Sessions need a laptop or desktop.
If you’re on your phone now, that’s fine. Enrol now and we’ll email you a link so you can pick up when you’re at a computer.
Meta Ads Manager · Foundations
Build a Facebook and Instagram campaign ready to switch on, without spending anything.
What you’ll end up with
One finished draft Traffic campaign. Objective, buying type and budget from a written plan; two ad sets with their daily budgets, audiences of named places and placements chosen by hand; a single-image ad in each with the right picture and the over-long lines replaced; the second ad set made by duplication; and the table read back as a checklist before the draft is renamed for approval — with no payment method and nothing published.
10½
hours in all — about 6½ guided, 4 on your own
6
sessions. Each designed to be completed in one sitting
Free
No payment and no card required.
Finishing gives you a completion record showing the work you built, and all three levels earn the Alongrail Certificate in Meta Ads Manager. See what you’ll build →
You don’t need prior experience with Meta Ads Manager. There’s no payment and no card required.
From five raw files to a finished campaign
0190 min
The way in, and a draft that cannot spend
You have Meta Ads Manager open on your own ad account, you can read on its billing page that it cannot spend, and Wrenfield's campaign is started from the plan and kept as a draft.
02100 min
The campaign's terms and the ad set's money
Wrenfield's draft has its budget level and special-category answer set, and a first ad set named from the plan with its conversion location, its performance goal and its daily budget — every value from the files, and you can say what each one decides.
03100 min
Who, and where
Wrenfield's first ad set shows to the places the plan names and not to the ones it keeps out, the namesake is told apart by its region, and the plan's age range is set as a control the system cannot overrule — and you can say the difference between a control and a suggestion.
04120 min
Where it shows, and what people see
Wrenfield's first ad set shows only in the two feeds the plan names, with the builder's automatic placements turned off, and holds a single-image ad built from the right picture and the copy file, its over-long line shortened and its shouting line rewritten, read back in the preview — and you can say why a picture's shape and a line's length matter before any ad is published.
05100 min
The second area
Wrenfield's draft has a second ad set for the coast towns, made by duplicating the first and changing what differs — its name, its budget, its places, its picture and its words — and the Ad sets tab shows two rows; and you can say what a duplicate carries with it and what it does not.
06105 min
The read-back and the hand-off
The whole campaign is read back as a checklist across the three tabs and the builder's sections, the weekly ceiling is worked out from the two daily budgets by Meta's own rule, the draft is renamed for the owner's approval, and the billing page says the account still cannot spend.
What you need before you start
A laptop or desktop
Sessions need a laptop or desktop. If you’re on your phone now, that’s fine. Enrol now and we’ll email you a link so you can pick up when you’re at a computer. Meta Ads Manager runs in the browser, on Windows or a Mac.
Chrome or Edge
Alongrail runs in the browser too, in its own tab beside Meta Ads Manager.
The course files
Everything you work with is in the download.
What’s free
The whole course: every session, both parts, the files, and your record. Alongrail charges nothing for it. No payment, and no card at any point.
The software
None. The ad account every Facebook account already has is used as it is, with no payment method added; every campaign is kept as the draft Meta stores when the builder is closed and is never published; and Meta's own page says a payment method is needed before an ad can be published — so nothing in this course can spend. A Facebook Page the learner already manages is needed, because a Page is the identity an ad shows; the course creates none.
The data you’ll work with
Every file is invented — the companies, the people and everything in them are made up for the course.
Before you start
The course covers Meta Ads Manager, in your browser.
- A computer with a current browser, such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, and an internet connection. Nothing is installed.
- A Facebook account of your own, signed in, and a Facebook Page you manage or hold an admin, editor or advertiser role on. Meta's own page says every Facebook account comes with an ad account, and that a Page is needed before you can advertise because the Page is the identity an ad shows. This course never creates or changes a Page — a Page is public, and this course publishes nothing — so use one you already have: a business, a hobby, a personal brand. If you have none, make one before session one, using Meta's own instructions, and give it any honest name; nothing in the course depends on what the Page is.
- The course's data download, unzipped. The session gives you the link when it starts. It unzips to two folders: wrenfield, holding wrenfield-plan.csv, wrenfield-ad-sets.csv, wrenfield-locations.csv, wrenfield-ad-copy.csv and wrenfield-images.csv with the pictures wrenfield-salon.png, wrenfield-van.png and wrenfield-banner.png, and larkspur, holding the same five files and four pictures for the second firm. Each folder also holds a start file for every session after the first, which you only need if you rerun a session.
- No money, no card, and nothing published — read this before you start. Your ad account has no payment method and this course never adds one: no session asks you for a card, a bank account, PayPal or a promotional code. Everything you build is the draft Meta keeps when the builder is closed, and this course never uses the control that publishes one, never opens the list that publishes drafts, and never boosts a post. Meta's own page says a payment method is needed before an ad can be published, so even a slip cannot spend. If, when Ads Manager first opens, it will not show you the campaign table until a payment method is added, stop there, enter nothing, and tell the session so with the something's-wrong control.
- Two things this course does not use. A Business portfolio is Meta's home for agencies and firms with several ad accounts; Meta's own page encourages one only for that case, and the way a portfolio sets up an ad account asks for a payment method, so this course stays on the ad account you already have. And the Meta pixel, which measures what visitors do on a website, needs a website you control and a published ad to learn from; the course names it and leaves it for a later level.
- Money figures. Every daily budget in the files is a plain number in whatever currency your ad account uses, and the figures are written for currencies where one unit is worth about a pound, a euro or a dollar. Meta's own page says every ad set has a minimum daily budget that varies by country; if your account's currency is one where a few units are too little — the builder tells you so with an alert — stop at that step, type nothing, and tell the session with the something's-wrong control.
- Who can see what. Nothing you build is visible to anybody but you: a draft shows to no one, and the account has no ads running. Every business, address and figure in the course is invented, every website address is on example.com, and the only real thing an ad carries is your own Page's name as its identity, which nobody sees until an ad is published — and none is.
- Alongrail is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Meta. Meta Ads Manager is named here as the software the course teaches, and nothing more.
Alongrail teaches the software and gives you a record of what you built, with a link to the work itself. What happens with it afterwards is yours. We don’t place people and we take no part in anyone’s recruitment process.
Enrol free and start now.
Sign in, confirm the one thing the course needs, and session 1 opens. No payment, and no card at any point.
If something goes wrong on the way, press “Something’s wrong” in the panel, or write to hello@alongrail.com — we reply within one working day.
Frequently asked questions
What you build
You can take a written plan for a small firm and build it into a Facebook and Instagram campaign that an owner could read, approve and switch on — the goal, the areas and the people it shows to, what each area may spend in a day, where it appears, the ads with their pictures and words — in your own ad account with no payment method, without publishing a thing.
One draft Traffic campaign in the learner's own ad account with no payment method and nothing published: buying type, objective, budget level and special-category answer from a written plan; two ad sets, each with a daily budget, a performance goal, an audience of named places with one namesake told apart and places kept out, an age range set as a control, and placements chosen by hand; a single-image ad in each with the picture chosen by shape and the copy file's over-long and shouting lines replaced; the second ad set made by duplication; the table read back as a checklist and the draft renamed for approval. Four hundred guided minutes on the first firm, then two hundred and fifteen independent minutes building the same thing from a brief for a second, in the same account.
How a session works
- Open Meta Ads Manager
- Share your screen
- One instruction
- You do it
- It confirms it
- Next
You open Meta Ads Manager and share your screen. Alongrail reads what’s there and gives you one instruction. You do it. It confirms the step landed, then gives you the next one. If something doesn’t match what you see, one button gets you back on track.
Guided
In the Fields list, tick Region. The chart fills in.
One field on the axis, one measure as the value.
then
On your owna different company’s data
Same job, a different company's files. Alongrail stays quiet until you ask.
Guided, then on your own.
The second part of every session uses a different company’s data, with the same kind of mess in different places. Alongrail stays quiet until you ask. It’s the work your record points to.
About 10½ hours in all·about 6½ guided·about 4 on your own
What you earn — the record, the certificate and a sample
Completion record
- Name
- Your name
- Course
- Meta Ads Manager Foundations — build a campaign that is ready to switch on, without spending anything
- Completed
- The date you finish
- Project
- The campaign you built on your own →
- Skills demonstrated
- Opening Meta Ads Manager with your own account and reading on its billing page that it cannot spend · Starting a Traffic campaign from a written plan, choosing the buying type and objective, and telling a draft from a published campaign · Setting a campaign's budget level and special-category answer, and an ad set's conversion location, performance goal and daily budget · Targeting places by name with their regions, removing what the builder put there on its own, excluding places, and telling a namesake apart · Setting an age range as an audience control rather than a suggestion, and knowing the difference · Choosing placements by hand and turning the automatic placements off, with the reason · Building a single-image ad from a copy file and a picture chosen by its shape, shortening a line the feed would cut and rewriting one the standards refuse · Reading an ad's preview against its fields · Duplicating an ad set inside its campaign and changing only what the second area needs · Reading the Campaigns, Ad sets and Ads tables as a checklist, working out a weekly ceiling by Meta's rule, and handing a draft over for approval without publishing it
What was built
One draft Traffic campaign in the learner's own ad account with no payment method and nothing published: buying type, objective, budget level and special-category answer from a written plan; two ad sets, each with a daily budget, a performance goal, an audience of named places with one namesake told apart and places kept out, an age range set as a control, and placements chosen by hand; a single-image ad in each with the picture chosen by shape and the copy file's over-long and shouting lines replaced; the second ad set made by duplication; the table read back as a checklist and the draft renamed for approval. Four hundred guided minutes on the first firm, then two hundred and fifteen independent minutes building the same thing from a brief for a second, in the same account.
The 6 sessions, and when each was completed on their own
Each session was completed twice: once with step-by-step guidance on one company’s data, then on a second company’s data from a brief, with guidance only when asked. Every check passed on both. Alongrail records the sessions, the checks and the dates; the dashboard itself is the learner’s own, hosted where they chose.
A completion record for Meta Ads Manager Foundations, now. It names the course, the date you finished, the skills you demonstrated, and links the campaign you built on your own. It’s private until you publish it, and you can unpublish it at any time.
The record is a description of work you did, not a claim about you. Anyone who opens it can see the work for themselves.
The Alongrail Certificate in Meta Ads Manager when all three levels are complete. Foundations is the first of three. Practitioner and Professional are in development, with no dates. See the track →
How this relates to a certification — the course covers the core skills assessed in Meta's Certified Digital Marketing Associate exam.
Your screen stays yours
It looks when you ask. Never otherwise. Images of your screen are not stored. What Alongrail sees →
Nothing you build is public until you publish it. Your record is private until you say so, and you can unpublish it at any time.
What’s Meta Ads Manager?
Meta Ads Manager is the software this course is built in. It runs in your browser.
You won’t learn it by watching hours of tutorials. You’ll learn it by building something real with it.
Who you’re building it for
Wrenfield Dog Grooming is a two-groomer salon in Bristol with a van that does the coast towns two days a week. Work comes by word of mouth and a Facebook Page that gets a post a month.
The owner asked an agency what it would cost to advertise on Facebook and Instagram and was quoted a set-up fee for the build alone, before any money went to Meta. She would rather understand what she is buying.
A friend who does this for a living has written her a plan: what the campaign is for, which two areas get their own budget and how much a day, who should see the ads and who should not, where on Facebook and Instagram they should appear, which pictures to use and the words to put with them.
The plan is on paper. Nothing has been built, and the owner does not want a penny to move until she has read the finished thing and said yes.
A second firm, Larkspur Yoga Studio in Leeds, has the same plan in a different shape, and it is the one you build on your own.
Your job is to build the campaign that answers it.
Do I need to know Meta Ads Manager already?
No. The course assumes you’ve never opened it.
What if I get stuck?
Press the button in the panel and say what you see. Alongrail works out where you actually are and picks the instruction back up.
Why 10½ hours, when other courses are 40?
Because the time is spent doing the work rather than watching it. About 6½ hours is guided; the rest is you building the same thing again on your own.
What does Alongrail see on my screen?
Only the window you choose to share, and only when you ask it to look. Images of your screen are not stored by Alongrail. What Alongrail sees →
Can I use a Mac?
Yes. Meta Ads Manager runs in the browser.
What if I miss a week?
Nothing closes. The dates are there to help you keep moving, not to catch you out.
Does this prepare me for a certification exam?
Covers the core skills assessed in Meta's Certified Digital Marketing Associate exam. Alongrail is not an exam provider.
What’s the “on your own” part?
The second half of every session: the same work on a different company’s data, with Alongrail quiet unless you ask. Both parts are needed for your completion record.
Is it really free?
Yes. No payment, and no card at any point.
Who can see what I build?
Nobody, until you say so. Your record is private until you publish it, and you can unpublish it at any time. What you build stays in your own files or account; where a step publishes something to the software’s own site, the step says so and says who can see it.
Where this course sits
Meta Ads Manager Foundations is Foundations in Meta Ads Manager. The track has three levels; each one you complete earns its own record, and all of them together earn the Alongrail Certificate in Meta Ads Manager. All the courses →