The "Micromanager" Account Structure Breakdown

So what does a micromanager account structure actually look like?

Typically, you'd see:

• Separate campaigns for awareness, consideration, and conversion

• Multiple ad sets divided by audience types

• Different ad sets for retargeting, lookalikes, and cold traffic

• Location-specific ad sets within your service area

• Separate budgets for each segment

Many advertisers still swear by this approach. They like seeing exactly which audiences perform best and being able to control everything manually.

But here's the problem - this approach made sense in 2020, not in 2025.

What Meta Actually Recommends

Meta has been pushing for simpler campaign structures through their Advantage+ campaigns and automated features.

Meta has been crystal clear about their direction in recent years. Their official guidance pushes for simpler structures that let their AI do the heavy lifting.

From Meta's ad set structure guide:

"When you run similar ad sets at the same time, each one gets fewer opportunities to learn, and fewer results. Combining ad sets will help you get the results you need faster, and see stable results sooner."

Meta specifically recommends:

• Use fewer campaigns and ad sets: Consolidate to 1 campaign per objective with fewer ad sets

• Broaden targeting: Remove unnecessary targeting restrictions to help the algorithm find the best audiences

• Consolidate similar audiences: Stop splitting your budget across multiple similar audience segments

Meta has seen impressive results from businesses that implement simplified structures. According to Meta's Ad Set Structure Guide:

"Women's accessories brand Lele Sadoughi saw a +41% jump in conversions when they tested a simplified ad account structure."

This real-world example demonstrates exactly what my agency has been seeing with our local business clients - consolidation works.

As Meta puts it in their Business Help Center:

"Our ad delivery system works best when your audience size is between 2 to 10 million people. With a bigger audience, the auction will have greater opportunities to deliver ads, observe outcomes and optimize."

Basically, Meta is saying: "Trust our algorithm, it knows what it's doing."

What My Agency Found With Real Local Clients

We tested this ourselves with a hair restoration clinic in Scottsdale.

Our initial setup followed the traditional approach:

• A retargeting ad set

• A lookalike ad set

• A prospecting ad set

• Various test ad sets

This worked fine at first. But we kept hitting the same wall - retargeting and lookalike audiences would eventually fatigue, and performance would drop.

So we tried what Meta suggested, but took it even further:

• One campaign

• One broad ad set

• About 50 diverse ads (not just the 3-6 Meta recommends)

The results? Way more stability, lower cost per lead, and ability to scale without performance tanking. Plus, we spent way less time managing campaigns and more time on creating better ads.

"But How Do You Test With Just One Campaign?"

This is the question I get all the time. The answer is surprisingly simple.

You just throw your test ad directly into your live broad ad set with 1-3 variations and let Meta figure it out:

• If it's a winner, Meta will give it reach and spend

• If it's a loser, it'll get barely any reach and just a few dollars in spend

• After about 7 days, you'll know if it's working or not

That's it. No complicated test campaigns needed. Meta's algorithm is smart enough to identify winners without wasting your budget on losers.

Why This Works Better for Local Businesses

Local businesses actually benefit more from this simplified approach:

1. You're already targeting a limited area, so further audience segmentation often makes your audiences too small

2. Local customers typically share similar problems regardless of demographics

3. Local business budgets need to be super efficient - no room for wasted spend

4. You probably don't have time to manage complex campaign structures anyway

This aligns with Meta's recommendations in their Small Business Resources

The Bottom Line: Broader is Better

In 2025, the evidence is clear - broader, simplified Meta Ads account structures deliver better results for local business lead generation.

The key is to:

• Trust Meta's AI to find your customers

• Use one campaign with broad targeting

• Focus on creating lots of good ad variations

• Test new ideas within your existing structure

• Be patient and let the system learn

Our agency has seen this work across dozens of local businesses. The old way of micromanaging campaigns is dead. Embrace the algorithm, and your local lead gen results will thank you.

Have you tried simplifying your Meta Ads structure? Let me know in the comments.