Meta Ads

Meta Ads — setup, launch, verification

Everything here was learned by getting it wrong in production first. The API rejections are real rejections, the permission chain is the one that actually unblocks, and the verification section exists because measuring the wrong thing produced three confidently-wrong conclusions in a single session.

Route by task:

1. The permission chain (where most people get stuck)

To create ads via the API you need four separate grants. Missing any one produces a different, unhelpful error that names none of the others.

1. A Meta app. If the business already has one, use it — a second app means a second review and a second publishing step.
2. The system user has a ROLE ON THE APP. Business Settings → Apps → app → Add People → pick the system user → Develop app. Without this, token generation fails with "No permissions available" and gives no hint which of the four grants is missing. This is the step people skip.
3. The system user has the ASSETS. Business Settings → System Users → user → Assign assets:
   • Ad account → Manage campaigns (not "Manage ad account", which is finances and permissions)
   • Page → Ads
   • Pixel / dataset → Use events dataset
4. Generate the token. System Users → Generate token → select the app → Never expiry → tick ads_management.

Prefer a system user over a personal user token. A personal token dies when the person's password changes or their session is invalidated; a system-user token belongs to the business and survives staff turnover.

Prefer Never expiry. A time-boxed token lapses silently and takes the integration with it — usually discovered days later as "why did spend stop".

Two more grants only surface at ad-creation time, long after the token works:

• Instagram account connected to the ad account. Advantage+ placements include Instagram, so creation fails with "Ad account has no access to this Instagram account". Fix in Business Settings → Instagram accounts → account → Connect assets → the ad account.
• The app must be Live, not Development. "Ads creative post was created by an app that is in development mode". Publishing needs a Privacy Policy URL and a Category. Development mode blocks creative creation only — every other call works, so this fails late, after you have already created a campaign and ad set.

Run scripts/preflight.mjs before anything else. It checks all of the above and writes nothing.

2. Verification traps — read before believing any test result

Three separate false negatives in one launch. Each looked like a real bug. Each was the instrument, not the system.

The pattern: absence of evidence read as evidence of absence, from an instrument that structurally could not observe the thing being measured. Before concluding something is broken, ask what the instrument can actually see.

Change one thing at a time. One "isolation test" removed two variables at once and the wrong one got the blame, costing an hour.

3. Creating campaigns — the rejections, in order

Each of these is a real 400 that stops creation. Set them up front.

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// CAMPAIGN
{
  objective: 'OUTCOME_LEADS',
  status: 'PAUSED',
  special_ad_categories: [],               // or ['EMPLOYMENT'|'HOUSING'|'CREDIT'|...]
  buying_type: 'AUCTION',
  is_adset_budget_sharing_enabled: false,  // REQUIRED when budget is on the ad set
}

// AD SET
{
  daily_budget: 3000,                       // CENTS. 3000 = $30.00
  billing_event: 'IMPRESSIONS',
  bid_strategy: 'LOWEST_COST_WITHOUT_CAP',  // required; a cap throttles a cold pixel
  optimization_goal: 'OFFSITE_CONVERSIONS',
  promoted_object: { pixel_id, custom_event_type: 'LEAD' },
  targeting: {
    geo_locations: { custom_locations: [{ latitude, longitude, radius: 25, distance_unit: 'mile' }] },
    age_min: 18, age_max: 65, genders: [1, 2],
  },
}

The null budget was a caller bug worth remembering. argv[argv.indexOf('--flag') + 1] returns argv[0] when the flag is absent, because indexOf returns -1. Number('--apply') is NaN, which JSON.stringify turns into null, which Meta reports as a zero budget. Check the flag is present and range-check the value before sending.

Always create PAUSED, verify in the UI, then enable deliberately. An agent that creates ACTIVE ads spends real money on unreviewed creative.

Clean up orphans. A failed run leaves a campaign or ad set behind. Delete it before retrying, or duplicates accumulate and delivery splits across them.

scripts/campaign.mjs implements all of this from a JSON config.

4. What only the browser can do

Some required steps have no API. An agent driving Meta needs the browser for:

Two of these are load-bearing and routinely skipped:

Advantage+ creative enhancements auto-crop images and overlay text. The API field standard_enhancements is deprecated and its per-feature replacement is a moving target, so set it in the UI. Confirm via API by reading degrees_of_freedom_spec on the creative — you want advantage_plus_creative: OPT_OUT.

Ad previews render each placement for real. This is what catches creative that survives a full-size render and dies in feed. Look at them before enabling.

See reference/browser.md for deep links, agent-driving guidance, and the things an agent must never do in that UI (credentials, payment details, and anything that opens a modal dialog).

5. Conversion tracking that is actually proven

Both paths, one event id. The browser pixel and the server Conversions API send the same event_id; Meta collapses them into one conversion. The server path survives ad blockers — roughly a third of an audience — so it is not optional.

The browser must forward what the server cannot know:

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meta: {
  event_id: evId,                          // same id both sides — this is the dedupe key
  event_source_url: window.location.href,
  fbp: cookie('_fbp'),   // first-party cookies on YOUR domain; a server running
  fbc: cookie('_fbc'),   // anywhere else never receives them otherwise
}

Make the server report its own outcome. A CAPI call is correctly non-fatal — losing an attribution event must never fail a form submission — which means it can rot silently forever. Return the result so one curl proves the whole server path in isolation:

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return json({ success: true, id, meta_capi: r.ok ? `sent:${n}` : `failed:${err}` });

Fire events on what you mean. A Schedule fired when a calendar renders means "someone saw a calendar", not "someone booked" — optimizing toward it trains Meta to find people who arrive and leave. Use the embed's own success callback and make the render a separate custom event.

Optimize for volume, measure on truth. Meta needs roughly 50 conversions per week per ad set to exit the learning phase. If the true outcome is rarer than that, bid on the higher-volume upstream event and keep the real one for reporting.

Watch for automatic events. Meta's automatic event detection invents events (commonly Subscribe) from ordinary form interactions, which then pollute optimization. Disable it in pixel settings.

CSP will silently break all of it

If the site sends a Content-Security-Policy, these must be allowed or the pixel dies with no visible error:

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script-src   https://connect.facebook.net
connect-src  https://www.facebook.com  https://connect.facebook.net
frame-src    https://www.facebook.com

A blocked fbevents.js leaves fbq as the inline stub: it queues events and sends nothing, forever. The check that detects it:

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typeof window.fbq.callMethod === 'function'   // real library loaded
window.fbq.queue.length                        // >0 and growing = stub, blocked

fbq.loaded and fbq.version are set by the inline stub and prove nothing.

6. Creative: the crop-safe zone

A 1080×1920 asset is cropped for feed placements. 4:5 removes ~285px from each end; 1:1 removes ~420px. Anything near the top or bottom is destroyed in exactly the placement where most impressions land.

Keep every critical element inside the 1:1 safe band: y 420 → 1500. Stack identifier, message and CTA as one block centred in that band so the whole message survives any crop. Verify by simulating the crops rather than trusting the full-size render:

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for (const h of [1350, 1080]) {
  await sharp(file).extract({ left: 0, top: (1920 - h) / 2, width: 1080, height: h })
    .toFile(`crop_${h}.jpg`);
}

Then look at the Ads Manager preview, which renders each placement for real.

Special Ad Categories (Employment, Housing, Credit, Social Issues) strip the targeting you would normally rely on: no age or gender targeting, no detailed interest or behaviour targeting, and a minimum 15-mile radius. Consequence: the creative IS the targeting. With no interest targeting, the only thing making the right person recognise themselves is the ad itself — put the audience identifier in the image as literal words, not a clever hook.

Employment and Credit also forbid earnings claims. Guard it in code, in every place copy can be edited, and fail loudly:

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const MONEY = /\$\s?\d|\b\d+\s?(k|dollars|usd)\b|\bper hour\b|\/hr\b/i;

Launch checklist

• System user has app role, ad account, Page, and pixel
• App published (not Development mode)
• Instagram connected to the ad account
• Token has ads_management, Never expiry
• scripts/preflight.mjs passes
• Copy checked against the category's content rules
• Creative content inside y 420–1500; crops simulated
• Advantage+ creative enhancements OPT_OUT
• Created PAUSED; ad previews checked per placement in Ads Manager
• fbq.callMethod is a function on the deployed site
• Conversion event confirmed Processed in Test Events
• Server CAPI confirmed sent:N via its own response
• Test records deleted from the database afterwards
• Token rotated if it appeared in any transcript, log, or screenshot