Facebook Ads are paid placements managed through Meta Ads Manager that appear across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Meta Audience Network. Advertisers create campaigns structured around an objective, define their audience and budget at the ad set level, and produce the creative at the ad level. The platform uses an auction system to determine which ads are shown to which users and at what cost.
How does the Facebook Ads auction work?
Each time there is an opportunity to show an ad, such as when a user scrolls their feed, Meta runs an auction among eligible advertisers. The winner is not determined by bid alone. Meta calculates a total value score for each competing ad, combining the advertiser's bid, the estimated likelihood that a user will take the desired action, and an ad quality score based on user feedback and engagement history. A lower bid with a highly relevant, high-quality ad can outperform a higher bid with poor creative.
What are the key components of a Facebook Ad campaign?
A Facebook Ads campaign is built across three levels:
- Campaign: where you set the objective, such as Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, or Sales. The objective tells Meta what result to optimise for when deciding who sees your ad.
- Ad Set: where you define the audience (location, demographics, interests, custom audiences), budget, schedule, and placement.
- Ad: where you create the creative, including the image or video, the copy, the headline, and the destination URL or lead form.
How does Facebook Ads targeting work?
Meta's targeting options draw on data from user activity across Facebook and Instagram, including pages they follow, content they engage with, and demographic information in their profile. Advertisers can layer interest-based targeting with custom audiences built from customer lists, website visitors, or app users, and lookalike audiences that find new users similar to existing customers. In Thailand, Facebook and Instagram remain among the most widely used social platforms, which makes Meta's targeting particularly effective for reaching both broad consumer audiences and defined segments within the Thai market.
How do you measure Facebook Ads performance?
Results are measured within Meta Ads Manager using metrics that correspond to the campaign objective. Key metrics include reach and impressions, click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), cost per result, and return on ad spend (ROAS) for sales campaigns. At Phoenix Media, we supplement Meta's own reporting with GA4 data to cross-reference what the platform reports against actual website sessions and conversions. Discrepancies between Meta's reported figures and GA4 data are common and worth investigating before drawing conclusions about campaign performance.
