My First Meta Ads Lead Campaign: What I Learned From a Gurugram Practice Project
Published 3 min read
My first independent Meta Ads experiment was built around a simple idea: could I generate rental enquiries for furnished 2 BHK and 3 BHK properties in Gurugram using a relatively small advertising budget?
The project was connected to TrueNest, an independent rental enquiry project. I wanted to understand what happens when I give Meta a broad audience, a location, a few creatives and a limited budget and allow the platform's delivery system to find people who might respond.
The campaign taught me quite a bit about creative delivery and also reminded me that the number of leads alone doesn't explain everything about a campaign.
This is an independent practice project created for learning and portfolio development. The results shown are specific to this experiment and should not be treated as a general benchmark.
Campaign setup
The campaign targeted Gurugram, with a focus on Sectors 55, 56 and 57. I used approximately a 10-mile radius around Sector 57.
Instead of adding a long list of interests and behaviours, I used a broad/Advantage+ style approach. The idea was to avoid overcomplicating the audience and allow Meta to use its delivery system.
The campaign had two creatives. The lifetime budget was ₹1,500. It ran from August 1 and effectively ended around August 7 after the available spending limit was reached.
Campaign results
- ₹1,355.91Spendof ₹1,500 lifetime
- 57Leadsreported by Meta
- ₹23.79CPL
- 5,117Reach
- 10,158Impressions
- 168Unique clicks
| Spend | ₹1,355.91 |
|---|---|
| Leads | 57 |
| CPL | ₹23.79 |
| Reach | 5,117 |
| Impressions | 10,158 |
| Unique clicks | 168 |
| Campaign duration | August 1–7, 2026 approximately |
| Location | Gurugram |
| Focus | Sectors 55, 56 & 57 |
Meta also showed a comparison indicating that the CPL was approximately 28% lower than its comparison group. I treat that as Meta's own platform comparison rather than as a general industry benchmark.
Instagram activity was also visible during the campaign, with roughly 3.5k page views, around 90% of which were attributed to ads.
The creative difference was interesting
One of the things I noticed was that the image creative generated the leads during this experiment, while the video creative did not.
That doesn't mean images are universally better than video. It only tells me what happened in this particular test.
That distinction matters. If I had written "image ads perform better than video ads", that would be a much bigger claim than the data supports. What I can honestly say is: in my experiment, the image creative generated the leads while the video creative did not.
That is one of the habits I want to carry into future campaign analysis: separate what the data actually tells me from what I think might be happening.
Another thing I noticed: the 3 BHK creative
I also noticed that Meta wasn't spending on the original 3 BHK creative in the way I expected.
That made me think about how I would structure the next test. Instead of simply putting both property types into the same setup and waiting for the platform to decide where to spend, I would consider creating more distinct creative groups for 2 BHK and 3 BHK. I would also create new 3 BHK creatives rather than assuming that the original creative was the right one.
Again, this isn't a conclusion about how Meta always works. It's what I would test next based on what happened in this campaign.
What this campaign taught me
The biggest lesson was that campaign setup and creative testing are connected.
I initially thought of targeting, budget and creatives as separate pieces. After running the campaign, I started thinking more about how they interact. The platform decides where to deliver. People respond differently to different messages and formats. Some creatives may receive more delivery than others. And the final number of leads is only one part of understanding what happened.
This was also a useful reminder that a practice campaign doesn't need to be perfect to be useful. Sometimes the value comes from seeing something unexpected and then asking why it happened.
My Google Search campaign for the same project behaved very differently, which I wrote about in my first Google Ads and Meta Ads experiments.
I'm building my career in performance marketing, with a focus on Google Ads, Meta Ads, analytics and conversion tracking. This website documents the projects I work on while learning, including what worked, what didn't, and what I would test next.