Running your own Facebook ads is not hard in the way accounting is hard. It's hard in the way assembling furniture with instructions in three languages is hard: nothing here requires a marketing degree, but there are a dozen small steps where people quietly give up. This walkthrough covers what actually takes time, what breaks first, and which five decisions matter versus the twenty that don't.
How Long This Actually Takes (And Where Most Owners Quit)
For someone who has never opened Meta Ads Manager, expect 4 to 8 hours total, spread over 2 or 3 sessions rather than one afternoon. That breaks down roughly like this: 45 minutes to set up the Business Page if you don't have one, 30 to 90 minutes to create the ad account and verify your business (this is where a lot of people stall, especially if Facebook asks for a tax ID or business address confirmation), 20 minutes to install the Meta Pixel if you have a website, and 1 to 2 hours writing copy, picking images, and setting targeting for your first ad.
Then you wait. Ad review takes anywhere from a few minutes to 72 hours. This is the point where most people quit — they submit an ad, see nothing happen for a day, assume it's broken, and abandon the account. It's usually not broken. It's in a queue.
Launch your first Facebook & Instagram ad in 2 minutes
Describe your business: the AI writes the copy, designs the visual, sets the targeting, and publishes your ad. Leads arrive with their phone number.
Try Leadria free7-day free trial — no credit card — cancel anytime
The Three Things You Need Before You Open Ads Manager
Skip any of these three and you'll hit a wall halfway through setup.
- A Facebook Business Page. Not a personal profile. Ads run from a Page, and Facebook will not let you create an ad account without one attached.
- An ad account with a payment method. Facebook requires a credit or debit card on file before any ad can be reviewed, regardless of your daily budget.
- The Meta Pixel, if you have a website. If you're sending people to a booking page or contact form, install the pixel so Facebook can track what happens after the click. If you don't have a website, you skip this entirely and run lead ads instead, which is a legitimate and often cheaper path — see our breakdown of facebook ads without a website.
The Five Decisions That Actually Move Your Results
Everything else in Ads Manager is noise compared to these five. Get them right and a mediocre setup still performs. Get them wrong and a perfect setup fails.
| Decision | Why it matters | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign objective | Leads objective optimizes for phone/form submissions; Traffic optimizes for clicks that may never convert | Leads objective usually costs 20-40% more per click but converts 2-3x better |
| Daily budget | Under $15/day, Meta can't gather enough data to optimize within a week | $20-$50/day for most local trades |
| Audience/targeting | A 5-mile radius around a 15-year-old plumbing shop performs very differently than a 25-mile radius around a new gym | See targeting local customers |
| Creative and offer | A photo of a finished job with a specific price or guarantee outperforms a stock image every time | Can change CPL by 2x or more on its own |
| Lead form vs. website click | Lead forms fill out faster on mobile; website clicks give better-qualified but fewer leads | See the lead ads guide |
Budget deserves its own note: if you're not sure what's realistic for your trade, the numbers in our Facebook ads budget for small business guide are a better starting point than guessing.
The Twenty Settings You Can Ignore
This is the part nobody tells beginners: Ads Manager has dozens of toggles, and almost none of them matter for a first campaign. Leave these on Meta's default:
- Advantage+ placements (let Facebook and Instagram both run unless you have a specific reason not to)
- Bid strategy (leave on