Facebook and Instagram campaigns built around the full funnel – from cold audiences who’ve never heard of you to warm prospects ready to convert. Creative-led, data-driven, and managed around your cost per acquisition.
The two platforms do fundamentally different things. Understanding which one your business needs – and when – is the starting point for any paid media strategy.
Google Ads reaches people who are already searching for what you offer. Someone types their query and your ad appears. High intent, lower volume – you’re answering a question someone is already asking.
Best for: products and services people already know to search for
Meta Ads reaches your exact customer while they’re scrolling – before they know they need you. The right creative in front of the right person at the right moment creates demand. Higher volume, broader reach, and the ability to scale in ways search campaigns simply can’t.
Best for: building brand awareness, scaling proven offers, and products people discover rather than search for
Most businesses benefit from both. Google Ads captures the demand that already exists. Meta Ads creates new demand and fills your pipeline with future buyers. Run together with a shared audience strategy, they compound rather than compete.
Meta Ads work best when the funnel is treated as a system, not a single campaign. Each stage has a specific role, a specific creative approach, and a specific measure of success.
Reaching cold audiences who match your ideal customer profile but haven’t encountered your brand. The goal here is not conversion – it’s relevance and recall.
Interest and demographic targeting
Lookalike audiences from existing customers
Broad targeting with strong creative
Video and Reels for reach efficiency
Reaching people who’ve already shown some interest – visited your site, watched your videos, engaged with your page. Creative should be more specific and address the questions they’re likely asking.
Website visitor retargeting
Video view audiences
Page engagement audiences
Carousel and collection formats
Reaching warm audiences who are close to a decision – product page visitors, cart abandoners, lead form starts. Creative should be focused entirely on removing the final objection.
Cart abandonment retargeting
Product page visitor audiences
Dynamic product ads
Lead form and conversion campaigns
Strategy, audience architecture, creative direction, pixel setup, and ongoing optimisation. Most underperforming accounts are missing at least two of these.
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For existing accounts: a full audit identifying structural issues, audience overlap, creative fatigue, and attribution problems. For new accounts: a campaign architecture built around your funnel, offer, and target CPA.
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Custom audiences from your customer data, lookalike audiences at the right percentage tiers, interest and behaviour targeting tested systematically, and retargeting audiences segmented by intent level.
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Meta Pixel with Conversions API for server-side tracking, event verification, and an attribution window setup that reflects how your customers actually buy. Accurate data is the foundation everything else is built on.
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Creative briefs written around proven angles and hooks, with a systematic testing framework. On Meta, creative is the targeting – the right image or video in front of the right person will always outperform the right audience with weak creative.
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Budget allocation reviewed weekly, creative performance monitored for fatigue, audiences refreshed before they exhaust, and winning campaigns scaled incrementally to protect performance. No set-and-forget.
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Cost per result, ROAS, reach and frequency by funnel stage, creative performance breakdown, and a clear read on what’s working, what’s tiring, and what’s being tested next.
Since iOS 14 and Meta’s shift to broad targeting and Advantage+ audiences, the algorithm has taken over much of the audience selection work. What it can’t do is write your hooks, choose your angles, or decide what the ad should say.
The creative is now the primary lever. A strong hook in the first three seconds determines whether anyone watches. A clear, specific offer determines whether anyone converts. Getting both right, and testing systematically, is what separates accounts that scale from ones that plateau.
Every engagement includes creative strategy – angles, hooks, formats, and a testing cadence. Not as an add-on. As a core part of the service.
If the opening frame doesn’t stop the scroll, nothing else matters. Creative briefs are built around a hook first, then the message, then the call to action.
Social proof, problem-agitation, product demo, before-and-after, founder story. Each angle appeals to a different type of buyer. The only way to know which works is to test them systematically.
Meta audiences are finite. When frequency rises and performance drops, new creative needs to be ready – not briefed. Staying ahead of fatigue is a planning problem, not just a creative one.
Cold audiences need awareness-led creative. Warm audiences need conversion-led creative. Running the same ad to both stages is one of the most common and costly mistakes in Meta Ads.
New accounts are typically live within two weeks. Existing accounts are audited before anything changes – no campaign is paused without understanding what it’s doing first.
Existing account: full audit of campaign structure, audiences, creative performance, pixel events, and attribution. Written action plan before anything changes. New account: pixel and CAPI installation, audience architecture, campaign structure, and creative brief – ready to launch.
Account audit Pixel setup Audience research Creative brief
Campaigns launched across funnel stages with conservative budgets. Creative angles tested against each other, audiences monitored for overlap and fatigue, and pixel events verified. The first six weeks is about learning – results are directional, not fully optimised.
Campaign launch Creative testing Audience testing Event verification
Winning creative scaled, losing creative paused, budgets reallocated toward what’s working. Lookalike audiences refined from conversion data, retargeting segments updated, and new creative angles briefed as the testing roadmap evolves.
Budget optimisation Creative scaling Lookalike refinement Retargeting updates
Monthly reporting against CPA, ROAS, reach and frequency, and creative performance. Quarterly strategy reviews to assess new formats, audience expansion, and whether the funnel structure still matches the business.
Monthly reporting Quarterly reviews Creative refresh cycle
Placeholder figures below – replace with real client results once approved for case study use.
+312%
Average increase in qualified
reach within 90 days
3.8x
Average return on
ad spend achieved
–44%
Average reduction in cost
per lead after creative refresh
A minimum of £1,000 to £1,500 per month in media spend per funnel stage is a reasonable starting point – so £2,000 to £3,000 for a basic two-stage funnel covering prospecting and retargeting. The right number depends on your CPA target, your average order value, and how competitive your market is. This is covered on the strategy call before any commitment is made.
Creative strategy, angles, hooks, and copy are all part of the service. Final production – video filming, photography, graphic design – depends on your existing assets and capabilities. Most clients supply the raw content and the creative direction and copywriting is handled as part of the engagement. Full creative production can be scoped separately if needed.
Yes, but less dramatically than in 2021. The Conversions API has restored a significant amount of signal for advertisers who implement it properly. All accounts are set up with CAPI alongside the pixel, and attribution windows are configured to reflect the realistic picture rather than the optimistic one Meta’s reporting defaults to.
Both, in most cases. Meta’s ad delivery system automatically places ads across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network based on where they’re most likely to perform. The right placement mix depends on your audience demographics and creative format – refined through testing rather than assumed at the start.
The platform is the same. The difference is in how the account is structured, how audiences are segmented, how creative is briefed and tested, how the pixel and CAPI are configured, and how results are interpreted and acted on. Most self-managed accounts have at least three or four structural issues that are costing money – the audit usually finds them within the first session.
Yes, though B2B tends to work differently on Meta than LinkedIn. Meta is better for reaching business owners and decision-makers in their personal capacity rather than their professional one – which means the creative and messaging needs to be different. For B2B with a clearly defined decision-maker audience and a strong offer, Meta can be significantly more cost-effective than LinkedIn Ads.
A 30-minute call to look at your current setup, your audience, and your offer – and work out what a full-funnel Meta Ads strategy would look like for your business.
Strategic marketing consultancy. Liverpool, working with ambitious brands across the UK.
Copyright © 2026 Rob Russell. All rights reserved.
Strategic Marketing Consultant · Liverpool
