Quick answer: To run a brand awareness campaign, open Meta Ads Manager, click Create and choose the Awareness objective. Turn on Advantage campaign budget if you want, and at the ad set level choose the performance goal Maximise reach of ads, with a frequency cap. Set your audience by location, age and interests, keep Advantage+ placements, add your creative, and publish.
Awareness campaigns put your brand in front of as many relevant people as possible, for the lowest cost per person reached. They’re ideal for new businesses, product launches and local brands. Pair them later with traffic or sales campaigns to convert the people who saw you.
Prefer to watch? The 7-minute video above shows every step on screen.
What do you need before running an awareness campaign?
- A Meta ad account with billing set up. See how to create a Meta ad account.
- A Facebook Page, and optionally an Instagram account.
- Eye-catching creative. Short videos and bold images work best for awareness.
How to set up a Meta awareness campaign (step by step)
Step 1: Choose the Awareness objective
In Ads Manager, click + Create, select Awareness, and click Continue.
Step 2: Set the campaign budget
Turn on Advantage campaign budget to let Meta spread the budget across ad sets, and enter a daily or lifetime budget.
Step 3: Pick the performance goal
At the ad set level, choose Maximise reach of ads to reach as many people as possible. Under Frequency cap, set how often each person sees the ad, for example once every 7 days.
Step 4: Build your audience
Set locations, age range and gender, and add interests that match your customers. Keep the audience reasonably broad, because awareness works best at scale.
Step 5: Choose placements
Keep Advantage+ placements on, so your ads can run across Facebook, Instagram, Reels and Stories.
Step 6: Create the ad and publish
Upload a short video or a strong image with your brand clearly visible in the first few seconds. Add primary text and a headline, then click Publish.
Tips for better reach
- Show your logo or brand name in the first 3 seconds of a video.
- Use vertical 9:16 creative for Reels and Stories.
- Use a frequency cap, so the same people don’t see the ad too often.
- Retarget video viewers later with a traffic or sales campaign.
Awareness campaign problems and fixes
High reach, but no website clicks
That’s normal, because awareness campaigns don’t optimise for clicks. Use a traffic campaign when you want visits, and an awareness campaign to build familiarity first.
The ad shows to the same people too often
Lower the frequency cap, for example to once every 7 days, or widen your audience.
Reach is lower than expected
Your audience may be too narrow, or your budget too low for the location. Widen the targeting or increase the budget gradually.
What should you do next?
- Turn awareness into interaction with an engagement campaign.
- Retarget people who visited your site: build a website visitor retargeting audience.
- Collect enquiries with a lead generation campaign.
Frequently asked questions
Awareness is a campaign objective that shows your ads to as many people as possible in your audience, or to people most likely to remember them, at a low cost per person reached.
A frequency cap limits how often the same person sees your ad, for example once every 7 days. It is available when the performance goal is set to maximise reach.
Not directly. Awareness campaigns build familiarity. Use traffic, leads or sales campaigns to convert people, ideally by retargeting those who saw your awareness ads.
Run it for at least one to two weeks, so enough people see it, and pair it with a retargeting campaign afterwards.
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