Have you noticed a major change in Facebook's ad campaign setup process? Wondering how to navigate the shorter list of campaign objectives?
In this article, you'll get an introduction to Meta's Outcome-Driven Ad Experiences (ODAX) and how to use it to create Facebook ad campaigns that align with your marketing goals.

What Are Facebook's Outcome-Driven Ad Experiences?
ODAX refers to Facebook Ads Manager's newly streamlined objectives, which appear at the start of the campaign setup process. Previously, Ads Manager offered 11 campaign objectives that fit into three sales funnel stages: awareness, consideration, and conversion. ODAX consolidates the 11 original options into six objectives.
The new outcome-driven objectives include:
- Awareness
- Traffic
- Engagement
- Leads
- App promotion
- Sales

After starting to tease this simplified Ads Manager setup in the second half of 2021, Meta officially announced ODAX in December 2021. The platform began rolling out the new framework shortly after the announcement. As of February 2022, Meta continues to introduce ODAX gradually, with an anticipated completion date of June 2022.
Has Meta Removed Any Campaign Objectives?
Seasoned marketers will notice that one of the 11 former objectives—store traffic—is missing from the ODAX setup. Although it isn't currently an option, Meta reports that the platform intends to include store traffic in ODAX at some future point.
If you're already running store traffic campaigns, then your Ads Manager account won't roll over to the ODAX setup yet. Instead, it will likely convert only after Meta makes its planned update to accommodate store traffic.
How Does ODAX Affect Existing Facebook Ad Campaigns?
When your Ads Manager account switches over to ODAX, the new process won't affect any of your existing campaigns. Instead, existing ads will continue to deliver normally. But when you create a new campaign, you'll need to choose from the six simplified objectives.
Even if your Ads Manager doesn't use ODAX yet, it's important to get comfortable with the new objective selection process. To run successful campaigns with Ads Manager, you'll need to know how the previous options translate to the new objectives and how to align them with your business' desired outcomes.
Why Has Meta Switched to ODAX?
Although Meta frequently introduces new Ads Manager features and optimizations, ODAX represents a fundamental change. Meta has provided a few reasons for the platform's move toward an outcome-based Ads Manager.
Alignment with marketing goals: It hasn't always been easy to choose a campaign objective that fits with your marketing goals. Ads Manager's previous campaign setup included several options that described metrics rather than true objectives—such as video views and messages.
With the revised list, it's now possible to align your campaign objective with your marketing goal. That makes it easier to pick the right starting point so you can get more of the results you expect. If you're not sure how your former objective translates to the new setup, you can click the Take Tour button to get help choosing the right objective.

Simplified campaign setup options: Although Ads Manager's former setup offered a wider range of campaign objectives, some created unnecessary overlap. As a result, even experienced marketers may have found it challenging to choose the most appropriate option.
With the shorter list, Ads Manager can simplify campaign setup. Now getting started with Facebook ads is less complicated and the platform can offer more streamlined paths for key goals.
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GET THE DETAILSImproved ad campaign results: Facebook ads are likely to underperform when they lack the optimal campaign setup. If you've struggled to reach your goals with Facebook ads, the new ODAX framework may help improve outcomes or scale successful campaigns.
The new setup also includes a wider range of optimizations at the ad set level. That means you have plenty of ways to fine-tune your campaign settings for the outcomes you want.
Streamline cross-channel campaigns: Ads Manager doesn't support cross-channel conversion optimization. At least, it doesn't offer this option as of February 2022.
But Meta has stated that when Ads Manager does allow website and app or website and shop conversion optimization, ODAX can provide streamlined campaign setups and more straightforward reporting.
Creating campaigns with ODAX isn't complicated but the setup will take some getting used to—especially if you want to target any of the newly consolidated objectives. Follow the steps below to select the objective and optimization that fit your goals.
#1: Create a Facebook Campaign With ODAX Using the Awareness Objective
Ideal for targeting customers at the top of the funnel, the awareness objective is designed to deliver ads to people who are likely to recall your message. This ODAX objective essentially combines the brand awareness and reach objectives from the previous version of Ads Manager.

Although there's no longer an option to choose a bid strategy at the campaign level, Ads Manager does let you enter an optional bid control at the ad set level. If you opt not to set one, Facebook will use the lowest-cost bid strategy to get the most impressions for your budget.
At the ad set level, you can also change the frequency cap from the default, which is one impression every 7 days. If you're targeting a less-aware audience, a higher frequency is almost always going to improve ad recall.
With ODAX, you also get more optimization options. The awareness objective combines all of the ad delivery optimization options that the former reach and brand awareness objectives offered. You can choose from:
- Impressions, which delivers your ads the most times
- Reach, which delivers your ads to the most people
- Ad Recall Lift, which aims to serve your ads to the maximum number of people who'll remember them

Why Choose the Awareness Objective?
You want to introduce your brand, product, or service to a new audience, but you don't expect other outcomes. This top-of-funnel objective boosts brand awareness but isn't likely to generate additional engagement or consideration.
#2: Create a Facebook Campaign With ODAX Using The Traffic Objective
Traffic was a campaign objective in the previous version of Ads Manager, and it has a similar function in the new ODAX setup. This objective is designed to drive prospects to visit a specific destination on or off Facebook, whether you want link clicks or landing page views.

Although this new version of the traffic objective doesn't allow you to choose from multiple bid strategies, you can enter an optional cost control at the ad set level. This option gives you more control over your cost per result while still maximizing the results for your budget.
At the ad set level, you'll also need to choose a conversion location, which can be a website, an app, Messenger, or WhatsApp. If you want to drive traffic to a Facebook event or get people to call your business, choose the website conversion location. Then enter your phone number or event URL at the ad level.
The ODAX traffic objective also offers four optimization options for ad delivery. Here's what to choose, based on your desired result:
- Landing Page Views, which gets the most people to click on your ad and load the destination
- Link Clicks, which drives the most traffic to your destination
- Impressions, which delivers your ads the highest number of times
- Daily Unique Reach, which delivers your ads to the most people once per day

Why Choose the Traffic Objective?
You want prospects to visit a destination but you don't expect them to complete a specific action. This objective isn't designed to prompt engagement but it is a good option for starting to influence consideration.

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#3: Create a Facebook Campaign With ODAX Using The Engagement Objective
In the previous version of Ads Manager, the engagement objective was geared toward in-app engagement. Choosing this objective allowed you to get more page likes, post engagement, or event responses.

With ODAX, engagement supports an even wider range of in-app interactions. In addition to page likes, post engagement, and event responses, this objective can now help you get more video views and messages. Essentially, it spans all page and content engagement.
At the ad set level, choose the conversion location where you want your target audience to engage. Options include:
- On Your Ad, which covers video views, post engagement, and event responses
- Messaging Apps, including sponsored content and click-to-message ads on Messenger, Instagram Direct, and WhatsApp
- Website, which requires you to choose a conversion event you've configured in Events Manager
- App, which requires you to choose an app event to target
- Facebook Page, which includes page likes and can help you grow your audience
Ad delivery optimizations depend on the conversion location you choose and may include conversions, landing page views, link clicks, impressions, or daily unique reach. Like the traffic objective, the engagement objective lets you set an optional cost control to determine how much you want to pay per result.

Why Choose the Engagement Objective?
You want prospects to interact with your Facebook page or content. Think of it as an objective that's designed to drive consideration and build remarketing audiences. That means it's best for starting conversations and targeting website conversions like view content. If what you really want is for your audience to complete a conversion, use leads, app promotion, or sales instead.
#4: Create a Facebook Campaign With ODAX Using The Leads Objective
If you wanted to generate leads using the previous version of Ads Manager, it wasn't easy to decide which objective to choose. The former lead generation objective covered instant forms, automated chat, and phone calls only. That meant if your lead gen workflow included a website contact form, you had to pick conversions—even if that didn't seem quite right.

The ODAX leads objective covers a much wider range of sources, making it significantly more useful. With this new objective, you can target leads via:
- Your Website, which requires you to choose a conversion event you set up in Events Manager
- Instant Forms, which prompts leads to fill out a form without leaving Facebook
- Messenger, which lets you set up an automated chat to generate leads
- Calls, which directs your target audience to call your business
- Your App, which requires you to choose an app event

Depending on where you want to generate leads, your potential optimizations may vary. Options may include leads, conversions, landing page views, link clicks, or even impressions or daily unique reach. With the leads objective, you can also set an optional cost control if you already know how much you want to spend per result.
Why Choose the Leads Objective?
You want prospects to express serious interest in your products or services. This objective is ideal if you have a way to qualify leads and a strategy for following up to convert warm leads.
#5: Create a Facebook Campaign With ODAX Using the App Promotion Objective
If you've already run app installs campaigns using the previous version of Ads Manager, then you'll find the app promotion objective in ODAX easy to navigate. The options are nearly identical and you can still choose between manual and automated setup in the new version of Ads Manager.

The two setup options have similar controls at the ad set level. Manual app promotion campaigns can have an optional cost control, while automated app promotion campaigns can have an optional bid control. Both have several optimization goals, including:
- App Installs, which serves your ads to the most people who are likely to install your app
- App Events, which serves your ads to the most people who are likely to complete a certain action in your app
- Value, which maximizes the total purchase value so you can achieve the highest possible return on ad spend (ROAS)

However, there are some key differences between the two. Automated campaigns are better for higher reach and maximum installation volume. In contrast, manual campaigns have more creative options, including linking an interactive app demo.
Why Choose the App Promotion Objective?
You want your audience to install or use your app. While the traffic and engagement objectives can help influence consideration, the app promotion objective is designed for conversions.
#6: Create a Facebook Campaign With ODAX Using The Sales Objective
The new sales objective consolidates the conversions and catalog sales objectives from the previous version of Ads Manager. Whether you want to advertise your catalog or not, this objective provides one simple option for driving sales.

You can choose from the following conversion locations:
- Your Website, which requires you to pick a sales-focused conversion you've configured in Events Manager
- Your App, which requires you to choose an app event
- Your Website and App
- Messenger or WhatsApp, where you should be prepared to accept payments
Like the other ODAX objectives, sales offers several optimizations. Options may include conversions, landing page views, link clicks, impressions, or daily unique reach. You may also be able to optimize for value if you've configured a value-based event in Events Manager.

The sales objective also allows you to set an optional cost control. By setting a cost control and optimizing for value, you can get more granular control over your ROAS.
Why Choose the Sales Objective?
You want to generate revenue and you can process payments online. This objective is ideal if your business can accept payments on your website, in your app, or through a messaging app.
Conclusion
No matter your marketing goals, Ads Manager's new ODAX framework simplifies your campaign setup and streamlines your objective selection. Because ODAX shifts so many of the campaign details to the ad set level, it's essential to align the campaign objective with ad set level settings like conversion location, ad delivery optimization, and bid or cost control.
Get More Advice on Facebook Ads
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- Prepare for Facebook audience targeting changes.
- Set up a Facebook shop.
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