Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out! I've reviewed your enquiry and I can totally sympathise. Facebook's interface seems to change every other week, and it can feel like you're constantly playing catch-up. It's a common frustration, so you're definitely not alone in feeling like that.
I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance. The issues you're facing with the "Send Message" button and the missing headline are actually symptoms of a bigger, more fundamental aspect of how Facebook Ads works. It all comes down to the campaign objective you choose at the very start. Get that right, and you'll find you have a lot more control. Let's break it down.
TLDR;
- The unwanted "Send Message" button is usually forced on you by Facebook when you use the "Engagement" objective or boost a post directly. The algorithm thinks messaging is a form of engagement and optimises for it.
- To get full control over your Call-to-Action (CTA) button and remove "Send Message," you MUST create your ad in the main Ads Manager and choose an objective like "Traffic" or "Sales," not "Engagement."
- The headline disappears when you "Use an existing post" because that format doesn't have a dedicated headline slot; the post's text serves as the ad copy. To get a headline, you need to create a new ad creative from scratch.
- The most important piece of advice is to stop optimising for "Engagement." You're paying Facebook to find people who like and comment, not people who buy. Switch to a conversion-focused objective to find actual customers.
- This letter includes a flowchart to help you pick the right campaign objective and an interactive calculator to show why focusing on Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is better than chasing cheap engagement.
We'll need to look at that annoying 'Send Message' button...
Right, let's get this sorted first because it's probably the most frustrating part. You create a lovely organic post, you want more people to see it and comment, you put some money behind it, and suddenly Facebook has slapped a "Send Message" button on it that you never asked for, turning your comments section quiet and your inbox into a spam festival. It’s infuriating.
The reason this happens is almost always tied to your campaign objective. When you select "Engagement" as your goal, or you use the simplified "Boost Post" button on your page, you're telling Facebook's algorithm, "Find me people who are most likely to engage with this content." In Facebook's world, sending a message is a very high-value form of engagement. Their system knows that people who message are highly engaged, so it will often automatically add or prioritise the "Send Message" CTA to help you achieve your "Engagement" goal, even if your specific aim was comments.
It's a classic case of the machine doing what you asked, not what you *wanted*. You asked for engagement, and it's giving you the type of engagement *it* thinks is best. This is especially prevalent when boosting posts directly from the page, which is a simplified tool that strips away a lot of the crucial controls you get in the proper Ads Manager.
The real solution here isn't trying to fight the system within a flawed setup; it's to change the setup entirely. You need to take back control, and that means moving away from the "Boost Post" button and being very deliberate about your campaign objectives inside Ads Manager.
If your goal is just to get comments and shares, you can stick with the Engagement objective, but instead of using an existing post, you might have to create the ad from scratch. In the ad creation panel, you can then select 'No Button' for the call to action. However, a much better approach is to ask yourself what the *business goal* of the engagement is. Do you want them to visit your website? Then you should be using a "Traffic" campaign. Do you want them to buy a product? Then you need a "Sales" campaign. These objectives give you full control over the CTA button because the goal is clear and isn't open to Facebook's interpretation of "engagement." You can choose "Learn More," "Shop Now," "Sign Up," whatever fits your actual goal, and "Send Message" won't appear unless you specifically choose it.
I'd say you need to understand why the headline vanished...
Your second point, about the missing headline, is another classic symptom of the same root cause: the ad format being dictated by your setup. When you choose to "Use an existing post," you're telling Facebook to run that post *as the ad itself*. An organic Facebook post doesn't have a separate "headline" and "description" in the way a link ad does. It just has the main body of text, the image/video, and the comments/reactions.
So, when you promote it, Facebook simply shows that post to more people. There's no place for it to insert a headline because the format doesn't support it. The preview might show a placeholder for where a headline *would* go in a different ad format, which is confusing I know, but for an existing post ad, it's redundant.
The solution, again, is to move away from using an existing post if having a distinct headline is important for your ad. Inside Ads Manager, when you get to the ad level, instead of selecting "Use Existing Post," you choose "Create Ad." This opens up the full suite of creative options. You'll get dedicated boxes to write:
- Primary Text: The main copy that appears above the image.
- Headline: The bold text that appears next to the CTA button.
- Description: The smaller text that can appear below the headline.
This approach gives you complete creative control. You can take the text and image from your successful organic post and rebuild it as a new ad, but this time with a punchy, compelling headline designed to grab attention and drive clicks. It's an extra step, but it's the only way to unlock all the creative fields and build a proper direct-response ad rather than just a boosted post.
You probably should stop paying Facebook to find non-customers...
Now, this brings me to a bigger, more strategic point that is probably the most valuable advice I can give you. You mentioned you're running engagement ads with the objective of comments. I need to be brutally honest here: for most businesses, this is a waste of money.
When you set your campaign objective to "Engagement," you command the algorithm to "Find me the largest number of people who will like, share, or comment for the lowest possible price." The algorithm is incredibly good at this. It will seek out users within your target audience who are known to be 'click-happy' - the ones who browse Facebook and hand out likes and comments freely. The problem? These people are almost never the ones who pull out a credit card and buy something. Their attention is cheap because they aren't in high demand by advertisers who want to make sales. You are actively paying Facebook to find you the worst possible audience for your business goals.
Real business growth doesn't come from vanity metrics like likes and comments. It comes from leads, sales, and revenue. The best form of brand awareness is a customer buying your product and loving it. That only happens through conversion.
You need to switch your thinking and your campaigns to optimise for a meaningful business outcome. If you want leads, run a "Leads" campaign. If you want sales, run a "Sales" campaign. When you do this, you tell the algorithm, "I don't care about cheap likes. Go and find me the people in this audience who are most likely to actually convert." The cost per click might be higher, but the quality of the person clicking is infinitely better. You start finding potential customers instead of just casual scrollers.
This is the fundamental difference between amateur boosting and professional media buying. Professionals focus on Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). We're happy to pay £2 for a click if it leads to a £100 sale, whereas an engagement campaign might get you 20p clicks that lead to nothing. The maths speaks for itself.
You'll need an action plan...
I know this is a fair bit of information to take in, especially when you're already feeling frustrated with the platform. But the good news is that the solution is quite straightforward. It’s about making a few structural changes to how you approach setting up your campaigns. Once you start using the full Ads Manager and choosing your objectives with clear business goals in mind, you’ll find that not only do these annoying little problems disappear, but your results will likely improve dramatically as well.
It's a shift from just 'promoting' content to actively 'advertising' with a purpose. It requires a bit more effort up front, but the payoff in terms of control, clarity, and actual results is more than worth it. You'll stop feeling like your grandmother with a new phone and start feeling like you're properly in the driver's seat.
I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:
| Problem | Underlying Cause | Recommended Actionable Solution |
|---|---|---|
| "Send Message" button automatically added to original post. | Using "Engagement" objective or "Boost Post" button. Facebook's algorithm adds the button to drive what it considers a high-value engagement. | Stop using "Boost Post." Create all campaigns in the main Ads Manager. Switch to a "Traffic" or "Sales" objective to gain full control of the Call-to-Action button. |
| Headline field has disappeared when creating an ad. | Using the "Use Existing Post" option. This ad format does not have a separate field for a headline. | In Ads Manager, select "Create Ad" instead of "Use Existing Post." This will give you access to all creative fields, including Headline, Primary Text, and Description. |
| Receiving spam messages and low-quality interactions from ads. | Optimising for "Engagement" tells the algorithm to find cheap interactors, not genuine customers. This audience is rarely valuable. | Change your primary campaign objective to one that aligns with a real business outcome, like "Leads" or "Sales." This trains the algorithm to find people likely to convert. |
| Feeling overwhelmed and lacking control over ad creation. | Relying on Facebook's simplified, limited tools which hide the most important controls and settings. | Commit to using the full Ads Manager for all campaigns. While there is a learning curve, it is the only way to get professional-level control and achieve predictable results. |
Managing paid advertising effectively is a specialism in itself, and platforms like Facebook certainly don't make it easy to master. It's a full-time job just keeping up with the constant updates and understanding the nuances that separate a failing campaign from a successful one.
If you'd rather focus on running your business than battling with Ads Manager, it might be worth considering getting some expert help. We offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can take a look at your account together and outline a clear strategy for you.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
