- Tracking first. Shopify's Facebook and Instagram channel, the dataset linked to your ad account, a verified domain, and one real test purchase.
- Exclude Audience Network once, at account level, for every objective.
- Advantage+ sales campaign with a campaign budget and a spending limit. No scheduled budget increases before you have data.
- Conversion location: Website. Event: Purchase. Not "Website and app".
- One ad per product page, in 4:5 and 9:16, with UTM parameters and image enhancements turned off.
- Check every ad before publishing: duplicated ads can carry a hidden schedule that blocks them.
The campaign behind this guide
Møment is a small Shopify store we built and run ourselves. It sells a limited collection of designer bags in three colours, to one market, Norway, with a small daily budget. In October 2026 we relaunched it with Meta ads, and documented every step so this guide is based on what we actually clicked, not on what a help page says should happen.
The setup took one morning. Four things went wrong along the way. None of them were obvious, and all of them would have cost money or days of data.
Step 1. Get tracking right before you open Ads Manager
A sales campaign optimises for purchases. If Meta cannot see purchases, it cannot find buyers. This is the part most stores rush, and the part that fails silently.
- Install the Facebook and Instagram channel in Shopify. In its settings, open data sharing and set it to the highest level available. This connects both the Meta pixel and the Conversions API, so events are sent from the browser and from Shopify's servers.
- Link the dataset to your ad account. In Meta Business settings, open Data sources, then Datasets, select the pixel Shopify created, and add your ad account.
- Verify your domain. In Business settings, under Brand safety, then Domains, add and verify your store's domain.
- Place one real test order, then refund it in Shopify. Check that AddToCart, InitiateCheckout and Purchase all appear in Events Manager.
Trap 1: "Your Meta pixel is not active"
When we opened our ad, Ads Manager warned that the pixel had received no events in seven days. At the same time, Events Manager showed page views and product views received less than an hour earlier. The pixel was working. The warning in Ads Manager simply updates several hours late.
The Events Manager chart was empty too, for a different reason: its date range ended the day before, so it did not include today's events.
Trap 2: "A website and app event is required"
In the ad set, the conversion event field was empty, with a message asking us to build an event. The cause was not the pixel itself: the ad account was not yet linked to the dataset that receives the events.
Step 2. Exclude Audience Network at account level
Audience Network shows ads inside third-party apps and websites. In our previous campaign, it brought cheap clicks with almost no visits behind them, which we covered in Insight 001.
Meta now lets you exclude placements for the whole ad account, in the placement controls. We excluded both Audience Network options, native, banner and interstitial, and rewarded video, for all objectives. It applies to every campaign in the account, so you only do it once. Meta notes that changes can take up to 48 hours to reach campaigns that are already running.
Step 3. Campaign settings
- Campaign type: Advantage+ sales campaign.
- Budget: a campaign budget, set at a level you can afford to keep for at least a week. Ours is about 25 euros a day.
- Campaign spending limit: add one. If you forget to check the campaign, it stops by itself at the limit.
Trap 3: scheduled budget increases
Ads Manager offers to raise your budget automatically on chosen dates. We had set two increases for the first two weeks of the campaign. We removed both before launch.
A scheduled increase runs whether or not the ads sell. In the first days you have no idea yet which ad converts, and the real peak for most stores is Black Friday week, not the week after launch.
Step 4. Ad set settings
- Conversion location: Website. "Website and app" only makes sense if you also sell in an app.
- Performance goal: maximise the number of conversions.
- Conversion event: Purchase.
- Audience: your country, a minimum age, and the rest as suggestions rather than limits. With Advantage+ audience, a suggestion guides Meta without stopping it from finding buyers outside it.
Step 5. Building the ads
- One ad per product, one product page per ad. Our green bag ad goes to the green bag page. Never the homepage.
- Two formats per ad: 4:5 for feeds and 9:16 for Stories and Reels, assigned by placement. A landscape image works on the Facebook right column and Marketplace, but not in Instagram feeds or Stories.
- UTM parameters on every ad, with the product in utm_content, so your Shopify analytics show which ad actually sells.
- Several primary texts and headlines. Meta tests them and shows the best one. We used four angles per ad: identity, a scene the buyer can picture, real scarcity, and the main objection answered.
- Turn off enhancements that alter your images, such as retouching or generated backgrounds. The product in the ad has to be the product people receive.
- Declare AI-generated visuals. Ads Manager has a checkbox for media created or edited with AI. Our campaign visuals are AI assisted, so we tick it.
Trap 4: "Start date in the past" on some ads, not others
Two of our three ads showed an error about a start or end date in the past, while the campaign and the third ad were fine. The two faulty ads had been duplicated, and carried an ad-level schedule copied with them.
Step 6. After you publish
- Do not touch anything for three days. Each edit to an ad restarts its learning.
- Write your kill rules before you look at results. Ours: under 1% click-through after three days, cut the ad. Clicks but no add to carts, fix the product page. Add to carts but no purchases, fix the offer or checkout.
- Check landing page views against link clicks. If most clicks never become visits, your problem is placements or tracking, not your ad.
The checklist
- Facebook and Instagram channel installed, data sharing at the highest level.
- Dataset linked to the ad account.
- Domain verified.
- Test purchase visible in Events Manager, then refunded.
- Audience Network excluded at account level.
- Advantage+ sales campaign, campaign budget, spending limit.
- No scheduled budget increases before you have data.
- Conversion location Website, event Purchase.
- One ad per product page, 4:5 and 9:16, UTM parameters.
- Image enhancements off, AI visuals declared.
- No errors on any ad before publishing.
- Kill rules written down before launch.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Ads Manager say my pixel is not active when Events Manager shows events?
The warning in Ads Manager updates with a delay of several hours. If Events Manager shows recent page views, the pixel works. Also check that its date range includes today.
Why does Meta say a website event is required when I choose Purchase?
Your ad account is not linked to a dataset that sends events. Link the dataset created by the Shopify channel to your ad account in Business settings, then refresh the ad set.
Should I exclude Audience Network for an online store?
For campaigns that send traffic to a store, we exclude it. In our own campaigns it delivered cheap clicks with almost no visits behind them.
What does "start date or end date in the past" mean on a Meta ad?
It usually comes from an ad-level schedule copied when you duplicated an ad. Remove or update that date, or duplicate an ad that has no error and replace its content.
Should I schedule budget increases before launch?
Not in the first weeks. Scheduled increases run whether or not the ads sell. Increase the budget manually once your cost per purchase is below your target.
Campaign set up. Is the store ready?
A perfect setup still loses money if the product page leaks. Take the free Storefront Score: 12 questions, 2 minutes, and the 3 leaks most likely to cost you orders before Black Friday.
Get my Storefront ScoreSources
- mylagency, setup of a Meta Advantage+ sales campaign for our own Shopify store, 25 October 2026.
- Meta Ads Manager and Events Manager, in-product messages and settings, October 2026.
- mylagency, Insight 001: Link clicks vs landing page views.
Founder of mylagency. Has run Shopify stores and Meta ads for her own fashion brands since 2018, and now builds stores and ads for DTC brands.