How to budget your Facebook adverts
The budget settings relating to a Facebook ad allow you to control the amount of money you want to invest and when you want your spending to start. Alongside these settings, there are also other customisation options available, to offer you added control over delivery specifics.
Choosing your budget
Facebook will suggest a daily budget, but you are free to adjust this. You can also set a daily or a lifetime budget. A daily budget is the maximum amount you will spend per day, while the lifetime options allow you to choose the most you will spend in total on any given ad. If you opt for a lifetime budget for your ad, you will be asked for a start and an end date for the advert.
Choosing your schedule
Whether you choose lifetime or daily ads, you can dictate specifically when you want your advert to run. If you choose to run a daily budget, Facebook will suggest that you run your ad continuously by default, but you do have the freedom to begin and end your ad on a particular day. Facebook will do the calculations for you, telling you the total you intend to spend.
Daily or lifetime
Deciding whether you want to set a daily or lifetime budget is an important choice and both options have pros and cons. Many people prefer to set a lifetime budget, however, as the daily option requires more maintenance and also limits your targeting choices. You cannot choose what time of the day you want your ads to be shown, for example.
If you do choose the lifetime budget option, it is likely that you will get the best results from campaigns which last between one and three months. Campaigns of under a month can work particularly well for specials and events, however, and longer campaigns can be a good idea as part of a remarketing strategy or to share evergreen content.
There is the option of extending the run of the ad, by changing the finish date and adding more budget. You might decide to do this if you realise that an ad is working particularly well and you want to save time and effort by not replacing it for a while.
The auction system
With Facebook, you bid for advertising space rather than paying outright for a specific ad. Facebook sets limits for the number of adverts its users see, meaning that there is a limited number of opportunities to show adverts. Because of the nature of the network and its widespread appeal, you will be competing against any industry and business which wants your audience to view their ads. This makes it very different to search engine ads.
Budgeting tips
If in doubt, start small, as you can always increase your budget later, if results show that this is necessary. Facebook ads can be a great choice if your digital ad budget is quite small, as they usually have a much lower CPC (cost per click) than equivalent search engine ads. If you have a larger budget, Facebook ads could make up as much as a third of your total but probably no more, as it is best used to combine a targeted audience with a modest budget.