Complete Guide: How to Launch Your First Paid Ad on Meta Ads
Complete Meta Guide 2025: optimization for Quebec businesses, defining your audience and the type of advertising and creating a winning advertising campaign.
Easy Management: An article to also help us automate reports and plan social media promotion.
Hello,
Launching an ad on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) is an essential opportunity for any business looking to gain visibility and customers. Whether you’re a manufacturer, artist, professional starting out or in the middle of releasing a product, understanding how to set up and optimize an advertising campaign is important.
Quebec industries face challenges: a bilingual market, a sometimes complex digital transition and a growing need to maximize every dollar invested in publicity. This article guides you through the essential steps to run your first paid promotion successfully on Meta Ads, while integrating strategies adapted to the realities of Quebec.
In this article, we will learn about:
Reach your target audience effectively
Learn how paid advertising on Meta Ads enables precise targeting of specific demographics, increasing your business's visibility to potential customers.Achieve immediate results for your business
Discover how paid advertising campaigns can quickly drive traffic to your website and boost sales, without waiting for the long-term effects of organic strategies.Effectively control your advertising costs
Understand how paid advertising on Meta Ads offers complete control over your marketing budget, allowing you to adjust spending based on performance and maximize your return on investment.
MusicScore: The writer listened to some Robert Palmer while creating this guide. Here’s the incredibly catchy Simply Irresistible to listen to while you read.
Defining your target audience
The success of an advertisement depends largely on good targeting. The first step is to precisely define the geographical area. A local business will opt for a city and its surroundings, while an online business can reach a wider territory.
The choice of age and gender is just as strategic. A professional training course will be aimed more at 25-45 year olds, while an artist promoting his or her album will target 18-34 year olds. It is just as possible to target based on interests: a craftsman will be able to speak to design and manufacturing enthusiasts, a marketing consultant will covet business leaders and a sports coach will be interested in well-being.
Concrete examples of promotion targeting
An independent coffee shop in the city centre:
Target audience: Young professionals and students aged 18-35, located near the coffee shop.
Interests: Coffee, remote work, brunch, coworking spaces.
Objective: Attract new customers by offering a promotion on the first purchase.
A personal trainer launching an online program:
Target audience: Men and women aged 25 to 50, living in Quebec and interested in fitness and nutrition.
Interests: Home training, weight loss, wellness.
Objective: Generate registrations for a free webinar on the basics of fitness.
An online store for eco-friendly clothing:
Target audience: Environmentally conscious consumers aged 20 to 45, living in Canada.
Interests: Sustainable fashion, ecology, responsible purchasing.
Objective: Increase website visits and generate sales through a promo code.
It’s crucial to test multiple audiences and analyze performance after a few days. Adjusting the target based on the results can be the difference between a profitable campaign and a waste of budget. This article helps us see how.
How to get information about your audience before launching an advertisement?
Before starting a Meta Ads campaign, it’s essential to understand your audience to maximize the effectiveness of advertising. Several tools and methods allow you to collect precise data on your target audience and adapt your strategy accordingly.
Using Facebook Audience Insights
Facebook Audience Insights is a free tool offered by Meta that allows you to analyze the characteristics of your potential audience. It provides access to valuable information such as:
The age and gender of your audience.
The geographical distribution of users.
Interests and interactions with pages like yours.
Purchasing habits and use of digital platforms.
How to use it?
Go to Meta Business Suite.
Access the Audience Insights tool.
Enter the parameters of your ideal audience (location, age, interests, etc.).
Analyze the results and adjust your targeting based on observed trends.
Review your social media statistics
If you already have an online presence, use the analytics tools built into Facebook and Instagram to understand who is engaging with your posts.
Facebook Business Suite → Insights tab.
Instagram Insights (accessible via a business account).
Engagement rates on different types of content.
Top-performing posts and their respective audiences.
This data allows you to identify which age groups and interests are most responsive to your content.
Study Competitor Audiences
Another tip is to analyze the audiences of competitors who have a similar product or service to yours.
Check out their posts and see who is interacting (likes, comments, shares).
Look at your rivals’ active ads via Meta’s Ad Library. (https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/).
Study the tone, style, and visuals used in their ads.
This gives you insight into which market segments are performing well and which you could target.
Using Google Analytics and your website data
If you have a website, Google Analytics is a powerful tool to gain insights into your audience:
The origin of traffic (organic, social networks, ads, etc.).
The most visited pages and the time spent on them.
The demographic data of visitors (age, gender, location).
With this information, you can refine your Meta Ads strategy based on the behaviour of your site visitors.
Conduct surveys and poll your community
Sometimes the best way to get to know your audience is to ask them directly. To do this, you can:
Create a poll on Instagram Stories or via Facebook.
Send a newsletter with a short questionnaire about what your followers want.
Ask in the comments what your audience hopes for from your brand.
The answers you get can help you refine your targeting and better understand your audience’s needs and preferences.
Understanding your audience is a crucial step before launching an advertisement on Meta Ads. Thanks to Meta tools, competitor research, statistics from your social networks and more direct studies via surveys and interactions, you will be able to create a campaign that reaches the right audience at the right time. By taking the time to analyze this data, you maximize your chances of obtaining a better return on investment and capturing the attention of your potential customers.
How to choose the right advertising format for your business?
Once you’ve defined your audience, it’s essential to select the right ad format to capture the attention effectively of your target audience. Meta Ads offers several types of ads, and each serves purposes. Here’s how to choose the right medium based on your business needs.
Classic posts (images and carousels)
Best for: Showcasing a product or service with an attractive visual. Recommended formats:
Single image: Grabs attention quickly and works well for promotions.
Carousel: Shows multiple products or features of a service.
Example: An online clothing store might use a carousel to show multiple styles from a new collection.
Video Ads
Best for: Telling a story, introducing a product, or creating an emotional impact. Recommended formats:
Short video (6-15 seconds, ideal for Reels and Stories): Quickly hooks the audience.
Longer video (30-60 seconds, suitable for Facebook and Instagram feeds): Allows you to explain a service in depth.
Example: A fitness trainer could use a video to demonstrate an exercise and promote a workout program.
Stories and Reels Ads
Best for: Captivating a mobile audience and encouraging quick actions. Recommended formats:
Stories (Instagram and Facebook): Immersive vertical format (9:16) that blends naturally into users’ feeds.
Reels: Perfect for dynamic, engaging content.
Example: A hair salon could share before/after transformations via a sponsored story.
Collection and Instant Experience Ads
Best for: Immersive experience and highlighting multiple products. Recommended formats:
Collection: Displays multiple items and allows for seamless navigation directly within the ad.
Instant Experience (formerly canvas): Interactive format where the user can explore a brand or product.
Example: An e-commerce site could promote a new range using the collection format for an easy shopping experience.
Messenger Ads
Best for: Encouraging direct interaction with customers. Recommended formats:
Messenger Click-to-Chat Ad: Directs users to a private conversation with the business.
In-Messenger Ad: Appears in users’ Messenger interface.
Example: A restaurant could use a Messenger ad to allow customers to book a table directly through a conversation.
Dynamic Ads
Best for: Retargeting and automatic optimization. Recommended formats:
Dynamic Ads: Display relevant products based on the behaviour of site visitors.
Example: An online furniture store could show products that the user has already viewed to encourage them to complete their purchase.
How to choose the right advertising option?
Define your advertising objective
Generate sales → Dynamic ads or Collection.
Increase awareness → Videos and Reels.
Obtain leads → Messenger Ads or Instant Experience.
Know your audience’s habits
Young adults (18-34 years old) respond better to Stories and Reels.
Professionals prefer informative publications (carousels, explainer videos).
Test and adjust formats
Launch several types of ads with different visuals.
Analyze the results and optimize ads according to performance.
Choosing an ad format depends on your goal, audience, and message. By testing different options and analyzing performance, you can maximize the impact of your Meta-Ad campaigns and achieve the best possible results.
Optimization for Quebec Businesses
Quebec businesses operate in a unique market where bilingualism is omnipresent and where adopting digital tools can sometimes be a challenge. To maximize the effectiveness of a Meta Ad campaign, several strategic adjustments can be made to adapt advertising to local realities and the needs of Quebec entrepreneurs.
Addressing a Bilingual Audience
Promoting your products or services in French and English in Quebec is essential to reach the entire population effectively. According to Statistics Canada, the rate of French-English bilingualism in Quebec increased from 27.6% in 1971 to 46.4% in 2021, reflecting a significant increase in the population able to communicate in both official languages (source).
This growth in bilingualism underscores the importance for businesses to adapt their marketing strategies to address a diverse audience. Nearly half of Quebecers are now bilingual, which offers businesses a unique opportunity to communicate effectively with a wider audience.
The Global Impact
Furthermore, it’s interesting to note that four out of five bilingual people in Canada reside in Quebec (59.2%) and Ontario (23.1%) (source). This concentration of bilinguals in these provinces reinforces the importance of tailored communication in French and English to maximize the impact of advertising campaigns.
By integrating messages in both languages, companies can not only increase their reach, but also demonstrate their commitment to Quebec’s cultural and linguistic diversity. This can result in better brand perception and increased customer loyalty.
Also, data shows that bilingualism is on the rise in Quebec, while it’s declining in the rest of Canada. This trend further emphasizes the need for companies operating in Quebec to develop bilingual strategies to remain competitive and relevant in the local market.
Worldwide Possibilities
Adopting a bilingual approach to advertising campaigns in Quebec is not only a good practice, but a necessity to respond to the demographic and linguistic realities of the province. This allows businesses to ensure that their message effectively reaches their entire target audience, while respecting Quebec’s rich cultural diversity.
In Quebec, an advertising campaign often needs to be designed in two languages. Meta Ads allows you to target users based on their display language on Facebook and Instagram. A good practice is to create two separate versions of the same ad, one in French and one in English, to offer a better user experience and increase the chances of engagement.
Some businesses choose to run ads only in French to strengthen their local identity, while others prefer to reach a broader market by integrating English into their strategy. Whatever the choice, it’s essential to ensure a smooth and natural translation of the advertising message to avoid any clumsiness that could harm the brand image.
Automate Advertising Performance Tracking
Many Quebec SMEs don’t have the time to consult their advertising statistics daily. However, regular monitoring is crucial to adjust campaigns and optimize the return on investment. To simplify this management, it’s possible to schedule automatically sending of advertising reports by email via Meta Ads Manager. This allows you to receive key data directly in your inbox, without having to log in to the ad manager daily.
It’s also recommended to set alerts to be informed when certain metrics reach a critical threshold, such as a cost per click that is too high or a decline in performance. Tools like Google Looker Studio allow you to integrate Meta Ads data into a customized dashboard, making it easier to analyze results immediately.
Simplify Ad Campaign Management
Managing digital ads can seem complex for entrepreneurs who aren’t specialized in digital marketing. Fortunately, there are several strategies that can simplify this management and optimize campaign performance without spending excessive time on it.
One of the most effective solutions is to use the CBO (Campaign Budget Optimization) budget function. This option allows Meta to distribute the advertising budget automatically to the ads that perform best, thus avoiding having to adjust spending manually for each audience.
Also, preparing libraries of reusable visuals and texts in advance is an excellent way to save time. Rather than creating each ad from scratch, it’s possible to test different versions of visuals and copy to identify those that generate the most engagement.
Finally, scheduling organic publications in advance via Meta Business Suite allows you to maintain an active presence on social networks without having to publish content in real time. This approach is particularly useful for small businesses that must juggle the daily management of their business and their digital marketing.
By adapting these strategies to their reality, Quebec businesses can maximize the impact of their Meta-Ad campaigns while minimizing the effort required to run them effectively.
The tricks of the writer
Planning a One-Week Social Media Promotion
For entrepreneurs who know how to create visuals and videos but are unsure how to structure their social media marketing, here’s an example of a 7-day promotional plan:
Day 1 (Monday)
Publish an engaging post on Facebook and Instagram introducing the offer or product.
Interactive Story (poll or question) to engage your audience.
Day 2 (Tuesday)
Share a customer testimonial or a real-world use case of the product.
Re-share comments or reactions in stories.
Day 3 (Wednesday)
Launch a Meta Ad campaign with a short video ad targeting your ideal audience.
Boost an organic post that has performed well.
Day 4 (Thursday)
Post a Story explaining the product’s key benefits.
Engage users with a question-based post.
Day 5 (Friday)
Run a sponsored ad on Meta Ads targeting a broader audience.
Respond to comments and interact with followers.
Day 6 (Saturday)
Publish a before/after transformation with a strong call to action.
Host a live Q&A session to interact with prospects.
Day 7 (Sunday)
Post a Story reminder, like an only 24 hours left for this offer.
Analyze the ad performance and adjust as needed.
This scheduling template allows you to integrate both organic posts and sponsored ads to maximize campaign impact and engagement.
How to manage your advertising budget well?
Determining the right advertising budget is an essential step to make your investment on Meta Ads profitable. A budget that is too low risks limiting the impact of your campaign, while a budget that is too high, poorly optimized, can lead to unnecessary expenses.
Define a Realistic Budget
Start by defining your main objective: do you want to generate sales, attract traffic to your site or gain visibility? Each objective requires a different budget. For example, an awareness campaign will require a more flexible budget, while a campaign focused on conversions will need to be tested with more precise amounts.
A good beginning option is to allocate 5 to 10% of your monthly turnover to digital advertising. For a start-up company, a budget of $5 to $20 per day can be a nice test to see the first results.
Test Before Investing Heavily
It’s recommended to start with a test budget for 5-7 days. This period allows you to evaluate:
Cost per click (CPC) and cost per acquisition (CPA).
Target audience engagement.
Effectiveness of different ad formats.
Once the results are analyzed, you can gradually increase the budget on the best-performing ads.
Don’t let an ad run unattended. Regularly check the statistics on Meta Ads Manager to see if your budget is being used properly. If an ad is underperforming, adjust it before you exhaust your budget.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
When you’re new to Meta Ads, there are some common mistakes that can hurt campaign performance. Here are the most familiar ones and how to avoid them.
Targeting too broad an audience. Trying to reach everyone may seem like a good idea, but an audience that’s too broad can dilute your message and increase advertising costs. Focus on precise targeting by selecting well-defined demographics and interests.
Using a single visual or format. Testing multiple visuals and formats (single image, carousels, video) is essential to identify what works best with your audience. A successful ad can be optimized with small tweaks (changing text, varying colours, etc.).
Not optimizing for mobiles. Over 80% of users browse Facebook and Instagram on their phone. Make sure your ads are mobile friendly, especially for Stories and Reels.
How to analyze and optimize your results?
Tracking the performance of your ads is crucial to improving your return on investment. Meta Ads Manager provides several key indicators to monitor.
Essential statistics
The click-through rate (CTR): The higher it is, the more attention your ad attracts.
The cost per click (CPC): A CPC that is too high can indicate poor targeting or a poorly engaging ad.
The conversion rate: Measures how many people took the desired action (purchase, registration, etc.).
Continuous Improvement of Our Campaigns
It’s important to adjust your campaign based on data. If an ad is performing well, consider increasing its budget and expanding it to a larger audience. If an ad isn’t performing as expected after a few days, change the visual, copy, or target audience and test again.
Meta Ads isn’t a science: a good ad today may not work tomorrow. That’s why it’s essential to test continuously, adjust, and learn.
Many advertisers will test different approaches with A/B testing to compare two versions of an ad and see which one works best. Test different images and videos, text hooks, and audience targets.
If you follow the news, integrating current trends will allow you to diversify your content. Algorithms and consumer behaviours are evolving. Stay informed about new Meta Ads features and adapt your strategy accordingly.
And finally, continually train with free training via the Meta Blueprint to learn best practices and stay up to date on digital marketing trends.
By applying these strategies and staying attentive to the performance of your campaigns, you will maximize your results and make your advertising investments on Meta Ads profitable.
Conclusion
Launching an advertisement on Meta Ads is an opportunity for any company wishing to increase its visibility and impact. With a benevolent definition of the audience, engaging content and regular monitoring of performance, it’s possible to make the most of its return on investment.
Quebec companies have challenges, such as managing a bilingual market and the need to simplify advertising management. With the right strategies, it’s possible to maximize the effectiveness of campaigns without spending too much time on it.
To go further in managing your presence on Meta and optimize your promotional campaigns, consult this complimentary article: Managing business services on Meta.
Thank you for reading. See you on the Blog!
Jeff
Sources:
Statistique Canada. Proportion de la population bilingue français-anglais au Québec entre 1971 et 2021. Statista. https://fr.statista.com/statistiques/1348903/habitants-quebec-canada-bilingues-anglais-francais/.
Noovo Info. Statistique Canada dévoile ses données sur la situation du français et de l’anglais au Canada. Noovo. https://www.noovo.info/nouvelle/statistique-canada-devoile-ses-donnees-sur-la-situation-du-francais-et-de-langlais.html.
Meta Business Help Center. Audience Insights et Meta Business Suite. Meta. https://www.facebook.com/business/help/.
Google Analytics Support. https://support.google.com/analytics/
Cr images: production Services W+M.
Websites - creation, management and design
I edit the content of existing sites via CMS in addition to creating sites with WordPress and Squarespace. I have been producing website content as a webmaster since 1998.
I help companies get their first website up and I improve the performance of existing sites.
Yes, I’m Mr. Analytics and my reaction time to new digital marketing is daily, which allows my clients to have optional and trend-cutting tools.
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