This section is for UK business owners and marketing leads who want to see how I would run Facebook and Instagram ads for their kind of business before they get in touch. Each sector page sets out how buyers in that market respond to ads in a feed, which Meta policies and UK rules limit the targeting and the copy, and where accounts in that sector tend to waste budget.
The sector pages are listed below this one. Here I explain why the sector changes a Meta campaign at all, group the sectors by the pressure that shapes their campaigns, and describe how the work runs whatever you sell.
Why the sector changes a Facebook and Instagram campaign
On Google, people tell you what they want by typing it. On Facebook and Instagram, nobody is looking for you: the ad interrupts someone scrolling past friends’ photos and Reels. That makes the sector matter in different ways from search advertising.
- Who you are allowed to target. Ads about housing, jobs, financial products and social issues sit in what Meta calls a Special Ad Category, which removes or narrows options such as age, postcode radius and detailed interests. An estate agent and a recruitment agency start with a much smaller toolkit than a café.
- What the ad may say about the viewer. Meta will not run copy that asserts or implies something personal about the person reading it, such as a health condition, debt or a legal problem. That rule hits clinics, lenders and solicitors hardest, because the obvious headline is usually the one that gets rejected.
- What the creative has to do. A fashion label can sell from a single photo. A software company or a training provider usually needs a short video or a carousel to explain the offer before anyone will click.
- What counts as a result. For a restaurant it might be a booking; for a car dealer, a test drive held a week later in the showroom. If the sale happens offline, I need a way to send it back to Meta, or the campaign learns from form fills that never turn into money.
Sectors grouped by what shapes the campaign
The sector name matters less than the problem behind it. Find the group that sounds like your business, then open the page for your sector.
Regulated care and advice
Private clinics, dentists, law firms and fintech or financial services firms advertise under a regulator’s rules as well as Meta’s. For clinics and healthcare practices, prescription-only treatments cannot be promoted to the public in the UK, and the ASA has ruled against many social ads for injectable cosmetic treatments. Financial firms have Meta’s own verification for UK financial services advertisers on top of the FCA’s financial promotion rules. The copy has to be accurate and permitted before it can be persuasive.
Housing, jobs and credit
Estate agents, letting agents, property developers, recruitment agencies and lenders usually fall into a Special Ad Category. For estate agents and property businesses and for recruitment agencies looking for candidates, the work leans on broad audiences, strong creative and audiences built from your own data, because the narrow demographic targeting people expect is not available.
Local footfall and bookings
Restaurants, cafés, gyms, trades, hotels and tour operators need people nearby, or people planning a trip, to act within days. For restaurants and cafés the campaigns are short and timed: a new menu, a quiet Tuesday, a booking window before Christmas. Seasonality, opening hours and how quickly someone answers a message or the phone decide the results as much as the ads do.
Visual products and brands
Fashion, beauty and car dealers sell things people judge by eye. These accounts depend on a steady supply of new images and video, and on a product catalogue that feeds ads automatically, so that someone who looked at a jacket or a used car is shown that item again.
Long decisions and causes
B2B and software companies, schools and training providers, charities and media businesses ask people to commit time, money or attention after more than one look. For B2B and SaaS companies the first lead is rarely the sale, so I track what happens afterwards, such as a demo held or a trial upgraded. Charity appeals that touch on a social issue may need Meta’s authorisation and a “Paid for by” disclaimer before they can run.
What the sector pages tell you, and what they do not
Each sector page explains how I would approach your market, what I would check in the first week and the mistakes I would look for in an existing account. They do not name clients or quote results. I publish a case study only when the client has agreed and the figures can be evidenced. If experience in your sector is important to your decision, ask me on a call and I will answer straight, including when yours is a sector I would be working in for the first time.
How the work runs, whatever your sector
- A first conversation. What you sell, who buys it, what a customer is worth to you and any rules your regulator or trade body sets.
- A policy and tracking check. I confirm which Meta policies apply to your ads, whether a Special Ad Category is needed and whether your Meta Pixel and server-side events record real enquiries and sales. Under UK GDPR and PECR, tracking on your website has to respect visitors’ cookie choices, so I check that too.
- A plan for your market. Audiences, the creative each stage of the funnel needs, budgets set from your margins rather than an industry average, and the landing pages or lead forms the campaigns will use.
- Build and launch. Campaigns go live once tracking has been tested, so the early numbers can be trusted.
- Monthly running. Most sector work carries on as ongoing Facebook and Instagram ads management: refreshing creative before it tires, watching how often the same people see the ads, and reporting on enquiries and sales rather than clicks and likes.
If your sector is not listed
The sectors here are common starting points, not the only ones I will take on. Most businesses sit close enough to one of the groups above for the same thinking to apply. If yours does not, or your sector has rules I have not mentioned, tell me about your business and what you sell, and I will say honestly whether Facebook and Instagram ads suit it and whether I am the right person to run them.