Facebook and Instagram Ads: Your Questions Answered

Meta ads reach your next customers on Facebook and Instagram, including people who have never heard of you, based on what they like, do and buy.

Boosting a post chases likes. A real Meta campaign is built in Ads Manager for one goal, leads or sales, with tracking that shows exactly what each enquiry cost you.

• Install the pixel and Conversions API first, so every result is counted.
• Build campaigns for leads or sales, not likes, with instant forms or WhatsApp replies.
• Test several creatives in week one and keep the ones that bring cheap results.
• Retarget visitors and follow up fast, because the sale happens in the reply.

For Arya Marketplace, one five-day campaign brought 474 website leads at ₦41.30 each. Want a free look at your current ad account? Ask us.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Paid advertising

A test can start from about ₦5,000 a day, and our best-performing campaigns usually start at ₦10,000 a day.

The standard we work to is simple: test for 7 to 9 days without touching the campaign, keep what brings results, then raise the budget in steps, ₦10,000 to ₦15,000 to ₦25,000 a day.

Smaller budgets still run, but they collect data slowly, so decisions take longer. I have managed millions of naira of client ad spend, and the accounts that grew were the ones that gave a test enough budget and enough days. Tell us what you sell and what one customer is worth, and we will suggest a starting figure.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Business Growth Pricing Plans

No. Boosting is the simplified version. Ads Manager is the full system, and it is where sales campaigns belong.

The boost button mostly buys reach, likes and profile visits. Ads Manager lets you choose a sales or leads objective, test several ads against each other, control placements, and use your pixel data to find buyers.

Boost when you only want more people to see a post. Use Ads Manager when you want enquiries or sales you can measure. I have never built a profitable sales campaign from the boost button, and I stopped trying years ago.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

Leads that never buy usually mean the ad attracted curiosity, or the follow-up was too slow or too thin.

• Show the price or "from" price in the ad, so only people who can afford it enquire.
• Speak to one clear buyer, not everybody.
• Optimise for purchases or qualified leads, not messages or clicks.
• Reply within 5 minutes and follow up at least five times.
• Add proof: reviews, results, delivery photos.

Ask ten lost leads why they did not buy. The pattern in their answers shows what to fix first.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Lead generation

Find the stage where people drop off, because each one has a different fix.

• Few people stop to look: the creative is weak. Change the first three seconds or the image.
• People look but do not click: the offer or the message is unclear.
• People click but do not buy: the page, the price or trust is the problem.
• Sales happen but the tracking shows none: the pixel is not set up properly.

Most accounts we review have a good product and a tracking or landing page problem. We check that before changing any ad.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Conversion rate optimization

The Meta Pixel is a small piece of code on your website that tells Meta what visitors do: view a product, add to cart, send a form, buy.

With that data, Meta learns who your buyers are and finds more people like them. Without it, the system can only optimise for clicks.

The Conversions API sends the same events from your server, which recovers data that browsers and ad blockers hide. Use both together. We install and test them before any campaign goes live, as part of analytics and tracking.

Read next: Analytics and tracking · Facebook and Instagram ads

Each one trades volume for quality, so choose by how much explaining your offer needs.

• Instant lead forms: most leads and cheapest, but many forget they signed up. Call them fast.
• Click to WhatsApp: good for products people ask questions about, and you can close in chat.
• Landing page: fewer leads, but better informed and easier to track to a sale.

For higher-priced services we prefer a landing page. For everyday products, WhatsApp usually wins. Test two and compare cost per customer, not cost per lead.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Sales funnels

A good ad earns attention in the first three seconds, makes one clear promise, and shows proof.

• Open with the problem or the result, not your logo.
• Show the product in use, with a real person where possible.
• Put the offer and price in plain words.
• Add captions, because most people watch without sound.
• End with one instruction: message us, order now, book a call.

Simple phone videos often beat polished adverts because they look like normal posts. Test three or four different ideas, not four versions of one idea.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Content marketing

Give a new campaign 7 to 9 days before you judge it, and avoid editing it during that time.

Meta's system needs results to learn who responds, which it calls the learning phase. Each significant change to the budget, audience or creative restarts it. Checking every few hours and adjusting is the most common way good campaigns get broken.

Decide beforehand what cost per result you can accept, let the test finish, then keep, fix or stop based on that number. The hardest part of my job is sometimes stopping a client from editing a campaign on day three.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

Pause an ad when it has spent enough to prove it cannot reach your target cost, not because of one bad day.

A workable rule is to set a limit before launch, such as two or three times your target cost per result. If an ad spends that with nothing to show, stop it. If it is close to target, let it finish the test.

Also pause when results fall for several days while frequency climbs. That is ad fatigue, and fresh creative fixes it better than a new audience.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

Scale only what is already profitable, and raise the budget in steps.

We move in stages, for example ₦10,000 to ₦15,000 to ₦25,000 a day, and give each stage a few days to settle. Doubling overnight pushes the system to find new people too quickly, and costs jump.

Scaling also needs new creative. An ad that worked on a small audience tires when shown to a larger one, so keep adding fresh versions of your winners as the budget grows.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

Accounts are usually restricted for payment problems, repeated ad rejections, unusual activity, or an account that looks unverified or new and spends fast.

Go to Account Quality in Meta Business, read the stated reason, and request a review with honest details. Verify your business and turn on two-factor authentication.

Do not open new accounts to get around a restriction. That often leads to a permanent ban. To lower the risk, use a real profile, a card in your own name, and ads that follow the rules.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

Most rejections come from a short list: claims Meta considers misleading, before-and-after images, wording that points at a personal trait, or a restricted product.

• Avoid "Are you overweight?" style lines. Describe the product, not the reader.
• Do not promise guaranteed income or health results.
• Check that the landing page matches the ad and works.
• Finance, health, housing and jobs have extra rules.

Read the rejection reason, fix exactly that, and request a review if you believe it was a mistake. Reviews are often corrected.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

Retargeting shows ads to people who already know you: website visitors, people who watched your videos, or people who messaged your page.

These audiences convert at a much higher rate than strangers, because trust has started. Show them a reason to finish: a review, an answer to a common doubt, a deadline or free delivery.

It needs the pixel installed and enough traffic to build an audience. For a small business, even a modest daily amount on retargeting often brings the cheapest sales in the account.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Analytics and tracking

Today the creative does most of the targeting. Meta's system reads who responds to your ad and finds more of them.

Start with the right location, age range and language, then keep the audience broad or use Advantage+ and let your ad's message call out the buyer. A lookalike audience built from your customer list gives the system a strong starting point.

Narrow interest stacks used to work. Now they mostly raise costs. Put the effort into ads that speak clearly to one kind of customer.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

They run from the same place. Meta Ads Manager places one campaign across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.

You can choose where ads appear, but letting Meta place them automatically usually lowers costs. Make the creative fit both: vertical video for Reels and Stories, square or vertical images for feeds.

You need a Facebook page and an Instagram business account connected in Meta Business. After that, one budget covers both.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Social media marketing

Neither is better everywhere. They suit different products and stages.

TikTok often gives cheaper views and works well for visual, impulse and youth-focused products, but it needs a constant supply of native-style videos. Meta has stronger tracking, retargeting and tools for closing through WhatsApp or lead forms.

If you can only run one, start where your buyers already spend time and where you can produce good creative every week. Many of our clients run both and compare cost per customer.

Read next: TikTok ads · Facebook and Instagram ads

Choose a messaging or sales objective in Ads Manager, pick WhatsApp as the destination, and connect your WhatsApp Business number.

When someone taps the ad, a chat opens with a starter message, so you know which ad they came from. On the WhatsApp Business Platform, chats opened this way come with a free messaging window.

The ad is half the job. Have quick replies, a catalog and someone ready to answer within minutes. For Arya Marketplace we used this route to build a list of more than 1,000 WhatsApp buyers.

Read next: WhatsApp marketing · Facebook and Instagram ads

A good result is one that leaves profit after ad spend, product cost and delivery, so the right number depends on your margins.

Return on ad spend, or ROAS, is revenue divided by ad spend. A business with thin margins may need 5x to profit. One with high margins can do well at 2x. Across qualifying campaigns we manage, the average is 6 to 8x.

Watch cost per purchase or per qualified lead first. Click rate and cost per thousand views only explain why that number moves.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Digital Marketing Case Studies

No. You can run ads to WhatsApp, Instagram direct messages, a lead form or a phone call without a website.

A website becomes worth it when you want to track purchases, retarget visitors, take orders while you sleep, or sell something that needs explaining. It also makes a new buyer trust you faster.

Many businesses start with click to WhatsApp ads, then add a simple landing page once sales are steady. We can build that page when you are ready.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Web development

Rising cost usually means the same people have seen the same ad too many times, or competition has increased for the season.

• Check frequency. When it climbs and results fall, the ad is tired.
• Add new creative every two to three weeks.
• Widen an audience that is too small.
• Expect higher prices around major sales seasons.

Before blaming the ad, also confirm the page and the checkout still work. A broken form looks exactly like an expensive campaign.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

Set your ad account's currency to naira when you create it, and pay with a debit card enabled for online payments.

The currency cannot be changed later without opening a new ad account, so choose carefully. A naira account avoids the foreign spending limits banks place on cards.

If a card is declined, confirm it is enabled for online and international payments, has funds, and that the name matches your account. Avoid changing cards repeatedly, because that can trigger a payment review.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

Yes. We plan, build and manage Meta ads inside your own ad account, with your card paying Meta directly, so you see every naira spent.

To start we need access to your page and ad account, your product details and prices, your best photos or videos, and a clear picture of who buys from you. We set up tracking first, test for 7 to 9 days, then scale what works.

For Arya Marketplace this approach brought 474 website leads at ₦41.30 each in five days, at 7.17x return on ad spend. Details are on the Meta ads page.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Digital Marketing Case Studies

Set up the foundations first, then launch one simple campaign with a few different ads.

• Create a Meta Business portfolio, and add your page, Instagram account and ad account.
• Set the ad account currency and add your own card.
• Install the Meta Pixel on your website, or connect WhatsApp if you sell in chat.
• Choose one objective: sales, leads or messages.
• Make three or four different ads for one offer.
• Run them for 7 to 9 days without editing, then keep the winner.

Start in Ads Manager, not with the boost button. Our own tests begin from ₦5,000 a day.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Paid advertising

They are the three numbers that explain how your ad is performing before the sale.

• CPM: cost per 1,000 views of your ad. It shows how expensive your audience is to reach.
• CTR: click-through rate, the share of viewers who click. It shows how interesting the ad is.
• CPC: cost per click. It follows from the two above.
• Cost per result: what you pay for each lead, message or sale. This is the one that decides profit.

Read them in order. A high CPM points to audience or season. A low CTR points to the creative. Good clicks with poor results point to the page or the offer.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Analytics and tracking

The same method on every account, because it removes guesswork and emotion from the first two weeks.

• Tracking first: pixel, Conversions API or WhatsApp connection, tested before launch.
• One objective, one audience that is broad enough to learn, three or four different ads.
• Start from ₦5,000 a day for a test; my best-performing campaigns start at ₦10,000 a day.
• Run 7 to 9 days without editing anything.
• Kill ads that cannot reach the target cost, keep the winner, add two fresh versions of it.
• Scale in steps: ₦10,000 to ₦15,000 to ₦25,000 a day, each given a few days to settle.

For Arya Marketplace this produced 474 website leads at ₦41.30 each in five days, at 7.17x return on ad spend. Most accounts I take over were edited daily by an anxious owner, which is why they never learned.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Digital Marketing Case Studies

I design every campaign plan and review every account myself. The daily work is shared with specialists on my team, and I check the numbers weekly.

I earned the Meta Blueprint Digital Marketing Associate certification and have managed millions of naira of client ad spend, including as Head of Marketing at Arya Marketplace in Lagos. That experience shapes the testing standard every account follows.

You get a team, not a freelancer, and a founder who still reads the search terms and the cost per result. You can message me directly on WhatsApp at any point.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Chukwuemeka Maduka

Three budget mistakes cause most of the "Facebook ads do not work" stories I hear.

• Spreading ₦5,000 a day across five ad sets, so none of them gets enough data to learn.
• Doubling the budget the moment one day looks good, which resets the learning.
• Stopping on day three because there are no sales yet.

Put the budget into one campaign, test for 7 to 9 days, then scale in steps. A ₦5,000 a day test is useful. Five tests at ₦1,000 a day each are noise. If the total budget is below ₦5,000 a day, I would usually spend it on better creative and a stronger offer before advertising.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

For most Nigerian product businesses I start with click to WhatsApp, because that is where buyers already want to talk and pay. For higher-priced services and for international markets, I send traffic to a landing page.

WhatsApp brings more conversations and closes fast when someone is ready to reply. A landing page brings fewer, better-informed leads, tracks all the way to the sale and works while you sleep.

Often we run both and compare cost per customer, not cost per lead. Arya Marketplace used WhatsApp heavily and built a list of 1,000+ buyers from it. Your product price and your capacity to reply usually decide.

Read next: WhatsApp marketing · Facebook and Instagram ads

Work out your break-even return on ad spend, then compare it with what Ads Manager reports and what your bank account confirms.

Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by your profit margin. If you keep 25% of each sale after product, delivery and fees, you need 4x just to break even, and 6x to make it worth the effort. Across qualifying campaigns we manage, the average is 6 to 8x.

Ads Manager over-credits itself, so I reconcile its numbers with actual orders every month. A campaign is profitable when the orders in your records, not the dashboard, exceed what the ads cost plus what you sold.

Read next: Analytics and tracking · Facebook and Instagram ads

Three or four different ideas per ad set at the start, not ten variations of one idea.

Different means a different hook or format: a customer video, a product demo, a problem-led image, a text-only testimonial. Meta spends most of the budget on one or two winners quickly, so more than five ads starves the rest.

Once a winner is clear, I add two fresh versions of it every two to three weeks to fight fatigue, and retire the ones whose cost per result has climbed. A steady supply of new creative is the real work of Meta ads now.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Content marketing

Yes, once you have purchase tracking and some sales history. Not as your very first campaign.

Advantage+ sales campaigns hand targeting, placements and budget to Meta's system and feed it a stack of creatives. With clean pixel and Conversions API data and a broad audience, they often beat hand-built campaigns on cost per purchase. With no data, they chase whatever converts cheaply, which may not be a sale.

My pattern: a manual campaign to prove the offer and gather data, then Advantage+ to scale it, with the manual one kept running for comparison.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads

Check what changed before you change anything else.

• Frequency: the same people have seen the ad too often. Fresh creative fixes it.
• Tracking: a website update or an expired domain verification broke the pixel.
• Competition or season: costs rise around sales periods and elections.
• The offer: a price change, stock-out or a broken landing page.
• Account health: check for restrictions or rejected ads.

Half the sudden drops I am called about are a form or checkout that broke on the website. I test the whole path as a customer before I touch the campaign.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Conversion rate optimization

Yes. Meta lets a Nigerian account target any country, and we do it for clients selling abroad and to the diaspora.

What changes is cost and expectations. Clicks in the UK and US cost several times more than in Nigeria, so budgets must be in dollars or pounds to mean anything. Creative must speak that market's language, and payment, delivery and support must be ready for it.

Set the ad account currency with care, because it cannot be changed later. For a business serving both Nigeria and abroad, I often run two ad accounts under one Business portfolio.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Paid advertising

Add friction on purpose and switch the form to higher intent.

• Change the form type from "more volume" to "higher intent", which adds a review step.
• Add one qualifying question, such as budget or timeline.
• Require a typed phone number rather than the prefilled one.
• Exclude people who have already submitted.
• Send a confirmation message immediately, so real people reply.

If quality still lags, move the campaign to a landing page or WhatsApp. Fewer leads that answer the phone beat a long list of silence.

Read next: Lead generation · Facebook and Instagram ads

Expect the first enquiries within days, a clear picture of your cost per lead by week two, and a decision about scaling by the end of the month.

Month one is for learning what works: which ad, which audience, which destination. The numbers should improve week on week as losers are cut. If the offer and the page are right, month one can already be profitable; Study With FM received 776 leads in under three weeks.

What I will not promise is a specific cost per lead before we have run the test, because every market and offer prices differently. I will promise you an honest read of the numbers.

Read next: Facebook and Instagram ads · Digital Marketing Case Studies

Yes. The Facebook ads course is four weeks and covers Facebook and Instagram together: Business Manager, the Pixel, offers, creative, audiences, a 7 to 9 day test and scaling. It is built from campaigns I have run for clients.

Read next: The Facebook Ads System That Turned $373 Into $7,460 In 30 Days · Facebook and Instagram ads