Run Your First Facebook Ad
Know your number, make one good ad, and judge it on day 7. This is how I'm running ads for AlongSide's own garage, gym and kitchen right now — built on published industry benchmarks, not guesses.
Educational only. Not legal, tax or financial advice. Ad costs are industry ranges, not quotes: your results will differ. Meta changes its screens often: if a button name doesn't match, look for the same setting nearby. Updated Oct 18, 2026.
8 lessonsAbout 54 minutes3 printoutsRead anytime, no account needed
AI Tony · AI likeness of AlongSide's founderReviewed by Tony Kates · 2026-10-18
What you'll walk away with
- Know what a booking is worth to you before you spend a dollar
- Set up a Business portfolio, Page, ad account and a spending limit you control
- Target the people most likely to book you, without overthinking the settings
- Write a four-part ad that doesn't get rejected and doesn't waste the click
- Launch a fair two-ad test and leave it alone for the first 3 days
- Read day 7 correctly, and turn one winner into a repeatable system
Lessons
- 1Before you spend a dollar Don't pay to send people to a page that won't book them.4 min read
- 2Know your number What a booking is worth to you, what a click costs, and the calculator that ties them together.7 min read
- 3Set up once About an hour, and you only do it once.8 min read
- 4Who sees it On Facebook today, your ad picks the audience more than the settings do.6 min read
- 5Make the ad The four-part ad that works for local jobs.8 min read
- 6Launch it Two ads, one fair test.9 min read
- 7The first 7 days Leave it alone for 3 days, then read day 7 correctly.7 min read
- 8Turn one winner into a system Scale slowly, refresh often, and ask for the review.5 min read
Work it alongside someone who runs local ads
AI Tony gets you started. A Guide who runs ads can sit beside you while you set up your first campaign, and read your day-7 numbers with you.
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Printouts
Figures & sources
- Cost to show your ad 1,000 times: $7–$21Range · as of 2025–26Coupler.io 2026 (all-accounts CPM $7.26) · Influee citing Triple Whale, ~35k accounts, 2025 (avg $14.19; $10.01 automotive to $20.70 health & wellness) — Triple Whale skews e-commerce; local service usually runs the lower half of this range.
- Cost per link click (Traffic objective): $0.45–$0.75Range · as of 2026Coupler.io citing WordStream by LocaliQ 2026: Restaurants & Food $0.45, Home & Home Improvement $0.63, Health & Fitness $0.64, Automotive Repair $0.74 · WordStream 2026 Traffic overall $0.60 — The industry picker in the Know-your-number calculator uses the per-industry numbers above.
- Share of viewers who click (Traffic objective): 1.2–2.7%Range · as of 2026Coupler.io overall link CTR 1.18% · WordStream 2026 Traffic CTR 1.47% (automotive) to 2.68% (restaurants & food)
- Cost per form lead (Leads objective): $27–$43Range · as of 2026Coupler.io/WordStream 2026: Health & Fitness $27.11, Automotive $35.52, Home & Home Improvement $42.95 — Why this Course starts beginners on Traffic instead of Leads.
- Lowest daily budget Meta will run: $1–$5Range · as of 2026TryVizup summary of Meta Business Help Center minimums (verify by hand in Ads Manager) — A floor, not a recommendation — the Course's own first-test range is $5–10/day.
- How long Meta takes to approve an ad: 0–48 hoursRange · as of 2026MagicBrief citing Meta: most ads clear review within 24 hours, some run past 48
- What one lead costs on pay-per-lead sites: $10–$100May be out of dateLeadCapture.io (home improvement $10–50, cleaning $15–50, landscaping $20–75)