Set Up a Meta Ads Campaign

Prerequisites

• Meta Business Manager account with Marketing API access
• Meta Pixel and CAPI configured (see meta-ads-pixel-capi)

Steps

1. Create a campaign via Marketing API. Use the Meta Marketing API:

   POST /act_<ad-account-id>/campaigns
   { "name": "Q1 SaaS Lead Gen", "objective": "OUTCOME_LEADS", "status": "PAUSED", "special_ad_categories": [] }
   

   For B2B: use OUTCOME_LEADS with lead forms, or OUTCOME_SALES pointing to your landing page.

2. Set campaign structure. Campaign (budget) -> Ad Set (audience, placement) -> Ad (creative). Set daily budget:

   POST /act_<ad-account-id>/adsets
   { "name": "Engineering Leaders", "campaign_id": "<id>", "daily_budget": 5000, "billing_event": "IMPRESSIONS", "optimization_goal": "LEAD_GENERATION" }
   

3. Configure targeting. Set audience targeting on the ad set (see meta-ads-audiences):

   { "targeting": { "interests": [{"id": "6003020834693"}], "age_min": 25, "age_max": 55, "geo_locations": {"countries": ["US"]} } }
   

4. Create ads via API. Upload creative and create ads:

   POST /act_<ad-account-id>/ads
   { "name": "Ad Variant A", "adset_id": "<id>", "creative": {"creative_id": "<creative-id>"}, "status": "PAUSED" }
   

   Write primary text (under 125 chars for mobile), headline, and description. Add CTA: LEARN_MORE, SIGN_UP, GET_QUOTE.

5. Launch and monitor. Activate the campaign and monitor via the Insights API:

   GET /act_<id>/insights?fields=impressions,clicks,ctr,actions,cost_per_action_type
   

6. Automate reporting. Build an n8n workflow that pulls Meta ad performance daily via the Marketing API and syncs to PostHog for unified GTM reporting.