How to use rules in Facebook ads for automating decision making for mobile user acquisition (and our top 3 rules)
Originally published August 2019. Some details have changed since: Facebook is now Meta, and the screenshots are from the old interface and should not be treated as current setup instructions.
If you find yourself repeating the same if-then decision across a growing ad account, let automated rules do it. In 2019 we automated three: turning off underperforming ads, ramping up new ad sets that under-spend, and ramping up high-performing ad sets.
Why automate decisions at all?
As accounts grew, our project management tool filled with routine if-then instructions such as “if a campaign gets $400 in spend and no conversions, pause it” and “if an ad’s CTR is under 0.2%, pause it”. Those two lines were examples of our 2019 standard operating procedures, not recommended thresholds. With tens of ad sets and hundreds of ads, carrying them out by hand became cumbersome even when well defined. We then found that Facebook offered automated rules that run this kind of if-then task for you.
What three decisions did we automate?
- Turn off underperforming ads.
- Ramp up new ad sets that are under-spending.
- Ramp up high-performing ad sets.
The original showed the exact settings as screenshots, which are not reproduced here, so treat the list as a map of where rules help, not a recipe.
What should you check today?
Meta still offers automated rules in Ads Manager, including pausing ads and adjusting ad-set budgets. The setup, available conditions and names have changed since 2019, so build your rules from what Ads Manager offers now.
Account for conversion delay and enough observation time before an automatic pause. Set your own thresholds from your own cost per conversion and budget; a rule that pauses an ad after a fixed spend with no conversions is only sensible if that spend is a meaningful share of what a conversion costs you. For current steps and settings, read how to use Meta automated rules for app campaigns, and for scaling rules, how to scale a Meta ads budget for app campaigns.
Frequently asked questions
Can you automate decisions in Meta ads? Yes. Automated rules let you apply if-then actions, such as pausing ads or changing budgets, to your campaigns without checking them by hand.
What rules should I set up first? Start with a repeated decision whose conditions and action you can define safely. The three examples above describe our 2019 workflow; under-spending alone is not a reason to raise a budget.
What thresholds should I use? There is no universal number. Base them on your cost per conversion and budget.
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