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Are you getting the most out of your Facebook ads or are you just burning through your marketing budget without any clear returns?
If the answer is the latter, don’t worry, you’re not alone.
With Meta constantly making changes to the algorithm and the Ads Manager of Facebook, figuring out what the right strategy is can be complex even for the most experienced marketers in the game.
Should you aim for brand awareness or focus on conversions? Is it better to optimize for engagement or push for app installs? Should you go with broad targeting or get more specific?
These are just some of the questions that marketers and business owners struggle with, and they often lead to wasted ad spend and missed opportunities.
So, how do you cut through the noise and set up the Facebook Ads strategies that will actually move the needle for your business?
That’s exactly what we set out to discover.
We surveyed 130+ marketing experts and successful business owners to uncover their secrets behind selecting and leveraging the most effective Facebook ad objectives.
And in this article, we’ve compiled some of the best data-backed strategies, expert tips, and real-world examples that will help you finally get a grip on Facebook Ads and start seeing some real results.
Let’s get started.
Before we get into the direct insights, let’s first go through a quick overview of who exactly we surveyed.
We talked to over 130 companies, while the majority of respondents (32.20%) are from the Marketing and Advertising industry, followed by participants from SaaS Software or Technology (13.56%) and Retail and E-Commerce (11.86%).
Most companies we surveyed are small, with 46.61% having between 1-10 employees and 41.53% having between 11-50 employees.
The survey we ran is connected to the Benchmark Group Facebook Ads Benchmarks for All Companies.
In this group, companies can compare their advertising performance against the median value, as well as the top and bottom quartiles.
You can also discover how your metrics stack up in areas such as Reach frequency, clicks, CTR, CPM, CPC, Amount Spent, Purchases, Impressions, Leads, Purchase conversion amount, ROAS, and more.
Now, according to data provided by this Benchmark Group, $1.68K was the amount spent on Facebook Ads in July 2024 (median, 2844 contributors).
The top quartile spent $5.85K (also median) and the bottom quartile only $538.64 (also median).
In the same period (and according to the same group), CPC was $0.47 (median, 2658 contributors).
And CTR was 1.69% during that same time period (median, 1760 contributors).
If you also use Facebook Ads in your marketing and want more insights like these, you can join our free Benchmark Group Facebook Ads Benchmarks for All Companies.
In fact, we have Facebook Ads benchmarks for almost every niche and industry:
Once you join, you can anonymously compare your Facebook Ads performance with other similar companies, for zero cost. All you need to do is connect your account to the group (100% anonymous). You can even create your own Benchmark Group and control who accesses it and shares data.
Even if you run campaigns on other channels (such as SEO, Google Ads, or anything else), you can scroll through Benchmark Groups to find the ones most relevant for your specific marketing.
We found that the most commonly selected Facebook ad objectives are Brand Awareness (30.00%), Lead Generation (21.82%), and Conversions (20.00%).
This suggests that businesses are focusing on both top-of-funnel activities to increase visibility and bottom-of-funnel actions to drive specific customer actions.
But we wanted to dig deeper and see why exactly our respondents chose these specific objectives. Let’s check it out below:
As we’ve seen in our survey, brand awareness is a key focus for many businesses, especially in industries where trust is crucial.
Take legal services, for example—it’s important for people to immediately think of your firm when they need help.
When you focus on awareness, the business can make sure the name is recognized and familiar to help build trust with potential clients. When people know who you are, they’re more likely to turn to you when they need something.
Alex Freeburg of Freeburg Law gives a great example in the legal niche:
“When people think of legal services, we want our firm to be the first name that comes to mind. Building brand awareness is all about establishing trust and recognition in our community, and it sets the foundation for everything else we do. We’ve seen that potential clients often feel overwhelmed and unsure about who to turn to when they need legal help. Focusing on brand awareness helps us reach these people so they know we exist.”
Axel Lavergne of ReviewFlowz also says that “Brand awareness is our go-to Facebook ad objective because it helps us reach a large audience of potential users who could benefit from our review management software. By making more people aware of our business, we can drive interest and engagement with our technology. This approach helps us establish a strong presence in the industry.”
Sergey Taver of Precision Watches also gave an example of how they use Brand Awareness as an ad objective:
“We prioritize “brand awareness” to showcase our luxury watches to a wide audience. This approach helps us reach potential customers who appreciate high-quality timepieces. Building a strong brand presence is key to growing our customer base in the retail industry.”
Lead generation is a primary objective for businesses focused on growth and customer acquisition.
With the right targeting and an attractive offer, companies can collect contact information and start turning those leads into paying customers.
Rakshit Panchal of Sydney Digital Agency mentioned how lead generation campaigns “help us gather data of potential customers. Even if, they are not converting right now, we can do remarketing with the help of Pixel and strengthen our customer acquisition channel. With the perfect mix of lead generation along with remarketing, we were able to generate leads at a lower cost than the other marketing objectives.”
Colton De Vos of Resolute Technology Solutions says that “for my social media marketing, I typically opt for Lead Gen as the Facebook Ad objective.”
“While it is nice to get more eyeballs on your brand, it is even nicer to have a tangible list of interested prospects that you can reach out to. When you have a very specific target audience segment that is your decision-makers (e.g. business leaders in large insurance companies), it is better for the right singular person to fill out a form rather than have 1000 people see the messaging of your campaigns.
I also prefer lead generation as an objective as it typically prioritizes quick responses and taking action immediately versus showing another page or piece of content. In today’s busy world, it’s often better to get leads entered into your sales pipeline early and then follow up with them.”
Andre Oentoro of Breadnbeyond added that “these ads simplify the process for users, often resulting in higher quality leads, and are cost-effective compared to traditional methods. They integrate seamlessly with CRM and email marketing tools, allowing for efficient follow-up and nurturing.”
Conversions are where the real results happen—turning potential customers into actual buyers.
With Facebook Ads aimed at conversions, businesses can focus on getting users to take specific actions, like making a purchase, downloading an ebook, or signing up for a newsletter.
Sajad Entesari of Republic Marketing explains how their agency has “consistently outperformed lead generation, reach, and traffic campaigns by focusing on conversion-driven strategies.”
“A critical factor in achieving a strong return on investment is the allocation of sufficient ad spends. This scale allows Meta’s machine learning algorithms to efficiently pinpoint the optimal audience combinations. We also get to collect additional analytics on landing pages through Hotjar and our custom attribution cookies, which helps us measure cross-channel ROI and identify areas for improvement. To give you a better idea, our Conversion campaigns achieve a 5.5:1 which makes these campaigns pretty profitable.”
Sturgeon Christie of Second Skin Audio also talked about how “Conversions optimize ads to drive specific actions on our website, such as purchases, sign-ups, or downloads. It’s ideal for direct response campaigns focused on driving conversions and maximizing return on ad spend (ROAS).”
We also talked to Brooke Webber of Ninja Patches who said that “Conversions have the most direct impact on our sales revenue goals. By focusing on this objective, we’re more likely to optimize for actions that lead to conversions, namely purchases through our website.”
PRO TIP: Want an easier way to track your conversions in Facebook Ads? Check out our free Facebook Ads Account Overview dashboard that includes all the most relevant information – from cost per conversion to overall campaign ROAS. All in a single dashboard.
What’s interesting is that the results of this research have been discussed during one of our DBUG sessions (held on August 23).
During the session, we reviewed survey data and then discussed it in breakout rooms, led by seven experts.
One of the first things we established was that B2B and B2C differ significantly in objective preferences.
Leah Mazur highlighted the contrast in objective preferences between B2B and B2C marketers. While B2B focuses on targeted campaigns and brand awareness, leveraging external tools extensively, B2C opts for broader audiences and conversion-centric strategies, staying close to Facebook’s Ads Manager for on-the-fly adjustments.
Leah also pointed out that not a lot of marketers are relying on ROAS as the sole budget-setting metric, especially post-iOS 14 updates. It’s becoming clear that ROAS might not capture the full picture of advertising impact, and that companies need a broader analytical approach.
We also talked about how budgeting requires a multi-faceted approach.
Kathryn Dee stressed the importance of using a mix of past performance, competitive analysis, and ROAS among other variables to determine ad budgets. The discussion revolved around the necessity of adapting strategies to include multiple factors like seasonality and market experiments.
Some respondents talked about how marketers need a broader view of ad objectives.
For example, Emily Miles and Eric Saar both stressed the need for a more holistic approach to ad objectives beyond traditional leads or conversions.
Others shared that strategic quantification of ad objectives is crucial.
Silvio Perez shared how important the strategic quantification of ad objectives is, especially in B2B with long sales cycles. He advocated for a hypothesis-driven approach to ad spending, urging marketers to define clear performance metrics beyond superficial engagement.
The next topic was about how specific objectives can optimize or detract from ad experiences.
Alexander Ferenzi elaborated on how specific objectives could enhance or impair the ad experience, discussing the strategic use of engagement campaigns to improve CPM and build social proof.
Lastly, the experts established that flexibility in objective strategy is key for certain industries and campaigns.
Jack Shepler talked about the challenges faced in health-related advertising, focusing on reach and awareness over conversions due to more strict industry regulations.
Want to be part of the conversation and connect with like-minded professionals? Join our upcoming DBUG sessions for engaging discussions, networking, and expert insights!
To maximize your Facebook Ads campaign results, it’s not just about running ads — it’s about picking objectives that drive real results.
During our survey, we asked experts to rank their most effective Facebook ad objectives.
Brand Awareness and Lead Generation are perceived as the most effective objectives, with high ratings in both ‘Most Effective’ and ‘Very Effective’ categories.
At the same time, App Installs and Store Traffic have the highest percentages of respondents who haven’t used these objectives, which may be a sign of niche applicability or lower relevance to the surveyed industries.
We also asked them for some specific feedback on how companies should choose Facebook ad objectives.
Here’s what they shared on how you can make the right call:
When selecting Facebook ad objectives, start by clearly defining your business goals.
While this may sound obvious, many business owners tend to overlook the fundamentals and complicate things unnecessarily.
Ask yourself what specific outcomes you want to achieve—whether it’s increasing website traffic, generating leads, or driving conversions. The more precise your goal, the easier it is to choose the right one.
Brian Mollo of Trusted House Buyers is one of our respondents who emphasized the importance of outlining your goals:
“You need to understand your goals and also what each of the different objectives means. If you’re attempting to generate leads, then you should look at lead generation and conversions, especially if your lead action occurs on your website. While getting a lot of traffic to your site might also help, the objectives help the pixel learn and then drive more actions for your objective.”
Natasha Rai of Explainerd also talked about how “we define clear goals like driving website traffic, generating leads, or increasing brand awareness. We select ad objectives such as “Traffic,” “Lead Generation,” “Engagement,” or “Conversions” based on our audience’s buying stage.”
Your budget is another key factor when choosing the right Facebook ad objective.
Some objectives, like Conversions, might need a bigger investment to get the results you want, like purchases or sign-ups. On the other hand, Awareness campaigns can work well even with a smaller budget.
It’s important to be realistic about how much you’re willing to spend and pick an objective that fits within that range. Matching your budget to your goals helps you get the best results without overspending on ones that might need more resources than you can give.
Luke Moulton of LeadSync adds that “if you’re a small business with a relatively small budget, then focus on lead or conversion-focused objectives and track your cost per lead or cost per conversion. Businesses with larger budgets should put a % of their budget into brand building by boosting posts to their target audience regularly. These campaigns can focus on traffic or simply reach.”
By running tests with different objectives on similar audiences, you can see which one gets the best results for your campaign.
For starters, you can try small changes like tweaking the ad copy or targeting and track how each one performs.
Keep testing until you find the objective that really stands out. A/B testing gives you real data to work with, so you’re not just guessing when it comes to optimizing your ads.
Marissa Ryan of VisualFizz says that the “only true way to know what will work for your brand in the current marketing environment is to test! Run a series of AB tests that are meant to learn which settings lead to your final conversion; usually, that’s dollars made.”
Roman Zrazhevskiy of MIRA Safety also says that it’s important to “test multiple objectives to find what resonates best with your audience.”
“Start by experimenting with different goals, such as traffic, engagement, and conversions. When we launched a new line of gas masks, we tested various ad objectives to see which drove the most interest.”
But what’s the best way to monitor your ad performance and keep track of A/B testing results?
The majority of our respondents use Facebook Ad Manager (87.27%) and Google Analytics (76.36%) to monitor ad performance.
Only 21.82% use a dashboard that combines data from different systems (like Databox), suggesting an opportunity for businesses to improve their analytics capabilities by adopting tools that offer consolidated data insights.
Don’t overthink things when it comes to Facebook’s algorithm. It’s built to help you get the best results based on the objective you choose, so let it do its job.
If you try to game the system by picking an objective that doesn’t match your real goals, you’ll probably end up with poor results and wasted money.
The algorithm is smart and adjusts your ads in real-time, so trust it to work with the data it’s collecting and make the right moves for you.
Sajad Entesari of Republic Marketing also advises businesses to “resist the temptation to outsmart the system.”
“The key here is simplicity. When Meta ads traffic is chosen, it will literally send traffic to your designated location. However, this does not necessarily translate into more sales or conversions. People often get ahead of themselves and start making assumptions, but the Facebook ad system operates on a ‘one-step-at-a-time’ principle.
This means if you select traffic as your objective, it’s traffic that you’ll get. With that perspective, you then need to ask yourself, what am I looking to achieve? Am I trying to improve my Instagram’s engagement metrics to build more trust with customers? Or do I want people to first engage with my video or blog content and then target them with a different type of campaign once they are further down the funnel?”
Carma Levene of The Marketer also shared her thoughts:
“Deciding on your Meta ad campaign objective is fairly straightforward, but it’s often over-engineered. If you have a specific action in place as the goal of the campaign and it can be mapped to a conversion point, it’s the absolute BEST way to go. Don’t beat around the bush choosing Traffic if it’s not traffic you want. The platform knows so much about its users and how they navigate websites to make purchases that it will deliver your goal as best it can give the information you program into it.”
Carma Levene
Co-Founder | Marketing Manager at The Marketer
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You need to dig into how your customers move through their journey—whether they’re just discovering your brand or ready to make a purchase— so you can choose an objective that fits.
For example, if they’re just becoming aware of your brand, an Awareness or Reach objective might work best. But if they’re further along and ready to buy, a Conversions objective could be the way to go.
Matching your ads to where your audience is in their journey helps make your campaigns more targeted and effective.
Rakshit Panchal of Sydney Digital Agency says that “before deciding the Facebook ad objective, one should have a clear idea of the target audience and customer’s purchase journey.”
“For some businesses, brand awareness campaigns might not be effective, and for others, it is a gold mine. According to the target audience and niche, marketers need to craft Facebook ad campaigns and refine them for KPIs.”
Things change fast in digital marketing (especially on ad platforms like Meta) and new features or updates can greatly affect how your ads perform.
That’s why it’s crucial to stay on top of trends like user behavior shifts or new ad formats, so you can tweak your objectives and stay ahead.
Sam Browne of Findaband is one of our respondents who talked about this:
“To decide on Facebook ad objectives, monitor industry trends. Stay informed about what works best for your market. For instance, if video content is trending, focus on video views to boost engagement. Choose objectives that align with your goals, whether it’s driving traffic to your website, increasing brand awareness, or generating leads.”
When picking your Facebook ad objective, think about which part of the sales funnel you’re focusing on.
Different objectives work better at different stages. If you’re aiming for the top of the funnel, Awareness or Reach objectives are great for getting your brand out there.
In the middle, Engagement or Traffic objectives help people who are considering your offer, while Conversion objectives are perfect for driving sales at the bottom of the funnel.
Matching your ad objective with where your audience is in the funnel makes sure your ads hit the right people at the right time.
Girdharee Saran of Grow Real Quick says that companies should “follow the funnel approach and design your campaign based on certain themes.”
“First research your target audience, then divide them into separate buckets according to certain attributes, decide which message will resonate the most with a certain audience group and focus on delivering your campaign accordingly.
Start with an awareness campaign (lower frequency, quick delivery, maximum reach), followed by video views, UGC ads, and customer testimonial ads for your middle of the funnel and once you have a certain level of engagement such as site traffic, video views, etc., you that audience and lookalike to run ads for with conversion objective. This strategy is tried and tested on D2C brands but the same can be applied to B2B as well with minor tweaking.”
Brooke Webber of Ninja Patches also recommends “considering the stage of your sales funnel when choosing a Facebook ad objective, whether it’s to attract new customers or re-engage existing ones.”
“Make use of Facebook’s analytics tools to track and measure the success of your objectives. Keep your audience and campaign goals in mind throughout the planning and execution phases.”
Are your Facebook ad objectives in tune with the changes in your company’s business goals?
Business goals can evolve several times even in a single year, so what worked for brand awareness last year might not suit a sales-driven approach today.
This is why it’s crucial to continuously optimize your objectives, as well as your budget.
In our survey, we found that respondents determine their Facebook advertising budgets primarily based on past campaign performance (34.55%) and as a percentage of the total marketing budget (33.64%).
This shows major reliance on historical data and proportional allocation, rather than solely competitive or ROI-driven strategies.
Below, we’ll share the insights from our respondents on how different business goals can influence your budget and the objectives you prioritize in your ad strategy:
Shifts in consumer behavior, industry innovations, or economic changes can all influence which objectives will make the most sense for your business.
Staying on top of these trends helps you pick objectives that fit the current moment. For example, if a new product is gaining popularity, focusing on Engagement or Conversions might be a more effective ad strategy.
Umesh Baraiya of Meetanshi Technology explains that “in my experience, the choice of Facebook ad objectives often evolves with changing business goals or market trends.”
“A specific example of this was when I worked on a campaign for a fashion exhibition. Initially, the client’s main goal was to raise awareness about the event and inform people that the exhibition was happening in their city. To achieve this, I created a campaign with the “Awareness” and “Reach” objectives, which effectively spread the word and attracted attention. However, as the campaign progressed, the client wanted to gauge interest and understand how many people were actually planning to attend the exhibition.
At this point, I shifted the focus of the campaign by using the “Engagement” and “Lead Generation” objectives. This allowed us to engage with the audience more directly and collect valuable data on potential attendees.”
Kartik Ahuja of Kartik Ahuja also shared a specific example of how following market trends helped his ad objective strategy:
“A few years ago, in order to increase brand recognition and reach a wide audience, my company, like with many others, placed a lot of emphasis on the Awareness target.”
“But when consumer tastes and industry patterns evolved, I saw a significant movement in favor of video content. Videos gained popularity because they are more successful at grabbing viewers’ attention and keeping them interested. We therefore began concentrating on the Consideration goal with more succinct and interesting video advertisements. People’s preference for rapid, aesthetically pleasing content is what caused this transition. For instance, we noticed a discernible boost in click-through rates and conversions when we started using short video advertising to advertise our items instead of the static image ads we had been using.”
For some respondents, conversion campaigns usually bring in the most relevant traffic to the website.
While awareness or engagement campaigns aim to reach a wider audience, conversion objectives focus on people who are more likely to take actions like making a purchase or signing up.
Facebook’s algorithm will prioritize showing your ads to users who are already interested in what you offer, which means the traffic you get is more targeted as well.
Moeed Ahmed Sheikh of Eocean talked about this in our survey:
“I personally have stopped using Engagement, Likes, and Traffic ads instead even if I have to drive traffic, I use Conversion Campaign to drive much more relevant traffic even if I have to pay a little higher.”
PRO TIP: Did you know there’s an easier way to get an up-to-date overview of your Facebook Ads performance? Just download our free Facebook Ads Purchase and Leads Breakdown Dashboard to track how much money you’ve spent, which campaigns are performing best, and more – all in one place.
While some businesses used to rely on this tactic for “cheaper” leads back in the day, it doesn’t really work anymore.
Facebook’s algorithm has evolved, and traffic objectives often bring in visitors who aren’t ready to convert.
Sure, you might get more clicks to your site, but the quality of those leads usually isn’t great. If you’re aiming to generate leads, it’s better to focus on conversion or lead capture objectives.
These are designed to bring in users who are actually interested in what you’re offering, making it easier to get real results.
Sasha Matviienko of Growth360 is one of our respondents who talked about this:
“One of the strategies that worked back in the day – optimizing new campaigns for Traffic first in order to generate some leads. In our experience, this does not work anymore. We found that if we are looking to generate leads, selecting lead objective gives us the best results.”
Joshua White of Neon Treehouse also talked about this:
“Previously, the technology and data behind the ad objectives has not been strong enough on its own to really get the job done, especially if you didn’t have a big enough budget or enough conversions. This led to choosing softer objectives to your core objective (think landing page views instead of purchases) to ensure you were getting enough volume of results from spend. In time the algorithms and tech have become so much smarter, and we’ve seen our results, especially with smaller budgets become more compelling over the years.”
Joshua White
CEO at Neon Treehouse
Setting your Facebook ad goals around seasonality is also a smart move.
During peak seasons like holidays or industry-specific events, objectives such as Conversions or Sales can be more effective since people are more likely to buy.
On the flip side, in slower seasons, it might make more sense to focus on Awareness or Engagement to keep your brand in front of people.
Rebecca Long of VisualFizz also talked about how “seasonality has a direct impact on ad objectives based on the life cycle of the product. For example, when advertising for higher education you won’t continue to use conversions as the main objective when the application period has closed.”
Early on, objectives like Awareness or Traffic will help you get noticed, but once you scale, it’s all about driving conversions—whether that’s lead generation, sign-ups, or purchases.
That’s why you should target users further along in their buying journey, so you can bring in higher-quality leads and actions that actually move the needle for your business.
Nick Churcher of Scribe also adds that “when you’re starting out with smaller budgets and working with lower conversion volumes, you’ll typically want to pick a conversion goal that is higher in the funnel, like clicks. As you scale and grow, you can push your goals to deeper funnel metrics.”
Selecting the right Facebook ad objectives can make or break the success of your campaigns. And with so many options, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with which objective will best support your goals.
As our research has shown, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. The most effective strategy will depend on your specific business needs, target audience, and marketing objectives.
But here’s the big question – how do you know if your Facebook ad campaigns are truly performing up to par with industry standards?
Until now, getting this information has been a challenge. But with Databox’s Benchmark Group product, that’s not the case anymore.
With our Facebook Ads Benchmarks For All Companies group, you can instantly gain insight into how your Facebook ad campaigns stack up against others in your industry. You’ll see real-time data on key metrics such as CTR, CPC, ROAS, conversion rates, and much more.
Plus, you can create a free account to also get Databox Dashboards. With our customizable dashboards, you can track all your key metrics in one place and adjust your strategies in real-time to ensure you’re hitting your targets.
So, are you ready to take the guesswork out of your Facebook ad objective strategy? Sign up for a free trial and see how easier managing Facebook Ads can be with Databox.
Are you maximizing your business potential? Stop guessing and start comparing with companies like yours.
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Filip Stojanovic is a content writer who studies Business and Political Sciences. Also, I am a huge tennis enthusiast. Although my dream is to win a Grand Slam, working as a content writer is also interesting.
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