How to Use Fewer Ads to Improve Performance

Unpopular opinion: Small brands should consolidate BFCM ads and evergreen ads into one Meta ASC campaign. Why? So that the data from your holiday promotion fuels ongoing performance for weeks to come. I'm not your run-of-the-mill ad buyer. I'm a data company CEO. Hear me when I say: CAMPAIGN STRUCTURE MATTERS The conversion data within a single campaign is critical to building an accurate learning model for the Meta algorithm to optimize against. This is what trains Meta on who your best customers are, so it can efficiently find more of the right people. Any time you fragment your ad spend into multiple campaigns, you are hurting your chances of building an efficient, performative ad account by fragmenting your data into separate campaign learning models. This is especially true with Black Friday Cyber Monday promotions. For smaller brands who struggle with getting 50+ conversions per ad set per week, here's what I recommend. - Use a consolidated ASC campaign with broad targeting and enough budget to get 50 conversions per week. - Put ALL of your creative into that one ASC campaign - Add BFCM to the name of your ads that have promotional, time-sensitive language, ad copy, links, and creative - Allow all of the data from all ads to merge into one learning model at the campaign level - Simply toggle off the BFCM ads once your promo ends Doing this will both maximize performance during the promo window, and lead to better data, better learnings, and better momentum after the promotion ends. This is how you can make sure your promotional windows aren't just a one-and-done sale, and instead lead to ongoing ad success. ----------- If you're tired of getting the same advice from ad gurus and you want a fresh, data-centric take on how to run better Meta ads, give me a follow and check out Popsixle

If your Facebook ads are too expensive… It’s probably not your budget. It’s not your niche. It’s not even your product. It’s your structure. Here’s how we took a client from $115 cost per purchase down to $55 while scaling spend above $2K/day: 1. Kill campaign clutter. The client had 25+ campaigns running. Lookalikes. Interests. Bid caps. Cost caps. Retargeting. It was chaos and none of it was working. We replaced all of it with one campaign. → One product → One country → One broad ad set → One clear objective Simplicity scaled. Complexity killed performance. 2. Use existing proven creatives. We launched 6 ads using existing post IDs from past top spenders. No new angles. No guessing. Just riding proven momentum already in the account. No one talks about this but it works extremely well when first taking over a messy ad account. 3. Rebuild your testing infrastructure. We rebuilt the creative system from scratch: • Defined 6–12 ad concepts • Each concept = 1 ad set • Each ad set = 3 variations (split by 1 visual element only) Video example: same script, same hook, different first 3 seconds. Image example: same copy, different background. We ran 3–4 concepts per week to maintain velocity. 4. Creative strategy starts with research. Most people write angles based on vibes. We write angles based on data: → Reddit threads → TikTok comments → Competitor reviews → Customer feedback → Site copy + heatmaps → Even YouTube comment sections We build angles around what people actually say, not what we think sounds good. 5. Once you win, scale with control. We found a $55 CPP winner. Then scaled 20% a day. All with structured budget increases with proven creatives. Now we’re pushing toward $1M/month while staying below the $70 CAC target the client hired us to hit. The biggest mistake most brands make? They throw more spend at broken foundations. We simplified the structure, fixed the strategy, and let the creative carry the weight. If your CAC is too high, don’t scale harder. Scale smarter. Follow me Nick Theriot for more content like this.

The best “hack” for better Meta performance: (without making more creative) Optimize the technical foundation of your marketing. Too many brands run a best-in-class creative operation. While ignoring these 5 critical areas. You wouldn't build a multi-million dollar house on quicksand. Make these 5 changes instead: 1. Don’t settle for the Shopify / Meta CAPI integration Use a tool like Bloutout, Elevar, Aimerce, Popsixle, etc... These 1st party data tools are better at maximizing event capture and user matching quality. 2. Focus on micro-conversions More events = more / higher quality signal for ad platforms like Facebook to help you find the right people and win ad auctions. Don’t just send purchases. Send add to carts, landing page views, etc... 3. Reduce retargeting waste While your retargeting campaigns might look profitable, they’re probably littered with 1-day-view conversions. Don't fool yourself into fake growth with conversions that would happen without your ads. 4. Allocate at least 60% of budget to winners vs tests Don’t blow your budget on all new creative. Ensure the bulk of your spend continues to go to proven ads. 5. Consolidate your campaigns More consolidation = more signal to Facebook’s machine learning to find you more customers for the most efficient use of your budget. --- Stop building on quicksand. Instead: 1. Use a 1st party data tool 2. Focus on mico-conversions 3. Reduce retargeting waste 4. Allocate budget to winners 5. Consolidate campaigns That's how you optimize your technical foundation for less painful growth.

The Paradox of Creative Diversity vs. Creative Volume Creative diversity can't be measured. Creative volume can. That's the problem. We've fallen into a dangerous pattern in marketing: prioritizing what we can easily track over what actually drives results. When your CMO asks about performance, it's much easier to say "we're producing 5 ads weekly" than "we're focusing on creative diversity." One fits neatly into KPIs and OKRs. The other doesn't. Here's the hard truth: 5 similar ads take far less time than 5 truly unique concepts. But on paper, they count the same. As your team optimizes for volume targets, creativity suffers. Templates emerge. Visual and messaging patterns become rigid. Everyone celebrates hitting their KPIs while performance slowly declines. I see this constantly in accounts - Facebook feeds full of virtually identical ads with minor variations. Same layout. Same hooks. Same messaging. Just different images or headline tweaks. The result? Rising costs, dropping conversion rates, and the inevitable blame game: "The platform isn't working anymore" or "CPMs are just higher now." The real culprit? Creative fatigue from lack of diversity. What if instead of asking "How many ads did we make?" we asked: How many fundamentally different value propositions did we test? How many unique visual approaches did we try? How many distinct customer pain points did we address? This requires courage. You must tell your CMO: "We need to make fewer ads so we can make better ads." The key to performance isn't the number of ads you create, but how meaningfully different each one is from the last. What are you optimizing for in your creative process?

Here's why your ads might not be working as well as they could. Most people mess with their ads too much. They see a dip in performance, panic, and start changing things. Stop. Let. Them. Run. Here’s the deal: AI needs time to learn. Every time you tweak a campaign, you reset the learning process. So instead of fiddling, focus on this: Fewer campaigns. Fewer creatives, stick with your winners. This gives the system the data it needs to figure out who your buyers are. And when it does? That’s when the magic happens. Less is more when it comes to campaign structure. Trust the process.

I see too many people complaining about inconsistent Facebook ad performance. "My ROAS fluctuates wildly!" "My CPMs are through the roof!" "Facebook is dead in 2025!" 90% of the time, the problem isn't the platform - it's likely your creative, your campaign structure, or budgets. (We’ll stick to media buying side for this post). Here's what nobody tells you: Facebook needs approximately 50 conversions per week (about 7 per day) to optimize effectively. If target CPA is $20, your daily budget should be at least $140 per adset. Yet I see people running $5-10 adsets and wondering why performance is erratic. Low budgets create three fatal problems: -Insufficient data for the algorithm -Losing auction priority to bigger spenders -Hitting frequency caps too quickly with small audiences When we scale clients from 5-fig to 6-fig monthly ad spend, the first thing we do is consolidate budgets. Instead of 20 adsets at $20 each, we'll run 5 adsets at $80+ each. Or better yet, CBO campaigns with $300+ daily budgets. Higher budgets give you: -More consistent performance -Better auction positioning -Cleaner data for optimization This doesn't mean you need massive budgets to succeed. It means you need to structure your campaigns appropriately for your budget level. Would you rather have 3 profitable adsets or 10 unprofitable ones? Focus your spend where it matters. Let the algorithm do its work. Stop micromanaging with tiny budgets. The path to scaling isn't more granularity. It's strategic consolidation with proper budget allocation.

A Persistent Question for Marketers: How many Facebook Ads Sets are ideal per Campaign? Here's a Practical Approach to streamline your Strategy with Meta’s evolving targeting and Optimization features: 1. Simplify Your Campaigns: ✅ Prioritize Minimal Cold Targeting Ad Sets Focus on 1-2 ad sets per campaign. This reduces audience overlap and ensures your budget is concentrated where it matters most. ✅ Enhance Efficiency with Conversion Optimization Meta's Advantage+ Audiences and conversion optimization work best when campaigns are streamlined. Fewer ad sets allow for better performance analysis and adjustment. 2. Making Data-Driven Decisions: ↪ Too Many Ad Sets? If you’re running multiple cold targeting ad sets, consider consolidating to avoid audience overlap and wasted spend. ↪ Fewer Ad Sets, Better Optimization: Campaigns with minimal ad sets provide clearer performance insights, making it easier to identify winning strategies. Ultimately, fewer ad sets don’t just simplify your workflow—they also align with Meta’s tools for maximizing efficiency and effectiveness. ✅ Are you already reducing the number of ad sets in your campaigns? ✅ What results have you seen from this approach? ↳ Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!