Skip to the content
DZHFRV

· Product: Runads

Runads: bulk Meta Ads setup without Ads Manager

I built Runads, a free tool to create Facebook and Instagram ads in bulk: up to 2,000 ads from creatives, texts and a brief. When it pays off and what to check.

Ads Manager builds Facebook and Instagram ads one at a time. When a test needs dozens of ads, most of the work is clicking, not thinking. So I built Runads: you upload creatives and texts, describe the task in plain words, check the draft and create everything in your ad account at once. In my work it cuts the setup time by about 80%. It is free and needs no sign-up.

When bulk setup pays off

  • A creative test. Five images and four texts make twenty ads. Meta asks for a diverse set of creatives rather than one idea in many crops (see Meta Andromeda and GEM), and a diverse set means many ads to build.
  • Several countries or audiences. The same ads in different ad sets, each with its own countries, ages or interests.
  • A copy of a working campaign. Runads loads an existing campaign of the account as the draft, and you change what the new test needs.
  • A plan in a spreadsheet. Runads builds the draft from a CSV table, one row per ad.

For one campaign with three ads, Ads Manager is enough. The gain grows with the number of ads.

From a draft to campaigns

  1. Connect a Meta system user token with the ads_management permission, and choose the ad account, page, pixel and Instagram account from lists.
  2. Upload up to 300 images and videos and up to 100 texts, and add the landing link.
  3. Describe the task: offer, countries, audience, budget. A model of your choice drafts the campaigns, ad sets and ads. Without a model, Runads builds the draft by fixed rules.
  4. Check the draft. “Check in Meta” asks Meta to validate every campaign and creative without creating anything, and shows each problem next to its field.
  5. Create the draft. Runads creates every campaign, ad set and ad switched off, so nothing spends until you turn it on in Ads Manager.

The step-by-step guides are on the Runads blog.

Limits to plan around

  • One draft holds up to 50 campaigns and 2,000 ads.
  • Within a campaign, Meta’s own limits apply: 200 ad sets, and 50 ads per ad set.
  • Files: JPEG and PNG up to 8 MB, MP4 and MOV up to 1 GB.
  • The lowest budget comes from your ad account: the minimum daily budget Meta sets for its currency.

Choices it leaves to you

Meta keeps choosing more for you: it took manual placements away from Sales and Leads campaigns (Meta drops manual placements) and can add promotions to your ads by itself (Meta detected offers). Runads goes the other way for the settings that change who sees the ads or how Meta treats them. Special ad categories, Advantage+ audience, multi-advertiser ads and creative enhancements have no default, and the model does not fill them in. An unanswered one blocks the launch, so every one of them is a decision you made, not one you missed. From Graph API v27.0, Meta may turn Product showcase on by itself; Runads sends it with the other enhancements, off unless you tick it.

The same applies to the targeting rules Meta enforces for regulated topics. With housing, employment or financial products, Runads stops ad sets with narrowed ages or a chosen gender before Meta refuses them.

Your data and the model

Runads has no database. The Meta token and the model key are encrypted with AES-256-GCM in an HttpOnly cookie for one hour. Files, texts and drafts stay in your browser tab, and the files go to Meta only when you check or create the draft.

You choose the model and pay its provider, if the model is not free: OpenRouter, Groq, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Google or Anthropic, with your own key. The provider receives the brief, the texts and the draft, but not your token or account IDs, and no files except reduced copies of up to four images when you ask the model to write texts from them. Some free or trial keys let the provider use prompts to improve its models, so keep personal data out of briefs.

What it does not do

  • It does not create lead forms, audiences or catalogs: you make them in Meta and choose them in Runads.
  • It does not edit or delete what already runs in the account.
  • It does not create ads for Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia, where Meta needs a verified advertiser and regional fields.

If you want me to plan and run the campaigns rather than build them yourself, see Facebook and Instagram ads.

Let’s discuss your project