Solved: Add to Existing Campaign or Create New Campaign

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch. I had a look over your question about your successful Black Friday ad, and what to do next. It's a really common situation to be in, and honestly, a great problem to have! It means something you did worked really well.

How you handle this next step is pretty important though. It can be the difference between building on that success for long-term growth, or accidently killing the momentum you've built up. I'm happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and guidance based on my experience running these sorts of campaigns.

We'll need to look at why adding new ads can be risky...

First off, let's talk about why your instinct is right. You've noticed that when you add a new ad to an existing, well-performing ad set, the new one tends to flop. This isn't just bad luck, it’s actually how the Meta algorithm is designed to work, more or less.

When your original ad set was running, it went through a "learning phase." During this time, the algorithm was working out the absolute best way to deliver your ad to the people in your audience who were most likely to convert. It found a winning combination of creative, copy, and specific pockets of people within your audience. Now, it's optimised and humming along nicely. When you chuck a new ad into that optimised environment, you're essentially disrupting it. The algorithm has to decide how to split the budget. More often than not, it will favour the proven winner—the ad that's already got a history of success—and your new ad never gets a fair shot or enough spend to get out of its own learning phase. It basically gets starved of oxygen from the start.

This is especially true with smaller budgets. If you dont have a huge daily spend, there just isn't enough money to go around for the algorithm to properly test the new creative while also maintaining the performance of the old one. It's a recipe for wasted effort and confusing results. You end up with one ad doing all the work and another one with zero impressions, which tells you nothing. You definately want to avoid this.

I'd say you need a proper campaign structure for the long run...

So, what's the solution? Instead of thinking in terms of single ads, it's much better to think in terms of campaigns and overall account structure. For your immediate problem, the simplest and most effective thing to do is to duplicate the entire successful campaign. This creates a brand new campaign, with a new ad set and ad, but it carries over all the settings (audience, placements) that worked so well. You can then edit the ad copy and creative in this new campaign to fit your new promotion. This gives it a clean slate and its own dedicated budget to go through the learning phase properly, without interfering with your original high-performer.

Thinking bigger, this is a good opportunity to set up a more robust structure that will serve you well for all future campaigns. In paid advertising, we often think in terms of a funnel: Top of Funnel (ToFu), Middle of Funnel (MoFu), and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu). It sounds like jargon, but it's a very simple concept:

-> ToFu (Top of Funnel): This is your prospecting. You're reaching out to cold audiences—people who have never heard of your brand before. The goal here is awareness and traffic.
-> MoFu (Middle of Funnel): These people know who you are but aren't ready to buy. They might have visited your website, watched a video, or engaged with a post. The goal is to nurture them and build trust.
-> BoFu (Bottom of Funnel): This is the sharp end. These people have shown strong buying intent—they've added a product to their cart, initiated checkout, etc. The goal here is to close the sale.

Your Black Friday campaign was likely a BoFu or MoFu campaign, targeting a warm audience that was ready to buy. For sustained growth, you need seperate, long-term campaigns running for each stage of this funnel. A well-structured account might look something like this:

Structuring your account this way gives you so much more control and clarity. You can tailor your messaging perfectly for each audience and you know exactly which part of your funnel is working and which needs attention. I recall helping an eCommerce client in women's apparel where implementing this kind of clear funnel structure was a key part of how we helped them achieve a 691% return on their ad spend on Meta Ads.

You probably should think more broadly about your audience strategy...

Your Black Friday ad worked well with a specific audience, which is great. But it's important to remember that people behave differently during a massive sales event like Black Friday. The urgency is built-in. For an evergreen, non-promotional campaign, that same audience might not be as responsive.

This is where audience testing becomes really important. You need to be constantly looking for new pockets of customers. Based on what usually works best, I’d prioritize testing audiences in this order:

1. Detailed Targeting (Interests): This is your starting point for any new account. But you have to be clever about it. If you sell, say, high-end coffee beans, don't just target "coffee". That's way too broad. Think about what your ideal customer is *really* interested in. Maybe it's specific coffee gear brands (AeroPress, Hario), magazines about coffee, or even competing high-end coffee roasters. You want to find audiences that is made up mostly of your ideal customer, not a mix of everyone.

2. Lookalike Audiences (LALs): Once you have enough data (you need at least 100 conversions, but honestly, the more teh better), you can create Lookalike audiences. These are incredibly powerful. Meta will find new people who share the same characteristics as your best customers. But don't just create a Lookalike of all your website visitors. That's too low-quality. You want to create Lookalikes based on high-intent actions. The best source is a list of your previous customers. After that, create Lookalikes of people who have ‘Initiated Checkout’ or ‘Added to Cart’. These audiences are gold because they're modeled on people who have already shown they want to buy from you.

3. Retargeting (MoFu/BoFu): This is where you bring people back. You should have separate ad sets for different retargeting audiences. For example, someone who abandoned their cart needs a different message (maybe with a small discount or a reminder) than someone who just visited your homepage once. Segmenting these audiences is crucial for high conversion rates.

You'll need a solid process for creative testing...

Finally, let's talk about the creative itself. You mentioned you want to use the same creative. That's a good starting point because you know it works. But no ad creative lasts forever. Eventually, people will get tired of seeing it (this is called 'ad fatigue') and performance will drop off a cliff.

You need to have a constant process of testing new things. You dont need a massive budget for this. A simple but effective method is to run a separate testing campaign where you pit new creatives against your current winner. Keep the audience and the budget the same, and just change one thing at a time.

-> Test different headlines with your winning image.
-> Test different primary copy—a shorter, punchier version vs. a longer, more story-driven one.
-> Test different formats. If your winner was a static image, test a simple video of the product in use, or a carousel ad showing off different features or products.

One angle that works exceptionally well, especially in eCommerce, is using User-Generated Content (UGC). These are photos or videos from actual customers. They feel more authentic and trustworthy than polished brand content. Even getting a few customer photos and turning them into simple ads can be incredibly effective. This process of continuous testing is the only way to consistently find new winning ads and avoid the inevitable performance decline.

This is the main advice I have for you:

I know this is a lot of information to take in, so I've put the main points into a table to summarise the actionable steps I'd recommend.

As you can see, scaling effectively on platforms like Meta is about much more than just launching an ad and hoping for the best. It requires a strategic approach to structure, audience management, and creative optimisation. Getting this framework right from the start can save a huge amount of wasted ad spend and time down the line.

This can feel like a lot to manage on your own, especially when you're also trying to run your business. This is often where working with an expert can make a real difference. We can help you implement this kind of robust structure, manage the ongoing testing and optimisation, and ensure every pound you spend is working as hard as it possibly can to grow your brand.

If you’d like to discuss this further, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a closer look at your specific situation and map out a more detailed strategy for you. Feel free to get in touch if that's something you'd be interested in.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh