Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://theoptimizer.io/docs/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

TheOptimizer’s automation engine runs against your Facebook campaigns on a schedule you define. Each rule evaluates a set of conditions and fires a specific action — or sends an alert — when those conditions are met. This page covers all the action types available for Facebook and how they work.

​
Rule Levels

Facebook rules can operate at three levels of your campaign hierarchy:
LevelWhat it acts onCommon use
CampaignThe entire campaignPause on sustained losses, scale budget across all ad sets
Ad SetIndividual ad sets (the most common level)Real-time pausing, budget scaling, bid adjustments
Ad (Content)Individual ads/creativesPause underperforming variants, reactivate recovered ones
Most rules are written at the ad set level. Ad sets are the most actionable unit on Facebook — they control audience, budget, and delivery, and they can be independently paused or scaled without touching the rest of the campaign.

​
Available Actions

​
Pause / Start

ActionLevelDescription
Pause CampaignCampaignStops delivery on the entire campaign
Start CampaignCampaignResumes a paused campaign
Pause Ad SetAd SetStops delivery on a specific ad set
Start Ad SetAd SetResumes a paused ad set
Pause ContentAdStops delivery on a specific ad/creative
Start ContentAdResumes a paused ad/creative
Pause rules are the most common in the dataset — 1,025 of 2,940 analysed rules pause ad sets. They are typically combined with spend thresholds or CPA conditions to stop losses before they compound.

​
Budget Changes

ActionLevelDescription
Increase BudgetCampaign or Ad SetIncrease budget by a fixed amount or percentage
Decrease BudgetCampaign or Ad SetDecrease budget by a fixed amount or percentage
Set BudgetCampaign or Ad SetSet budget to a specific value
Budget rules are typically triggered by ROI or CPA thresholds. Use percentage increases for proportional scaling; use fixed amounts for large-budget campaigns where percentage increases would be too aggressive.

​
Bid Changes

ActionLevelDescription
Increase BidAd SetIncrease the ad set bid by a fixed amount or percentage
Decrease BidAd SetDecrease the ad set bid by a fixed amount or percentage
Set BidAd SetSet the bid to a specific value
Bid adjustments are less common than budget changes (133 of 2,940 analysed rules). They are most effective when combined with strict ROI gates and Facebook pixel confirmation — bid up only when the algorithm has enough data to use the increased bid effectively.

​
Clone (Duplicate)

ActionLevelDescription
Copy Ad SetAd SetDuplicates a winning ad set into a new one
Copy CampaignCampaignDuplicates a winning campaign
Cloning rules are intentional scaling tools, not accident triggers. They are typically scheduled to run every few days to avoid fragmenting budgets across too many copies at once.

​
Alert Only

ActionLevelDescription
AlertAnySends a notification without taking any action on the campaign
Alert-only rules are useful for monitoring conditions you want to review manually before acting — for example, detecting a tracking discrepancy between Facebook Results and tracker conversions.

​
Available Condition Metrics

​
Spend & Budget

  • Amount Spent — total spend in the selected time window
  • Daily Budget — the current daily budget allocation (supports dynamic comparisons like “80% of Daily Budget”)
  • Traffic Source CPA — cost per acquisition as reported by Facebook

​
Tracker Metrics (from your connected tracking platform)

  • Tracker Conversions — conversions reported by your tracker
  • Tracker CPA — cost per acquisition from your tracker
  • Tracker ROI — return on investment from your tracker
  • Tracker Revenue — revenue reported by your tracker
  • Tracker EPC — earnings per click from your tracker

​
Facebook-Native Metrics

  • Facebook Results — conversions recorded by the Facebook pixel
  • Avg. CPC — average cost per click
  • CPM — cost per thousand impressions
  • CTR — click-through rate
  • Frequency — average number of times each person has seen your ad
  • Video Average Play Time — average seconds of video watched (for video ads)

​
Campaign Properties

  • Campaign Created At — the date the campaign was created (useful for protecting new campaigns from premature pausing)
  • Campaign Status — current status (Active, Paused)
  • Ad Set Status — current status of the ad set
  • Campaign.payout — your configured payout for the campaign (enables rules like “CPA > 140% of Campaign.payout”)

​
Time Conditions

  • Hour of Day — trigger rules only during specific hours (e.g., pause at 22:00, resume at 08:00)
  • Day of Week — trigger rules only on specific days

​
Data Intervals

Rules evaluate conditions over a time window you choose:
IntervalBest for
TodayReal-time guardrails — stop a bad ad set before it bleeds your daily budget
Last 2 daysShort-term trend detection without single-day noise
Last 3 daysThe standard scaling window — enough data, responsive enough to act
Last 7 daysWeekly performance assessment — cut or scale on proven patterns
Last 14 daysSustained performance analysis
Last 30 daysLong-term campaign health checks
53% of Facebook rules analysed use Today as the data interval — real-time monitoring is the dominant pattern on this platform.

​
Scheduling

Rules can be scheduled to run:
  • Immediately (as soon as conditions are met, evaluated every few minutes)
  • Every N hours (e.g., every 2 hours)
  • Once daily at a specified time
  • On specific days of the week
Immediate execution is typical for loss-protection rules. Daily scheduling is typical for budget scaling. Cloning rules typically run every 3 days.
For ready-to-use rule templates with specific conditions and thresholds, see Popular Rules — Facebook. That page covers 23 proven patterns across same-day guardrails, budget scaling, CPA optimisation, reactivation, bid adjustments, and creative rotation.