Magic Ads
Helping creators launch Facebook & Instagram ads in 2 simple steps
Role
Feature Lead
Sole Designer
Design QA
Collaborators
Founder/CEO
2 Engineers
Marketing team
Timeline
May-Jun 2025
5 Weeks
Background
Creators excel at building products but struggle with one critical question: "Who do I sell to?"
Nas.io is a platform that helps creators build and monetize communities through challenges, events, courses, and memberships. While creators excel at content and community-building, most struggle with marketing. Facebook and Instagram ads offer powerful distribution, but Meta Ads Manager's complexity prevents users from even starting their first campaign.
We saw an opportunity: simplify the process of running ads.
Trying to run an ad on Meta Ads Manager
Discovery & Insights
Cold start is the hardest start.
Working within constraints, I gathered insights from founder conversations with churned users, our marketing team's Ad Recoup experiment (our marketing team's test program to run paid ads for selected customers), and competitive analysis of existing ad tools.
Key Findings:
80% Success Rate
Users in our Ad Recoup experiment gained more customers through paid ads vs. organic methods alone
Distribution hurdle
Users created products but couldn't share or sell them effectively
Complexity > Budget
Users found Meta Ads Manager intimidating despite wanting to try ads
Outcome > Education
Users needed leads and customers, not ad management skills
Vision
Strategy
Building confidence through simplification
Leads-First Approach
Focus on cost-per-lead rather than complex ROAS calculations. Clearer value proposition reduces expectation pressure for first-time advertisers.
Abstraction Over Education
Hide Meta Ads Manager complexity completely. Users spend less time on setup, more time promoting their products.
Create Magic Moments
Traditional way of running ads feel like a series of form-fields. Transform intimidating ad creation into an effortless, exciting experience that builds confidence before commitment.
Explorations
To simplify the experience, I immersed myself in Meta Ads Manager, working closely with our performance marketer to understand what makes an effective ad campaign. This research phase consumed most of our timeline but was essential to reimagining the user flow and abstracting away unnecessary complexity.
I tested multiple approaches to find the optimal balance between simplicity and functionality.
Single-screen approach: Combining everything on one screen created cognitive overload for users and technical complexity for development.
Two-step split: Separating ad creation from campaign budget provided clear focus areas while maintaining simplicity.
Meta Ads Manager and competitors lead with audience targeting and budgets. I reversed this, starting with creative ad building instead. This matched both user behavior and our internal workflow—people create content first, then consider promotion costs. The result felt more intuitive and less intimidating for first-time advertisers.
Solutions
Instant ad generation
Click "Boost" to transform the product into an ad. I worked closely with our engineer to perfect the transition animation and loading state, creating a moment of delight rather than waiting. The first ad comes pre-populated, allowing users to launch immediately or customize as needed.
Step 1: Create ads
Smart variants made simple. Users upload up to 5 images or videos on a single screen while Meta AI automatically allocates budget to top performers. This abstracts the complex A/B testing setup required in Meta Ads Manager, but essential to a well-performing campaign.
Building emotional investment. Users see their product as a live ad preview before any commitment, creating excitement and reducing friction for the Facebook connection step.
Guided by what works. We provide upload suggestions based on 7 years of high-performing ad creatives from our platform.
Step 2: Review and Launch
Strategic connection placement. Unlike competitors who require Facebook connection upfront, I placed it after the live preview. This "endowment effect" approach meant users felt excited about their ad before making any commitment, reducing abandonment at the connection step.
Performance dashboard
Scannable results at a glance. Key metrics appear above the fold, with detailed ad performance available on scroll.
Actionable guidance. Badges such as "Top Performer" and "Low Engagement" help users understand performance and optimize their campaigns without needing ad expertise.
Figma handoff to engineers
Impact
Magic Ads repositioned Nas.io around solving the "cold start distribution" problem for creators. The feature created a new revenue stream through platform fees while establishing a competitive differentiation through our simplified ad creation experience.
Ad spend in the first 30 days
Premium subscription conversion rate
Annual recurring revenue generated
— Nas.io user
— Nas.io user