Facebook ads Nobody opens Facebook looking for you.
So the ad has to do the work a search would have done: name the problem, prove you can fix it, and make the next step two taps long. That is a harder job than answering a query, and it reaches people months before they would have typed anything.
250+ active client engagements · Campaigns running in Australia, the UK, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand · Tracking built before the first ad runs
Seven ways a
Meta account leaks.
None of these are exotic. They are what we find in almost every underperforming Facebook account we open, and not one of them shows up in an engagement report.
The boost button instead of a campaign
Boosting picks the objective for you, and the objective it picks is engagement. You buy likes on a post about your new van, and nobody can tell you what a booked job cost.
One creative carrying the whole account
Search keywords last for years. A Facebook creative lasts weeks. The same image against the same audience for three months is the single most common reason a cost per lead keeps climbing.
The pixel installed, the Conversions API never was
Browser tracking alone loses a real share of conversions to privacy settings and blockers. Meta then optimises toward the conversions it can still see, which is a partial picture of your customers.
Audiences narrowed until delivery stalls
Three interests, two behaviours, an age band and a ten-kilometre radius, all stacked. The ad set never gets enough volume to leave the learning phase, so the cost per result goes up rather than down.
Retargeting and prospecting bidding against each other
Without exclusions, your cheapest audience — people who already visited — sits inside your most expensive campaign. You pay prospecting prices to reach people you had already reached.
Every conversion counted the same
A newsletter signup and a A$4,000 job in one column. Meta then optimises toward whichever is cheapest to get, which is never the job.
Leads that arrive and then sit
A lead form takes two taps, so people fill it in while they are still on the couch. Answered in five minutes it is a customer; answered in two days it is somebody who has already called a competitor.
Two lines and one image.
That is the whole space you get between a photo of somebody's niece and a video of a dog. Every character in it is a decision somebody made — and in most accounts, nobody made them.
The first two lines are all most people read. So they carry the offer and the reason to believe it, not the company history.
The offer, in one line a stranger understands.
The offer, in one line a stranger understands.
The proof underneath it — the guarantee, the response time, the licence.
So we write for the feed, not for the brand guidelines.
The first two lines carry the offer and the reason to believe it, because that is where the feed cuts to “See more” and most people never tap it. The image has to work at thumbnail size on a phone held at arm's length. The headline is the last thing read before the tap.
Then we go back and read which combination Meta actually served, which is regularly not the one we expected. That check is the difference between making six creatives and knowing which two are doing the work.
125
characters of primary text
Roughly where the feed cuts to “See more”. Most people never tap it, so the offer lives above the fold or nowhere.
40
characters in the headline
The bold line under the image. It is the last thing read before the tap, and the easiest thing in the account to write badly.
30
characters in the description
The quiet line under the headline. Proof, not adjectives — the guarantee, the response time, the licence.
10
cards in one carousel
Ten services, ten suburbs or ten products in a single unit, each with its own image, headline and landing page.
50
results per ad set, per week
Roughly the volume Meta needs before delivery stops guessing. Split your budget across six ad sets and none of them ever get there.
1–10
% lookalike similarity
1% is the closest match to your source list and the smallest reach; 10% is the widest. Which one works is a question the data answers, not the brief.
Meta product limits and delivery mechanics, not performance claims.
SoudCoh · all channels
250+
Active client engagements
Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok and organic, run by one team
National cultural institution
A$634K
Of media kept working
From a A$750K annual budget, at a 15.5% agency fee
Where campaigns run
5
Countries
Australia, the UK, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand
Figures trace to live engagements and are dated in the case study or engagement record they come from. Public-sector and cultural clients are identified by sector and jurisdiction only. None of it is a forecast for your account.
Ten things happen on a Meta account. Here they are, in order.
This is the part most agency pages keep vague, and it is the only part that decides whether the money works. So it is written down.
Fix the measurement before anything runs
Meta pixel and the Conversions API together, so conversions that the browser loses are still sent from your website's server. Until that is right, every optimisation decision after it is guesswork with a dashboard attached.
Count each action as itself
Calls over sixty seconds, form submissions, bookings, chats and purchases as separate events with values attached. Meta optimises toward whatever you tell it matters, so it has to be told properly.
Build audiences from your own data first
Customer lists, website visitors, video viewers, people who opened a lead form and did not finish. Those are your warmest audiences and they cost the least to reach. Interests come last.
Build lookalikes from converters, not from everyone
A lookalike is only as good as its source. Seeded from all website traffic it finds you more traffic; seeded from people who actually booked, it finds you more of them.
Keep prospecting and retargeting apart
Exclusions on every campaign so the two never overlap. Otherwise your cheapest audience sits inside your most expensive campaign and the reported cost per lead is an average of two very different things.
Give each ad set enough budget to learn
Fewer ad sets, each with enough spend to reach the volume Meta needs to leave the learning phase. Splitting a budget six ways feels careful and is the most common reason an account never settles.
Write for the first two lines and the first frame
The offer and the reason to believe it, before the truncation. Vertical video for Reels and Stories, captions burned in because most of it is watched on mute, and copy written for this platform rather than pasted from the website.
Test creative on purpose
New concepts against the current winner, one variable at a time, with enough spend behind each to mean something. Creative is the main lever on Meta, and it is the one most accounts never pull deliberately.
Refresh before fatigue shows up in the invoice
Frequency and cost per result read weekly, creative replaced on a schedule rather than after the numbers have already gone. Waiting for the drop is a month of budget spent finding out.
Run the catalogue properly if you sell products
Product feed, Advantage+ shopping campaigns and dynamic retargeting for browsers and cart abandoners, with server-side tracking so revenue lands back in Ads Manager accurately. Online stores are very much in scope; the build is just different.
The first ninety days, honestly.
- Week 0
The audit and the first call
Thirty to forty-five minutes on what you sell, who buys it and what a customer is worth. Then we open the ad account, read the last ninety days, and write down every leak.
- Week 1
Tracking, then creative
Pixel, Conversions API, conversion definitions and CRM routing go in first. Building creative on top of broken measurement is how agencies end up arguing about numbers in month three.
- Weeks 1–2
The build
Audiences, exclusions, campaign structure, creative concepts, copy and landing pages. A second person checks all of it. Nothing is live and nothing has spent.
- Day one
You press go
Campaigns are created paused so you can read the whole build first. You activate when you are ready, not when we are.
- Weeks 2–6
Learning, then reading
Ad sets need volume before their numbers mean anything, so structure is held steady long enough to get it. Then the creative and audiences that are not carrying their share get cut.
- From there
Rhythm
A creative refresh cycle, weekly optimisation, reporting on a fixed cadence whether the news is good or bad, and a proper conversation each quarter about where the next block of budget should go.
Campaigns are created paused, every time. You read the build before a dollar moves — that is a rule we hold ourselves to, not a favour.
Meta accounts live or die on two of the six stages.
Compound is how our team works on any account — six stages every change passes through. A Facebook campaign puts most of its weight on these two.
Meter
If it can't be measured, it doesn't get bought.
This stage carries more weight on Meta than anywhere else we work. The browser pixel alone loses conversions to privacy settings and blockers, so the Conversions API goes in before the first ad runs — not after the numbers stop adding up.
Sweep
Waste is found daily, named, and priced.
On Meta the waste is creative and audience rather than search terms: the ad that has stopped working, the placement quietly eating budget, the audience that overlaps another one. Each is named and dated in a record you can open.
Four clients. Four real numbers.
Three of these are Google Ads accounts and the tiles say so. They are here rather than dressed up as social results, because the point is the measurement: Meta is held to the same standard, in the same units.
- End-of-lease cleaning · Melbourne · Google Ads138jobs booked in 41 daysA$20.43 cost per job · 21.20% conversion rate · A$2,819.92 ad spendPink Flamingo
- Carpet cleaning · Perth · Google Ads53jobs in the first 15 daysA$24.92 cost per job · brand-new account, no conversion history at launchCleanetic
- Trades · Sydney · Google Ads36jobs booked in 24 daysJob-type campaign split · first quotes by day threeSydney Fence Painting
- Roof restoration · Meta15xincrease in qualified leadsRevenue up 4x · team doubled from three to six · booked two months aheadYour Local Roof Restoration
- Restoration · Facebook and Instagram16xreturn on ad spendA$38,480 from A$2,400 of spend · 160 Messenger conversations at A$15 eachRenew Tile & Grout
- Media buying · AustraliaA$634Kof media kept workingFrom a A$750K annual budget, at a 15.5% agency fee against a typical 18–22%National cultural institution
Before you ask us anything
Here is what everybody asks first.
Facebook ads, answered.
Cost, timing, contracts, who owns the ad account, reporting, and what happens when a campaign is not working.
The first call is free and there is no deck.
Talk to us about your adsTwo separate numbers. Your ad spend goes to Meta, and what it needs to be depends on how many results you want and how competitive your audience is — the smallest companies we work with invest a minimum of A$3,000 a month, and our largest clients run multiple eight figures a month across paid channels. Our management fee is separate and scales with the work. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, which is why the first call is free: you get a real number for your situation before you commit to anything.
Lead form campaigns can produce enquiries within a day or two of going live, because the form is two taps and never leaves the app. The first two to four weeks are a learning period, though — Meta is working out who to show your ads to, and we are cutting the audiences and creative that are not carrying their share. Campaigns generally settle into their best rhythm around 60 to 90 days. Your industry, your creative and your budget all move that timeline.
No long-term lock-in. We would rather keep the work because it is producing than because a contract says you have to stay. What we do ask for is enough runway to be fair to the account — a Meta campaign judged on its first ten days is being judged during the part where the platform is still learning. The terms are put in front of you in plain English before anything is signed.
We own and run the ad account, because the build is proprietary methodology refined across 250+ engagements — audience architecture, exclusion logic, creative testing frameworks and conversion tracking. Your Facebook page and Instagram account stay yours throughout, and you get full-visibility reporting on performance and spend at all times. On long-term marketing agreements, ownership and handover options are available to discuss.
We tell you, in the report, in plain English, and we change what we are doing. A campaign that is not producing gets rebuilt, repointed at a different audience, given different creative, or stopped. If the honest answer is that Meta is not the right channel for your business right now, we would rather move the budget somewhere that is than keep billing you for it. What we will not do is let it run quietly and hope it comes good.
A fixed cadence, good news or bad. Each report covers what was spent, what it produced, what we changed and why, and what happens next — written in the language you use about your own business rather than platform jargon. You can also see live performance and spend for yourself at any time. If a number moved, you will find out from us before you find out from your bank statement.
Google captures demand that already exists — somebody types what they want and you are either on the page or you are not. Facebook creates it, by reaching people based on who they are rather than what they are typing. That makes Facebook harder work creatively and usually cheaper per person reached, and it makes Google the faster route to somebody who is ready right now. The most effective accounts run both: Facebook builds the awareness, Google catches the searches that follow, and the budget moves between them on evidence.
Yes — Meta is one of the strongest channels an online store has, and we run it end to end. Product catalogue and Advantage+ shopping campaigns, dynamic retargeting for browsers and cart abandoners, prospecting creative built for the feed, and full pixel and Conversions API tracking so revenue lands back in Ads Manager accurately. The approach differs from our service-business work — there we are capturing calls, bookings and quote requests, here we are capturing orders and repeat purchases — but the discipline is identical: track it properly, test it constantly, scale what pays.
With the browser pixel and the Conversions API running together. The pixel loses a meaningful share of conversions to privacy settings, tracking prevention and ad blockers; the Conversions API sends the same events from your website's server instead, so Meta sees conversions it would otherwise miss and can optimise toward them. It is set up before the first ad runs, matched against the pixel so events are not double-counted, and checked in the account rather than assumed.
Yes, and it is part of the job rather than an extra. Static images, carousels, short-form vertical video and the copy that goes with them, written for the feed rather than lifted from your website. Where your own footage or photography exists we will use it — on social, real material from the job site regularly outperforms polished production. We also run a refresh cycle, so creative is replaced before fatigue shows up in the cost per result.
A lookalike asks Meta to find people who resemble a list you already have — your customers, your website converters, your video viewers — at a similarity of 1% to 10%. It works when the source list is good and it is useless when it is not. Seeded from all your website traffic it will find you more traffic; seeded from people who actually booked a job, it finds you more of those. We build them from converters, refresh the source as the list grows, and test the similarity percentage rather than assuming 1% is best.
Yes — by suburb, by postcode, or by a radius around your premises, and set to people who live in or were recently in the area rather than anyone who has merely shown interest in it. It works the same way in any city we run: Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, and outside Australia in the UK, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand.
Service businesses and trades, finance, real estate, healthcare, professional services, hospitality, B2B, and online retail. The common thread is not the industry — it is whether the decision can be triggered rather than only answered. If somebody has to be searching before they will buy, Google is the better first move and we will tell you so. If the need can be created, or the purchase is visual, Meta is usually the cheapest place to reach people at volume.
Facebook is one of five ways we buy attention.
Most accounts we run use two or three of these together, with the budget moving between them on evidence rather than being split by habit.
- Instagram adsThe same Meta account, a very different room. Most clients run both, with the creative briefed separately rather than duplicated.
- TikTok adsWhere the same budget usually buys more reach, and where a message gets tested before it costs Meta money.
- LinkedIn adsIf you sell to businesses, councils or enterprise procurement, this is the platform that targets by job title rather than by interest.
- The other half of paidThe other half of paid. Search catches the demand Facebook creates, and most accounts we run use both.
- The pixel this whole account depends onWhat it is, where it goes, and the events that have to fire before any of the optimisation above can work.
- Server-side conversions, the other half of the pixelBrowser-side tracking loses a growing share of events. This is the API that sends the same conversion from your server instead.
- The rest of the paid channelsEvery platform we run, side by side, if you are still deciding where the first budget should go.
- Measurement on a platform that hides half of itHow a phone call becomes a conversion. Nothing on this page means anything without it, and on Meta it matters more than anywhere else.
Written for the trades who ask us this most often: the paid social formats currently earning their keep. And because a cheap lead that never gets called is not a cheap lead, the follow-up that turns an enquiry into a booked job is the half of it no ad platform will do for you.
Get the Meta audit
We read ninety days of your ad account, price the waste, check whether your conversions are actually being counted, and tell you what we would change first. Yours to keep either way.
No pitch deck. No upsell. A real conversation and a written list of leaks.