How To Use Facebook Ads For Startups? Best Strategy & Tips (2025)

Hello entrepreneurs! For those initiating a new business, trying to boost their brand awareness, and generating leads, Facebook ads can be a good place to start. However, running Facebook ads is not a walk in the park, especially for beginners. It may feel like your campaigns are screaming into the void. But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. This article covers the topic of Facebook ads for startups, discusses their pros and cons, and provides the best strategy and tips from experienced advertising experts.

Why Do Most Facebook Ads For Startups Fail?
Are your Facebook ads getting a skyrocketing CPA and barely profitable? Do you know why they fail?
Let me tell you, the most common reason is that you are thinking in the wrong way. You are trying to close sales in the ad itself. You are making content to showcase all the best features and unique selling points of your product or service.
However, what you should actually do is get clicks. Don’t yap about your product, service, or brand. Instead, put your customers at the center of your ad and take them as the compass of your content creation.
Should You Use Facebook Ads For Your Startup?
While it may feel difficult for beginners, many veterans are still crushing it on Facebook. A Databox’s research showed that 92% of marketers believe Facebook ads are effective at generating sales.
However, before investing in Facebook ads for your startup, it’s crucial to consider the pros and cons of this option.
Pros of running Facebook ads for startups
Here are some advantages of Facebook ads that startuppers can expect.
- Huge audience base: Facebook is home to over 3 billion monthly active users. This makes Facebook an ideal advertising platform for businesses that target a broad audience.
- Precise targeting: Startups can leverage Facebook ads to show ads to potential customers with precise targeting options based on location, age, gender, interests, behaviors, etc. Once you have gained certain customer data and email lists, you can create custom audiences for retargeting and lookalike audiences to expand reach.
- Low costs: Facebook ads are typically more cost-effective than Google ads and much cheaper than traditional marketing methods like print, broadcast outdoor, etc.
- Enhanced awareness: With a large audience base, Facebook ads for startups can work great for awareness campaigns and enhancing the brand’s online presence.
- Increased leads and traffic: Facebook lead ads make it easy to generate leads for startups. Also, they can be beneficial in driving traffic to your website with clickable in-caption links and CTA buttons.
- Real-time analytics: Facebook ads help track and analyze your campaigns in detail and in real time. This allows businesses to make outcome-based decisions for optimal results.
Cons of running Facebook ads for startups
Beware of the disadvantages you can encounter when running Facebook ads for your startup.
- Intense competition: Facebook ads can be challenging for startups due to their high level of competition.
- Algorithm changes: Facebook’s algorithm is subject to change, which can affect your ad performance. Startup businesses must constantly update themselves to maintain the effectiveness of their campaigns.
- Limited daily ad spend: Startups that are new to Facebook ads are limited in the daily ad spending threshold set by Meta. Thus, it’s difficult to scale up their budget and conversions.
Pro tip: Get a Facebook agency ad account for rent, the most premium Facebook ad account type with no spending limit, to scale your Facebook ads and X10 your revenue today.
My verdict: Are Facebook ads for startups worth it?
Although startups may encounter certain challenges when running Facebook ads, it’s still worth a try. Facebook ads are cost-effective for reaching a large audience and boosting brand awareness.
However, businesses should consider their budgets, objectives, needs, and target audience, to determine if Facebook is a good fit for them.
For example, a brick-and-mortar business can run Facebook ads using geotargeting to attract local customers effectively. Or if you start up a clothing brand, you can use Facebook ads to boost brand awareness and sales with image-based marketing campaigns.
If you’ve decided to run Facebook ads for your startup business, it’s time to learn the best strategy and tips to run high-performing and cost-effective ads
Best Low-Budget Campaign Strategy To Run Facebook Ads For Startups (2025)
Startups are usually small businesses that run low-budget advertising campaigns.
If you are spending between $20 and $300 a day on ads, it’s considered a rather low budget.
With such a low budget, you should keep your campaign as simple as possible so that it can exit the learning phase soon.
The recommended campaign structure is as follows: 1 campaign, 1 ad set, 1 ad.
Below are the best Facebook ad strategies for startups in 2025.
Campaign setup
- Objective: Sales (Manual)
- Advantage Campaign Budget: On
- Budget: Daily budget (monthly budget divided by 30 to get daily budget)
- Naming conversion: Brand Name | Sales | Country | Date
Ad set setup
- Conversion Location: Website
- Performance Goal: Maximize conversions
- Pixel: your website pixel
- Conversion Event: Purchase
- Dynamic Creative: On
- Audience controls: 1 country (top country of your target audience)
- Age: age range
- Language: English
- Exclusion: N/A
- Advantage+ Audience: add a couple of obvious interest/custom audiences of a lead list
- Naming Conversion: MAIN001 | Country | Objective | DCA
Ad setup
- Format: Single Image or Video
- Ad Creative: 2x Video OR 2x Images
- Primary Text: 2x very different primary text versions
- Headlines: 2x very different headlines
- Descriptions: 1x CTA or leave blank
- 1x URL
- CTA: Shop Now
Related article: Anatomy of a Facebook Ad: Analyze 5 Main Components From It
Best Expert Tips To Run Facebook Ads For Startups In 2025
I’ve managed over 500 marketing projects for my clients, and here are my best tips to maximize the impact of Facebook ads for startups in 2025.
Understand potential customers
As I have said, one of the biggest mistakes startups often make when running Facebook ads is that they only focus on products and functions.
What you need to do is understand your customers, find their pain points, and give a solution. Sell what they need, not what you have.
Ignite curiosity with hooks
Use a good hook to stop people scrolling from your ad and ignite their curiosity.
There are several effective types of hooks, including:
- Question hook: A question to challenge a common belief. Example: Why counting calories can actually make you gain weight?
- Did you know hook: A mind-blowing fact with authority. Example: Did you know your brain is eating itself?
- Wild fact hook: A scroll stopper that is relevant to your product. Example: This weird breathing pattern helped our users fall asleep 3.2 times faster.
Choose the right types of ads
There are different types of Facebook ads such as image ads, video ads, carousel ads, collection ads,…
Facebook video ads are generally outperforming others regarding engagement and clicks, especially TikTok-style videos and karaoke-style caption videos.
The secret is to use raw and unpolished content filmed by a smartphone to make your videos feel more genuine and less commercial. This approach is much easier and cheaper, compared to investing in professional commercial ads.
Work on your ad creatives
Learn to make compelling, engaging videos with effective hooks, perfect scripts, and appealing visuals.
Some dos and don’ts that may help you create better ads:
- Do: Start with some movement to capture attention.
- Do: Use natural sunlight to make it more authentic and appealing.
- Do: Add bold text in high-contrast colors.
- Don’t: Use static shots and ring lights
- Don’t: Add long sentences or small, hard-to-read text.
Copy successful competitors’ ads
Another tip is to learn from your competitors’ successful ads. You can search related keywords and wait for Facebook’s algorithm to promote those ads to you. Or actively look for them in Meta’s Ads Library.
Do A/B tests
If you want to succeed with Facebook ads, A/B testing is essential. Try to create several versions of ads with different hooks, text, visuals, and concepts to test what works best for your business.
Note: Don’t make more than one change at a time when you run test ads.
Refine sales page
If you want to convert traffic to sales, you must have a well-structured sales page. Make sure your landing page is optimized for mobile users and the page load time is no more than 3 seconds. Include a strong CTA to drive desired actions. Finally, install the Facebook Pixel on your website accurately for remarketing.
Track data
Regularly track ad performance, metrics, and data to make on-time decisions, such as pausing poor-performing versions, optimizing campaigns, or scaling ads that work well.
Conclusion
Facebook ads for startups can be a game-changer for any entrepreneur provided that you have the right approach. By following the strategy and tips that I’ve outlined in this article, you can create effective ads that speak to your customers’ souls and bring great outcomes. Don’t forget to follow us for more helpful advertising tips from seasoned experts of GDT Agency.
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