is detailed targeting. It basically lets you tap into the user data to find people who are likely to care about what you show them. And you can be really specific with your targeting based on a few characteristics, and you'll see them in the drop-down menu right here. So, just first, uh, right here as you can see, there's demographics, so things like relationship, status, educational level, job titles, and things like that. And then there's interests here, and you can target people interested in a whole lot of different things, like vegan food, you know, photography, fitness, you name it. You can even go ultra, ultra specific, like targeting people based on a movie they like, for example. So, search for things that define your target audience and see for yourself what's available there. And finally, there's the last category, which is the behaviors category, and it's for the actions people actually take. Now, you'll find online shoppers, frequent flyers here, or even recent movers. And honestly, my advice here, if you're just getting started, don't overdo it with all of these. It's tempting to stack a dozen interests and behaviors, thinking you're laser-targeting the perfect person, but when you do that, your audience gets really small, and your ads get more expensive. So, instead of doing that, start fairly broad, especially with interest targeting. Pick one or two categories relevant to your product or service, and let Meta's algorithm do the rest. It's actually really good at finding great people if you give it a bit of room to work. Now, one quick but super important note here is if your ad has anything to do with credit or loans, employment or job listings, housing or real estate, social issues, elections or politics, or any financial services, you'll need to select a special ad category during setup. So to set up this category, what you're going to do is go back to campaign options and tick the Show Categories button under the app line name section here. Then choose the category that applies to your category specifically. And this is because legal regulations basically, it tells Meta you're working in a regulated space and it limits some targeting options to prevent discrimination. But now, anyway, let's just scroll back up a bit and now comes the big question. How much should I spend? And the good news here is, you don't need to throw in hundreds of dollars right away, really, you don't. I strongly, by the way, recommend that you don't do that. And when it comes to budgeting, Meta gives you two main options. The first one is daily budget. Now, this is the amount you're willing to spend each day. Now, if you set a daily budget of, let's say, five bucks, Meta will aim to spend just around that amount each day. Now, it might just go a little bit over or under, depending on how your ad's performed, but it will focus around that. And then the second option is the lifetime budget. This is where you give Meta a total amount to spend over the entire campaign. So, if you set a lifetime budget to say $100 and run your ad for 10 days, Meta will try to space the spending over time for the best results. But I do strongly recommend starting with the daily budget as it's easy to manage, really flexible, and helps you keep your ad spend in check while you learn. And next comes the ad scheduling. Now, you can choose to run your campaign continuously or set a start and end date. Now, if you're just testing or, let's say, running a promo, definitely set an end date, because no one wants a random ad draining their card six months from now because they forgot it existed. And here's a little pro tip, by the way, always check your time zone settings before you launch. Meta runs on the time zone you set in your ad account, so your campaign might start or end earlier than you expect if that's off. All right, guys, now let's move on. So, what you're going to do next, first just scroll down to placements here. Now, Meta owns a lot of real estate on the internet, like Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and your ad can show up in all kinds of places across all of those platforms. But just before you start freaking out and micromanaging everything, let me introduce you to your new best friend as a beginner, which is Advantage plus placements. This option lets Meta decide the best places to show your ad based on performance. So, you set your goal and Meta's algorithm finds the most effective placements to help you hit it. Basically, in short, it's the autopilot option, and honestly, it works really well for most beginners. I mean, there's a lot of potential places your ad might be shown in, like the Facebook or Instagram feed or reels or in-stream content, and you know, so on. There's literally a million places. So, in a nutshell, Advantage plus placements takes the guesswork out and gives you better reach and often for much less money as well. So, you can enable that by just hitting Edit and checking the circle right here. But if you do do this, however, do pay attention to your assets, since they'll be showing up as different placements. So, make sure your creatives don't get super distorted to fit a certain resolution or image size. And also, meanwhile, if you've got more experience or really specific goals, like only targeting Instagram users, you can manually choose your placements as well. You don't have to do that option that I showed earlier. This basically lets you fine-tune where your ad appears, but do have a heads up here, narrowing your placements too much can sometimes increase your costs. Now, Meta's algorithm loves flexibility, basically. And the cool thing is, Meta even gives special treatment to vertical video in these placements. So, if you're using Advantage plus placements and you upload a video that fits, Meta will automatically slot it into stories and reels for you. Now, some other placements you should know about include feeds, in-stream videos and search ads. Now, Feeds are your classic scrollable ads, and they're actually really solid performers. Meanwhile, in-stream videos are YouTube style ads that play before the content people want to watch. This placement works really well with engaging, also attention-grabbing video content. And finally, we have search. It's a newer placement where your ads can show when people search inside the Meta apps.
[16:55]Okay, guys, now it's time to actually click on our new ad and talk about the heart of our campaign and the actual creative. This is basically what people actually see and is the single most important part of your whole campaign. And trust me, this can be the difference between someone scrolling past your ad and someone actually clicking on it. So, now let's hit Setup Creative right there and go ahead here. So, I mean, in 2025, attention spans are shorter than ever. You've got about one second, maybe two if you're lucky to grab someone's attention. So, how do you make that scroll stopper? Well, first, spend at least five minutes browsing the Meta Ads Library. Just see what others in your niche are doing, and this tool really allows you to see every ad run at the given time. It's super, super useful, so definitely don't miss this step. Now, if you notice a lot of reels with a certain ending style or hook, for example, take notes of that. Then, make sure to remember that high-quality visuals, they do really work. Blurry, cluttered, or over-designed ads, just don't cut it anymore. So use clean, really crisp images or videos. And then also consider user-generated content. I mean, it's everywhere for a reason right now, ads that feel like a real person is giving a recommendation always perform way better than polished corporate looking videos. And my next tip is to really focus on one clear problem and one clear solution. Don't try to say everything all at once, pick a pain point your audience has and show how you solve it. And it's really ideal if you can make your ad blend into the platform, like if you're running on reels or stories, make your ad look like the content users already watch there. And make sure to grab that attention fast, the first three seconds of your video or visual need to hook people in, so use motion, bold text, or just a surprising statement right away. But once you've settled on your asset, you'll need to actually upload its details via the creative setup. So, just enter your website name or target page and switch to the text tab. Now, this might look a little tricky here, but it's actually pretty straightforward. And that is because Meta has specific character limits for these fields, and you have to just stick to them, that's all. So, first as you can see, we have the primary text here. Now, it should be, but can be longer to 125 characters and feature one message. Now, next up is the headline. Now, here just include the big benefit or why just someone should care about it. Now, the description field is next, and that is where you can go a little more into detail. It won't always also be visible, so add some extra information that may help convert people. And finally, right over here, we have the call to action, and this should tell people exactly what to do next. Keep it really short, really simple, and really actionable. But when you're done with all of this, just switch over here to the media tab and upload your creatives. So go through the specific tabs to adjust the assets based on the format. And we'll skip these remaining options for now and just click Done. And this new section will let you edit the placements, copy and other options for the ad, so just get familiar with them here. And finally, once you're done with all of the above, just hit Publish and your first ad will go live. And guys, while scrolling through the whole ad setup, you may have noticed the destination options. Now, depending on what you do, you may want to set up a special landing page optimized for your campaign. And one of the easiest solutions for landing page creation is Hostinger's website builder. You can build your website and landing pages by putting AI to the task and take it live in literally minutes. And it's not just website creation either, you can actually craft the perfect landing page easily by dragging and dropping everything just the way you want, and it you will see it happening live. So it's really easy to use. And also, if you subscribe to the AI Builder for at least a year, you'll also get a domain name for free. So, Hostinger website builder even has Meta pixel integration, so it's super, super optimized for Meta campaigns. So if you want to give it a shot, just go to the link in the description down below and use our discount code WB10 for an additional 10% off your purchase. And now, you probably heard me mention Meta pixel, and you're probably wondering what it is. Well, it's a bit of a more advanced ad tech technique, but if you are interested in finding out what it is, we'll cover that in the upcoming video that will publish really soon, so make sure you're subscribed to Hostinger Academy. All right, so you've launched your ad and it's live. You should now follow your campaign and track its performance like we talked about earlier. So from the campaigns tab right over here, you can arrange the columns to track your key metrics, and I'll tell you what these are in just a second. So, you'll find ad reporting on the left sidebar of ads manager and scroll down. And I mean, pretty cool, right? There are so many of them. But let me walk you through the main ones, so no need to look for them on the list, they'll be visible all ready for you. So, first we have CPR, and this is cost per result. And this is a big one, guys, and it will be visible right away. Now, CPR tells you how much you're paying to get the outcome you set in your campaign objective. So, if your CPR is going up, it might be time to tweak your targeting or your ad creative or just improve your landing page. Just make sure you don't throw more money at it because clearly something is not working, and you need to test to find out what exactly. Then let's talk about frequency. Now, this shows how many times on average, each account's center saw your ad. So, if your frequency is getting high, say, let's say three or more, and your performance is dropping, your audience might be getting tired of seeing the same ad. But you can fix that by rotating creatives or expanding your audience. Now we have a reach and impressions, and they should be looked at together. Now, reach is how many unique people saw your ad. Impressions, meanwhile, mean the total number of times your ad was shown including repeats. And if you've got a ton of impressions, let's say, but low reach, your audience might be too small, so try broadening your targeting. And then it's CTR, click-through rate. It won't be visible right away, so you'll need to enable it within the matrix panel. So, this basically tells you how many people actually clicked your ad after seeing it. A good CTR, and for most beginners, it's just 1%, means your creative and message are actually connecting. And if it's less than that 1%, then rework your hook, headline, or just visuals. Make your ad more scroll stopping. But now, if you've actually launched video assets, you'll see a few video metrics here. Now, video plays is one, and it's essentially just letting you know if people actually watch the ad. And meanwhile, here, average play time or percentage watched, tells you if your viewers are sticking around or bouncing just after two seconds. And if your watch time is super low, your video might not be grabbing attention quickly enough. So try re-working the first three seconds or everything else, but mostly focus on those three seconds as they are really everything.
[26:33]And that is it, guys. The more you understand these numbers, the easier it is to figure out what's working, what's not working, and where you can improve next. And the secret sauce here with Meta ads is test, learn, optimize, and repeat it all over again. Don't stress if your first campaign isn't perfect. Nobody's is, trust me. What matters is that you're learning and improving with every single click. And now, if you found this video helpful at all, give it a thumbs up and make sure you subscribe to Hostinger Academy for more tutorials that will help you grow your business online. And if you have a question about Meta ads, just drop it in the comments down below. And also, if you're interested in trying out the website builder that I mentioned before, check out the video next where we show you a step-by-step process on how to build a website using its powerful AI features. But for now, guys, thank you so much for watching, and I will see you in the next video.
