Ad Guides
Meta ad guides by industry and platform
How to actually run Facebook and Instagram ads for one kind of business — the offers, the angles, the targeting rules that apply to that trade, and the ads to show for it.
Most advice about running Meta ads for a particular trade is general advice with the trade’s name pasted into it, and a surprising amount of it is simply out of date — quoting policies that changed this summer, or repeating targeting rules that apply to a different industry entirely. These guides go the other way: one business, one platform, every claim read against Meta’s own documentation and dated on the page, and finished example ads for each offer rather than adjectives about them.
SaaS × Instagram · 11 offers
Instagram ads for SaaS companies
You are advertising work to someone who is not at work, and you cannot buy their job title. Both problems are solved in the creative — here is how.
Fashion & Apparel × Instagram · 12 offers
Instagram ads for clothing brands
The only industry here where the purchase completes in the ad's own session — and the only feed already full of clothes. Both facts change the ad.
Real estate agents × Instagram · 11 offers
Instagram ads for real estate agents
The housing special ad category takes your targeting apart. Here is what is left, and how to do the qualifying inside the ad instead — checked against Meta's own documentation this month.
Dentists × Facebook · 12 offers
Facebook ads for dentists
The offers, the angles, the targeting rules and the policy walls — for a dental practice, on Facebook, checked against Meta's own documentation this month.
Gyms & Fitness Studios × Instagram · 12 offers
Instagram ads for gyms and fitness studios
The feed is full of the one ad you are not allowed to run. Here is what a gym or studio can sell instead — and the rule that decides which rulebook your ad set is under.
Dentists × Instagram · 12 offers
Instagram ads for dentists
The offers, the angles, the targeting rules and the policy walls — for the cosmetic and aligner half of a dental practice, on Instagram, checked against Meta's own documentation this month.
Real estate agents × Facebook · 12 offers
Facebook ads for real estate agents
The seller-side playbook — listing acquisition, expired listings, estate sales and prep finance — for the platform where those owners actually are.
Gyms & Fitness Studios × Facebook · 12 offers
Facebook ads for gyms and fitness studios
You choose the export. Facebook chooses the frame. Here is how to advertise a gym on an app that will render your ad in nine places you did not pick.
SaaS × Facebook · 12 offers
Facebook ads for SaaS companies
Instagram reaches the person who will use your software. Facebook reaches the person who signs for it — and that is a different ad, a different objective and a different funnel.
Fashion & Apparel × Facebook · 12 offers
Facebook ads for clothing brands
The one app that reaches the customer the industry stopped cutting for — and the one page where you are not allowed to name them.
HVAC × Facebook · 12 offers
Facebook ads for HVAC companies
The offers, the angles, the special-category trap the trade walks into, and the two things Ads Manager will not do about a heat wave — for an HVAC company, on Facebook, checked against first-party documentation.
HVAC × Instagram · 12 offers
Instagram ads for HVAC companies
The app cannot catch an emergency and cannot sell a $14,000 replacement. What it can sell is the first job a household ever buys from you — and that is worth more than it looks.
Roofing × Facebook · 12 offers
Facebook ads for roofing companies
The offers, the angles, the two most-run sentences in the trade that are prohibited advertising in several states, and why the financing ad costs a roofer the storm plan — for a roofing company, on Facebook, checked against the statutes themselves.
Roofing × Instagram · 12 offers
Instagram ads for roofing companies
The app reaches fewer of the same homeowners, not different ones — so buy the thing it is actually good for. Facebook buys memory. Instagram buys evidence, and evidence is the only part of a roofing pitch that survives a year of waiting.
Home Remodeling × Facebook · 12 offers
Facebook ads for home remodeling companies
The offers, the angles, the one event the whole account has to be built on, and why a remodeling ad account cannot show you the revenue it produced — for a remodeling company, on Facebook, checked against Meta's own documentation and the regulations themselves.
More industries and platforms are being written. If you would rather look at finished ads than read a playbook, start with ad examples by industry.
Your industry. Your ads.
No credit card · 50 free credits (about 5 ads or Instagram posts)