Create a Facebook or Instagram Ad with Mailchimp

Social media ads can help expand your marketing reach. Use our ad builder to create and publish ads for Facebook and Instagram. Choose who you’d like to target, including your own audience, social media users whose interests align with your services or products, or people who visit your website. We’ll help you create, buy, and run ads on both channels.

In this article, you'll learn how to create, design, and publish Facebook and Instagram ads with Mailchimp.

Before you start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

• You can run your ad on Facebook, Instagram, or both. To advertise on Instagram, you'll first need to link an Instagram business profile to your Facebook Page.
• You'll need Admin user permissions on your Facebook Page to post an ad through Mailchimp.
• Mailchimp's Facebook ads have a unique billing system. You'll set your budget and purchase your ad up front. We'll only charge you for your ad's total clicks, and we'll credit back any unused budget.
• If your Instagram or Facebook ad doesn't fit Facebook's ad requirements, Facebook can reject your ad.
• Please disable ad blockers in your web browser to make sure Mailchimp's Ad Builder runs smoothly.
• When you publish a Facebook ad with Mailchimp, we create a Facebook ad account for you that's exclusively associated with one specific Mailchimp account. If you connect additional Mailchimp accounts to the same Facebook account, you won't be able to use them for ads.
• If you want to use a landing page in a retargeting ad, make sure to accept our additional terms on your landing page’s Settings and Tracking section. You’ll only need to accept the terms one time.

Create a Facebook or Instagram ad

Ready to create an ad through Mailchimp? You'll connect to Facebook, then move through the steps of our Ad Builder: Channel, Audience, Budget, and Content.

Connect to Facebook

First, you'll connect your account to Facebook and name your ad.

To start your ad, follow these steps.

1. Click the Create icon.
   
2. Click the Ad drop-down.
   
3. Click Facebook/Instagram Ads.
   
4. Enter a name for your ad.
   
   If your ad relates to credit, employment, or housing opportunities, check the Special Ad Category box and choose the category that matches your content.
5. Click Begin.
   
6. In the Ad Campaign Terms of Use pop-up modal, read the terms and conditions and click I Accept to continue.
   
7. In the Facebook page section, click Connect Facebook. Remember, you'll need to be an Admin on the Facebook page you connect.
8. Input your Facebook login credentials and click Log in. We'll take you back to the Ad Builder.
9. Click the Change page drop-down menu, and choose the page of the business you want to promote.
   
10. Toggle the sliders to choose your ad channel: Facebook, Instagram, or both.
    
    To advertise on Instagram, your Facebook page must be connected to an Instagram account.
11. If you want to refine your ad's placement, click Edit to choose placement in the News Feed, Audience Network, or both.
12. Click Save.

Build your audience

After you connect Facebook, choose who you’d like to target on the Audience step.

You can target contacts from an entire audience or segment, people with interests similar to your contacts, or people with interests you define. You’ll also have the option to target people who have liked your Facebook Page, people similar to your Facebook Page likes, or retarget ads for people who have visited your website or landing page.

To choose an audience, follow these steps.

1. In the Audience step of the Ad Builder, click Edit Audience.
   

2. Choose the audience you want to target: New people, Contacts, Custom audience, or Website visitors.
   
   Here are the audience options your can choose from.

   • New people (recommended)
     Show your ad to people who are similar to your contacts, or similar to your Facebook Page likes. Choose a country, then refine by location, gender, age range, or interest keywords. You can also include your audience contacts or your Facebook Page likes.
   • Contacts
     Choose this option to show your ad to an audience or a segment of contacts, or to your Facebook Page likes
   • Custom audience
     Use a combination of location, gender, age range, or interest keywords to create a custom audience for your ad.
   • Website visitors (paid feature)
     Use Facebook and Instagram retargeting ads to reconnect with potential customers who visited your site or landing page.
3. Make additional selections to refine your audience. Options will vary based on the audience type you chose in Step 2.
4. Click Save.

Note: Try not to make your audience too narrow. If Facebook determines that your audience size is too small, they'll reject your ad on either platform. To target new people similar to your contacts, your audience must have at least 500 contacts. To target your contacts, your audience must have at least 100. For retargeting ads, your website must have at least 1,000 visitors who are also Facebook users.

Set your budget and schedule

Now it's time to move on to the Budget step of the Ad Builder, where you'll set your ad's schedule and total budget.

To set your budget and choose your ad's schedule, follow these steps.

1. In the Budget step of the Ad Builder, click Edit Budget.
   
2. Enter your total budget for the ad.
   
3. Click Edit to set the duration of your ad. The minimum budget is $5 per day. You can choose to run your ad for a day, a week, 2 weeks, a month, or a specific duration.
4. Click Save.

Design your content

And now comes the fun part! It's time to design your ad in the Content step of our ad builder. You can create a simple ad with one GIF or static image, or a carousel ad that scrolls through multiple images and their own calls to action.

To design your Facebook ad, follow these steps.

1. In the Content step of the Ad Builder, click Add Content.
   
2. In the Message section, type a brief message for your ad viewers.
   
3. Place your cursor on the Insert an image block, and click Browse Images to open the content studio.
   
4. Choose an image or upload your image to the content studio, and click Insert.
   
   Here are some things to keep in mind when you choose your GIF or static image.
   • Image dimensions must be at least 1200 x 628px for Facebook and 600 x 600px for Instagram.
   • Maximum file size is 8MB for GIFs and 10MB for static images.
   • Aspect ratio must be between 1.91:1 and 9:16 for Facebook and 4:5 to 1.9:1 for Instagram.
   • GIF ads should be 15 seconds or shorter.
5. In the Link to field, type the URL where you want your ad viewers to go. Be sure to avoid using a Facebook page for this field, since this will cause an ad rejection.
   
6. In the Title field, type a short headline for your ad.
7. Use the Button drop-down menu to choose a call to action. Choose No button to omit the call to action.
   
8. In the Description field, type some copy you want to appear as your offer.
9. Optional: click Add Card, and repeat steps 2-8 to create a carousel ad with up to 5 different images.
   
10. Click Save and Close.

Right away, you'll see a preview of your ad.

This is your last chance to review and edit your ad to make sure it's ready for Facebook and Instagram users! Click Edit Content to make any final changes.

Confirm and submit

After your content is designed and reviewed, it's time to submit!

To submit your ad, follow these steps.

1. Confirm or enter your billing information in the sidebar, and enter your CVV.
   
2. Click Submit Ad at the top of the Ad Builder, and then click Confirm Order.
   

After you confirm the ad, we'll send it to Facebook for review, and email you when the ad is approved and posted to Facebook or Instagram.

Keep in mind that Facebook has the right to reject any ad for a number of reasons. Instagram is owned by Facebook, so ads on their network are subject to Facebook's ad policies, too. We'll let you know if your ad is rejected so you can update or resubmit it later.

Your ad budget will only be debited when the ad is approved and you start getting views on social media. If your entire budget isn't used, you can resubmit the ad or have Mailchimp credit the remainder to your account so you can purchase another ad.

Approximately 24 hours after your ad begins running, you'll see daily results on the Reports page of your Mailchimp account. Click the name of your ad to view important statistics like clicks, reach, impressions, and more.

Pause or cancel an ad

After your ad is submitted and approved, it will publish on social media at your scheduled time. However, you have the option to pause or cancel the ad if needed, which will remove it from Facebook and Instagram.

Pause an ad

If you want to temporarily remove your ad from social media, you can pause it. Paused ads can't be edited, but they can be turned back on later.

To pause an ad, follow these steps.

1. Click the Campaigns icon.
   
2. Click All campaigns.
   
3. Click the drop-down menu next to the ad you want to work with, and choose Pause.
   

Your paused ad will be removed from social media until you decide to resume it.

Resume an ad

To resume a paused ad, go to the Campaigns page, click the drop-down menu next to your paused ad, and click Unpause.

If your paused ad reaches its scheduled end date before you resume it, we'll be unable to reactivate the ad. Please wait 72 hours after your ad's end date to receive ad credits for your unused budget. Although you won't be able to run the same ad again, you can make an exact copy. To do this, go to the Campaigns page, click the drop-down menu next to your ad, and click Replicate.

Cancel ad

To permanently stop an ad from running, cancel it. After your ad is canceled, please allow us 72 hours to send you an ad credit for any remaining unspent budget.

To cancel an ad, follow these steps.

1. Click the Campaigns icon.
   
2. Click All campaigns.
   
3. Click the drop-down menu next to the ad you want to work with, and choose End.
   
4. In the Are you sure? pop-up modal, type END CAMPAIGN to confirm, and click End Campaign.
   

Extend an ad

If your Facebook or Instagram ad performs well, you may want to extend its runtime or increase its reach. To do this, try adding a few extra dollars to your budget.

Only Facebook and Instagram ads that are currently published and active are eligible for budget increases. The ad must be within 3 days of its end date and close to exhausting the budget (within $100 or less).

To increase the budget of a Facebook or Instagram ad, follow these steps.

1. Click the Campaigns icon.
   
2. Click All campaigns.
   
3. Find the published ad you want to work with and click Edit.
4. In the Budget section of the ad builder, click Increase budget.
5. In the Additional budget field, type in the amount you want to add. There’s a $5.00 minimum for budget increases.
6. Use the Extend duration drop-down menu to choose how long you want to extend your ad.
   • Don’t extend
     This keeps your original duration and applies your extra budget to display your ad more often.
   • One week
     This extends your ad’s run by one extra week.
   • Two weeks
     This extends your ad’s run an extra two weeks.
   • One month
     This extends your ad’s run by an extra month.
   • Specific end date
     This extends your ad’s run until it reaches a date you choose.
7. After you set your new budget and duration, click Continue.
8. In the pop-up modal, review your budget and click Confirm.

Now you’re done! Your budget increase will be applied to the ad, and you’ll receive a receipt via email.

After you increase your budget, we’ll make a note on your Facebook or Instagram ad report so you can monitor performance before and after the budget boost.

Additional resources

Congrats on creating your ad! Here are some additional resources to help you interpret results, resolve errors, and make the most out of ads.

Facebook and Instagram Ad Reports
Facebook and Instagram Ad Billing
After Facebook and Instagram Ad Submission