How to run ads without an agency: set up Meta or Google, pick one goal, upload creative that shows the real product, track one conversion, and decide whether to scale. Clippable shortens the creative step. It does not auto-spend your media budget.
No card required for your first ad. Then start a 3-day trial if you want to keep going.
Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) suit visual offers and interest-based reach. Google Ads suit people typing the problem into Search. Start with one. Split budgets across both before you understand either and you learn nothing. For a Meta-only walkthrough, see Facebook ads for beginners.
Finish Business Manager or Google Ads account setup. Install the Meta pixel or Google tag on the page that matters. Pick a single campaign objective tied to a conversion you can see (signup, purchase, lead). Broad “awareness” campaigns are a weak first lesson for most beginners.
The ad and the landing page must tell the same story. Use real screenshots or product footage, not a stock lifestyle that disappears on click. Clippable can draft Meta-ready creative from screenshots - see create Meta ads from screenshots and the AI ad generator. You still upload and approve inside the ad platform.
Cap daily spend at an amount you can afford to learn from. Give the campaign enough delivery to judge, then kill or rewrite if the page does not convert. Do not “optimize creative” on a broken offer. Scaling comes after a clear signal - not after a good feeling on day one.
Clippable covers the creative production on step 5. Media buy, billing, and audience choices stay in Meta or Google. We do not auto-spend.
Catalog captures, not performance case studies. Use them as a picture of the creative step, not proof that ads will convert.
