How to Succeed With a New Facebook Ads Account

If this is your first step running a Facebook Ads campaign, I would also recommend that you read this blog, which explains step-by-step how to set it up.

Step 1: Choose the Right Objective – It’s About Conversions, Not Clicks

A common mistake when starting with Facebook ads is choosing the wrong objective. Most new advertisers pick “traffic” because they think getting lots of clicks means success. And while traffic campaigns might give you a bunch of clicks, do clicks really matter if they don’t turn into sales or leads? What you want are conversions, not just views.

It’s like trying to learn the piano but spending all your time tuning it instead of actually practicing. Sure, the piano might sound great, but you’re not getting any closer to playing a song. In the same way, if your goal is to get leads or sales, focusing on traffic might bring clicks, but it won’t move the needle on conversions. You need to choose objectives like “Leads” or “Sales” so Facebook’s AI can focus on finding people who are ready to take action.

Step 2: Keep Your Targeting Broad, But Stay Local

Now that you’ve set the right objective, it’s time to figure out who should see your ads.

As a realtor, targeting people in your area seems like a no-brainer. But a lot of real estate agents make the mistake of going too specific, especially when they’re just starting out. Sure, narrowing by location is important, but going too narrow can actually hurt your ad’s performance, especially because you are already bound by Facebook restrictions of the Housing category. You don't have any data yet for Facebook to determine who click on your ad and who convert. When you limit your audience too much in this stage, you restrict Facebook’s ability to optimize who sees your ads. Facebook’s AI needs time to learn who is most likely to engage with your ad and take the desired action, but if your audience is too narrow, the algorithm won’t have enough room to do this effectively. Once you’ve gathered enough data, then you can start refining your targeting.

What You Should Do Instead:

• Focus on geographic targeting first—choose cities, zip codes, or set a custom radius around your business.
• Keep interests and behaviors broader at the start. Facebook’s AI will refine who it shows your ad to over time, based on how people interact with it.

Don’t overcomplicate your targeting. The algorithm needs time to gather data and find the best audience for your ads. Broader targeting + local focus is the way to go for local businesses.

Step 3: Focus on Creating High-Quality Ad Creatives

The success of your Facebook ad campaign starts with one thing: high-quality, engaging ad creatives. Your ad creatives—whether they’re images, videos, or testimonials—are what needs to get the attention of your audience and make them stop scrolling.

We often overthink settings and underthink creatives. Take the time to make ads that showcase why someone should care about what you are advertising. Write down why someone would click on your ad? Are they interested in buying that house, do you want to help them sell your house? Make a list with all the reasons that someone would choose you as their realtor. Make sure that in every creative you make, at least one of those reasons is present.

Your ad creatives need to connect with your audience emotionally and make it clear why they need your service or product. The more creatives, the better. Aim to have at least five times as many creatives as you think you need. Use client testimonials, before-and-after photos, or show how your product or service solves a real problem.

Creating quality ad creatives takes time, but it’s essential to your business success. You may feel like you’re juggling a million things already, and spending hours on ad creatives sounds impossible. But consider this—your ads are one of your most important customer acquisition channels. What’s more important than improving your results so you can actually grow your business? And the more creatives you have - the more likely you are to find the winning combo. Because finding a winning combo means testing, testing and testing. Once you find it, your cost per conversion will get lower and that will result in more revenue for your business.

Want a completely hands-off approach to running ads? Let Roya handle all the testing and optimization for you, so you can just focus on running your business, while getting new clients. Learn more here or book a demo.

No ideas what to create?

• ‍Customer Testimonials & Reviews: Real reviews from satisfied clients build trust and credibility. Share a simple video or image featuring a client who had a great experience with you. No fancy production needed—just an honest review. Example: A client shares, “We were struggling to sell our house, but [Your Name] helped us close within weeks, and we got above asking price!”‍
• Before-and-After Comparisons: Showcase transformations of properties you’ve helped sell or stage. A quick before-and-after of a vacant property turned into a beautifully staged home can captivate potential clients. Example: Post side-by-side images of a home pre-staging and post-staging, with a caption like, “This home went from sitting on the market to sold in just two weeks after our expert staging!"‍
• Solve a Pain Point: Address common issues your clients face, such as finding the right home, navigating market trends, or dealing with tough negotiations. Then, explain how your expertise solves these problems. Example: “Struggling to find a family-friendly home in a competitive market? Here’s how we help our clients find their dream homes without breaking their budget.”‍
• Behind-the-Scenes: Offer a sneak peek into your daily work life. Share a video of a home walkthrough, prepping for an open house, or the paperwork process. This humanizes your brand and builds connection. Example: “Come along as we prep this stunning 3-bedroom home for an open house! From the final touches to welcoming buyers, here’s what goes into selling your home."

Step 4: Avoid Ad Fatigue

Once your ads have been running for a while, one of the biggest challenges you’ll face is ad fatigue. This happens when your audience sees the same ad too many times, and they start to tune it out (another reason why it is so important to create multiple ad creatives). If a person has seen your ad 4 or more times, engagement can drop by as much as 45%. That means fewer clicks, fewer conversions, and higher costs per result.

The key to preventing ad fatigue is to regularly refresh your creatives. This doesn’t mean you need to reinvent the wheel every time—small changes, like tweaking the headline, adjusting the imagery, or testing different videos, can make a huge difference. The goal is to keep your ads fresh so they feel new to your audience, even if they’ve seen them before.

Why does this matter? Because if you keep showing the same ad to the same people, not only do they stop engaging, but Facebook will continue charging you for impressions that don’t lead to any meaningful actions. Over time, this drives up your costs and makes your campaign less efficient. By rotating in new creatives, you give Facebook’s algorithm more room to work and maintain strong engagement with your audience.

Step 5: Start Small and Scale Up Gradually

When launching your first Facebook ad campaign, it’s tempting to go big right away, but the smarter approach is to start small and scale up as you gather data. Facebook’s AI needs time to optimize and learn which audiences respond best to your ads. If you throw in a large budget too soon, you risk spending a lot without knowing what actually works.

Start with a smaller daily budget—around $10 to $15 per day—while Facebook gathers data on performance. Once you see which ads, creatives, and audiences are performing well, you can increase your budget and scale up.

Why does this work? Smaller budgets give you room to experiment with different ad creatives and targeting options, allowing you to make data-driven decisions before making a big investment. Scaling too fast can lead to wasted spend, while gradual growth ensures you’re putting your budget behind the strategies that deliver the best results.

Use this phase to test multiple variations of your ads. Try different headlines, images, and calls-to-action, and let Facebook’s algorithm find the winning combinations before scaling up. If you don't want to do this yourself, no problem. Roya will do it all for you for just $147 a month.

Step 6: Monitor, Analyze, and Optimize Your Campaign

Once your ads are live, it is time to monitor and optimize. It’s important to keep an eye on how your ads are performing and make adjustments along the way. Facebook Ads Manager provides detailed insights into key metrics like click-through rates (CTR), cost per click (CPC), and most importantly, conversions. Don’t let your campaign run on autopilot—review the data regularly to see what’s working and what’s not.

If you are ad is approved, but not running: this guide will help you out.

What to Monitor:

• ‍CTR (Click-Through Rate): This shows how many people are clicking on your ad. A high CTR means your ad is engaging, but if the clicks aren’t converting into sales or leads, it’s time to rethink your strategy.‍
• CPC (Cost Per Click): This tells you how much you’re paying for each click. If your CPC is rising without generating more conversions, you might need to tweak your ad creatives or targeting.‍
• Conversions: This is the most important metric—how many people are taking the action you want (e.g., booking a service, filling out a form). Keep a close eye on this number, as it directly affects your return on investment (ROI).
  

How to Optimize:

• ‍Adjust Targeting: If you find that your ads are reaching a broad audience but not converting, you may need to refine your targeting.
• ‍Refresh Creatives: As mentioned in Step 4, ad fatigue is real. If performance drops, try rotating in new creatives to keep your audience engaged.‍
• Increase Budget for Top Performers: Once you’ve identified which ads and audiences are delivering the best results, consider increasing the budget for those ads. This way, you’re putting more money behind what’s proven to work, while scaling down underperforming campaigns.

Why does this matter? Continuous optimization ensures that you’re not wasting money on ads that aren’t working. Instead, you’ll refine your strategy as you go, making sure every dollar spent is driving results.‍

Tip: If monitoring your ads daily sounds overwhelming, you can automate the optimization process with Roya. With Roya, you’ll get detailed insights and automatic recommendations for improving your campaigns, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business while still running highly effective ads.

Conclusion

Running a successful Facebook ad campaign requires more than just setting up an ad. It’s about choosing the right objective, targeting the right audience, and consistently refreshing your ad creatives to avoid fatigue. Start small, gather data, and scale up as you see what works. Keep a close eye on performance metrics to make informed decisions and optimize your campaigns for the best results. And if you don’t have the time to manage it all, tools like Roya can handle the hard work for you—letting you focus on what you do best: running your business.