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You are here: Home / Blog / Facebook Automated Ads: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

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Facebook Automated Ads: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

March 30, 2021 12 Comments Animalz

Good advertising takes time, but maybe not as much as it once did. Technology allows us to streamline nearly every part of marketing, and advertising on social media is no exception. Meet Facebook Automated Ads, the automated ad creation system powered by AI and data at the world’s largest social network.

cover illustration

This article has everything you need to know about Facebook Automated Ads: what they are, how they work and whether they are right for you.

Facebook Automated Ads make Facebook marketing easy and effective. They don’t require a complicated setup and technical know-how. Instead, Facebook Automated Ads reduce the ad creation process to answering a few simple questions about your business, inserting ad copy and images, and signing off on the finished product.

If you’re looking to move past the Boost button and start driving more conversions for your business with minimal setup time, Facebook Automated Ads could just be what you’ve been looking for.

What are Facebook Automated Ads?

Facebook Automated Ads are ads created through a simplified process that uses AI and offers limited customization to make ad creation as easy as possible for users.

Using Facebook Automated Ads is like having a professional advertising expert leaning over your shoulder, helping you create the most effective Facebook ad campaign that you possibly can. It won’t do everything for you, but it will take your ad goals, copy and design, and offer suggestions on what you should do to set your campaigns up for success.

Automated Ads can help you with your Facebook ad campaigns by:

  • Creating multiple versions of your ad for A/B testing
  • Giving you personalized ad recommendations from Facebook’s AI
  • Helping you select your audience and budget based on your business and marketing goals
  • Providing campaign tracking metrics so you can understand how your ads are performing
  • Suggesting ongoing ad optimizations to improve your campaign as it runs

Automated ads hit that sweet spot of putting you in control of the creative process while guiding you towards the best outcome.

How do you set up Facebook Automated Ads?

You can set up Facebook Automated Ads by going to your Facebook Page and clicking the Promote button.

Facebook Automated Ad Setup 1

Next, you want to select Get Started With Automated Ads from the Choose a Goal menu.

Facebook Automated Ad Setup

If you have multiple Facebook ad accounts, use the drop-down menu to pick the one you want to create an ad campaign for. Then, click Get Started.

Facebook Automated Ad Setup 3

Now, you are going to answer some basic questions about your business.

These questions are pretty straightforward and are there to help Facebook understand how your business works so it can offer you the best advice it can.

With most of the questions, you can simply answer yes or no. For the question regarding interests, you are allowed to add ten interests that best represent your audience.

Facebook Automated Ad Setup 4Facebook Automated Ad Setup 6Facebook Automated Ad Setup 10Facebook Automated Ad Setup 11For the next section, you’ll need to pick the different ad versions you would like Facebook to test and use.

You can choose up to six images. You can upload them, select from previously used photos from your Facebook or Instagram, or browse through stock images.

If you are unsure about what makes for a good Facebook ad image, you can read Facebook’s advice or our expert take on ad design.

Facebook Automated Ad Setup 12

Facebook Automated Ad Setup 12

You are now on the final page, where you need to finalize what your ads will look like.

The first step on this page is to choose the goal for your ad campaign.

You can choose from:

  • Get more leads
  • Get more bookings
  • Get more traffic

Based on your answers in the previous steps, Facebook will recommend a goal for your campaign (see the star in the image below), but you are free to change it if it doesn’t fit with what you need.

Facebook Automated Ad Setup 13If you choose Get more leads, you will also have to fill in the lead form that will be used in your ad. You can select from saved forms or make a new one specifically for this ad campaign.

Facebook Automated Ad Setup 14Next, you want to make sure that your ad design is right. To do that, click on each ad version to see a preview.

You can edit:

  • the image
  • the headline
  • the description
  • the button label (call to action)

You can also see a live preview of your changes on the right.

Facebook Automated Ad Setup 14Finally, you’ll confirm the ad settings for this ad campaign.

This includes:

  • Your daily budget: How much you are willing to spend each day. Adjust the slider to change the amounts and note the estimated number of people that’ll be reached.
    Facebook Automated Ad Setup 15
  • Special ad category: Select one if your ad falls into an ad category with different rules (e.g. social issues, politics, or employment).
    Facebook Automated Ad Setup 16
  • Audience: Who your ads will be targeted to. Smart Audience is Facebook’s automated audience designed for you, but you can click the pencil icon to edit their selection.Facebook Automated Ad Setup 17
  • Placements: Where on Facebook’s network your ad will be shown. You can choose from Facebook, Instagram or Messenger. Learn more about Facebook placements here.
    Facebook Automated Ad Setup 18

Facebook will automatically select suggested ad settings for you, but you can make adjustments as needed. Campaign duration is not editable, but you are free to turn off the automatic ad campaign whenever you want after it has started.

When you are happy with your Facebook Automated Ads campaign, click Promote Now, and you’re done.

Why choose Facebook Automated Ads?

In terms of effectiveness and ease of use, Facebook Automated Ads fall right between boosted posts and actual ads.

They don’t require the work and experience that Facebook ads require, but they do give you more control than a simple boosted post:

Boosted Posts Automated Ads Facebook Ads
  • Anyone can make one
  • Require some experience
  • Require experience
  • Can be made very quickly
  • Can be made quickly
  • Setup can take a long time
  • Only for awareness campaigns
  • Only for leads, bookings or traffic
  • Can be optimized for many different goals
  • Limited targeting
  • Custom targeting with automated suggestions
  • Full control targeting

Automated Ads are the perfect choice for people who do not have the time or experience to make Facebook ads themselves.

They offer more customization than boosted posts and a lower risk of wasting your money than poorly optimized manually set up Facebook ads.

While regular Facebook ads require you to choose from 11 different objectives, Automated Ads only offer 3 options (and Facebook recommends one for you).

Regular Facebook Ads have the option to create custom audiences based on customer lists, website data, etc. Automated Ads simplify this process by giving you a preset audience with the option of customizing it to your own preferences.

In general, Automated Ads guide users through the technical aspects of ad creation, making it easier for new ad creators to get the most out of Facebook ads without getting too overwhelmed by the details.

People who are already making Facebook ads probably won’t need Automated Ads. But if you are looking to take that next step past Boosted Posts, then Automated Ads will be the perfect solution for you.

Other Facebook ad automation tools in AdEspresso

While Facebook Automated Ads do make advertising easier and more effective, the process of setting up customized ads can be simplified even further with AdEspresso.

Use AdEspresso to:

  • Split test multiple variations of your ad. Facebook only lets you test 6 versions of your ad at a time. With AdEspresso, you can upload multiple images, copy, headers and audiences, and let our split test system mix and match them, track the results and tell you which one is the most effective.
  • Use Grid Composer to easily make ads targeted at different audiences. With Grid Composer, you can add custom fields to select ads. For example, if you want to make a variation of an ad for each of your hotels across every city in the country, you can do so without spending weeks creating individual ads. Simply upload a city custom field, add the locations and let our system build the ads for you.
  • Take advantage of Dynamic Ads. With AdEspresso, you can automatically create targeted ads for individual users with Dynamic Ads. Upload your product catalog and your audience, and start a retargeting campaign across Facebook, Instagram and Google.

With tools for quick and intuitive ad creation, AdEspresso helps anyone run effective and affordable ad campaigns across not just Facebook, but much of the internet, too.

Are Facebook Automated Ads right for you?

Facebook Automated Ads are the perfect choice for people who are just getting started with Facebook ads and don’t have the time or experience to set up custom Facebook ad campaigns themselves.

They won’t be replacing custom Facebook ads anytime soon, but they are ideal for businesses that have had to rely on boosted posts. With more campaign objectives, targeting and editing options, Automated Ads make targeted Facebook marketing possible for anyone willing to give it a try.

But just because you don’t know how to run a Facebook ad campaign now doesn’t mean that you can’t learn! Head over to the AdEspresso Academy to learn everything you need to know to build your very own Facebook ad campaigns — and, eventually, step up from Automated Ads to custom ad campaigns on Facebook.

You may also like reading:

  • Social Commerce 101: How to Make Money Selling on Social
  • 63 Instagram Caption Examples for 2023 (And How to Write Your Own)
  • 15 Fresh Facebook Ad Examples to Inspire Your Next Campaign [2022]
  • How to Create a Facebook Business Page (The Easy Way)

Comments

  1. joao says

    March 12, 2019 at 1:11 pm

    I’ll looking for this automated tool.

    As a novice marketing-guy, my biggest difficult is to know correct campaign objective (for selling an ebook).

    Reply
    • Ananthakrishnan Thachilath says

      March 18, 2019 at 4:25 am

      I believe the correct campaign objective would be Conversions since your selling something on your website.

      Reply
      • Elissa Patrick says

        March 29, 2019 at 11:51 pm

        Where the conversion and tracking codes should add?

        Reply
  2. Eléonore says

    March 13, 2019 at 2:55 am

    Interesting article. Isn’t it a 16% CVR though? Also, would you have information about the frequency? Cheers !

    Reply
  3. Kim says

    March 13, 2019 at 8:15 am

    Curious to find out how the CPMs compared when you let FB dictate the audiences?

    Reply
  4. Logan Torres says

    March 14, 2019 at 9:56 am

    I need to try his new feature, I wonder if they change the type of people they target and optimize it for the one that has more conversions.

    Reply
  5. John says

    March 16, 2019 at 1:18 am

    Useful Information

    Reply
  6. Santhosh M M says

    March 17, 2019 at 7:56 pm

    I heard about facebook automation ads some time ago. but today I was glad to read this article. really amazed to see the stats and results of your facebook automation ad campaigns. Thanks for all the tips that you shared about automated ads. I was always curious to try this out but was searching for a guide. I’m gonna try automation ads on Facebook advertising soon.

    Reply
  7. jona says

    March 27, 2019 at 4:13 am

    how to update page manager. how to install brodcast app via mobile.

    Reply
  8. Elissa Patrick says

    March 29, 2019 at 11:54 pm

    Where to add Pixel conversion tracking data? Does any other code need to add on landing pages to know about conversion?

    Reply
  9. Amellia Brown says

    April 8, 2021 at 6:28 am

    There’s a lot of potential in social media advertising for businesses and with no doubts Facebook is the biggest social media platform present till now. I must say here that the way you’ve explained this Facebook automated Ads process with images screenshots is very easy to understand .keep writing !

    Reply
  10. James Outman says

    April 9, 2021 at 12:30 pm

    I have dabbled in Ads off and on, now with Automated Ads is just the new way for me to move into the next step of Ads.

    Reply

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