Create Facebook ad sequences in HubSpot

Last updated: June 28, 2023

Available with any of the following subscriptions, except where noted:

Marketing Hub Professional , Enterprise

After you connect your Facebook ad account to HubSpot, you can create a Facebook ad sequence from within the HubSpot Ads tool. You can design, target, and deliver a series of three ads, to help you attract, convert, and close new contacts.

For each ad, you can customize the copy, audience, and scheduling options to ensure that people who view the ad that's most relevant to their lifecycle stage.

Before you get started

Before creating your Facebook ad sequence, please note the following:

If you're creating your first Facebook sequence, HubSpot will need to create three new contact list audiences, in addition to your existing audiences. You will not be able to publish your sequence if these new audiences would exceed the audience limit for your HubSpot account. Learn more about your account limits on the HubSpot pricing page.
Your user account will need the following permissions:

- Admin permissions for the selected Facebook page.
- Admin permissions for the associated Facebook ad account.
- All HubSpot Ads Integration permissions must be toggled on.

Set up your first ad to attract visitors to your website

First, create a post engagement ad that will attract new visitors to your website.

Set up ad creative for your first ad

To create the first ad in your ad sequence:

In your HubSpot account, navigate to Marketing > Ads.
In the left panel of the ad setup page, select Ad sequence.
In the right panel, select an ad account and Facebook page.
Click Create sequence.
Click Ad to customize your ad creative.
If you have an existing post from your Facebook page, select Use existing post, then select the post you want to use for your ad.
If you want to create a new post, select Create new post.
- Website URL: select whether to use a HubSpot or an external page with your ad.
  - HubSpot page: select a HubSpot page.
  - Manually enter URL: enter your external website URL.

- Select Image/Video: upload an image or video for your ad.
- Text/Body copy: enter the text that will be shown above the image or video of your ad.
- Headline: enter the text that will be shown below the image or video of your ad.
- Call to action: select a call to action for your ad.

Specify targeting for your first ad

After you've set up your ad creative, you can set up your targeting:

Please note: you can only select saved audiences that target countries, regions, cities, designated market areas (DMAs), or country groups. If your saved audience targets other location types, such as zip codes, you cannot use it when creating your sequence.

If you want to use an existing saved audience, click Select a saved audience, then select an audience.
If you want to create a new audience, select New audience, then specify the criteria for the Facebook users you'd like to include in your targeting.
- Under Location, enter any specific city, state, or country.
- To broaden which users you're targeting, you can add groups of filters.
  - Under the bottommost AND filter, click Add filter (OR).
  - Select Target a lookalike audience to include an audience, or click Add personal attribute filter (OR) to manually select the target interests, behaviors, or demographics for your ad.
  - You can broaden your audience further by specifying another OR filter. You can restrict your audience by clicking Narrow audience further (AND), then selecting the criteria that must also match the existing criteria you've selected.
- If you want to exclude certain audiences from seeing your ad, click Add exclusion, then click Add audience exclusions. In the right panel, select any audiences you'd like to exclude.
Since the goal of your first ad is to attract new visitors, HubSpot will automatically exclude contacts in the customer lifecycle stage. Your first ad will also exclude Facebook users who converted on your second or third ads in the sequence, since these users have already expressed interest in your business.

Enter a budget and schedule for your first ad

Once you've configured your first ad's creative and targeting options, you can specify a budget and schedule:

Click Budget & Schedule.
Set up your budget and scheduling details:
- Budget: select whether to budget by day or the for the total cost of the ad. Then, enter an amount for your budget.
- Start date: configure when the ad begins running. Select a start date and start time.
- End date: configure when the ad stops running.
  - End when there is a number of engagements on this ad: your ad will automatically complete as soon as it gets the specified number of engagements.
  - End after a number of days go by: your ad will automatically complete as soon as the specified number of days goes by.
  - No end date: your ad will run indefinitely until you manually pause it.

Set up your second ad to turn visitors into contacts

Next, you'll target the same audience as your first ad, but you should aim to convert the visitors you initially attracted into contacts with a lead generation ad.

Set up ad creative for your second ad

To create the second ad in your ad sequence:

Set up your second ad creative:
- Select Image/Video: upload an image or video for your ad.
- Text/Body copy: enter the text that will be shown above the image or video of your ad.
- Headline: enter the text that will be shown below the image or video of your ad.
- Call to action: select a call to action for your ad.

When users click on the Call-to-action button on your ad, Facebook will prompt them to fill out a form to provide additional info. Under Facebook form, select a form to use:
- To use an existing form from your Facebook page, click the dropdown menu and select a form.
- To create a new form:
  - Click the Select a Facebook form dropdown menu.
  - Click Create a new Facebook form.
  - Enter your form name and select your form language.
  - Configure your form:
    - Choose and reorder the form fields you want users to submit.
      - To include custom form fields, click Add form field, then select a form field.
      - To create and include a new custom property, click Create a new property.

- - - Enter a link to your privacy policy.
    - Select a notice and consent option to keep users informed of how you will use their data, and enter the corresponding text you want to prompt users with. If you want users to agree to multiple consent questions, you can click Add checkbox to add an additional prompt and checkbox.
  - Under the Thank you section, you can configure the follow-up text that will appear after users submit your form.
  - Click Create.

Enter a budget and schedule for your second ad

Once you've configured your ad creative, you can specify a budget and schedule:

Click Budget & Schedule.
Set up your budget and scheduling details:
- Budget: select whether to budget by day or the for the total cost of the ad. Then, enter an amount for your budget.
- Start date: configure when the ad begins running
  - Start when there is a number of engagements on the Attract ad: your ad will automatically start as soon as your first ad reaches the specified number of engagements.
  - Set your own start date: manually enter a start time and start date.
- End date: configure when the ad stops running.
  - End when there is a number of engagements on this ad: your ad will automatically complete as soon as it gets the specified number of engagements.
  - End after a number of days go by: your ad will automatically complete as soon as the specified number of days goes by.

Get notified by email when: select when and which HubSpot users are notified.
- Ad is started: the selected users will receive an email when your second ad starts
- Ad is ended: the selected users will receive an email when your second ad is complete.

Finally, you can set up additional automation for your second ad. This step is optional.

Click Automation, then click Create workflow.
After HubSpot creates your new workflow, you can start adding actions to it by clicking the plus icon +. Learn more about setting up workflows.

Set up your third ad to close deals

Your third and final ad should entice the contacts from your second ad and encourage them to make a purchase.

Set up ad creative for your third ad

To create the final ad in your ad sequence:

Select a campaign type for your third ad.

If you've selected a web traffic campaign, set up your ad:
- Website URL: select whether to use a HubSpot or an external page with your ad.
  - HubSpot page: select a HubSpot page.
  - Manually enter URL: enter your external website URL.

- Select Image/Video: upload an image or video for your ad.
- Text/Body copy: enter the text that will be shown above the image or video of your ad.
- Headline: enter the text that will be shown below the image or video of your ad.
- Call to action: select a call to action for your ad.

If you selected a lead generation campaign:
- Under Facebook form, select a form.

- If you want to use an existing form from your Facebook page, click the dropdown menu and select a form.
- To create a new form, click the dropdown menu and click Create new Facebook form.

Enter a budget and schedule for your third ad