The BEST Facebook Ads Campaign Structure for 2025

Summary

In his latest video, Ben Heath discusses the optimal Facebook ad campaign structure for 2025, emphasizing a shift towards fewer ad sets per campaign. He argues that consolidating target audiences into a single ad set can enhance data collection and improve machine learning outcomes. With the growing importance of open targeting and AI, audience fragmentation is less desirable. However, he notes exceptions for direct offers and omnipresent content strategies, which may require multiple ad sets. Additionally, Heath touches on the importance of testing creative variations and provides insights into ad structure based on budget sizes.

Highlights

• Consolidating ad sets can enhance machine learning by providing more data to Facebook's AI, improving ad performance and reducing audience fragmentation concerns by Meta. 🤖
• Open targeting and strategies like Advantage Plus make audience splitting less critical, urging advertisers to focus on consolidated targeting. 🔍
• Using one primary ad set helps avoid auction overlaps, which can lead to increased costs and reduced efficiency. 🏷️
• Heath suggests different strategies for direct offers versus omnipresent content, indicating that the latter might still need multiple ad sets. 📅
• When testing new ad creatives, separate testing campaigns can help allocate budget effectively without overshadowing existing winning ads. 🧪
• The recommendation for up to 6 creative ads per set is flexible, but lower budgets may benefit from fewer ads to ensure effective data use. 📉

Key Takeaways

• Consolidate ad sets to improve data quality and AI learning 🧠
• Open targeting reduces the need for multiple ad sets 📊
• Ensure budget alignment when deciding on the number of ads per ad set 💰
• Dynamic creative allows for broader testing in a single ad 🎨
• Different strategies may require multiple ad sets, like omnipresent content 📋

Overview

In a fascinating turn for advertisers, Ben Heath shares his revamped strategy for Facebook ads, focused on simplifying and optimizing. Forget the multiple ad set complexities – it's time to consolidate! Heath argues that having one powerful ad set allows Facebook's machine learning to work its magic, quickly gathering data and boosting your campaign’s performance. Oh, and bidding wars? A thing of the past with this streamlined approach!

Now, if you’re all about spreading ads like confetti at a parade, Heath’s omnipresent strategy might be your jam. This one’s all about the all-hands-on-deck approach with multiple ad sets, perfect for those aiming for constant visibility and engagement. It's a strategy that has its place, especially if you prefer capturing your audience's attention over time with various creative attempts.

Worried about creative testing? Fret not! Heath’s got you covered with savvy tips on testing your creative without blowing your budget. The rule of six is flexible, but the magic number depends on your budget. Dynamic creative options let you test more within one ad, and separating campaigns helps with allocating love to new ideas without overshadowing your star performers. It’s all about finding that sweet spot!

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Overview The chapter begins with an acknowledgment of changes in the recommended Facebook ad campaign structure after extensive testing and contemplation. The speaker plans to share the new structure in the video. The main focus is on the number of ad sets in a campaign, highlighting Meta's concerns about audience fragmentation and their preference for a more consolidated approach.
• 00:30 - 03:00: Ad Set Consolidation - Reasons and Benefits The chapter titled 'Ad Set Consolidation - Reasons and Benefits' discusses the common advice of consolidating ad sets into a single ad set within a campaign. For a long time, the speaker ignored this advice, favoring the use of multiple ad sets with varying targeting options. This approach allowed for a detailed comparison of the cost per result across different targeting options. By assessing which ad set performed better (e.g., whether X outperforms Y), the speaker could make informed decisions on targeting strategies.
• 03:00 - 05:30: Audience Overlap and Auction Overlap The chapter titled 'Audience Overlap and Auction Overlap' discusses the evolving landscape of advertising, particularly focusing on audience targeting. It highlights the shift away from traditional targeting methods, such as identifying specific audiences like X or Y, towards more broad and automated options. With advancements like open targeting and hybrid options such as Advantage Plus, the need for distinct data from separate targeting approaches has diminished. Consequently, there is significantly less testing on targeting now, and the manual efforts previously required from advertisers are no longer as critical. The chapter underlines how these changes have led to a decreased importance of specific audience targeting.
• 05:30 - 10:00: Campaign Structure Recommendations The chapter discusses the advantages of consolidating multiple ad sets into a single ad set in digital advertising campaigns. By combining budgets, the learning process of machine learning systems like Facebook's AI improves due to increased data availability. This suggests that using fewer ad sets can lead to more efficient budget usage and quicker learning times for the algorithms involved.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Ad Numbers and Recommendations This chapter discusses the impact of ad targeting and audience management on campaign results. It emphasizes the importance of consolidating budgets and reducing audience fragmentation to achieve faster learning phases and improved performance. The chapter also touches on broad and open targeting strategies, such as Advantage Plus, and the issue of audience overlaps when targeting different groups.
• 15:00 - 18:00: Dynamic Creative and Text Variations This chapter discusses the concept of Dynamic Creative and Text Variations in advertising, highlighting the issue of audience overlap in adsets. It explains how in the past, distinct audiences were more feasible, but due to changes like the inability to turn off detailed targeting audience expansion, overlapping audiences have become more common. This chapter emphasizes the strategy of using a single adset in a campaign to manage audience overlap effectively.

The BEST Facebook Ads Campaign Structure for 2025 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] so after a lot of thinking about it and a lot of testing I have now changed my recommended Facebook ad campaign structure and I need to show you what it now looks like is that even allowed I don't know that's exactly what I'm going to do in this video now the first thing we need to talk about when it comes to Facebook ad campaign structure is how many ads sets should actually go in your campaign now meta has had concerns about audience fragmentation so having multiple ad sets for a while now they would rather you Consolidated your ad
• 00:30 - 01:00 sets down into just one adset in that campaign and that is advice that I have ignored for a long time and my Logic for a long time uh as to reason why I recommended people ignore that advice was because by having different adsets with different targeting options not just lumping all your targeting options into one adset you could then accurately see this targeting option in this adet produces a cost per result of X this targeting option in this adset produces a cost per result of Y which one is better X outperforms Y therefore going
• 01:00 - 01:30 forward we should stop advertising to Y and we should start advertising to X and that data used to be really valuable but with the rise of open targeting and even hybrid options like Advantage Plus audience having the separate data from the separate targeting options is now a lot less important we are doing far less testing on targeting than we used to and the manual work that advertisers used to do when it came to targeting used to be a lot more important and because of the reasons I already mentioned it is because becoming far less important okay
• 01:30 - 02:00 so the upside to separate adsets has decreased and there are advantages on the other side of it to going with one adset or fewer adsets firstly by doing so you consolidate data so let's say you're spending $100 a day and you've got four adsets you're spending roughly $25 per adet per day well if you put all that budget all that $100 into the one adet that adet is going to learn much faster and we know that Facebook's machine learning AI systems they need data to be able to do that and that has
• 02:00 - 02:30 a big impact on the results uh that our campaign generates they're also going to get out of the learning phase faster you're going to see more data as an Advertiser faster and overall you're going to see better performance that's one of the big advantages and one of the reasons why meta doesn't want you to have audience fragmentation and bring things down is to consolidate your budget and get more data in a shorter time period secondly with open targeting broad targeting even things like Advantage Plus audience your audiences have massive overlap so if say for example you're targeting an interest in one adet and a look like AUD another
• 02:30 - 03:00 adset and open targeting another adset well there's enormous amounts of overlap going on there anyway so having those are sort of distinct audiences as they used to be a number of years ago that has become less and less and less and now it's really got to the point where it just doesn't really happen at all particularly with that accounts that can't turn off things like detailed targeting audience expansion which is becoming more and more common so you're going to see massive if not total audience overlap between the adsets and again that factors into this decision by using one one adet in a campaign you
• 03:00 - 03:30 also avoid auction overlap which is a bit different to audience overlap auction overlap is where multiple adsets are trying to compete in the same auction you think about trying to put your ads in front of users um on meta you are entering an auction where you're competing against other advertis CC Etc well if you've got multiple adsets from the same Advertiser entering the same auction that negatively impacts the delivery of one or both of those adsets you likely to see cpms rise or simply one of them or both of them spend less budget than you want them to because
• 03:30 - 04:00 they're sort of competing and meta gets a little bit confused doesn't really know what to do with it so adding all that up that's why I'd now recommend that most advertisers have one ad set um in their Facebook ad campaign as opposed to multiple but doesn't mean you should only ever have one adet and one campaign and there are also times we have multiple adsets firstly the way I would typically structure now director offer so if you're directly advertising your products or Services I would go with one cold audience campaign and one warm audience campaign each one of those
• 04:00 - 04:30 would have one ad set the warm audience campaign would have all your warm audiences in there and the cold audience is probably going to use either open targeting or a hybrid targeting option like Advantage Plus audience I have other tutorials on targeting that you can check out for more information on those so I'll include a link in the uh description below as to what you'd include it in there but that's what I would have from a typical campaign structure if you are using the direct offer but there are other strategies that I really like and that I recommend things like my om presentes content strategy again if you're not familiar with that I'll include a link in the description with the omnipresent content
• 04:30 - 05:00 strategy just to very quickly explain what we're trying to do is put multiple ads in front of people repeatedly over an extended period of time that deliver value demonstrate expertise uh provide client customer testimonials have call to actions to try and build a relationship and get someone to the point where they're willing to purchase from you and no one else and purchase a high price and all that sort of good stuff now that campaign uh type requires multiple adsets in a campaign you might have eight 10 12 different adsets live in that campaign um at once and that's
• 05:00 - 05:30 absolutely fine it's a completely different campaign type it's a different strategy when you set one of those up meta is not going to like it you're going to get all this warning saying audience fragmentation and you shouldn't be doing this but we're not trying to do the typical thing with Facebook ads when you use an only presentes content campaign uh we're trying to do something different and for that you need a different structure so in that scenario I'd absolutely still have multiple adsets um per campaign just want to be very clear about that just because my recommendation for most people when it comes to direct offers change doesn't mean that we change apps Ely everything
• 05:30 - 06:00 and that's a good example I would also still recommend that you use different campaigns when you're advertising different product ranges you don't usually want to lump everything that you're advertising um into one campaign so you got different product R different campaigns or different offers you want to test different campaigns and we would often use different campaigns specifically for testing new ad creative what a lot of Facebook advertisers experience is that let's say you've got a winning ad and you're running that within your campaign you want to test new and creative so you add that into the existing campaign and meta just doesn't give it any budget it just keep keeps using the winning ad from
• 06:00 - 06:30 previously and you've spent all this time effort money creating these new ads and they just don't get any budget you've no idea whether they are going to perform well not perform Etc um a separate testing campaign could be a good way to do it and often in that testing campaign we might have multiple ads sets that allow us to test more ads um faster again that's going to depend on on on the business and depend on the budget the larg the budget we're more likely to do something like that but just be aware that there are scenarios like that that differ from the norm to some extent um and we would deviate from this one adset per campaign recommendation as well okay so that's
• 06:30 - 07:00 adsets in a second I'm going to talk about ads and how many ads you should have um in those ad sets before I do want quickly mention our done for you Facebook and Instagram advertising services and if you want my company to create manage and optimize your Facebook and Instagram campaigns take that workload off your hand help you scale help you get better results we can almost certainly do that if you're interested there is a link in the description below you can click on that come through to a page and a website and just book in a free no obligation call to find out more what we charge how we can help all that sort of stuff uh so if you're interested go ahead do that and
• 07:00 - 07:30 hopefully we get a chance to work together so when it comes to the number of ads you should have in your ad sets meta has made uh updated their recommendations around this and I've got meta support up up about this so I'm just going to scroll down to the section uh where we talk about this uh decreasing ads per adset that's an interesting title for this section right so you can see what the lines that meta is looking to take similarly to decreasing the number of adsets and they say Here Right Use six or fewer creatives per adset is the updated recommendation now I've not been recommending that most advertisers used more than five anyway so it's very much
• 07:30 - 08:00 um in line with that I think there's actually some Nuance that meta doesn't give us here that that I'd like to add that I think is important and that's this six Max ads per ad set recommendation is budget specific so I wouldn't go over six basically in any scenario if you've got lots of different ads say you got 20 ads that you want to test just don't do it all at once right you test your six and then you keep the best performers and you get rid of the underperformers and then you test the next round and you test the next round like you can do it consecutively as opposed to um all at the same time and that's how you're able to test more um
• 08:00 - 08:30 if you want to test within that adset that is but I do think that if you're not if you're operating with a relatively small budget you don't want to use the six ad recommendation either you want to bring that back down and again it comes down to consolidating data right do you want your budget to be split over six ads well if you're spending thousands a day absolutely fine you're going to get lots of conversions you're going to find out which are better um the campaign's going to optimize if you're spending $10 a day $15 a day $20 a day I'd bring that down it's absolutely fine to operate with two ads three ads even one ad sometimes
• 08:30 - 09:00 within an ad set just think of the six as a maximum now this recommendation of six creatives Max per um ad set does not apply to Dynamic creative which is obviously a different ad type in Dynamic creative you can have up to 10 creative variations creative options within the one ad plus you can have multiple text variations and headline variations and things like that um now in Dynamic creative ad sets you can only have one ad in there but you can have the full 10 I just wanted to make that clear that if you're running a dynamic creative ad thinking oh can I only have six
• 09:00 - 09:30 creatives in there no no no you can still use the 10 that's fine the six creative maximum recommendation is for sort of six separate ads um within ad set so a little bit of a difference there this recommendation does not apply to Advantage Plus shopping either because depending on the size of the product range that you are advertising you might have way more combinations of that simply because you've just got way more products going on and that's absolutely fine don't think that that applies here and that you therefore need to try and change things and and adjust how your Advantage Plus shopping campaign setup and all that sort of stuff that that's a different thing
• 09:30 - 10:00 another thing we do see in this support Doc is that if you're testing multiple text variants this section just here um use multiple text optimization and what they mean by that is when you create an ad you'll often see that once you've written your headline for example you've got the option to add uh more headlines and beneath it and meta saying you're better off doing that as having one ad with the multiple text options that you're testing as opposed to duplicating the ad and creating multiple ads and having sort of one text variation in each one of those it's going to allow meta to to test better now of course in
• 10:00 - 10:30 this scenario that only works if you're going to keep your creative the same and you just want to test like different wordings around your headline or things like that then then this recommendation is good if you wanted to test a completely different offer something significantly different I would recommend that you create separate ads for those um but if it's a text variation change wording of a headline emphasizing one benefit over another then use the the multiple text um optimization option much the same way if you want to test multiple ad creative options but but they're all quite
• 10:30 - 11:00 similar meta recommends using Dynamic creative for that so if you want to test different background colors or or different images of your product from different angles or or whatever it is then Dynamic creative could work really well for that if you're testing something completely different different offers things that have a completely different style we would typically look to break those out into into different ads um exactly the same logic applies there with the text variations it just depends how different from the the control from the main ad are we going with our testing if it's small use dynamic creative or the multiple text um
• 11:00 - 11:30 optimization if it's bigger separate ads in this video I briefly touched on retargeting but if you want to see my exact retargeting strategy you can check it out in this video here in that video I show you the only retargeting strategy that you need to see great results on Facebook go ahead and check it out