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A free guide by Mariah Brunner ↗ INSTAGRAM ↗ TIKTOK

Claude Can Now
Run Your Meta Ads

Meta opened its ads platform to Claude. Connect your account once, then pull reports, catch problems and build campaigns just by asking. Here’s the setup and the first 5 prompts to run.

Why I Care About This

I spent years inside Meta’s ads division learning how to grow businesses with Facebook and Instagram ads. That one skill is the reason I could leave and start my own business. This connector is a shortcut to a skill that used to take years to build. If you don’t want to pay an agency thousands a month or spend six months learning Ads Manager, start here.

Meta launched its ads AI connectors in open beta on April 29, 2026. The connector is a Meta-hosted MCP server, so you’re not installing or running anything. Here’s what it can do (Meta’s docs):

  1. Reporting. Live spend, results, cost per result and ROAS by campaign, ad set or ad, plus trends, industry benchmarks and an anomaly check.
  2. Building and editing. Campaigns, ad sets, ads and audiences. Anything new starts paused, and Claude asks before turning it on.
  3. Catalogs and tracking. Product feed problems, pixel health and event match quality.
Connect It In 5 Minutes

You need: a Facebook account with access to your ad account, and Claude on the web or desktop app. You don’t need to code or make a Meta developer app.

  1. Open connectors. In Claude, go to Customize (called Plugins on newer accounts), then Connectors.
  2. Add it. Click + Add, then Add custom connector. Name it Meta Ads and paste https://mcp.facebook.com/ads.
  3. Sign in with Facebook. Use the profile that manages your ads and approve the permissions it asks for. If it asks which businesses or ad accounts to share, pick only the ones you want Claude touching. Leave client accounts off unless you’re cleared to.
  4. Turn it on in a chat. Click + at the bottom left, then Connectors, and switch on Meta Ads.
  5. Test it read-only. Ask: "What ad accounts do I have, and what did I spend in the last 7 days?" Live numbers back means you’re in.

The Free plan allows one custom connector. On Team and Enterprise, an owner adds it first, then each person signs in. (Claude’s custom connector guide, Meta’s setup page)

01

If it says disabled or finds nothing

It’s still a beta, and not every ad account has it yet. Make sure you signed in with the Facebook profile that has full access to the ad account, then try another ad account in your business. Third-party Meta connectors exist, but they mean handing your ad account to another company, so read what access they ask for first.

02

Lock it down before write access

Connected, Claude can change budgets, edit live ads and turn campaigns on. In Customize (or Plugins), then Connectors, click Meta Ads and set every tool that creates, edits or activates ads to Needs approval or Blocked. Reporting still works. (How tool permissions work)

Then set an account spending limit in Meta under Billing & payments, then Payment settings. It’s a total cap: when you hit it, your ads stop until you raise or reset it. (Meta’s instructions)

Run only the read-only prompts (1, 2 and 5) for your first week.

The First 5 Prompts

01

The 30-second account audit

Run this first. It’s read-only. Claude pulls 30 days, scores every campaign and tells you what to kill, scale and fix.

1. Account Audit
Use the Meta ads connector to pull the last 30 days of performance from my ad account [ACCOUNT NAME OR ID]. Then audit every active campaign for a [E-COMMERCE / LEAD GEN / APP / LOCAL SERVICE] business and give me a verdict on each. My targets: [TARGET ROAS, e.g. 2.5x] or [TARGET COST PER RESULT, e.g. $30]. If I left these blank, ask me before you score anything. STEP 1: PULL THE NUMBERS For every active campaign, make a table: | Campaign | Objective | Spend | Results | Cost per result | ROAS | Frequency | Status | STEP 2: SCORE EACH CAMPAIGN Tag each one: - SCALE: beating my target with room to spend more - OPTIMIZE: profitable but held back by creative or audience - FIX: something's broken (tracking, high frequency, stuck in learning, overlapping audiences) - KILL: missing my target badly for 14+ days with no clear fix One sentence of reasoning per campaign. STEP 3: THE 3 BIGGEST ISSUES - Where I'm wasting the most money right now - Where I have the biggest untapped upside - Anything technically broken. Check my pixel/dataset health and the account's opportunity score too. STEP 4: THE 3 MOVES 1. The one campaign to pause today 2. The one campaign to scale, and by how much 3. The one creative or audience test to launch this week RULES - Use only real data from my account. Never estimate a number you didn't pull. - Read only. Don't change, pause, create or activate anything. I'll approve every change myself. - If a campaign is still learning or has under 7 days of data, say so instead of judging it.

02

The wasted budget finder

Run it weekly. It finds the ad sets, placements and tired ads spending money with nothing to show for it, and adds up what you could save.

2. Wasted Budget Finder
Use the Meta ads connector to audit [ACCOUNT NAME OR ID] for wasted spend over the last 30 days. My target cost per result is [$X]. FIND 1. Ad sets that spent more than [$100] with zero conversions, with the total spend 2. Ad sets converting at 2x or more my target cost per result 3. Placements eating budget without converting (break results down by placement) 4. Ads with frequency above 3.5 whose results are dropping (creative fatigue) 5. Audiences that overlap across ad sets and compete with each other 6. Ad sets stuck in learning for more than 14 days OUTPUT A table sorted by wasted spend, biggest first: | What | Where (campaign / ad set / ad name) | Wasted spend | What to do | Estimated savings | Then one line: "You're losing about $X a month to fixable waste. The top 3 fixes would recover about $Y." Show the math. RULES - Use names, not "ad set 7." - Don't recommend pausing anything that's still in learning. - For overlapping audiences, tell me which ad set to fold the other into. - Read only. Don't change anything. Show what data you used for each conclusion.

03

The winner scaler

Most people scale wrong. They double a winning budget overnight and watch costs jump. This builds a gradual plan and asks before every change.

3. Winner Scaler
Use the Meta ads connector to find my best campaigns in [ACCOUNT NAME OR ID] over the last 30 days and build a scaling plan that won't blow up my cost per result. My target is [ROAS / COST PER RESULT]. STEP 1: PICK THE WINNERS Top 3 campaigns that are beating my target, have enough conversions to trust, and have been steady for the last 14 days (not a one-day spike). STEP 2: WHY THEY WORK For each: the audience driving results, the creative format and message carrying it, the most efficient placement, and any day-of-week pattern. STEP 3: THE SCALING PLAN For each winner: - Budget: raise it in steps of about 20% every few days, a common rule of thumb, since big jumps can send an ad set back into learning. Give me a day-by-day plan for 14 days. - Duplicates: 2 to 3 new ad sets to test the winner in (broad, a lookalike, a new interest) - Creative: 2 to 3 new angles built on the winning message - Expansion: new placements or regions it could reach without getting worse STEP 4: THE 14-DAY CALENDAR Days 1 to 3, 4 to 7 and 8 to 14, with the check to run before each next step. RULES - Show me each change before you make it. Don't edit or activate anything until I say "approved" for that specific change. - Anything you create stays paused until I approve it. - If a winner has under 7 days of data, tell me to wait a week.

04

The first campaign builder

Never run Meta ads? Tell Claude what you sell and who buys it. It interviews you, plans the campaign, explains every choice and builds it paused.

4. First Campaign Builder
I want to launch my first Meta ads campaign. Act as a patient senior media buyer. Plan it with me, explain every choice, and only create it after I approve. STEP 1: ASK ME (one question at a time) 1. What am I selling (product, service, subscription, lead)? 2. What does it cost, or what's my average order value? 3. Who's the customer? Push me past "women 25-45" to a real person. 4. My monthly ad budget? 5. My target cost per purchase or lead? 6. What creative do I have (photos, video, creator content, nothing yet)? 7. Where does the click go (website, landing page, lead form)? 8. Is my Meta pixel installed? Check my dataset in the connector and tell me if my key event (purchase, lead, sign-up) is actually firing. STEP 2: PROPOSE ONE CAMPAIGN - Objective (Sales, Leads, Traffic, Engagement), and why - Daily budget, tied to my target cost per result - Bid strategy, with reasoning - 2 to 3 ad sets: broad, interest-based, and a lookalike if I have a customer list - Placements: Advantage+ placements unless I have a reason to limit them - A creative brief per ad set: hook, format, length, tone, call to action STEP 3: PRE-LAUNCH CHECKLIST Pixel firing on the right event, account spending limit set, domain verified, creative sizes right for the placements, UTM tags on the link. STEP 4: BUILD IT PAUSED Show me the full plan one more time. When I say "build it," create everything paused. Only turn it on when I say "launch it." RULES - I've never run a Meta ad. Plain words, and explain every acronym the first time. - One campaign, 2 to 3 ad sets, 2 to 3 ads each. No more. - If my budget is too low to learn anything, say so and tell me the minimum.

05

The daily briefing

This replaces logging into Ads Manager every morning. On a paid plan, ask Claude to make it a scheduled task every weekday at 8am.

5. Daily Briefing
Run my daily Meta ads briefing for [ACCOUNT NAME OR ID] using the Meta ads connector. Compare yesterday to my 7-day average. Post it here in the chat. FORMAT (a 60-second read) YESTERDAY AT A GLANCE - Spend, results ([PURCHASES / LEADS]), ROAS or cost per result - Change vs. the 7-day average, in % WHAT'S WORKING The 1 or 2 campaigns or ad sets driving most results. One line each. WHAT'S DRIFTING - Run the anomaly check and list anything it flags - Cost per result up more than 25% vs. the 7-day average - Anything that spent yesterday with zero results - Anything that left the learning phase - Frequency above 4 (creative fatigue starting) WHAT TO DO TODAY 1 to 3 actions, each with the expected impact. Every action needs my approval. MONDAYS ONLY Add last 7 days vs. the 7 days before: spend, results, ROAS and where the change came from. RULES - Under 200 words on a normal day. - If everything is steady, say so. Don't invent action items. - Read only. Never change, pause or activate anything from this briefing. - Flag anything odd even if you're unsure what it means.
Your First Week
  1. Day 1: Connect it and run the audit. Don’t change anything yet. Just look.
  2. Day 2: Run the wasted budget finder and pause the obvious losers yourself.
  3. Day 3: Run the winner scaler on your best campaign. Spread the budget bumps over 14 days.
  4. Day 4: Schedule the daily briefing. Now you see problems the morning they start.

Agencies charge for judgment, not labor. Claude handles the labor in seconds, but the judgment still has to come from you. Keep it read-only until you’ve watched it work for a week.

Want the version with fewer steps? Here’s what to do once the connector is set up, and my Meta Media Buyer Agent if you want it running every day.