WorldStream: Every Facebook Ad Objective Available in 2024 + When To Use Them

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Facebook ad objectives are a choose-your-own-adventure type deal. Each objective sets you on a different path with unique steps and outcomes. And just as selecting your adventure determines your journey and ending, choosing the right Facebook objective guides your campaign's direction and results.

So in this post, to help you choose the right Facebook ad objective for you!

What is a Facebook/Meta ad objective?

The "objective" within Facebook/Meta ads, chosen at the campaign level, is the specific goal you're trying to achieve with your campaign. In fact, it's the first choice you have to make when creating a new campaign. You can get all the steps for advertising on Facebook here.

This is because different objectives require different optimizations—some of which would conflict with each other if in the same campaign—so by separating out objectives, Facebook can offer the right settings, steps, and delivery methods for what you're trying to achieve.

What this means is, you can only have one objective per campaign, but you can of course have multiple campaigns within an account and multiple ad sets within a campaign. And we recommend this for an optimal Facebook ad account structure.

🛑 Want to know how your Facebook ads are really performing? Find out with our free Facebook Ads Performance Grader!

Changes to Facebook/Meta ad objectives

In 2023, some of the Facebook ad objectives were consolidated, which changed the steps in some campaign creation flows. Here's what you need to know:

All the same objective functionality is still available. If an objective is now "missing," it's still there, just under a different name and/or as a setting within another objective.
As of January 2024, you can't create new campaigns with legacy objectives.
For existing campaigns using legacy objectives, you must duplicate them and convert them to new objectives by the end of 2024.

You can learn more about these changes in this Meta Business Help Center page. You can also learn more about the latest with Facebook ads in our post on Facebook advertising trends.

What were the old Facebook/Meta ad objectives?

The original 11 Facebook/Meta ad objectives are as follows:

Brand Awareness: Gone, folded into Awareness
Reach: Gone, folded into Awareness
Traffic: Still kicking, no changes
Engagement: Still there but now encompasses Messages, Video Views, and Conversions
App Installs: Now App Promotion
Video Views: Gone, folded into engagement
Lead Generation: Replaced by Leads
Messages: Folded into Engagement or Leads
Conversions: Replaced by Engagement, Leads, or Sales
Catalog Sales: Replaced by Sales
Store Traffic: Replaced by Awareness

These were the old Facebook/Meta ad objectives

What are the 6 new Facebook/Meta ad objectives?

The new consolidated list of Facebook/Meta ad objectives is as follows:

Awareness
Traffic
Engagement
Leads
Sales
App Promotion

Here is a chart that shows the comparison

All the Facebook/Meta ad objectives, explained

Now we'll dive into each ad objective to go over what it is and when to use it, with some examples along the way. You can also see plenty of Facebook ad examples here.

Awareness

The "Awareness" objective is a new name, which now encompasses the old objectives of Brand Awareness, Video Views, and Store Traffic. The primary goal for an Awareness campaign is brand awareness and reach, so Facebook will work to get as many people to see the ad as possible.

Choose the Awareness objective when you want to:

Introduce a new brand
Break into a new market
Promote a big event or festival
Launch a new product

Traffic

The Traffic objective name and purpose is the same as before. The goal here is to drive visits to a specific destination (website page, landing page, blog post, or app), and Facebook will work to drive as many clicks on that ad as possible.

Choose the Traffic objective when you want to…

Promote a blog
Drive traffic to your ecommerce site
Send users to an app landing page where they can download the app. You would use this instead of the App Promotion objective if you wanted to provide more education on the app to perhaps generate more qualified users, get the additional benefits of website traffic, or include multiple CTAs on the page for a wider range of engagement.

Engagement

This was a pre-existing objective name, but it now also encompasses Messages, Conversions, and Video Views. This objective aims to get people to like, share, comment on, and interact with your content. This also includes page likes and event responses.

Choose the Engagement objective when you want to:

Increase organic reach and visibility
Build a community around your video content
Increase excitement, awareness, and attendance at an event

Note that the right ad copy can make a difference in how much engagement you get (for example, "Like this post if you agree").

Leads

The old name for this objective was "Lead Generation." The goal is still the same—to generate leads. You can choose the traditional Lead Generation ad format, which includes instant forms right on Facebook, or you can now choose the Conversions setting which allows you to drive leads to your website or app and submit the form there

While instant forms are more convenient and can generate more leads, you don't get the benefit of website traffic where you can further engage visitors, and you also have to watch out for lead quality.

Choose the Leads objective when you want to…

Get newsletter sign-ups
Encourage webinar registrations
Increase ebook downloads
Generate inquiries

An example of a lead ad.

Sales

The old "Conversions" objective is now Sales, which also includes Catalog Sales. You would use this objective to drive sales of products or services directly through your Facebook ads.