The Short Answer
Don't run separate testing and scaling campaigns. Run one main campaign. If you don't want new creative launching next to your winners, put it in a separate ad set inside that same campaign. And once an ad is working, leave it alone. Don't pause it and move it somewhere else.
The "Test, Then Graduate" Setup
If you spend any time on Twitter or YouTube, you've seen this structure recommended:
- A testing campaign, where every new ad launches.
- A scaling campaign, where the budget lives.
- Graduation: when an ad performs in testing, you pause it there and move it (or duplicate it) into the scaling campaign.
It sounds clean and organized. We think it's close to the worst thing you can do to an account.
Why We Don't Recommend It
If something is working, don't touch it
When an ad is performing, it's performing where it is: in that campaign and ad set, with that budget and the delivery history it has built up. Meta's delivery is delicate. Pausing a winner and relaunching it somewhere else doesn't move the performance with it. There's no guarantee it will do as well in a new campaign or ad set, and often it won't.
The whole point of testing is to find ads that work. Graduating them means taking the ads that are working and disturbing them at exactly the moment they're doing what you want.
You end up with two scaling campaigns
Here's what usually happens in practice. The "testing" campaign finds a winner, and that winner is performing well right where it is. So the team leaves it running and keeps raising the testing campaign's budget. Before long, the testing campaign is spending as much as or more than the "scaling" campaign.
Now you have two campaigns doing the same job, splitting budget and data for no real reason.
What We Recommend Instead
One main campaign
Keep your spend in one main campaign. That's where your winners live and where your budget goes. It's also consistent with what we see in accounts spending $1M–$3M a month, which we broke down in our post on Meta account structure and creative testing.
Test in a separate ad set, not a separate campaign
If you're worried about launching new creative into the ad set where your winners live, give new creative its own ad set inside the main campaign. You can think of the ad set with your proven ads as your "scaling" ad set and the others as "testing" ad sets. Same idea as the testing/scaling split, without pulling winners out of the place where they work.
When a new ad starts winning in its ad set, you don't need to move it. It's already in the main campaign, getting budget.
At scale, you can usually test in the same ad set
For brands spending at a high level, you can usually roll new creative straight into the same ad set as your winners without it being a problem. An ad set spending $30,000 a day gets so many conversions that if adding new ads shakes things up, it recalibrates the same day and keeps scaling.
For how many ads to put in each ad set, see how many ads per ad set on Meta.
If You're Spending $50K a Month or Less
Smaller accounts need to be more careful. If you're spending around $50,000 a month or less and you have an ad set with a performing ad, do as little to that ad set as possible:
- Don't roll a lot of new creative into it.
- Don't disrupt the balance. Leave the budget and settings alone as much as you can.
- Launch new creative in a separate ad set in the same campaign instead.
The reason is volume. An ad set that gets fewer conversions per day and per week has less data to recover with. The more you change it, the more likely you are to throw it off, and it can take a long time to find its footing again. A high-spend ad set recovers fast. A low-spend one might not.
Where Creative Fits In
Structure only gets you so far. Whichever setup you use, results come from the ads you put into it. Most ads won't win, and the ones that do eventually fatigue. The accounts that keep scaling are the ones with a steady supply of new, genuinely different concepts going into new ad sets, while the winners are left alone to do their job. That's especially true since Meta's Andromeda update, which rewards creative diversity over volume.
FAQ
Should I have a separate testing campaign on Meta?
We don't recommend it. One main campaign, with new creative in a separate ad set if needed, keeps your winners undisturbed and your budget in one place.
How do I test new creative without hurting my winners?
Launch new ads in their own ad set inside your main campaign. Leave the ad set with your proven ads alone. At high spend, you can usually add new ads to the winning ad set directly.
Should I move winning ads from a testing campaign to a scaling campaign?
No. An ad's performance is tied to where it's running. Pausing it and relaunching it elsewhere doesn't guarantee the same results, and often hurts them. If it's working, leave it where it is and give that campaign the budget.
Is it different for smaller budgets?
Yes. Below about $50,000 a month, ad sets get fewer conversions and take longer to recover from changes. Keep changes to a working ad set to a minimum and test new creative in a separate ad set.
Need the Creative to Test?
Biddyco is a creative agency for Meta ads for brands spending $100K–$5M+/month. Our in-house team makes UGC, motion, hybrid and static ads on a flat monthly retainer, so there's always something new and different to test, whatever your campaign structure.
