Most campaigns set up their Facebook page in five minutes, fill in the wrong category, and discover the problem six weeks later when their ads keep getting rejected. Here's what to actually do at setup so you don't have to fix it under pressure.
Pick the Right Page Category
Page category matters more than people realize. It tells Meta what your page is, which shapes how it gets reviewed for political content. Pick the wrong one and you'll get more friction on every ad.
- Politician: for individual candidates running for office. Most candidate pages should use this.
- Political Party: for state and local party organizations
- Political Organization: for PACs, advocacy groups, and orgs that aren't individual candidates
- Government Official: for incumbents who want to maintain a personal-political page (different from official government pages)
Don't use generic categories like "Community" or "Personal Blog" for political pages. They look benign but get flagged later when you try to run political ads, because the category and the content don't match.
Name the Page for the Long Run
Page names are hard to change once you're established. A few rules:
- Use the candidate or org name, not the cycle. "Jane Doe for Assembly" works for multiple races over multiple cycles. "Jane Doe for Anchorage Assembly 2026" is locked to one specific race.
- Match the legal committee name where possible. If your committee is registered as "Friends of Jane Doe," put that on the page somewhere, it makes the disclaimer link cleaner.
- Keep it short. Long names get truncated in feeds and look bad.
- Don't include "official" unless you really are. Voters and Meta both notice.
Fill in the About Section Like It's a Public Record
Because it is. The About section becomes part of the public Page Transparency view that any voter, opposition researcher, or journalist can pull up. Be deliberate:
- Short bio: one paragraph that explains who the candidate is and what they're running for
- Real contact info: committee email, phone if you want incoming calls, mailing address
- Website: link to your actual campaign site (which should match the legal committee)
- Issues/platform: keep it factual, not slogany
Don't put placeholder text like "More info coming soon!" The page goes live with whatever's there.
Visual Branding That Doesn't Embarrass You
- Profile picture: clean candidate headshot or campaign logo. Square, high-resolution, recognizable at small sizes.
- Cover image: campaign branding, candidate with constituents, or a clear message about why they're running. Not a stock photo.
- Consistent across platforms: same profile picture on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok if you're using them. Voters need to recognize you instantly.
Add Page Admins Carefully
Facebook's Page Roles let you assign different access levels, Administrator, Editor, Advertiser, etc. Get this right at setup:
- Admin (full control): give to the candidate themselves and one trusted campaign manager. That's it. Admin role can remove other admins, including you.
- Editor: comms director, social manager. Can post and respond but not change page settings.
- Advertiser: for the agency or media buyer running paid ads. Can run ads but can't change the page itself.
Never share login credentials. Use individual page roles. When someone leaves the campaign, you can remove their role without changing any passwords.
Connect to Your Ad Account Before You Need It
Before you ever run a political ad, the page has to be linked to a Business Manager and an authorized ad account. Set this up at the same time you set up the page:
- Create or connect a Business Manager (business.facebook.com)
- Add the page as an asset
- Create or connect the ad account that'll be used for political ads
- Make sure the ad account has a valid payment method on file
Doing this at setup means you're not scrambling on launch day. Doing it on launch day means you're explaining to the candidate why their ad isn't running.
Common Mistakes
- Using a personal Facebook profile to post campaign content. Personal profiles can't run political ads, can't be linked to a Business Manager, and don't have the transparency requirements. Always use a Page.
- Letting volunteers admin the page. Roles below Admin are fine for volunteers. Admin gets the candidate plus one trusted manager.
- Using the wrong page category. Switching later requires Meta review and can take days.
- Forgetting the disclaimer step. Setting up the page is not the same as setting up the disclaimer for political ads. Both have to happen.
- Setting up the page after the campaign launches. Always set the page up first so it has some history when ads start serving.
Bottom Line
A campaign Facebook page is public infrastructure. Set it up like the candidate's name is on a public record (because it is), pick the right category at the start, and get your admin roles in place before you ever try to run an ad. Five minutes of careful setup saves a week of debugging later.