Meta ads
Ads on Facebook and Instagram
In short
Meta ads are paid ads on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, set up in one shared tool: Meta Ads Manager.
Meta owns Facebook and Instagram, and the ads for both are set up in Meta Ads Manager. A campaign has three levels. At campaign level you choose the objective. In the ad set you choose target audience, budget and placement. At the bottom sit the ads themselves.
Where Meta fits, and where it does not
Google Ads reaches people who are looking for you. Meta reaches people who are not looking yet, but who fit your target audience. That makes Meta well suited when you want to become known locally, launch something new or bring back visitors with retargeting. It makes Meta weaker when you want to catch someone who needs a plumber today.
"Boosting" a post straight from your Facebook page is the quick route. Ads Manager gives you more choice over objective, audience and measurement. The price is often given as CPM, meaning per thousand impressions.
What you can do today
Open Meta's Ad Library at facebook.com/ads/library. Anyone can see which ads a page is running right now, without logging in. Look up three competitors. See what they promise, which images they use and what they ask people to do. It is free market research.
Need a new website?
Get a free design draft of your website's front page, tailored to your business and your goals. You see what your website could look like before you decide, and you commit to nothing.