Facebook and Instagram advertising
Facebook and Instagram ads that bring customers, not just likes
Meta ads create demand among people who aren’t looking for your product yet. Set up well, they bring enquiries and sales at a reasonable cost. Set up badly, they bring likes and comments that don’t pay the bills. We build campaigns around sales.
In short
What Meta advertising is and who it sells for
Meta advertising is paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Meta’s partner network. Unlike Google, the ad is seen by someone who isn’t searching for your product yet, so Meta advertising creates demand rather than just capturing it.
Meta advertising works best for online stores, local services, hospitality and tourism: anywhere a good photo or a short video can spark the wish to buy.
What's included
Real work, not promises
Every item comes with its own deadline and its own measure of success.
Strategy and goals
We choose the campaign objective based on your business: a purchase, an enquiry, a message or a call, not reach and likes.
Audience targeting
Broad audiences the algorithm learns by itself, lookalike audiences based on your customers, and remarketing to site visitors and followers.
Creative
Images, video and carousels made for Instagram Reels, Stories and the Facebook feed, with several variants for testing.
Meta Pixel and Conversions API
Accurate tracking of purchases and enquiries, both in the browser and from the server, so the algorithm learns from the right data.
Catalogue ads
For online stores: a connected product catalogue and dynamic ads that show visitors the exact products they looked at.
Reporting
Monthly: spend, purchases or enquiries, cost per result, the best creatives and the plan for next month.
What is Meta advertising?
Meta advertising (Meta Ads) is paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Meta’s network of partner apps, run from a single account (Meta Business Suite and Ads Manager). On Google people search; on social media people scroll. So the ad has to stop them and create desire, not just answer a search.
That is why Meta and Google ads work best together: Meta creates demand and reminds, while Google captures people at the moment they search. We describe a plan for both channels on the Google and Meta advertising page.
The right campaign objective
Meta offers objectives such as awareness, engagement, traffic, leads and sales. The algorithm delivers exactly what you ask for: ask for likes and you get people who like things, not people who buy. So we choose the objective based on your business:
- Sales for online stores, with purchases and basket value tracked;
- Leads for services, through a form on your site or a Meta form;
- Messages when customers prefer to write in Messenger, Instagram or WhatsApp;
- Reach and video only for launches, events or local campaigns where the goal is to be seen by as many people as possible.
How we choose the audience
After the iOS privacy changes and the removal of many detailed interests, interest targeting is less precise than it used to be. What works best today:
- broad audiences (gender, age, location) with a good conversion signal, where the algorithm finds buyers by itself;
- lookalike audiences built from a list of existing customers;
- remarketing to site visitors, video viewers and people who have sent messages;
- catalogue ads that show online store visitors the exact products they looked at.
Creative is the new targeting
When the algorithm chooses the audience itself, the creative decides who the ad will attract. So for every campaign we make several variants: a short video for Reels and Stories, a static image for the feed, a product carousel and an ad built around a customer review. The first second of the video and the first sentence of the text have to say what you offer and who it is for. We scale the variants that work and switch off the ones that don’t once there is enough data.
Meta Pixel and Conversions API
Meta Pixel is code on your site that tells Meta what a visitor does: views a product, adds to basket, buys, sends an enquiry. Because of ad blockers and iOS settings, the Pixel no longer sees every purchase. So alongside it we set up the Conversions API, which sends the same events from the server. The result is more accurate reports and campaigns that learn from real purchases.
For WooCommerce stores we also connect the product catalogue, so dynamic ads always show correct prices and availability.
Campaigns by buying stage
Meta ads work best when every stage of the purchase has its own job. The same “Buy now” ad shown to someone who has never heard of you rarely works.
| Stage | Who | What we show |
|---|---|---|
| Awareness | A broad audience that resembles your customers | Short video, Reels, the problem you solve |
| Consideration | People who watched a video or visited your profile | Examples of work, reviews, comparisons, the offer |
| Decision | Site visitors, abandoned baskets | Catalogue ads with the product they viewed, a deadline or a discount |
| Repeat purchase | Existing customers | New products, top-ups, recommendations |
With smaller budgets we don’t split things too far: one campaign for new people and one for re-engagement often beat ten small campaigns the algorithm never gets the chance to learn from.
Advantage+ and automation
Meta automates more and more of the targeting through Advantage+ campaigns and audiences. The algorithm looks for buyers by itself, but only based on the signals you give it: the quality of conversions from the Pixel and Conversions API, and the creative. So our job is less about “picking interests” and more about:
- accurate tracking of purchases and enquiries, with order value;
- a larger number of different creatives, because creative now decides who sees the ad;
- excluding existing customers when the goal is a new customer;
- monitoring frequency, so the same person doesn’t see the same ad too many times.
Lead forms or your website: which is better for services?
For service businesses, Meta offers enquiry forms directly inside Facebook and Instagram (Lead Ads). They bring more enquiries at a lower cost, but often of lower quality, because sending one is too easy. A form on your site brings fewer enquiries, but more serious ones.
We usually test both and choose based on the cost of a good enquiry, not the cost of any enquiry. We add a qualifying question to lead forms (location, budget, timeline) and connect them to your email or CRM, so enquiries don’t sit waiting for days.
How we make creative that sells
- The first three seconds: the problem, the result or the product on screen straight away, because most people keep scrolling.
- A format for phones: vertical video and 4:5 or 9:16 images, with captions, because most videos are watched without sound.
- Proof: real work, reviews, before and after where allowed, people from your company.
- One call to action: send an enquiry, order, book, not everything at once.
- Testing: several variants at once; we switch off the weaker ones and make new ones based on the best.
For posts and profile content, see the social media management page.
Advertising policies and rejected ads
Meta has strict rules for health, finance, property, employment and adult products, as well as for copy that refers directly to personal attributes (“Do you struggle with…”). Rejected ads and restricted accounts are a common headache for businesses that run their own campaigns. Before publishing we check the copy and image against the policies, and in sensitive industries we write ads from the start so they pass review. Healthcare is covered separately on the marketing for healthcare and pharmacies page.
What you get every month
The monthly report shows spend, the number of purchases or enquiries, cost per result, revenue where it is tracked, the best and weakest creatives and the plan for next month. The account and the budget are yours: you pay for the ads directly to Meta, and we manage the campaigns. For practical examples, see our guide Meta advertising: Facebook and Instagram.
How we work
Three steps to measurable growth
01 Analysis
A review of your website, your competitors and your keywords. You get a clear list of what is holding back growth.
02 Plan and delivery
Priorities ranked by their impact on sales. We handle the technical side, the content and the campaigns, with no wasted effort.
03 Measurement and growth
A monthly report with enquiries, rankings and spend. We double down on whatever brings in business.
Work
Where we have already done this
FAQ
Facebook and Instagram advertising: questions and answers
For most products and local services they are, as long as you measure purchases and enquiries rather than likes. They work best for visual products, offers with a clear benefit and remarketing to site visitors.
You don’t have to choose. The same Meta campaign runs on both networks, and the algorithm moves the budget to wherever it gets better results. We make creative for both formats.
The algorithm needs a learning period, usually one to two weeks and a few dozen conversions. During that time we don’t change the campaign too often, so the learning doesn’t restart.
The Conversions API sends purchase data directly from the server, alongside the Meta Pixel in the browser. Because blockers and iOS settings hide some purchases, CAPI gives more accurate data and better campaign results.
We can. Profile management and ads work separately, but best together. More on the Social media management page.
It depends on the goal and the market. A campaign needs enough budget for the algorithm to get dozens of conversions a month, otherwise it struggles to learn. You can check a rough range for your budget in our calculators, and we give a specific proposal after an analysis.
Advantage+ is Meta’s automated campaign type that chooses the audience, placements and combination of creatives by itself. It works well with accurate tracking and enough different creatives.
They can be, but they often bring lower-quality enquiries. So we add a qualifying question and compare the cost of a good enquiry with that of the form on your site.
Most often because of the rules on sensitive topics, copy that addresses personal attributes directly, images with too much text under older rules, or a landing page that doesn’t match the ad. A rejection can be fixed with an edit or an appeal.
Several different creatives per campaign are better than one. The algorithm shows different creatives to different people, so more variants mean more chances to find the one that sells.
Further reading
More detail on Optimizacija-Sajta.rs (in Serbian)
How we measure whether Meta advertising works
Likes and reach don’t pay the bills. We measure Meta advertising in purchases, enquiries, messages and calls, so the first step is always technical: the Meta Pixel on your site and the Conversions API on the server, so purchase data arrives even when the browser blocks cookies.
Audiences and creative
Today the algorithm is best at finding buyers in broad audiences by itself, as long as we give it a good signal. So we put more time into creative: three to five image and video variants, different messages and a clear call to action. What works gets more budget; what doesn’t gets switched off within a few days.
Remarketing and catalogue ads
For online stores we connect the product catalogue, so people who looked at a product see exactly that product in the ad. This is usually where Meta advertising has the best return on investment.
Advertising policies
Meta has strict rules for health, finance and some other fields. Before a campaign launches we check the ads against the Meta Advertising Standards, so the account doesn’t get blocked.
We usually run Meta advertising together with social media management and Google Ads, because customers often see an ad on Instagram and buy later after a Google search.
Enquiry
Send us an enquiry.
We reply within one working day.
+381 69 740 754
office@plusnet.rs
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