Work out your budget
- Target costEstimate what a lead may cost.
- Weekly leadsAim for enough to keep learning.
- MultiplyCost per lead times weekly leads.
- FocusRun one or two ad sets at first.
If a lead costs $30 and you aim for 50 a week, one ad set needs about $1,500 a week. Most small businesses cannot spend that, so their ad sets stay in learning longer. That is fine, but results will swing more.
Ways to make a small budget work
- Run one ad set instead of splitting money across many.
- Use broad targeting in your service area.
- Optimize for a frequent event, like leads, not booked jobs.
- Test two or three ads at a time, not ten.
Budget vs time
A small budget can still work. It just learns slower. Give a new campaign several weeks before judging it, and avoid big edits in the first days, since they restart learning.
Keep ad spend and fees separate
Ad spend goes to Meta. A management fee goes to whoever runs the ads. Make sure your ads account and payment method stay in your name.
Good example. A salon runs one lead ad set for six weeks at a steady budget. It learns which video brings bookings and scales from there.
Bad example. A salon splits a small budget across five audiences and three objectives. None gets enough results to learn.
Our Facebook and Instagram ads management starts at $1,000 a month, with ad spend paid from your own account.