Maximizing Your Ad Campaigns with Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns in Meta
Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC+) is a new automated campaign set-up in Meta Ads Manager, built to help businesses of all sizes drive online sales more efficiently while also acquiring new online customers and retargeting existing ones in one campaign. In this article, we’ll be taking a deep dive into the step-by-step guide of setting up ASC+ campaigns, as well as best practices for running a successful ASC+ campaign.
Setting Up ASC+ Campaigns: step-by-step guide
Before launching ASC+ campaigns, it’s crucial to set up your Commerce Account fully on Meta. Even if you’re a one-product business, having a fully set up Commerce Account will give your ASC+ ads a higher priority on the auction. ASC+ includes both cold and warm audiences and allows for a simplified account structure. You can create new ads or re-use existing ones for ASC+ campaigns, giving the algorithm the freedom to suit specific ads for specific users who are most likely to respond to them.
Follow these steps to set up your ASC+ campaign:
- In Ads Manager, click on “+Create Campaign” and select “Sales” as the campaign objective.
- Under “Choose a campaign setup,” select “Advantage+ Shopping Campaign” and click “Continue.”
- Review the new Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns presets and update the name and special ad categories (optional). The Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns come preloaded with optimal automation settings that can’t be changed.
- Under “Conversions,” select the conversion location. This will only show if your account has access to Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns based on the above advertiser requirements.
- Under “Audience Location,” select the country. You can only define your audiences by country and can choose multiple countries.
- Under the “Reporting” section, the audience type breakdown is an account level setting that can be edited by clicking “Edit in account setting” (optional).
- In the budget and schedule section, define your daily budget and campaign start and end dates. You have the option to define how to share the budget between new and existing customers by selecting the box next to “Existing customer budget cap” and defining a % of budget you’d like allocated to the audience set.
- Import or create ads. With Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, Meta tests up to 150 creatives and automatically delivers the highest performing ads. You can use the suggested ads dialogue, create new ads from scratch, or duplicate existing ads into the campaign. We recommend importing all eligible existing ads and uploading as many ads and ad formats as possible to allow for the algorithm to test and deliver the highest performing ads. You can also customize individual ads at the ad level.
Best Practices for ASC+ Campaigns
Now that you’ve set up your ASC+ campaign, it’s time to start running it. Here are some best practices to follow for running a successful ASC+ campaign:
- Let the algorithm suit specific ads for specific users. Avoid overthinking your audience targeting as the algorithm will automatically target specific ads for specific users. Trust the algorithm and let it do the work.
- Incorporate ASC+ campaigns with BAU campaigns for success. Running ASC+ campaigns alongside your business as usual (BAU) campaigns can lead to even better performance. You can create a new ASC+ campaign or convert an existing one into an ASC+ campaign.
- Look at examples of successful campaigns from competitors. Some cases we saw in our clients’ portfolios were really successful, and it’s worth looking at what others are doing.
In conclusion, Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC+) can be a valuable addition to your advertising strategy. With the use of machine learning, ASC+ can help you reach valuable audiences more efficiently and with less setup time. By fully setting up your Commerce Account on Meta, you can increase the priority of your ASC+ ads on the auction, which can lead to better results.
