In this post I’ll show in detail how to install and use the features of Facebook Ads Manager. Installation is easy, just open the xpi and agree to install the extension.

To open the extension go to View > Sidebar > FB Ads Manager.

The extension will open in a sidebar with tabs for the two main functions: creating new ads, and managing existing ads.

** Creating New Ads **

The Create tabs shows a form that can be used to create multiple ads with split testing features. Ad copy, headers, images, and targeting can all be split tested by just checking an option.

To start off, there are 3 ways to create a new ad: in a new campaign, in an existing campaign, or by copying an existing ad. If you are starting a new campaign enter the campaign name and budget as you would on Facebook. If you want to create ads in an existing campaign, enter the exact name of the campaign you want to create the ads in.

You might want to pick the copy ad option if you want to take advantage of Facebook’s automatic approval (which doesn’t always work, you’ll have to try it out). To do this, enter the “Create a Similar Ad” link that shows up on Facebook.

Next enter the destination URL. This is a bit tricky, and works different from Facebook since this URL will be used to several ads. The way Ads Manager works is that for each ad created, a number is appended to the end of the URL, from 1 up to the total number of ads. For example, if your split testing 10 ads, and you enter “trackingyyz.com/?sub=” as your URL, the first ad will have a URL:

http://trackingyyz.com/?sub=1,

The 2nd ad will have URL:
http://trackingyyz.com/?sub=2,

Etc, etc.

This allows for tracking performance of each ad. You must enter a URL with a GET parameter at the end (ie “facebook.com” will not work).

Next up is the ad copy and images. Here is where to start split testing variations, and this is where the real power of the tool comes in. Let’s say you’re starting a new campaign and you want to split test images first, and keep the rest the same across all ads. Then you would keep all other split test options unchecked, and the split test images option checked, with a number of images entered. If you enter 5 images, 5 new ads will be created.

Now if you want to split test BOTH images and ad copy, 5 headers and 5 ads, Ads Manager will create 5 X 5 = 25 ads. This will test each combination of image and ad copy. If you add gender split testing, there would be 5 X 5 X 2 (male and female) = 50 ads created. As you can see, this can grow pretty fast, so I’d recommend only split testing one or two variables at a time.

Here’s an example ad setup:

Finally, enter your targeting. Here you can split test by gender and age, as well as entering birthday, keyword, education, workplace, and language info. Gender is pretty simple, but age targeting has a few useful options. If you don’t want to split test ages, leave the checkbox unchecked and just enter the lower and upper age range as you would on Facebook. To split test ages, check the checkbox and pick one of the split options.

All Ages In Range: Will create an ad targeted to each age in the range, eg. if you enter 20-24, there will be one ad targeted to 20 year olds, another ad targeted to 21 year olds, etc in total 5 ads.
Adult Split: Will create ads for those age groups. This is nice to quickly set up ads to different age ranges.
Teen Split: Similar to Adult Split, targets teens.
Custom Split: Create your own age ranges to use for your ads. Use this if you want to split your ads into 3 age groups, such as: 20-25, 25-30, 30-35.

Well Facebook made a change to their UI the other day and completely broke the tool (as I’m sure you’re all aware). I’ve patched that up and added some new features for this next release. It’s been a long time since updating this thing so I figured I might put in something new to play with.

City/State Targeting - Enter a list of cities or states to target, with the option of split testing, where each ad variation will be created targeting each city/state in the list. The ad name format will include the first two letters of the city/state (it does look a little awkward but that’s the best I can do, there’s a limit to how long the ad names can be).

Languages - Enter specific languages you want to target (optional).

The rest of the options are the same as Facebooks own interface. Before running, make sure you are logged into Facebook in Firefox. Click the Run button and watch it go. If you made a mistake, the Stop button will stop the script from running.

Just a word of warning: go easy with this, if you create too many ads they will suspect you are using automation and may disable your account. I am not responsible if this happens, use this at your own risk. I have been using this tool for a while with no problems, just don’t be an idiot and blast them with thousands of ads! I’d say <200 is a good safe amount.

Another useful feature is Save/Open. You can save your ad configurations to a file and load them up anytime. You might even build into your workflow starting from different templates rather than starting from scratch My ads have gotten a hell of a lot better since using this tool since it encourages more split testing.

Leave a comment here with any questions or suggestions for future versions. Enjoy.