Strategy July 23, 2025
ASI Chicago 2025: Reach Customers With Facebook and Instagram Ads
Janet Johnson of the Janet E. Johnson Agency gave an overview of setting up ad campaigns in Meta during the Education Day session.
Key Takeaways
• Meta provides access to over 3 billion daily active users, making it a prime space for advertisers on Facebook and Instagram. Built-in tools can track user behavior, optimize campaigns and segment audiences by location, interests and demographics.
• Effective ad campaigns begin with clearly defined objectives, like brand awareness, website traffic and engagement.
• To maximize conversions, ads should feature clear headlines, high-quality visuals and concise copy with a call-to-action.
Social media advertising, particularly in Meta, is key to reaching target audiences.
That was the message from Janet Johnson, a digital marketing and advertising expert who runs the Janet E. Johnson Agency, during a professional development session held Tuesday, July 22, during Education Day at ASI Chicago 2025.
Janet Johnson discusses Facebook and Instagram advertising at ASI Chicago.
Meta poses a significant opportunity for advertisers because of its more than 3 billion daily active users on Facebook and Instagram, segmentation tools, high engagement and scalability, Johnson told the attendees gathered for “Using Facebook & Instagram Ads To Reach & Convert Your Audience.” Her team manages about $100,000 in ad spend a month and millions in ad revenue, and she’s been managing ads on social media for more than 10 years.
The first step in adding Facebook and Instagram ads to your arsenal is to set up an account in Meta Business Suite (formerly Facebook for Business) and Meta Pixel, which allows business owners to track user activity after they’ve clicked on an ad. “That’s important to figure out who converts,” said Johnson. She also recommended distributors explore Meta Advantage+, a series of AI-powered tools for optimizing ad campaigns.
Next, figure out the objectives for the campaign – is it to raise awareness of a brand? Drive traffic to a site? Engage more with prospects and clients? Determining the objectives will dictate how much is spent on the campaign.
It’s also important to set the target area – perhaps it’s a city, or the entire United States. Setting a larger area will get better results, said Johnson. Advertisers can also target specific interests, behaviors, age ranges and genders.
Next, set a daily spend on ads, and increase it incrementally as the campaign does well, in order to test the results with tweaked parameters.
What goes into a high-converting ad? Johnson said there are three primary aspects: an “attention-grabbing and clear” headline; high-quality images and videos; and copy that, in a pithy way, expresses the benefits of what’s being advertised and a strong call-to-action. Split up copy into several bullet points, said Johnson, rather than a hard-to-read block of text. And consider also putting vertical videos on TikTok, with adjustments made for that platform’s tone and aesthetic.
When looking at metrics, Johnson said the most important are the click-through rate (how many people actually click on the link into the website), cost per click, cost per lead, return on ad spend, and engagement, such as likes, shares and comments.
The bottom line is to be strategic with ads, continue to track metrics and repurpose them for different platforms to maximize ROI. “Start experimenting,” Johnson concluded. “This week, try one campaign for $20 or $30 and see what happens.”