Guide 14 of 14 in Level 4: Run it as an ad

How to set up Facebook ad sets in one campaign

To set up Facebook ad sets with Blackbox (blackbox.plus), start a campaign in Plan: click + on a day, then Meta ads, and pick a goal such as Get leads. Who should see it is where every ad set starts. On Ad sets, the campaign has one ad set, Everyone · English, with all of the budget. Click Edit to name it and set its places, ages and interests, and Add ad set for each audience, city, language or retargeting group you want to test. Type each ad set’s share of the budget; the shares add up to 100%. Each ad set needs at least your target cost per result × 50 ÷ 7 a day, enough for 50 results a week, so the bar marks one under it and offers to give it a bigger share, raise the budget or merge it. The same ads run in every ad set. Review checks the rules again, and nothing spends until you start it.

You'll need
Time
About 10 minutes 11 steps Updated
You'll end with
One Meta campaign with an ad set per audience you test, each with enough budget to learn, drafted
Do it in Blackbox Open Plan, after you sign in
Example
Five ad sets sharing one daily budget, each checked against the floor it needs to learn

How to set up Facebook ad sets in one campaign in Blackbox

  1. Step 1:Start a campaign on a day

    In Plan, click + on the day it starts, then Meta ads under Campaign.

    You'll see: What is this campaign for?, with goals to start from.

    Open this in Blackbox

  2. Step 2:Go to Ad sets

    Click Get leads, check Who should see it, then click Next: ad sets.

    You'll see: One ad set, Everyone · English, with 100% of the budget.

  3. Step 3:Name the first ad set

    Click Edit on the card, type its Name, and set its Places, Ages and Interests.

    You'll see: The card with its places, ages and interests, and its estimated audience.

  4. Step 4:Add an ad set

    Click Add ad set, then set its Name, Kind, Language and who it reaches.

    You'll see: A new card, and the shares spread again to 100%.

  5. Step 5:Pick a lookalike or retargeting audience

    For a Lookalike or Retargeting ad set, tick its audience under Your Meta audiences.

    You'll see: The audience under Interests and audiences on its card.

  6. Step 6:Give each a share

    Type each ad set’s share in its % box.

    You'll see: Shares add up to 100% above the bar.

  7. Step 7:Add the ads

    Click Next: creatives and add three ads, such as From a Studio post.

    You'll see: 3 ads under every ad set in Which creative runs in which ad set.

  8. Step 8:Set the budget and target

    On Budget, enter the amount, click Edit and type the Target per lead.

    You'll see: What it spends a day, and the target beside the break-even.

  9. Step 9:Fix an ad set under its floor

    Back on Ad sets, click a fix on the red line, such as Raise the budget to $960 a day.

    You'll see: Every ad set’s day over the dashed line on the bar.

  10. Step 10:Run the checks

    Click Review, and click the button beside anything marked Block.

    You'll see: Ready to draft, and 1 campaign · 5 ad sets under What the draft creates.

  11. Step 11:Draft it

    Click Draft the campaign.

    You'll see: The Campaign proposal, with 1 campaign · 5 ad sets · 15 ads.

Good to know

  • Every platform has three levels: the campaign holds the goal and the total budget, the ad set holds who sees it, where, in which language and how much, and the ad holds the creative. Meta calls the middle one an ad set, TikTok and Google an ad group, Snapchat an ad squad, and LinkedIn a campaign inside a campaign group.
  • One ad set here runs on every channel the campaign is on: a Meta ad set and a TikTok ad group, its share split between them as the Budget step splits it.
  • Make a new ad set when the audience is different, the language is different, a city needs its own budget, or it’s retargeting rather than new people. Don’t when only the creative changes: that’s a new ad, not an ad set.
  • Example: a car dealer selling a compact SUV in Saudi Arabia runs one Leads campaign with five ad sets: first car buyers in Riyadh (30%), the same buyers in Jeddah and the Eastern Province (20%), expats in English (15%), a lookalike of last year’s leads (20%) and people who visited the site in the last 30 days (15%). Meta builds 1 campaign, 5 ad sets and 15 ads.
  • The daily floor is rule 4: target cost per result × 50 ÷ 7. At $20 a lead an ad set needs about $143 a day, so $500 a day holds three ad sets; a fourth is merged into its closest one or the budget goes up.
  • Retargeting is judged on its own target, half the campaign’s unless you type one on its card, because people who know you are cheaper to win.
  • Without a target cost on the Budget step, the floor is the platform’s minimum, as before, and Review says it’s a guess until you set one.
  • Each ad set runs every creative in its language; leave one out under Which creative runs in which ad set. Three to five ads per ad set lets the platform find a winner.
  • A field you leave as the campaign’s follows Who should see it, so changing Preset later still reaches every ad set that didn’t set its own.
  • Google’s Demand Gen campaign has one budget for its ad groups: on Google the shares set the total, and Google moves it between them.
  • Suggest ad sets, which proposes them from your goal and budget, comes in a later release.
  • A draft started before ad sets keeps one per channel and language and launches as it is; Name the ad sets turns them into cards.

If something doesn't work

The bar says the shares add up to 95%

Type the missing 5% into one ad set, or click Spread them to 100% to keep their proportions.

A card is red and says it needs $143

Its day is under the floor its target cost needs. Give it a bigger share, raise the budget, or merge it into the closest ad set; the red line offers each.

Review says the retargeting audiences aren’t left out

Click Add the exclusion: every other ad set then leaves out the people the retargeting ad set reaches.

Review says two ad sets overlap

They reach the same places in the same language. Merge them, or make one narrower with its own places, ages or interests.

A card says TikTok leaves out its interests

TikTok uses its own interests, in the TikTok only block when you click Edit. The shared interests still apply on Meta.

Suggest ad sets is greyed out

Suggestions come in a later release. Add and edit the ad sets by hand for now.

Stuck at any step? Send us a message and we'll do it with you on a call. All of Level 4: Run it as an ad