# How to set up Facebook ad sets in one campaign

URL: https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets
Level 4: Run it as an ad (https://blackbox.plus/guides/run-ads)
Updated: 2026-11-02
Time: about 10 minutes
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: https://blackbox.plus/app/plan

> Give each audience, city, language or retargeting group its own ad set and share of the budget, check each gets enough a day to learn, and run the same ads.

## Short answer

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. On Ad sets, type who the campaign is for in Suggest from what I typed and click Suggest ad sets. The AI suggests one ad set per audience, city, language or retargeting group, each with its share of the budget and one line on what it tests. Code then checks the rules: an ad set under its daily floor, your target cost per result × 50 ÷ 7, is merged into its closest one, and What the rules changed says so. A retargeting or lookalike audience your ad account lacks gets a Make this audience on Meta button. Click Edit or Add ad set to change any of it by hand. The same ads run in every ad set, Review checks the rules again, and nothing spends until you start it.

## You'll need

- **Meta Ads connected.** An ad account under the brand, with its Page and pixel picked. (Guide: https://blackbox.plus/guides/connect-meta-ads)
- **A campaign to set up.** The goal, places and ads, as in the Facebook campaign guide. (Guide: https://blackbox.plus/guides/create-facebook-ad-campaign)

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

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.
   Starts at: https://blackbox.plus/app/plan
   ![Plan’s Create on this day panel: Instagram and TikTok under Post, Meta ads under Campaign, ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/01-day.png)
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.
   ![The Ad sets step: one ad set, Everyone · English, new people in the United States with 100% of the budget, ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/02-start.png)
3. **Say who it’s for.** In **Suggest from what I typed**, write who the campaign is for in your own words.
   You'll see: Your line in the box, next to **Suggest from this**.
   ![The Ad sets step: Suggest from what I typed holding first-time buyers in Brooklyn and the city, coffee lovers and site visitors, ringed, beside Suggest ad sets](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/12-ask.png)
4. **Let the AI suggest the ad sets.** Click **Suggest ad sets**. If you already have ad sets, click **Replace mine** or **Add to mine**.
   You'll see: A card per ad set, each with its share and one line on what it tests.
   ![Two suggested ad sets, First-time buyers in Brooklyn and in New York City, each with its share, its day and the AI’s one-line reason, the first reason ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/13-cards.png)
5. **Read what the rules changed.** Under the cards, read **What the rules changed**.
   You'll see: A line for each ad set merged to reach its daily floor, or audience left out.
   ![What the rules changed: Espresso fans, Brooklyn merged into First-time buyers, Brooklyn because 72 dollars a day is under the 143 it needs, ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/14-rules.png)
6. **Make a missing audience.** On a retargeting or lookalike card, click **Make this audience on Meta**.
   You'll see: The audience under **Interests and audiences**, and left out of the other ad sets.
   ![The retargeting ad set’s card saying the ad account has no website visitors audience yet, with Make this audience on Meta ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/15-make.png)
7. **Edit an ad set.** Click **Edit** on a card to change its **Name**, **Places**, **Ages** or **Interests**.
   You'll see: The card with its places, ages and interests, and its estimated audience.
   ![The first ad set open for editing: its name, kind, language, places, ages and interests, with the name ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/03-edit.png)
8. **Add an ad set.** Click **Add ad set** for an audience the suggestion missed, then set its **Name**, **Kind** and **Language**.
   You'll see: A new card, and the shares spread again to 100%.
   ![The share bar split between two ad sets, and the new one, First-time buyers, New York City, ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/04-add.png)
9. **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.
   ![Your Meta audiences for the retargeting ad set, with Website visitors, last 30 days ticked and ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/05-audience.png)
10. **Give each a share.** Type each ad set’s share in its **%** box.
   You'll see: **Shares add up to 100%** above the bar.
   ![The bar with five ad sets at 30, 20, 15, 20 and 15%, adding up to 100%, and the first share box ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/06-shares.png)
11. **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**.
   ![Which creative runs in which ad set: three Studio posts running in all five ad sets, 3 ads each, ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/07-grid.png)
12. **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.
   ![The Budget card at 900 US dollars a day, with the target per lead of 20 dollars ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/08-budget.png)
13. **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.
   ![The bar with Coffee lovers, 25 to 44 in red at 135 dollars a day against the 143 it needs, and Raise the budget to 960 dollars a day ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/09-floor.png)
14. **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**.
   ![Review’s What the draft creates, ringed: 1 campaign, 5 ad sets and 15 ads on Meta, all paused](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/10-review.png)
15. **Draft it.** Click **Draft the campaign**.
   You'll see: The **Campaign proposal**, with **1 campaign · 5 ad sets · 15 ads**.
   ![The Campaign proposal in Plan: 960 dollars a day on Meta, 1 campaign, 5 ad sets and 15 ads, ringed](https://blackbox.plus/guides/facebook-ad-sets/11-proposal.png)

## 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 follows Blackbox’s five rules, in order: one ad set per audience; split again only by language or by a city that needs its own budget; retargeting is always its own ad set; each ad set gets at least target cost × 50 ÷ 7 a day, or is merged; and 3 to 5 ads per ad set, with overlapping audiences left out of each other.
- The AI proposes and code checks: the merges, the shares adding up to 100% and the retargeting exclusions are worked out after it answers, and it can only use audiences your ad account really has. Set the budget and target first and the suggestion checks the daily floor too.
- Make this audience on Meta makes a website audience from your pixel (visitors in the last 30 days) or a 1% lookalike of a customer list the account has. Nothing is made until you click it. On TikTok, Snapchat, Google and LinkedIn, make it in that platform’s Ads Manager, then pick it on the card.
- Meta asks each ad account to accept its Custom Audience terms once. If it hasn’t, the card links to them in Ads Manager; accept, then click Make this audience on Meta again.
- Once it runs, each check-in reads the test ad set by ad set and creative by creative, and suggests where the money goes next — see [How to read your ad set test and act on the check-in](https://blackbox.plus/guides/read-ad-set-test).
- 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.

## Official docs

- [Meta: Website Custom Audiences](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/audiences/guides/website-custom-audiences)
- [Meta: Lookalike Audiences](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/audiences/guides/lookalike-audiences)

## Questions people ask

**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.

**Should I click Replace mine or Add to mine?**

Replace mine swaps your ad sets for the suggestion. Add to mine keeps yours and adds the suggested ones, every share scaled so they still add up to 100%. Suggest ad sets is greyed out until a channel is on in Preset.