This isn’t a “run ads fast” course.
It’s a confidence-first foundation.
Facebook and Instagram ads aren’t hard… but they are layered.
This series is designed to help you understand how the system actually works so you can stop guessing, stop second-guessing yourself, and make decisions with clarity instead of crossing your fingers.
This isn’t a “watch once and move on” course.
Each lesson includes timestamps so you can:
Jump directly to what’s relevant right now
Skip what you don’t need yet
Come back later when a new question comes up
Course curriculum
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1
Meta Ads Confidence Series
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Welcome! Start Here.
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Facebook & Instagram Ads Basics
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Budgets, Objectives & What Your Money Actually Gets You
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Creating Facebook & Instagram Ad Creative That Actually Works
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Troubleshooting, Warnings, and “Why Is This Yelling at Me?”
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One Last Thing (And This Matters)
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Lesson 1: Ads… Where Do I Even Start?
In this lesson, we cover:
- How Facebook and Instagram ads work behind the scenes
- Boosting Posts vs Ads Center vs Ads Manager (and why it matters)
- Ad formats (image, video, carousel) and how people experience them
- Placements across Facebook and Instagram, and what changes visually
- How Meta decides what to show, where, and to whom
- Using the Meta Ads Library for research and inspiration
- What “running” means vs what “working” means
- Personal profiles, Pages, professional mode, and why it matters
- How Meta Business Suite fits into the ecosystem
- Ads Manager structure (Campaigns, Ad Sets, Ads) and what each controls
- Objectives and how they change cost, delivery, and results
- Special Ad Categories and the restrictions people don’t expect
- How AI and Advantage+ features affect delivery
- A full walkthrough of creating an ad in Ads Manager
- Common beginner mistakes to avoid before spending money
Budgets, Objectives and What Your Money Actually Gets You
In this lesson, we cover:
- How Facebook and Instagram ad budgets actually work
- Where budgets live inside Ads Manager (campaign vs ad set)
- Daily budgets vs lifetime budgets, and when to use each
- Minimum spend realities and why very small budgets behave differently
- How Meta’s campaign, ad set, and ad structure affects spend
- What different campaign objectives actually optimize for
- Awareness campaigns and how reach, impressions, and CPMs work
- Traffic campaigns, link clicks vs landing page views, and pixel requirements
- Engagement campaigns and how they build warm audiences
- Lead campaigns, destinations, and realistic cost expectations
- How budget size impacts what objectives make sense
- What different budget levels can (and cannot) realistically achieve
- Retargeting basics and how audiences are built over time
- How Meta’s learning phase works and why ads need time
- Why some ads fail early and how to interpret results correctly
- Practical budget strategy examples for small businesses
Creating Facebook and Instagram Ad Creative That Actually Works
In this lesson, we cover:
- What “ad creative” actually includes inside Meta ads
- The difference between platforms and placements
- Where ads appear across Facebook and Instagram feeds, Stories, Reels, and more
- How placement selection changes how creative is displayed
- Using Meta’s Ads Guide to preview formats and placements
- Why the same ad looks different across placements
- Square vs vertical creative and when each is used
- Quiet zones, cropping, and elements that get covered or cut off
- Common creative mistakes that reduce ad quality
- How Meta evaluates creative quality
- Image sizes, aspect ratios, and current best practices
- Text placement and character length guidelines
- Ad copy language that can trigger rejections
- How to write inclusive, approval-safe ad copy
- A live Canva walkthrough for building ad creative
- Creating multiple ad sizes in one Canva file
- Uploading creative into Ads Manager correctly
- Meta’s Advantage+ creative enhancements and when to turn them off
- How to preview ads across placements before publishing
Troubleshooting, Warnings, and "Why Is This Thing Yelling At Me?"
In this lesson, we cover:
- Why Meta ads trigger warnings, notifications, and alerts
- How to recognize spam messages, fake violations, and scam emails
- Where to verify legitimate Meta emails and notifications
- The difference between yellow warnings and red errors in Ads Manager
- Which warnings can be safely ignored and which must be fixed
- Common reasons ads fail to publish or stop delivering
- How campaign diagnostics and scores actually work
- When to edit an ad vs when to rebuild it
- Why Business Suite causes confusion for many advertisers
- Logging in as Facebook vs Instagram and how that affects permissions
- Where user access and ownership actually live
- Boost Post vs Ads Center vs Ads Manager explained clearly
- Why results look different depending on where ads are created
- How to evaluate whether ads are working based on your objective
- Understanding common performance metrics without panic
- How to troubleshoot issues calmly and move forward with confidence
Designed for businesses without massive ad budgets
You’ll learn how Meta thinks about spend, delivery, and optimization so you can make smarter decisions with the budget you actually have.
This series was built specifically for business owners who:
Are spending their own money on ads
Need to be intentional with budget decisions
Want to understand why something costs more or less
Can’t afford to blindly test and hope for the best
Instructor(s)
Amanda Robinson
The Digital Gal
[email protected]
Amanda Robinson is the Founder & CEO of The Digital Gal Inc. She is a Certified Meta Lead Trainer and regularly presents on behalf of Meta at in person and virtual events. She is widely recognized in the digital marketing industry for her knowledge, training, skills and coaching as a Facebook Ads expert with her Swift Kick In the Ads Membership, her Facebook Ads Training Bootcamp, and for her creative chatbot skills. She is an author, international speaker, consultant, and educator who has taught thousands of business owners and entrepreneurs the foundational skills of Facebook Ads. Amanda brings personality and passion to teaching others how to make Facebook ads work for them.