Quick start: your first rule from a template

In 15 minutes you will build your first autorule — a stop-loss for new ad sets — test it in test mode, and a couple of days later switch it to live. The template already contains conditions, actions, a schedule and guards: you only need to set the target CPD and select ad accounts.

The end result: every 30 minutes the rule checks active ad sets younger than 7 days. If an ad set has spent more than two target CPDs today and today's clicks have not produced a single deposit, the rule pauses it until the end of the day. At midnight ad account time the ad set is enabled again.

Before you start

• The team's plan includes the “Meta autorules (beta)” feature.

• Your role is team owner, team lead or tech specialist. A buyer cannot create rules, only view them.

• Facebook ad accounts are connected through social profiles, and their spend has already been synced.

• The ad set ID macro {{adset.id}} is mapped in the traffic source. The stop-loss counts deposits by ad set: without this macro the rule will see zero deposits for all ad sets.

Nothing else is needed for test mode. The change permission in the profile is required only before switching to live. A detailed checklist is in “Preparation: profiles, change permission and data”.

Step 1. Open the section

Menu Meta / TikTok → Autorules. If there are no rules yet, you will see “No rules yet” and two buttons — “From template” and “Start from scratch”. If rules already exist, the “From template” button is in the list header next to “Create rule”.

If instead of the list you see “Meta autorules are not available on your team's current plan.”, the feature is not included in the plan — contact the team owner or support.

Step 2. Choose a template

Click “From template”. A list of eight templates with short descriptions opens. Select “Stop-loss: no deposits today”.

The “New rule” builder opens, already filled in from the template with default values. At the top, a banner appears: “Built from the template "Stop-loss: no deposits today".” with the parameter values.

What the template contains:

Why the stop-loss looks at “today”: it compares today's spend with deposits from today's clicks. Deposits arrive with a delay, so the rule sometimes triggers “ahead of time” — for a stop-loss this is a deliberate choice. The pause lasts only until midnight, while a wasted budget cannot be recovered.

Why an ad set is not paused again right after you enable it manually: the “Pause after a manual change” guard gives you 24 hours. If you enabled the ad set yourself, the rule will not touch it.

Step 3. Set the template parameters

On the template banner, click “Change parameters”. The “Template parameters” form opens:

Click “Apply template”.

Example. The target CPD for the offer is $25. Enter 25: the spend threshold becomes $50. An ad set that has spent $52 by 13:00 without a single deposit is paused until midnight. An ad set that has spent $52 and brought one deposit is left alone.

Important. Re-applying the template overwrites objects, conditions, actions, schedule and guards. The name, description and selected ad accounts are kept. If you edited the steps after applying, the banner warns: “The steps were changed after the template was applied: the parameter values above may no longer match the rule.”

Tip. The “two target CPDs” multiplier cannot be changed in the parameters. If you need a different threshold, for example $45 with a $30 CPD, edit the number in the spend condition on the “Conditions” step.

Step 4. Name and ad accounts

1. “Rule name”. If the field was empty, the template name was inserted. Give it a clear name, for example “Stop-loss nutra, new ad sets”. The name must be unique within the team.

2. “Ad accounts”. For the first time, select one or two ad accounts whose numbers you know well. You can add up to 50 ad accounts to one rule.

3. “Level”. Keep “Ad set”: the template is designed for ad sets.

4. “Priority”. Keep 50. It matters only if other rules work on the same ad sets.

Labels may appear next to an ad account:

• “Chrome extension only” — the ad account is connected only through the browser extension. In live, changes for it will not be executed: the rule can only notify and run in test mode.

• “Changes not allowed” — none of the ad account's profiles allows rules to change campaigns.

These labels do not get in the way of test mode. They must be removed before switching to live — see “Preparation”.

Step 5. Check which ad sets fall under the rule

Open the “Which objects” step. To the right of the filters is the “Objects in the rule now” block: the total number of objects (“Total: N”) and a breakdown by ad account. The “Show objects” button opens a list with the name, status, age and budget of each ad set.

What to check:

• The number looks plausible: the rule includes your active ad sets younger than 7 days.

• There is no warning “The filter matches no objects: the rule will do nothing.” If there is, the ad account currently has no new active ad sets or has not been synced yet.

• A warning about objects with unknown age means that some ad sets were spending before the ad account was connected to Adset.pro. Their first spend is unknown, so they do not get into “new only”.

Tip. To make the rule work only with some of the ad sets, add the “Name matches a mask” filter, for example *_nutra — the name ends with “_nutra”. Details are in “Scope”.

Step 6. Review the preview

The “Preview” step shows what the rule would do right now. Nothing is applied. Select an ad account and click “Calculate”, or turn on “Update automatically”.

Warnings to pay attention to:

• “The data is behind by N min (allowed 90 min): the scheduled run would be skipped.” — the spend sync is lagging. The rule will not work until the data is updated.

• “Tracker attribution is not set up for this ad account: live is blocked for it.” — none of the ad account's sources passes {{adset.id}}. The stop-loss would see zero deposits for all ad sets, so live is blocked for this ad account.

• “Tracker attribution covers only part of the traffic of this ad account: objects of unmapped sources see zero conversions.” — fix the mapping before switching to live, otherwise the rule may turn off ad sets that actually have deposits.

Tip. Look at the ad sets marked “matches” and ask yourself: would you turn them off manually right now? If the list contains an ad set that has deposits in the tracker, check the macro mapping in the source.

Step 7. Save the rule in test mode

Click “Create in dry-run”. The message “The rule is created in dry-run” appears. The rule header shows the “Dry-run” and “Disabled” tags, with the “Log”, “Enable” and “Switch to live” buttons next to them.

If the rule was saved with warnings (“Saved with warnings”), read them — they do not prevent the rule from working, but point out weak spots. If saving failed, the builder shows “Fix the problems before saving”, and the steps with errors get badges with the number of problems.

Step 8. Enable the rule

A saved rule does not work yet. Click “Enable” in the rule header or use the toggle in the “Status” column of the rule list.

In test mode the rule changes nothing in Facebook: it only writes to the log what it would have done. The first run appears soon according to the schedule — for the stop-loss, within half an hour.

Step 9. Observe for 1–2 days

Open the “Log” — with the button in the rule header or via the time in the “Last run” column of the list. On the “Runs” tab each row is one check of one ad account: “Started”, “Ad account”, “Mode”, “In scope”, “Matched”, “Applied”, “Simulated”, “Skipped”, “Errors”, “Data”. Expand a row to see the decisions per ad set: the “Simulated (dry-run)” outcome, the “Ads Manager” link and the “Why?” button.

What to check during these days:

• Justified triggers. Click “Why?” on a decision: you will see the spend, the number of deposits, the window with dates and time zone, the threshold and the result. Compare them with what you see in the tracker and Ads Manager.

• False triggers. If an ad set “got paused” during the day but brought deposits and turned profitable by the evening, the threshold is too low: increase the target CPD or the spend threshold.

• Skipped runs. The “Skipped: stale data” status means that the spend sync or tracker conversions are lagging. The reason is shown in the “Data” column.

• An ad set you expected was not included. Open the “Why not now?” tab and enter the ad set ID — the log shows which filter excluded it or which condition was not met.

• Notifications. In test mode the rule owner receives messages about what the rule would have done — no more than once every 6 hours per ad account.

The “Scheduled enables” tab is usually empty in test mode: the rule did not pause anything, so there is nothing to enable at midnight.

More about the log in “Log: runs, “Why?” and rollback”.

Step 10. What to check before live

Who turns on the permission in the profile: the team owner, a team lead or an admin. If you are a tech specialist, ask your manager.

Step 11. Switch the rule to live

1. Open the rule and click “Switch to live” in the header. If the rule has unsaved edits, the button is disabled with the hint “Save or discard the changes first”.

2. The “Let the rule change Facebook objects?” dialog appears with the list of ad accounts. Click “Confirm”.

3. The rule starts acting on the next scheduled run.

You can do the same from the rule list: the Dry-run / Live toggle in the “Mode” column or the “Switch to live” item in the row menu. The list also asks for confirmation — “Switch to live?”.

If the “Switch to live” button is disabled with the hint “Your role cannot switch rules to live”, contact the team owner or team lead.

After switching, watch the log:

• “Applied” — the change was sent to Facebook.

• “Skipped: no profile can make changes” — the ad account has no profile through which the rule is allowed to make changes.

• “Skipped: recent manual change” — you recently changed the ad set manually; the rule is waiting.

• The “Scheduled enables” tab shows the ad sets that the rule will enable at 00:00 ad account time.

How to stop or undo

• “Disable” — the rule stops running altogether.

• “Back to dry-run” — the rule keeps calculating and writing to the log but changes nothing in Facebook.

• “Roll back” on an action in the log — return the ad set to its state before the rule's action. The change is sent to Facebook immediately. If after the rule the ad set was already changed by you or another rule, the rollback is rejected so as not to overwrite that change.

You can stop a rule at any time. Actions already applied remain in the log.

What's next

• Rule templates — scaling, cutting and notifications using the same approach.

• Conditions: metrics, windows, attribution and comparisons — how to adjust thresholds to your needs.

• Schedule, guards and priorities — if several rules run on the same ad accounts.

• Preview, test and live modes — more about switching to live.

• Autorules: section overview.