Short answer
Open X Ads Manager (ads.x.com), create an account with payment details, start a campaign with one objective, set a daily budget, choose your audience by location, interests, keywords or follower look-alikes, add a post as the ad, and launch.
Key takeaways
- One objective per campaign keeps results readable.
- Start small, then raise budget on what works.
- Install X's pixel or conversion API before you judge sales.
X Ads Manager looks busy, but a first campaign takes about fifteen minutes. These are the steps in order.
How do I set up an ads account?
Go to ads.x.com while logged into the account that will advertise, choose your country and time zone, and add a payment method.
The country and time zone can't be changed later, so pick the ones your billing and reporting should use.
How do I build the campaign?
Choose an objective, then set budget, audience and creative.
- Objective: reach, video views, pre-roll views, app installs, website traffic, engagements, followers, app re-engagements or sales. See campaign objectives.
- Budget: a daily budget and an optional total. Use automatic bidding at first.
- Ad group: start and end dates, and the audience.
- Audience: location, language, gender, age, devices, plus interests, keywords, follower look-alikes (people like the followers of chosen accounts) and your own custom audiences.
- Placements: timelines, profiles, search, replies; leave them on unless you have a reason.
- Creative: pick an existing post or create a new one. See ad formats.
- Review and launch.
How do I track results?
Install the X Pixel or conversion API on your site and create the conversion events you care about.
Without it, website and sales campaigns can only report clicks. Add UTM parameters to links so your own analytics see the traffic too.
How do I improve the campaign?
Wait for a few days of data, then cut what's expensive and fund what's cheap.
- Compare ad groups and creatives by cost per result.
- Pause the bottom half; add new creative variations.
- Narrow or broaden the audience one change at a time.
- Promoting posts that already did well organically is usually cheaper; see promoted posts.
Questions people ask
How much should I spend on my first X campaign?
Enough to learn: a modest daily budget for one to two weeks. Judge by cost per result for your objective, not by impressions.
Can I promote an existing post?
Yes. Choose an existing post as the ad creative, or use the Boost option on a post where X offers it.
Why was my ad rejected?
Common reasons are restricted categories (financial, health, gambling, political), misleading claims, or landing pages that don't match the ad.