Getting Started

TheOptimizer is a campaign management and automation platform for media buyers. It connects to your ad networks, tracking platforms, and analytics tools, giving you a single place to monitor performance across all accounts, automate your optimization logic, and launch campaigns at scale.

This guide walks you through the five steps to go from a new account to a fully operational setup.

Step 1 — Connect Your Ad Network

The first thing you need to do is connect at least one ad network. Without this, the platform has no campaign data to work with and cannot take any actions.

Go to Integrations in the left-hand menu and open the Ad Networks tab. You will see a grid of all supported networks. Click Connect on the network you want to add and follow the authorisation flow.

Supported ad networks: Facebook, Google Ads, TikTok, Taboola, Outbrain, MGID, MediaGo, BigoAds, Adskeeper, RevContent, NewsBreak, Trillion (Beta), and YahooDSP (Beta).

Facebook, Google Ads, and TikTok connect via OAuth (you log in with your account). All others connect via API credentials, which you generate from the ad network's own settings and paste into TheOptimizer.

Once connected, campaigns, ads, and other data from your ad accounts are automatically pulled in to TheOptimizer. If you have multiple ad accounts under the same network, they will all appear and you can manage which ones are active from the Manage Ad Accounts section inside the integration.

💡 Tip: You can add tags to your ad accounts (e.g., by timezone or currency) from the Integrations section. These tags let you filter campaigns by account group with a single click from the main Campaigns view.

Full guide: Integrations Guide

Step 2 (optional) — Connect a Tracking Platform

A tracking platform is not strictly required, but it is strongly recommended. Connecting one gives you:

Accurate cost and revenue data at the click level, without relying on ad network attribution
Browser, device, and funnel breakdowns that are not available from ad networks alone
A reliable revenue signal for your automation rules to act on

Go to Integrations → Tracking Platforms and connect your preferred tracker. TheOptimizer supports most major platforms including ClickFlare, Voluum, Google Analytics, RedTrack, Bemob, and others.

💡 Recommended tracker: If you do not already have a preferred tool, ClickFlare is the recommended option. It offers robust features, deep integration with TheOptimizer, and 24/7 support.

If your tracker is not on the supported list, you can use our Google Sheets or CSV integration as a workaround — export your conversion data to a Google Sheet and TheOptimizer will sync from it automatically every 30 minutes. Or upload a CSV file manually or via API

ℹ️ Note: Once your tracker is connected, make sure to check the revenue source setting on your Dashboard. TheOptimizer can show revenue from the ad network or from the tracker — use the toggle on the Dashboard to switch between them. If you see zero revenue in the Campaigns view, this is usually why.

Full guide: Integrations Guide - Tracking Platforms

Step 3 — Explore the Campaigns Section

Once your ad network is connected, go to Campaigns in the left-hand menu. This is the central hub where you view and manage everything.

What you will see:

At the top, a navigation bar shows all your connected ad networks as icons. Click one to enter the campaign view for that network. Next to it, the ad account filter lets you narrow down to specific accounts — or see all of them at once. This is already one of the key differences from native ad managers: you can browse and manage campaigns across all your ad accounts in a single view.

Below that, a totals bar shows your total spend, revenue, net profit, and ROI for the selected date range.

The main table works similarly to the ads managers you already know — three tabs (Campaigns, Ad Sets, Ads) that you can switch between freely. Selecting items in one tab filters the next: select a campaign, then go to the Ad Sets tab and you see only its ad sets.

Key things to try:

Filtering — click the search bar above the table. You will see preset quick conditions (Delivering, Profitable, Losing Money) as well as the ability to filter by any metric, name, status, or tag. Once you have a filter you use regularly, save it as a view — it will appear as a tab above the filter bar for one-click access.
Column customisation — click the column settings icon at the bottom-left of the table to choose which columns are visible and in what order. You can save multiple column presets and switch between them depending on which network or analysis you are doing. You can also create custom metrics here using your own formulas.
Details view — hover over any campaign, ad set, or ad name and click View Details. This opens a side panel with performance charts, a change history log, attached automation rules, and (for native ad networks) publisher or site-level breakdowns. It also lets you move to the next or previous item without closing the panel — useful for quickly reviewing a list.
Keyboard shortcuts — the Campaigns section is designed to be used without lifting your hands from the keyboard. You can launch the filter bar, navigate the table, and edit values entirely with keyboard shortcuts.

Full guide: Campaign Manager Guide

Step 4 — Set Up Your First Automation Rule

Automation rules are how you convert your manual optimization strategy into logic that TheOptimizer runs around the clock. A rule watches your campaigns for specific conditions — and when those conditions are met, it takes an action: pausing a campaign, adjusting a budget, sending you an alert, and more.

Go to Automation → Rules in the left-hand menu and click New Rule (or New Global Rule if you want it to apply automatically to all new campaigns in an ad account).

The fastest way to start is to check our collections of Rule Templates Examples or the Popular Rules list for your specific Ad Network. TheOptimizer comes with a library of pre-built rule templates — stop-loss rules, scaling rules, dayparting setups, and more. Load one, review the conditions, adjust the threshold values to fit your strategy, and activate it.

The most important thing to understand before you launch campaigns: make sure your automation rules are already in place — and attached to your campaigns — before campaigns go live. Rules that are not attached to a campaign at the time of launch need to be added manually afterward, and there may be a window where the campaign runs without protection.

💡 Tip: Use Global Rules for your safety nets (e.g., stop-loss rules). A global rule automatically covers every campaign in the assigned ad account — including new ones you launch — so you never have an unprotected campaign.

Full guide: Automation Rules Guide

Step 5 — Launch Campaigns with the Campaign Creator

Once you are familiar with the Campaigns section and have your automation rules in place, the Campaign Creator lets you build and launch campaigns at a scale that is not possible in native ad managers.

Go to Campaign Creator in the left-hand menu. You will see cards for each supported network. Click a card to open the launcher for that network.

Supported networks: Facebook, Taboola, Outbrain, RevContent, MGID, AdsKeeper. Each network has two creation methods — an interactive interface and an Excel bulk uploader. Facebook uses the interactive interface only.

What makes it worth using:

Upload 50–100 creatives and automatically generate one campaign (or one ad set) per creative, each with isolated budgets — in a few minutes
Test multiple audiences, budgets, or placements by defining variation groups and letting the system create all permutations
Launch the same campaign structure across multiple ad accounts simultaneously
Save your configuration as a reusable template and launch from it every time with minimal changes
Attach automation rules during the launch flow so they are active from the first impression

After publishing, you can monitor the creation process in the Campaign Creation Queue and receive email notifications when it completes or if any item fails.

Full guides: Campaign Creator Overview · Facebook Campaign Launcher

What to Explore Next

Once you have completed the steps above, here are the areas worth going deeper on:

Automation Rules — Beyond basic stop-loss rules, explore rule chains (rules that trigger other rules), dayparting, custom metrics as rule conditions, and per-ad-set or per-ad targeting optimisation for native networks.

Creative Library — A centralised collection of all images and videos from your active campaigns across all connected accounts, with tagging support. Tag your creatives so your team can filter and pull them directly inside the Campaign Creator.

Campaign Details View — The performance tab inside the details view lets you break down any campaign, ad set, or ad by hour of day — useful for identifying which hours to pause and informing dayparting rules.

Analytics Integrations — If you run content arbitrage or work with search feeds, connect Google Analytics 4, Assertive Yield, or a search feed provider (Sedo, System1, Tonic) to bring revenue data into TheOptimizer for automation.