The three settings behind every Meta ad
Campaign level
Campaign objective
What do you want people to do?
The broad outcome for the campaign: awareness, traffic, engagement, leads, sales or app promotion. It decides which locations and goals you can choose next.
Ad set level
Conversion location
Where should it happen?
The place you want the action to take place: your website, an app, a messaging app, an Instant Form, a phone call or the ad itself. You set it at the ad set level.
Performance goal
What should Meta optimize for?
The specific result Meta’s delivery system aims to get the most of, such as landing page views, conversations or conversions. It decides who sees your ad.
The campaign objectives as a funnel
Select a stage to see what it does, when to use it, and what it doesn’t do.
Lower cost per result
Lower commitment
Lower commitment
Awareness
Consideration
Conversion
Retention
Higher cost per result
Higher commitment
Higher commitment
Awareness
Definition: Builds awareness by reaching the largest number of people who are most likely to remember the ad.
Use when: Entering a new area (a cold market) or after a name change.
It does not: Show who is interested, or who is likely to subscribe or attend a class. Meta optimizes for recall, not action.
Where email and SMS start doing the heavy lifting
Meta ads are strongest at finding new people and prompting a first step. Once someone has already subscribed, email, SMS and a warm in-person welcome do most of the work of turning them into a regular.
Meta Ads Manager · Campaign setup reference
Meta AdsDecision Tree
Pick an objective, then a conversion location, to see which performance goals Meta offers for that combination. Click any goal to see when to use it.
1Objective
The overall result the ad campaign is meant to achieve.
2Conversion location
Where people take action, such as a website, messaging app or form.
3Performance goal
How Meta measures success and delivers the ad.
1
Choose objective
Top of funnelLower cost · lower commitmentBottom of funnelHigher cost · higher commitment
Outside the funnel