Improve Facebook

First, I’d narrow the problem to the advertiser experience. Facebook serves people consuming content as well as businesses trying to reach potential customers. For this exercise, I’d focus on helping businesses create and run ads successfully.

I’ll clarify the objective, choose an advertiser segment, understand their needs, and then prioritise solutions and define success.

1. Understand the product and clarify the scope

My understanding is that Facebook’s advertising tools help businesses choose a campaign objective, define an audience and budget, create ads, and evaluate results.

Before suggesting changes, I’d ask:

• Are we improving the advertiser experience or the experience of people seeing ads?

• Are we targeting new advertisers or businesses already running campaigns?

• Is the objective activation, advertiser retention, campaign performance, or revenue?

• Are there restrictions around geography, device, timeline, or budget?

For this case, there are no fixed timeline or budget constraints. I’ll focus on helping new advertisers launch their first campaign confidently and understand its results.

My hypothesis is that a better first experience can support repeat usage and sustainable advertising revenue. I wouldn’t optimise simply for getting businesses to spend more before they understand what they’re buying.

2. Choose an advertiser segment

I’d consider two broad groups:

I’d choose a small business with fewer than five employees, where the founder or a generalist is setting up the first campaign.

Team size is a starting assumption. Advertising experience, available time, and access to creative resources are more useful indicators of need. I’d also consider language, device, and accessibility requirements.

For example, imagine a founder running a small home-decor business. They understand their products but may not know how to turn a product photograph into an ad or choose an appropriate campaign objective.

I wouldn’t assume every small business depends heavily on Facebook. I’d validate whether this channel fits their customers and goals.

3. Understand the journey and pain points

I’d map the journey as:

Define a business goal → Find inspiration → Choose campaign settings → Create the ad → Review and launch → Measure results → Decide what to change

I see four needs:

• Understand results: “How do I know whether this campaign worked before investing more?”

• Launch the first ad: “What do I need to create, and which settings should I choose?”

• Learn from the market: “How are similar businesses presenting their products?”

• Understand policies: “What could cause my ad to be rejected or my account to face restrictions?”

I’d validate these through interviews and by observing first-time advertisers complete campaign setup. Funnel data would help identify whether people abandon creative preparation, audience selection, payment, or another step.

4. Prioritise the problems

I’d prioritise getting the first ad ready to launch and finding relevant examples to learn from.

These needs are connected. A founder may understand the setup instructions but still struggle because they don’t know what a useful ad looks like for their business.

Examples can provide direction, while creation support helps them apply it. I’d keep basic measurement and policy guidance within that flow because launching quickly is only useful if the campaign is appropriate and its results can be interpreted.

5. Explore solutions

To help advertisers learn from similar businesses, I’d consider:

• Lightweight business setup: Ask about their industry, product, audience, and campaign goal to make guidance relevant.

• Curated resources and case studies: Bring useful examples into the workflow and explain the objective, creative approach, and lessons.

• Spending and performance benchmarks: Offer aggregated comparisons or permissioned case-study results where reliable data is available.

I would not expose a competitor’s private spend or ROI. Even when a business shares results publicly, they need context such as the campaign period, audience, and attribution method.

For creating the first campaign, I’d consider:

• Editable creative templates: Help advertisers combine their own images, copy, and calls to action.

• Interactive walkthroughs: Explain unfamiliar tools and settings at the point of use.

• A practice environment: Let advertisers explore setup without activating a campaign or spending money.

• Evidence-based suggestions: Recommend improvements such as clearer product information or a more suitable format.

I’d avoid promising that a particular change will increase reach by a fixed percentage unless the evidence supports that prediction.

6. Prioritise the solutions

I’d use an impact-versus-effort comparison for the first pass. The estimates below are hypotheses, and effort includes ongoing maintenance.

I’d start with curated examples and editable templates.

For the home-decor founder, the experience could show an example relevant to their objective, explain why the ad presents the product clearly, and offer a structure they can adapt with their own photographs and wording.

The founder would then review the audience, budget, schedule, destination, and measurement setup before explicitly launching.

I’d first audit existing templates, educational resources, and preview tools. The opportunity may be making them easier to find and use together.

7. Consider the trade-offs

Examples can encourage copying. I’d explain the underlying approach and require advertisers to use their own assets or content they have permission to use.

Templates can also make ads look repetitive. I’d offer flexible structures and make customisation straightforward.

Successful case studies may create unrealistic expectations. I’d include limitations and explain that results depend on the product, audience, offer, and campaign execution.

Finally, easier setup must preserve spending control. The final review should make costs and campaign settings clear. Guidance can help advertisers avoid common policy issues, but it shouldn’t imply guaranteed approval.

8. Measure success and recommend a direction

My primary metric would be the percentage of eligible first-time advertisers who launch an approved campaign with measurement configured for their selected objective within a defined period, such as seven days after starting setup.

I’d then check whether these advertisers understand their results and return to run another campaign.

Supporting measures would include:

I’d track articles read, template availability, and which resources account for most usage to improve the content library. Reading three articles or using several templates wouldn’t be a north star by itself.

I’d compare the pilot with a control group and monitor ad rejection, setup errors, unexpected-spend complaints, and negative feedback from people seeing the ads.

My recommendation is a connected learn, create, review, and launch experience for first-time small-business advertisers. Curated examples provide direction, templates reduce execution effort, and clear measurement helps businesses decide what to do next.