Guide 14 of 17 in Level 4: Run it as an ad

How to set up Facebook ad sets in one campaign

To set up Facebook ad sets with Blackbox (blackbox.plus), start a campaign in Plan: click + on a day, then Meta ads, and pick a goal such as Get leads. On Ad sets, type who the campaign is for in Suggest from what I typed and click Suggest ad sets. The AI suggests one ad set per audience, city, language or retargeting group, each with its share of the budget and one line on what it tests. Code then checks the rules: an ad set under its daily floor, your target cost per result × 50 ÷ 7, is merged into its closest one, and What the rules changed says so. A retargeting or lookalike audience your ad account lacks gets a Make this audience on Meta button. Click Edit or Add ad set to change any of it by hand. The same ads run in every ad set, Review checks the rules again, and nothing spends until you start it.

You'll need
Time
About 10 minutes 15 steps Updated
You'll end with
One Meta campaign with an ad set per audience you test, each with enough budget to learn, drafted
Do it in Blackbox Open Plan, after you sign in
Example
Five ad sets suggested with their reasons, sharing one daily budget, each checked against the floor it needs to learn

How to set up Facebook ad sets in one campaign in Blackbox

  1. Step 1:Start a campaign on a day

    In Plan, click + on the day it starts, then Meta ads under Campaign.

    You'll see: What is this campaign for?, with goals to start from.

    Open this in Blackbox

  2. Step 2:Go to Ad sets

    Click Get leads, check Who should see it, then click Next: ad sets.

    You'll see: One ad set, Everyone · English, with 100% of the budget.

  3. Step 3:Say who it’s for

    In Suggest from what I typed, write who the campaign is for in your own words.

    You'll see: Your line in the box, next to Suggest from this.

  4. Step 4:Let the AI suggest the ad sets

    Click Suggest ad sets. If you already have ad sets, click Replace mine or Add to mine.

    You'll see: A card per ad set, each with its share and one line on what it tests.

  5. Step 5:Read what the rules changed

    Under the cards, read What the rules changed.

    You'll see: A line for each ad set merged to reach its daily floor, or audience left out.

  6. Step 6:Make a missing audience

    On a retargeting or lookalike card, click Make this audience on Meta.

    You'll see: The audience under Interests and audiences, and left out of the other ad sets.

  7. Step 7:Edit an ad set

    Click Edit on a card to change its Name, Places, Ages or Interests.

    You'll see: The card with its places, ages and interests, and its estimated audience.

  8. Step 8:Add an ad set

    Click Add ad set for an audience the suggestion missed, then set its Name, Kind and Language.

    You'll see: A new card, and the shares spread again to 100%.

  9. Step 9:Pick a lookalike or retargeting audience

    For a Lookalike or Retargeting ad set, tick its audience under Your Meta audiences.

    You'll see: The audience under Interests and audiences on its card.

  10. Step 10:Give each a share

    Type each ad set’s share in its % box.

    You'll see: Shares add up to 100% above the bar.

  11. Step 11:Add the ads

    Click Next: creatives and add three ads, such as From a Studio post.

    You'll see: 3 ads under every ad set in Which creative runs in which ad set.

  12. Step 12:Set the budget and target

    On Budget, enter the amount, click Edit and type the Target per lead.

    You'll see: What it spends a day, and the target beside the break-even.

  13. Step 13:Fix an ad set under its floor

    Back on Ad sets, click a fix on the red line, such as Raise the budget to $960 a day.

    You'll see: Every ad set’s day over the dashed line on the bar.

  14. Step 14:Run the checks

    Click Review, and click the button beside anything marked Block.

    You'll see: Ready to draft, and 1 campaign · 5 ad sets under What the draft creates.

  15. Step 15:Draft it

    Click Draft the campaign.

    You'll see: The Campaign proposal, with 1 campaign · 5 ad sets · 15 ads.

Good to know

  • If the bar says the shares add up to 95%, type the missing 5% into one ad set, or click Spread them to 100% to keep their proportions.
  • TikTok uses its own interests, in the TikTok only block when you click Edit; the shared interests still apply on Meta.
  • Every platform has three levels: the campaign holds the goal and the total budget, the ad set holds who sees it, where, in which language and how much, and the ad holds the creative. Meta calls the middle one an ad set, TikTok and Google an ad group, Snapchat an ad squad, and LinkedIn a campaign inside a campaign group.
  • One ad set here runs on every channel the campaign is on: a Meta ad set and a TikTok ad group, its share split between them as the Budget step splits it.
  • Make a new ad set when the audience is different, the language is different, a city needs its own budget, or it’s retargeting rather than new people. Don’t when only the creative changes: that’s a new ad, not an ad set.
  • Example: a car dealer selling a compact SUV in Saudi Arabia runs one Leads campaign with five ad sets: first car buyers in Riyadh (30%), the same buyers in Jeddah and the Eastern Province (20%), expats in English (15%), a lookalike of last year’s leads (20%) and people who visited the site in the last 30 days (15%). Meta builds 1 campaign, 5 ad sets and 15 ads.
  • The daily floor is rule 4: target cost per result × 50 ÷ 7. At $20 a lead an ad set needs about $143 a day, so $500 a day holds three ad sets; a fourth is merged into its closest one or the budget goes up.
  • Retargeting is judged on its own target, half the campaign’s unless you type one on its card, because people who know you are cheaper to win.
  • Without a target cost on the Budget step, the floor is the platform’s minimum, as before, and Review says it’s a guess until you set one.
  • Each ad set runs every creative in its language; leave one out under Which creative runs in which ad set. Three to five ads per ad set lets the platform find a winner.
  • A field you leave as the campaign’s follows Who should see it, so changing Preset later still reaches every ad set that didn’t set its own.
  • Google’s Demand Gen campaign has one budget for its ad groups: on Google the shares set the total, and Google moves it between them.
  • Suggest ad sets follows Blackbox’s five rules, in order: one ad set per audience; split again only by language or by a city that needs its own budget; retargeting is always its own ad set; each ad set gets at least target cost × 50 ÷ 7 a day, or is merged; and 3 to 5 ads per ad set, with overlapping audiences left out of each other.
  • The AI proposes and code checks: the merges, the shares adding up to 100% and the retargeting exclusions are worked out after it answers, and it can only use audiences your ad account really has. Set the budget and target first and the suggestion checks the daily floor too.
  • Make this audience on Meta makes a website audience from your pixel (visitors in the last 30 days) or a 1% lookalike of a customer list the account has. Nothing is made until you click it. On TikTok, Snapchat, Google and LinkedIn, make it in that platform’s Ads Manager, then pick it on the card.
  • Meta asks each ad account to accept its Custom Audience terms once. If it hasn’t, the card links to them in Ads Manager; accept, then click Make this audience on Meta again.
  • Once it runs, each check-in reads the test ad set by ad set and creative by creative, and suggests where the money goes next — see How to read your ad set test and act on the check-in.
  • When one age and gender group inside a Meta ad set does far better, a check-in can give it its own ad set — see How to give your best audience its own Facebook ad set.
  • A draft started before ad sets keeps one per channel and language and launches as it is; Name the ad sets turns them into cards.

Official docs

If something doesn't work

What is an ad set on Facebook?

The middle layer of a Meta campaign: the campaign holds the goal, each ad set holds who sees the ads, where and with how much budget, and the ads hold the pictures and words. Blackbox makes one ad set per audience you test, with the same ads in each.

ABO or CBO: who splits the budget?

By default each ad set gets its own share (ad set budgets, ABO), so the test stays fair. Turn on Let Meta split the budget in the Meta only block for Advantage+ campaign budget (CBO); Meta then moves money between ad sets each day and the shares here don’t apply on Meta.

Why does each ad set need 50 results a week?

Meta’s learning phase ends after about 50 results a week per ad set. Below that, delivery stays unsteady, so an ad set under its daily floor (target cost per result × 50 ÷ 7) is merged into its closest one.

A card is red and says it needs $143

Its day is under the floor its target cost needs. Give it a bigger share, raise the budget, or merge it into the closest ad set; the red line offers each.

Review says two ad sets overlap (audience overlap)

They reach the same places in the same language. Merge them, or make one narrower with its own places, ages or interests. If it says the retargeting audiences aren’t left out, click Add the exclusion: every other ad set then leaves out the people the retargeting ad set reaches.

Should I click Replace mine or Add to mine?

Replace mine swaps your ad sets for the suggestion. Add to mine keeps yours and adds the suggested ones, every share scaled so they still add up to 100%. Suggest ad sets is greyed out until a channel is on in Preset.

Stuck at any step? Send us a message and we'll do it with you on a call. All of Level 4: Run it as an ad