Understanding daily Facebook ad costs helps you plan budgets, set realistic expectations, and avoid overspending before seeing results. The answer ranges from $1 to thousands of dollars per day, depending on your goals, audience, and industry.
This guide covers Facebook's minimum daily budgets, recommended spending by objective, and strategies to optimize your daily ad spend for better results.
Facebook sets minimum daily budgets based on your campaign objective and billing type. These minimums ensure the algorithm has enough data to deliver your ads effectively.
According to Facebook ads cost research, Meta sets the following minimums:
| Campaign Type | Billing Method | Minimum Daily Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions (CPM) | Per 1,000 impressions | $1.00/day |
| Clicks, Likes, Video Views | Per click or engagement | $5.00/day |
| Conversions, App Installs | Per action | $40.00/day |
What these minimums mean:
According to daily budget guidelines, starting with at least $5 to $10 per day provides enough data to assess performance and make necessary adjustments.
While minimums tell you what is technically possible, recommended daily spend tells you what actually produces results.
When launching new campaigns or testing creative, budget enough to exit the learning phase:
According to campaign budget optimization guidance, budget 2x your target CPA per ad set per day. If your target cost per acquisition is $20, budget at least $40/day for that ad set.
According to Facebook advertising cost research, your budget should depend on where your business is in the customer journey:
Awareness Stage: If you are building brand recognition with no existing audience, plan on spending $2,000-3,000 over several months just to build awareness and create a retargeting pool.
Retargeting Stage: If you already have website visitors or social followers, retargeting ads are cheaper and convert better. You can start seeing sales traction with $500-1,000/month focused on retargeting.
Scaling Stage: Once you have proven campaigns, scale by increasing daily budgets gradually. Successful ecommerce brands often spend $5,000-20,000+ per day once campaigns are optimized.
Different objectives require different daily investments:
| Objective | Recommended Daily Budget | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Brand Awareness | $10-30/day | Wide reach, low cost per impression |
| Traffic | $15-40/day | Enough clicks for meaningful data |
| Engagement | $10-25/day | Social proof builds over time |
| Lead Generation | $25-75/day | Higher value actions need more budget |
| Conversions | $50-150+/day | Algorithm needs conversion data to optimize |
Getting more from your daily budget requires smart allocation and ongoing optimization.
Do not launch with your maximum budget. Start conservatively and increase based on performance:
According to Facebook scaling strategies, use $5-10 minimum spend on ad sets to test creative before committing larger budgets.
Let Facebook allocate budget across ad sets automatically:
For CBO to work effectively, budget your campaign so each ad set can potentially generate 50 conversions per week. The formula is: (Target CPA × 50) ÷ 7 = minimum daily campaign budget.
Daily budget: Spend up to a set amount each day. Best for ongoing campaigns with consistent daily goals.
Lifetime budget: Spend a total amount over the campaign duration. Best for time-limited promotions or fixed total spend.
Daily budgets offer more control and predictability for most advertisers.
Real-world examples help illustrate appropriate daily budgets by business type.
Goal: Generate leads for a home cleaning service Target CPA: $25 per lead
Recommended daily budget: $50-75/day
Goal: Drive online purchases Target ROAS: 3x Average order value: $60
Recommended daily budget: $75-150/day
Goal: Generate demo requests Target CPA: $100 per demo
Recommended daily budget: $100-200/day
Goal: Build audience for future retargeting Metric: Video views and page engagement
Recommended daily budget: $15-30/day
The absolute minimum is $1/day for impression-based campaigns. For click-based campaigns, the minimum is $5/day. For conversion campaigns, Meta recommends at least $40/day. However, spending only the minimum often leads to slow delivery and limited data for optimization.
Most small businesses should budget $15-50/day when starting out. This provides enough data to learn what works while limiting financial risk. As you identify winning campaigns, gradually increase budget on performers.
$5/day is enough to run campaigns and gather some data, but results will be limited. At this budget level, focus on one objective and narrow targeting. Expect slower learning and longer time to optimization compared to higher budgets.
Need help determining your optimal daily budget? Contact us for a free consultation. Our team analyzes your goals and recommends daily budgets that maximize results while managing risk. Get a free consultation
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