Set up your Facebook Ads Account

Before you can book your first ad on Facebook, you need to either have your own Facebook Page, or you must be granted advertiser rights by the company or brand you want to create campaigns for. Click here to find out how the admin of a Facebook page can assign you an advertiser role.

Now let’s set up your advertising account. Click here and you will see the billing section of Facebook Ads Manager. You may need to log into Facebook first.

The billing section of Facebook Ads Manager is where you can set up payment methods and limit the amount of money you want to spend on Facebook Ads. You can also review the current balance of your account, as well as bills you have received.

Let’s start with setting up payment. Click on the green “Add Payment Method” button in the middle of the screen and you should see the following pop-up, asking you to select a payment method.

In the US, Facebook currently accepts credit and debit cards, PayPal and online banking. Sometimes Facebook gives away free ad coupons that you can also add here. Enter your preferred payment method and click “Continue”. Once you have entered your details, the pop-up will close and you will see the first screen with your payment method added. You can add additional payment methods by clicking on the “Add Payment Method” button again.

On the right-hand side of this screen, you have the option to set up an account spending limit. Budget limits on Facebook can be a little bit confusing, since they exist in different tiers:

The account spending limit that you can set here (and can always adjust later) is the maximum amount of money your account will ever spend on Facebook Ads. This limit is indefinite and won’t be automatically reset after you have been billed. Once you reach your account spending limit, all your ads will be turned off. You can only reactivate them or book new ads if you increase the account spending limit or reset it.

The campaign spending limit, which we will encounter later, is the maximum budget you will spend on a specific advertising campaign. Note that once your account spending limit is reached, no more ads will be delivered, even if your campaign spending limit has not been reached.

It’s a good idea to set an account spending limit in the beginning, as you get started experimenting with Facebook Ads. That way you don’t spend too much money by mistake. To do this, click on “Set Account Spending Limit” and enter the limit. Click “Set Limit” to submit your limit. Your limit will be displayed at the right-hand side of the screen. You have the options to change, remove, or reset your limit anytime using the buttons at the bottom of that section.

You are now ready to create your first ad and explore Facebook Ads Manager. If you want to go back to the billing section later, click on the menu button at the top left corner of the screen and then pick the “Billing & Payment Methods” item in the “Settings” section.

Before you can create your first campaign, you must fill out some missing account information. To do that, pick the “Ad Account Settings” item in the “Settings” section or click here. You will see the following screen:

Give your account a name. This can be helpful if you plan to manage multiple accounts in the future. If you are buying Facebook Ads for a business purpose, which is usually the case, complete all the other fields and hit the “Save Changes” button that appears at the bottom of the screen once you start making changes.

If you scroll down, you can also add additional users who will be able to manage your ad account. You can also choose which notifications you want to receive via email or directly on Facebook.