How to Run a Successful Facebook Ad Campaign?
Learn how to run a successful Facebook ad campaign in 2025. Complete guide from setup to scaling, with targeting, creative, and optimization tips.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
How Many Ad Sets Per Campaign on Facebook? (2025)
Most Facebook campaigns need 3-5 ad sets in 2025. Learn how many ad sets per campaign facebook's algorithm requires to optimize without fragmenting budgets.
You're staring at your campaign setup, wondering: should I create 5 ad sets? 10? Just one?
It's a question every performance marketer wrestles with. The answer directly impacts your costs, learning speed, and whether your campaigns actually scale or just burn budget.
Most advertisers don't realize this: Facebook's algorithm has changed dramatically in the past year. The old playbook of creating dozens of micro-segmented ad sets? That approach now actively hurts performance.
In this guide, we'll walk through exactly how many ad sets you should use in 2025, when to break the rules, and how to structure campaigns that let Facebook's AI do what it does best.
What Is Facebook's Campaign Structure?
Before we dive into numbers, let's get clear on what an ad set actually controls within Facebook's three-tier structure:
Campaign Level
This is where you set your objective (conversions, traffic, awareness, etc.). One campaign can house multiple ad sets.
Ad Set Level
This is where the magic happens. Each ad set controls:
- Your audience targeting (demographics, interests, behaviors)
- Budget allocation (either individual budgets or shared via Campaign Budget Optimization)
- Schedule and placements
- Optimization events (what you're asking Facebook to optimize for)
Ad Level
This contains your actual creative (images, videos, copy, headlines). Multiple ads can live within one ad set.
When you create multiple ad sets in a campaign, you're essentially testing different audience segments or delivery strategies under the same objective. Sounds logical, right? That's why so many advertisers default to creating tons of ad sets.
But more isn't better anymore.
How Many Ad Sets Can You Have Per Campaign? (Technical Limits)
Facebook does enforce some maximum limits per ad account:
Metric | Limit |
Total ad sets per account | 5,000 |
Total campaigns per account | 5,000 |
Ads per ad set | 5 |
So technically, you could stuff hundreds of ad sets into a single campaign without hitting account-level limits.
But don't.
Meta's own guidance warns that if you exceed 70 ad sets in a campaign, you'll hit performance issues and editing limitations. Your campaign might still run, but you won't be able to make changes after publishing. The platform literally starts breaking down.
That 70-ad-set threshold isn't a target. It's a warning sign that you've gone way too far.
In practice, you'll want to stay well below that number. (Spoiler: the sweet spot is usually between 1-5 ad sets per campaign.)
Why Too Many Ad Sets Hurt Your Campaign Performance
Creating excessive ad sets feels productive. You're being thorough, testing different segments, maintaining control.
But Facebook's algorithm doesn't work that way in 2025.
What actually happens when you fragment your campaign across too many ad sets:
Facebook Learning Phase Problems With Multiple Ad Sets
Each ad set needs approximately 50 optimization events per week to exit Facebook's learning phase and stabilize performance.
Do the math: if you have a $500/week budget generating 100 conversions total, and you split that across 10 ad sets, none of them hit 50 conversions. They all stay stuck in learning mode, with unstable delivery and inflated costs.
One or two ad sets? Now you're concentrating those conversions, letting the algorithm actually optimize.
Budget Split Across Too Many Ad Sets
Whether you're using Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) or ad set budgets (ABO), spreading a fixed budget across many ad sets means each gets a fraction of the spend.
Budget Scenario | 10 Ad Sets | 2 Ad Sets |
$100/day total | $10/day each | $50/day each |
Learning threshold | Hard to reach | Achievable |
Data quality | Fragmented | Concentrated |
With CBO, Facebook tries to allocate more to winning ad sets. But if you have 15+ ad sets, most will get almost zero spend. They become dead weight.
With ABO, you manually set budgets per ad set. If you're splitting 10. That's barely enough to gather meaningful data, let alone exit learning.
Facebook Ad Set Audience Overlap Issues
The more ad sets you run, the higher the chance they target overlapping audiences.
Even if you define different interest groups, Facebook's Advantage+ targeting expansion will broaden your targeting beyond what you specified. Multiple ad sets aimed at "cold audiences" will almost certainly compete for the same users.
When five ad sets in one campaign all target cold prospects, they're likely reaching the same people. Facebook's delivery system prevents two ad sets from bidding in the exact same auction, but one will get deprioritized. You're essentially competing against yourself.
The bottom line: Fragmentation hurts. Your budget spreads thin, learning never completes, and ad sets cannibalize each other's delivery.
How Many Ad Sets Should You Use Per Campaign? (Best Practice 2025)
The 2025 shift is clear:
So what's the actual sweet spot?
For most campaigns, 3-5 ad sets is ideal.
Industry research recommends running 3-5 ad sets per campaign as a rule of thumb. This gives you room to test a few distinct strategies without spreading resources too thin.
Recent guidance from Meta suggests: Maximum 5 ad sets per campaign, with no more than 6 creatives in each ad set.
Why this range?
Let's say you're running a $100/day campaign:
- With 3 ad sets: Each gets ~$33/day (with ABO) or CBO distributes intelligently. That's enough spend for each to gather conversion data and optimize.
- With 10 ad sets: Each effectively gets ~$10/day or less. Not enough to exit learning. Most will underperform.
- With 1 ad set: You're fully concentrated, which can be excellent (more on this shortly). But you lose the ability to test targeting variations.
The 3-5 range balances exploration and focus. You can test a few meaningfully different audiences without fragmenting your data pool.
What Should Each Facebook Ad Set Test?
Each ad set in your campaign should have a distinct purpose. A practical example for an ecommerce brand:
→ Ad Set 1: Broad Lookalike Audience (1% lookalike of purchasers, no detailed targeting)
→ Ad Set 2: Interest Stack A (specific interests/behaviors relevant to your product)
→ Ad Set 3: Interest Stack B (different interest cluster or demographic segment)
→ Ad Set 4: Retargeting Segment (website visitors who didn't purchase)
→ Ad Set 5: (Optional) Custom Audience test (email list, specific high-value segment)
Each ad set tests a genuinely different hypothesis. If two ad sets are nearly identical in targeting, combine them and let Facebook find the best users within that larger pool.
Should You Use One Ad Set Per Campaign?
Something that surprises many advertisers: using a single ad set per campaign is often the optimal structure in 2025, especially for conversion-focused prospecting campaigns.
Why?
Facebook's Algorithm Works Better With Consolidated Data
The more data you feed the algorithm in one place, the better it performs.
If you split a broad audience into multiple ad sets, you're artificially restricting what the AI can do. One large audience in one ad set gives maximum freedom for Facebook to find converters.
Advantage+ Makes Multiple Ad Sets Redundant
With Advantage+ Detailed Targeting and audience expansion enabled by default, Facebook already broadens your targeting automatically.
If you create multiple cold-audience ad sets with expansion on, they'll all start looking similar as Facebook expands them. You gain almost nothing by splitting them.
Meta itself now recommends that one ad set is often sufficient for broad cold targeting, rather than the old approach of creating many segmented ad sets.
Zero Overlap, Maximum Efficiency
With one ad set, you completely eliminate auction overlap between ad sets. All your ads live under one roof. Facebook allocates impressions efficiently without self-competition.
Industry experts put it simply: "If you're optimizing for conversions or using Advantage+ Audience, you only need one ad set for cold targeting per campaign."
When to Use Just One Ad Set
✓ Broad prospecting campaigns with sizable budgets, where you want Facebook to optimize freely
✓ Small budget situations (under $50/day) where splitting would dilute data
✓ Simple funnels with one product, one message, one primary target group
✓ Conversion campaigns using Advantage+ or broad targeting where the algorithm does the segmentation for you
If you're unsure, start with a single broad ad set.
When NOT to Use Just One Ad Set
✗ Distinctly different target groups that you want to budget separately (e.g., US vs. Europe, or different product lines)
✗ Controlled creative testing where you intentionally isolate specific ads with equal spend (more on this later)
✗ Full-funnel campaigns mixing cold, warm, and hot audiences in one campaign (though we usually recommend separate campaigns for these stages)
When Should You Use Multiple Ad Sets Per Campaign?
While simplicity often wins, there are legitimate scenarios where multiple ad sets are the right choice.
The key is using them strategically, not arbitrarily.
1. Testing Different Audience Segments on Facebook
If you're genuinely exploring different audience hypotheses, multiple ad sets make sense.
Example: A B2B SaaS company might test:
- Ad Set 1: Lookalike audience based on trial signups
- Ad Set 2: Job title targeting (Marketing Directors, CMOs)
- Ad Set 3: Interest targeting (marketing automation tools, analytics platforms)
Each targets a fundamentally different segment. Running them in one campaign (with CBO or equal ABO budgets) lets you compare performance and allocate future spend to winners.
Best practice: Limit yourself to 3-5 meaningfully different audiences. If you have 10+ audience ideas, test them in phases or separate campaigns. Too many at once muddies your insights.
2. Controlling Budget to High-Value Segments
Sometimes you need separate ad sets to guarantee spend on specific groups.
Example: You have a broad audience ad set and a small VIP customer list you want to target. With CBO, Facebook might allocate 95% of budget to the broad set (easier cheap results). To ensure the VIP segment gets exposure, you isolate it in its own ad set with a minimum budget or use ABO.
In this case, you might have 2-3 ad sets representing priority segments with distinct budget needs.
3. Controlled Creative Testing (Equal Rotation)
If you want to test multiple ad creatives fairly, you might use separate ad sets to force equal spend.
When you put 4 video ads in one ad set, Facebook quickly favors one or two winners. The others get minimal delivery.
To give each video a fair shot, you could create 4 ad sets with identical targeting but one video in each, using ABO with equal budgets. After a week, you compare results. This is manual A/B testing via ad set structure.
Important: If you do this, disable audience expansion and keep targeting identical to ensure ad sets compete on creative alone. Also watch frequency, since you're hitting the same audience multiple times.
This is a short-term testing approach, not a long-term structure. Once you identify winners, consolidate.
(Note: Facebook's built-in Experiments feature can handle this automatically, but manual ad set testing is a common workaround.)
4. Different Geo-Targeting or Placements
You might split ad sets by location or placement strategy:
- Geographic splits: One ad set for North America, one for Europe, one for Asia (to control budgets and potentially customize creative per region)
- Placement tests: One ad set for Feed-only placements, another for Stories-focused (though Meta usually recommends Automatic Placements now)
Use this sparingly and only with clear strategic rationale.
Facebook Ad Campaign Consolidation Strategy (2025 Trend)
Facebook's algorithm evolution in 2024-2025 (often called the "Andromeda" update) has reinforced a key principle:
Consolidation wins: Fewer campaigns and ad sets, but more creative variety within them. The algorithm needs concentrated data to optimize effectively.
Multiple case studies show advertisers who consolidated from 8+ prospecting campaigns down to 1-2 campaigns saw CPMs and CPAs drop significantly.
One notable example: a brand running 8 prospecting campaigns consolidated into 2, loaded all top creatives into one campaign, and saw results improve within days.
Why? Consolidation gives Facebook's machine learning a bigger data pool to optimize from, rather than fragmenting signals across many campaigns and ad sets.
What This Means for Your Ad Set Strategy
Focus on simplification: You probably don't need 10 ad sets. You likely need 1-3 well-structured ones.
Invest in creative variety: Instead of splitting audiences, test more ads (creatives) within your ad sets. Meta research suggests testing many creatives over time, but keep 3-6 active ads per ad set at any given time for optimal delivery.
Avoid over-testing everything at once: Don't run 15 ads in one ad set simultaneously. Facebook will favor top performers and barely deliver the rest. Rotate in new creatives as you pause underperformers.
Industry guidelines suggest: Up to 5 active ads per ad set, 3-5 ad sets per campaign.
This is exactly the approach we use at AdManage to help performance marketers scale creative testing. Instead of manually creating dozens of ad sets and ads, our platform lets you bulk-launch hundreds of ad variations with enforced naming conventions, UTM management, and creative grouping across Meta and TikTok. This way, you can test volume without losing structure.
How to Structure Your Facebook Campaign (Step-by-Step)
Let's make this actionable.
Step 1: Define Your Objective and Audience Strategy
Ask yourself:
- Am I targeting one broad audience or testing multiple distinct segments?
- Do I have enough budget to support multiple ad sets reaching 50 conversions/week each?
- Are my audience segments genuinely different, or could they be combined?
Step 2: Choose Your Ad Set Count
If you answered:
① One broad audience + decent budget: Use 1 ad set with broad targeting or Advantage+ audience
② 2-4 distinct audience hypotheses: Use 2-4 ad sets, each representing a different segment
③ Budget constraints (under $50/day): Use 1 ad set to concentrate data
④ Testing creatives with equal spend: Use separate ad sets per creative (temporary testing structure)
Step 3: Set Budgets Appropriately
Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO):
- Set total campaign budget
- Let Facebook allocate to best-performing ad sets
- Use ad set spend limits if you need to guarantee minimums for specific ad sets
Ad Set Budget Optimization (ABO):
- Set individual budgets per ad set
- Ensure each ad set gets enough ($20-30+/day minimum for conversions)
- Easier for controlled testing, but less efficient than CBO for scaling
Most advertisers in 2025 prefer CBO for simplicity and performance.
Step 4: Limit Creative Quantity
Per ad set, run 3-6 ads initially. Not 15. Not 1.
This gives Facebook options to optimize while avoiding over-fragmentation of delivery.
Rotate new creatives in as you pause underperformers. Keep things fresh without overwhelming the algorithm.
Step 5: Monitor and Consolidate
After 7-14 days, review performance:
- Are some ad sets getting zero spend? Pause them.
- Are multiple ad sets performing similarly? Combine them.
- Is one ad set clearly winning? Scale it (increase budget or create a duplicate campaign to test further).
Consolidation is ongoing. Start lean, expand only when data supports it.
Common Facebook Ad Set Mistakes to Avoid
The number one mistake? Overthinking structure.
Here are the critical traps to avoid:
Mistake | Why It Hurts | The Fix |
Creating ad sets for organizational comfort | Facebook's algorithm can find best segments within one ad set. Manual segmentation restricts the AI. | Consolidate into fewer ad sets. Let the algorithm segment for you. |
Ignoring the 50-conversion rule | Each ad set needs ~50 conversions/week to optimize. Spreading budget thin keeps all ad sets in learning limbo. | Reduce ad set count to ensure each hits the threshold. |
Testing too many variables at once | Can't isolate what's working when testing audiences AND creatives simultaneously. | Test one variable at a time. Same creative across audience tests, or same audience across creative tests. |
Forgetting audience exclusions | Prospecting and retargeting ad sets overlap, creating self-competition and skewed data. | Exclude retargeting audiences from prospecting ad sets. Use proper exclusions. |
Setting up and forgetting | Campaign structure needs ongoing optimization. Winners emerge, losers need pruning. | Monitor weekly. Pause underperformers. Scale winners. Adjust continuously. |
Creating Ad Sets for Organizational Comfort
Many advertisers create excessive ad sets because it feels organized. "I have different age groups, so I'll make an ad set for each one."
Reality: Facebook's algorithm can find the best age groups within one ad set. You don't need to manually segment unless you have a specific budget or creative reason.
Ignoring the 50-Conversion Rule
Each ad set needs ~50 optimization events per week to perform optimally. If your total campaign generates 60 conversions/week and you have 5 ad sets, only one (maybe two) will hit that threshold.
Fix: Reduce ad set count to ensure each gets enough conversions.
Testing Too Many Variables Simultaneously
If you create 8 ad sets, each with different targeting and different creatives, you can't isolate what's working.
Better approach: Keep one variable consistent. Test audiences with the same creatives, or test creatives with the same audience.
Forgetting About Audience Exclusions
If you're running both prospecting and retargeting ad sets in one campaign, exclude the retargeting audience from prospecting ad sets. Otherwise they overlap.
Same goes for testing different cold audiences: use exclusions to prevent overlap if they're supposed to be distinct.
Setting Up and Forgetting
Campaign structure isn't "set it and forget it." Monitor how budgets distribute, which ad sets perform, and adjust.
If an ad set consistently underperforms for 2+ weeks, pause it and reallocate budget.
How AdManage Helps You Scale Without Chaos
When you're testing at scale (hundreds or thousands of ad variations), managing campaign structure manually becomes impossible.
Our platform is designed for performance marketers who need to:
✓ Preserve social proof by launching with Post IDs and maintaining engagement counts when scaling winners
✓ Avoid configuration errors with templates, defaults enforcement, and bulk preview links
Instead of manually creating 10 campaigns with 5 ad sets each with 3 ads each (150 objects to manage), you can bulk-launch structured campaigns from a spreadsheet or our dashboard in minutes.
- Define 1-3 core campaigns (prospecting, retargeting, scaling)
- Use 2-4 ad sets per campaign (representing distinct strategies)
- Load 50-200 creative variations via bulk upload
- Launch with enforced naming and UTMs
- Let the algorithm find winners while maintaining complete tracking clarity
We've helped teams launch 494,000+ ads in the past 30 days alone, saving approximately 37,000 hours of manual work. (See our live status)
Pricing is straightforward:
- In-house plan: £499/month (3 ad accounts, unlimited launches)
- Agency plan: £999/month (unlimited ad accounts, unlimited launches)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing with SSO, white-label reports, and dedicated SLA
Facebook Ad Set Examples for Different Goals
Let's walk through specific scenarios:
Scenario 1: Ecommerce Brand, $200/day Budget, Testing Audiences
Recommended structure:
- Campaign: Conversions (Purchase)
- Ad Set 1: Broad Lookalike (1% of purchasers) - $80/day
- Ad Set 2: Interest Stack A (relevant interests) - $60/day
- Ad Set 3: Interest Stack B (different interest cluster) - $60/day
- Ads per set: 3-5 creatives
Why this works: Three distinct audience hypotheses, adequate budget per ad set to reach 50 conversions/week, clear comparison.
Scenario 2: Local Service Business, $50/day Budget, One Market
Recommended structure:
- Campaign: Conversions (Lead)
- Ad Set 1: Broad targeting (location + age + broad interest) - $50/day
- Ads per set: 3-4 creatives
Why this works: Limited budget benefits from concentration. One ad set ensures all $50 goes toward one learning algorithm. Geographic targeting is inherently focused.
Scenario 3: SaaS Company, $500/day Budget, Scaling Winners
Recommended structure:
- Campaign: Conversions (Trial Signup)
- Ad Set 1: Broad Lookalike 1-3% - CBO allocates dynamically
- Ad Set 2: Proven Interest Stack (from previous tests) - CBO allocates dynamically
- Total Campaign Budget: $500/day (CBO manages allocation)
- Ads per set: 5-6 creatives
Why this works: Proven audiences get most of budget via CBO. Enough volume to support 2 ad sets hitting learning thresholds. Focus on creative variety rather than audience fragmentation.
Scenario 4: App Install Campaign, Global Audience, $1,000/day
Recommended structure:
- Campaign: App Installs
- Ad Set 1: Tier 1 Countries (US, UK, CA, AU) - $600/day
- Ad Set 2: Tier 2 Countries (expanded English-speaking markets) - $300/day
- Ad Set 3: Retargeting (app visitors who didn't install) - $100/day
- Ads per set: 4-5 creatives per set, localized as needed
Why this works: Geographic budget control (Tier 1 vs. Tier 2). Retargeting separated with dedicated budget. Large enough budget to support 3 ad sets reaching thresholds.
Frequently Asked Questions About Facebook Ad Sets
Q: Can I have different numbers of ads in each ad set?
Yes, absolutely. Each ad set can contain a different number of ads (up to the 50-ad maximum). Just keep each ad set between 3-6 active ads for optimal delivery.
Q: Should I use CBO or ABO?
Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) is generally recommended in 2025. It lets Facebook allocate budget to the best-performing ad sets automatically, which usually yields better results than manual allocation.
Ad Set Budget Optimization (ABO) is useful when you need precise control (testing with equal spend, guaranteeing budget to specific segments). But for scaling, CBO typically wins.
Q: What happens if I have 10 ad sets but only $100/day budget?
You'll spread your budget too thin. Each ad set might get $10/day or less, which isn't enough to exit learning or gather meaningful data. Consolidate to 2-3 ad sets to concentrate your budget.
Q: How do I know if my ad sets are overlapping?
Facebook's Ads Manager has an Audience Overlap tool (under Audiences section in your Meta Business Suite). You can compare saved audiences to see overlap percentage.
Also watch for ad sets competing for delivery: if one ad set gets 90% of spend and another gets almost none, they're likely overlapping and Facebook is choosing one.
Q: Can I start with 5 ad sets and reduce to 1 later?
Yes. It's common to launch with 3-5 ad sets as a test, then consolidate to 1-2 winners after you see which audiences perform. Always optimize based on data.
Q: Should I separate mobile and desktop into different ad sets?
No. Let Facebook optimize placements automatically with Automatic Placements. Splitting by device usually reduces performance because you fragment delivery.
Q: How many ad sets for retargeting campaigns?
Typically 1-3 ad sets is sufficient:
- Ad Set 1: Website visitors (last 30 days)
- Ad Set 2: Cart abandoners (last 7 days)
- Ad Set 3: (Optional) Past purchasers for upsells
Use exclusions to prevent overlap (exclude purchasers from visitor ad sets, etc.).
Q: What if I'm testing 20 different audiences?
Don't test them all at once in one campaign. That's too many ad sets (20 ad sets would dilute budget severely).
Instead:
- Phase 1: Test your top 5 most promising audiences (5 ad sets)
- Phase 2: After 2 weeks, keep winners, test next 5 audiences
- Iterate until you find your best 2-3, then scale those
Or use a separate "testing campaign" with small budget to quickly validate audiences before moving winners to main campaigns.
Q: Is it better to duplicate a winning ad set or increase its budget?
Increasing budget on a winning ad set is generally better if you increase gradually (20-30% every few days). Sudden large increases can reset the learning phase.
Duplicating a winning ad set (creating a new identical ad set) also resets learning, but can be useful when you hit budget limits or want to test different bidding strategies on the same audience.
Test both approaches and see what works for your account.
Key Takeaways: Your 2025 Ad Set Strategy
Let's bring this all together:
1. Less is usually more
Most campaigns perform best with 1-5 ad sets. The days of 20+ micro-segmented ad sets are over.
2. One ad set is often enough
For broad prospecting campaigns with conversion objectives, Meta recommends just one ad set. Let the algorithm find the best audience within that broad pool.
3. Each ad set needs ~50 conversions/week
Don't create more ad sets than your budget can support. Each needs enough spend to exit learning phase.
4. Avoid fragmentation
Budget dilution, audience overlap, and slow learning are the costs of too many ad sets. Consolidation usually wins.
5. Use 3-6 ads per ad set
Give Facebook creative variety, but not so much that delivery fragments. Rotate new creatives in over time.
6. Strategic separation only
Create multiple ad sets when you have genuinely distinct audiences, budget control needs, or testing requirements. Not for organizational comfort.
7. Monitor and consolidate continuously
Campaign structure isn't static. Pause underperforming ad sets, combine similar ones, scale winners.
8. Tools help at scale
When you're testing hundreds of variations, manual management breaks down. Platforms like AdManage help you maintain structure while scaling creative testing.
Stop Guessing, Start Scaling
The number of ad sets in your campaign directly determines whether your budget works for you or against you.
Too many ad sets = fragmented data, slow learning, wasted spend.
The right structure = concentrated signals, faster optimization, better results.
Most advertisers should default to 1-3 ad sets per campaign in 2025, with clear strategic reasons for each one.
But the real challenge: as you scale testing to hundreds of ad variations across multiple campaigns, managing this manually becomes impossible.
We help performance marketers launch bulk campaigns with clean structure:
✓ Launch with Post IDs to preserve social proof
✓ Bulk-test creatives across platforms (Meta + TikTok)
✓ Save 10+ minutes per ad (multiply that by 1,000 ads/month)
Our platform has helped teams launch 494,000+ ads in the past 30 days, with approximately 37,000 hours saved on manual ad operations.
Ready to scale without the chaos?
Get started with AdManage or view our pricing to see how we can help you launch faster, test more, and maintain structure as you scale.
Still have questions about ad set strategy? Drop us a message. We live and breathe campaign structure optimization.
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