How to set up a Facebook Ads Manager account

The average social consumer in Australia clicks on 21 Facebook ads per month — almost double the worldwide average. This shows just how effective Facebook ads can be at driving clicks for brands. But before you can win those clicks, you need to first set up your Facebook Ads Manager account. We’ll show you how to do it. 

Why Facebook Ads Manager? 

Facebook Ads Manager is the platform you use to run ads on Facebook, Instagram or Messenger. It’s a website for creating ads, managing when and where they’ll run and tracking how well your campaigns are performing. Facebook Ads Manager is a management tool that can be used by people of any experience level. 

How to set up your Facebook Ads Manager page

Step 1: Set up a Facebook page

Before you can set up your Facebook Ads Manager page, you first need to set up your Facebook page. It’s recommended that businesses set up a Facebook Business Manager account instead of a personal account. Business Manager allows you to separate your company account from your personal account. Once you’ve set up your page, make sure you spend some time familiarizing yourself with the page and how it works. Being comfortable with how Facebook works and how your audience uses the platform will help you when the time comes to setting up ads. 

Step 2: Start with the basic information 

Facebook highlights what you need to do (or haven’t done) in order to run ads. Once you’ve set up your Facebook Business Manager, you’ll see a “Settings” dropdown at the top left corner of the page. To kick things off, you’ll need to fill out some basic information about your ad account including your business’ name, address, currency, and timezone. You’ll also be asked to name your Facebook Ad Account name. 

Once you’ve filled in your business details, click the left-hand corner dropdown to return to the “Business Settings” overview. From here, select “Ad Accounts” under the “Accounts” menu. Then click “Add” and then “Add an Ad Account.” Here is where you will need to choose which business profile will be linked to your ads. After selecting your account, you’ll be assigned an Ad Account ID and confirmation.

Step 3: Connect your Facebook page 

Your Facebook ad campaigns need to be linked to a corresponding Facebook page. Because you’ve already set up your page in step 1, all you need to do is go to the “Accounts” tab, select “Pages” and select “+Add” and “Add a Page.” Then just search for your page. 

Step 4: Give access to others  

You don’t need to add other users to your Facebook ad manager page, but if you choose to share access with your colleagues, simply click on the “Ad Accounts” screen and select “Add People.” From here you can invite other Facebook users. Giving someone access allows them to edit and manage campaigns, but you can restrict them to only see the performance data. This can be handy if you have another colleague who looks after the ad reporting without needing access to edit the campaign itself.

Step 5: Verify billing information 

To run any of your ad campaigns on Facebook, you’re going to need a way to pay for them. To set up and verify your billing information, go to “Ad Account Settings” and select “Payment” settings. This is where you can add a credit card, bank account or PayPal to pay for your Facebook Ads Manager account.

Step 6: Set your spending limit

Facebook gives you the option to set up a budget for your Facebook ad campaigns. You can set this up when you’re ready to run an ad. Facebook provides you with both a “billing threshold” and a monthly account payment date. Your billing threshold is a preset limit that you choose based on your ad campaign’s performance. Your billing threshold is reset once your payment goes through. You can change this threshold at any time.

Step 7: Create a Facebook Pixel

Setting up your Facebook Pixel means that your ads can effectively “follow” visitors from Facebook to your website (and vice-versa), tracking those visitors’ behaviour, page views and content views. This allows you to hyper-target your ads. The Facebook Pixel is a piece of code that you need to include on your website to help this happen. From the “Settings” menu, select “Events Manager.” Then, select “Add New Data Source” and click “Facebook Pixel.” Facebook will generate a Pixel ID number and code for your campaigns as well as three ways to integrate that code onto your website. 

Now you’re ready to run your first Facebook ad campaign! Once your page is set up and ready to go, you simply need to create your first ad and start earning those clicks. Just don’t forget to track and measure the engagement so you can keep tweaking it.