Google Ads
Meta Ads
Shopify
Mailchimp
Definition
An ad set is the level between a campaign and its individual ads, and it holds the settings the ads share, such as audience, budget, schedule, placements and the optimisation goal. The name of this level differs by platform, so write down what your platform calls it.
How to use it
Settings at the ad set level apply to every ad inside it. A change to the audience or the budget changes delivery for all of those ads at once. Keep one ad set focused on one audience and one goal, so the results can be read without guessing which setting did the work.
Most naming and reporting problems start at this level. Two ad sets with the same audience under different names make it hard to see which one spends more or why. Use one naming pattern for every ad set, and record the audience, the goal and the start date in the name or in a linked sheet.
