Connect and set up Instagram ads
Marketing → Instagram ads turns your products or Instagram posts into Instagram ads, using Meta's own ads system. You choose who sees them and how much to spend a day, and see the results here.
The Instagram ads module must be switched on in Modules. While it is off, the menu entry and the page are hidden.
Money first
- Meta bills your own ad account. Ad spend goes on the payment method in your Meta ad account, in that account's currency. Your store never charges you for it.
- Every campaign is created paused. Nothing spends until you choose Go live and confirm.
- You set a maximum daily budget for the store. No campaign can be created, raised or resumed above it.
- Going live, resuming and raising a budget always ask first, showing the most the campaign can spend and your maximum daily budget.
- What "most it can spend" means: Meta may spend up to 75% more than the daily budget on a busy day, but never more than 7 days' budget in a week. With an end date, the figure is the most for the whole run; without one, the most in a week.
What you need on Meta's side
| You need | Why | How |
|---|---|---|
| A Meta business portfolio | It owns your ad account and Page. | Go to business.facebook.com, choose Create an account, and follow the steps. |
| An ad account with a payment method | Meta charges ad spend to it. | In Meta Business Suite open Settings → Accounts → Ad accounts, add one, then add a card under Billing and payments. An ad account's currency and time zone can't be changed later. |
| Your Instagram account linked to a Facebook Page | Ads run as your Instagram account, through a Page. | Make the Instagram account a Business or Creator account, add it under Settings → Accounts → Instagram accounts, and link it from the Page's Settings → Linked accounts. |
The page lists the same three needs, each with these steps under How to….
If the page says Instagram ads isn't available yet, the platform hasn't finished its one-time Meta setup. The Connect with Facebook button appears once it has.
Connect
- Open Marketing → Instagram ads and choose Connect with Facebook.
- Sign in on Facebook and keep every permission it asks for switched on. Facebook sends you back to the page, which says when it's connected.
- Choose your accounts (next section).
If the sign-in didn't work, the page says why in plain words, for example that you cancelled, that a permission was turned off, or that your Facebook account has no ad account.
Choose your accounts
After connecting, choose:
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| Business portfolio | The Meta Business Suite account campaigns are created in. |
| Ad account | The account that pays. The page shows its currency and the time zone its results use. A warning appears if Meta has disabled it, it has an unpaid balance, or it's closed. |
| Facebook Page | The Page the ads run through. |
| Instagram account | The account the ads appear from. One that is linked to a Page needs that same Page; choosing it picks the Page for you. |
| Meta pixel | Optional. Only the Sales goal needs it. The list shows the chosen ad account's pixels, and the Facebook Pixel module's pixel is picked for you when that module is on. |
Choose Save accounts. Where you have only one of something, it is chosen for you. You can change these later under Settings → Change accounts. Choosing an ad account in another currency clears your maximum daily budget (the page warns you), so set it again in the new currency.
Set your maximum daily budget
Before your first campaign, enter Maximum daily budget in your ad account's currency and choose Save. It's the most any one campaign's daily budget may be, and it can't be below Meta's minimum for your ad account (the page shows that minimum). Promote on Instagram stays unavailable until it is set. Change it any time under Settings; lowering it doesn't change running campaigns, but stops them being raised or resumed above it.
Reconnect and disconnect
- A yellow Reconnect Facebook banner appears when Meta stops accepting your store's sign-in (for example after a password change, or when the sign-in expires after about 60 days; the account card shows the date). Live campaigns keep running on Meta; choose Reconnect to manage them again. Reconnecting keeps your chosen accounts and maximum daily budget.
- Disconnect (under the account card's ⋮ menu, or Settings), after you confirm, pauses your live campaigns at Meta, then removes them from this page. They stay in your Meta ad account, paused, for you to manage in Meta Ads Manager; if Meta couldn't pause one, pause it there.