Getting Started with Meta Advertising
If you've ever boosted a post and wondered whether you were doing it right, or avoided Meta ads altogether because they felt overwhelming, this module is for you. Sonia from Quisk Design walks us through the essentials — from making sure your account is set up correctly, to running smarter campaigns on a small budget.
Getting Your Structure Right
Before you spend a single dollar on ads, you need to make sure the foundations are in place. Start by checking whether you have a Meta Business Manager (also called a Business Portfolio). Type business.facebook.com/settings into your browser — you'll either see your existing manager, multiple managers, or a prompt to create one.
Think of the Business Manager as your ownership centre. It's where your Facebook page, Instagram account, ad account, and Meta Pixel all live together — and where you control who has access to what. Always run your advertising through a business ad account, not a personal one. It keeps things clean, and if you ever sell the business, that ad account and all its data becomes a transferable asset.
Choosing the Right Campaign Objective
When you create a new campaign in Ads Manager, the first decision you'll make is your objective — and it's an important one. Meta offers several options:
Awareness — let people know your business exists
Traffic — send people to your website or profile to learn more
Engagement — get likes, comments, shares, and video views
Leads — collect names, phone numbers, and email addresses
App Promotion — drive app downloads
Sales — convert directly on an e-commerce site
The temptation is to go straight for leads or sales. But a more strategic approach is to warm your audience up first. Start with awareness to build a broad pool of people who recognise your brand, then retarget them with an engagement or lead campaign. By the time you ask for the sale, they already know who you are. This three-stage approach — awareness, consideration, conversion — typically delivers a lower cost per result and higher conversion overall.
Making the Most of a Small Budget
Not everyone has a big marketing budget, and that's completely fine. If you're working with under $100 a month, a boosted post is a great place to start. It's a simplified version of running an ad — quicker to set up, with a smaller budget over a shorter timeframe.
A few things to keep in mind when boosting:
Check which ad account you're in. Always make sure you're boosting through your business account, not your personal one.
Don't accept Meta's default goal. Meta will suggest a goal automatically — but always review it and choose the one that matches what you actually want to achieve.
Set your audience deliberately. Meta's Advantage Plus AI targeting is increasingly effective, but it defaults to all of Australia. If you're a local business, narrow it to your service area so you're not wasting budget on people who'll never buy from you.
Set an end date. If you leave your boost running without one, it will keep charging you indefinitely. Choose a fixed end date so you stay in control of your spend.
Run it for at least 4 days. Sonia recommends 5 to 10 days for a boosted post, with a daily budget of around $10. As low as $5 a day can still generate results.
The Takeaway
Meta advertising doesn't have to be complicated or expensive to be effective. Get your account structure right, be intentional about your campaign objective, warm your audience up before asking for the sale, and keep a close eye on your budget settings. Small steps, done consistently, add up.