There are many forms of marketing, ranging from free strategies to paid platforms. Naturally, paid ads tend to have a bit more of a risk attached to them as you stand to lose more than with free marketing – but if done correctly, paid advertising can also yield much more effective results.
Many people think that the best way to approach paid advertising is to spend as little money as possible, but that’s not really true. In the end, paid ads are an investment in your business, so you need to be willing to bite the bullet and spend enough to actually see results.
The problem with this, however, is that many people don’t know how much to actually spend. I run a paid ads agency, so I have a lot of experience with ad budgets. Today I’m breaking down a specific ad platform: Facebook Ads.
So, if you’re not sure what your ideal Facebook Ads budget should be, this post may offer a guiding light.
The bad news: I can’t really answer this question
Here’s the thing . . . Every business is so different that their ad spend will vary greatly. Therefore, I can’t just give you a random number and tell you that’s what you should spend on Facebook Ads because the number will work for some and not for others. However, I do believe that there is a minimum budget you need for paid ads, so you can read more about that here.
The good news: I can help you figure it out
So, if I can’t tell you what you should spend on Facebook Ads, what can I do? I can help you figure it out yourself. By answering a few questions, you will hopefully have the tools you need to manage your own Facebook Ads budget. Although, if you feel like you can’t or don’t want to, might I suggest hiring a Facebook Ads agency to do the work for you?
1. What are your goals?
Obviously, the overall goal of advertising is to make money, but there are many ways to do this, so you need to get specific with how you want paid advertising to influence your marketing.
Are you aiming for brand awareness? Website traffic? Leads? Conversions? Some of these objectives are worth more than others, and will thus require a bigger ad spend.
2. Who is your audience?
Similarly, you need to figure out who your audience is to help you set an accurate budget. Think about your ideal customer, and how much they’re worth. After all, there’s a difference between a college student clicking on your website via an ad and a CEO doing the same, because the CEO is likely much more valuable to your company and thus worth more ad budget.
Also, if you are in a highly competitive industry with loads of businesses targeting the same audience, you need to have a higher budget to give you a competitive edge.
3. What's the industry average?
Remember that you’re not the first person in the world to run ads, so use that to your advantage! Look up businesses similar in size and niche to yours, and learn how much their ads cost them.
While this isn’t the only factor that will affect your budget, it can give you a starting point or at least tell you if you’re on the right track.
4. How small can you start?
As mentioned, you need to not only spend enough to run ads, but you need to spend enough to run successful ads. And yes, there is a difference.
However, that doesn’t mean that you should start running ads with the biggest budget possible. Start with a moderate budget per Facebook ad campaign that will get you results, and once you see those results and figure out which ads are bringing them in, you can scale your budget.
5. How can you improve your ads?
The great thing about paid advertising (and, more specifically, your Facebook Ads budget) is that there’s always room for growth and improvement. The more you run ads, the more you will figure out what works and what doesn’t, and you can use this information to improve your ads going forward.
Final words
There you have it! Hopefully, thinking about these questions gave you some more insight into how you can effectively manage your Facebook advertising strategy. Also, keep in mind that there is always a learning curve with paid advertising, so don’t worry if things don’t work right off the bat.
Give your ads some time, and give yourself the chance to try new things to see if they perform well. Alternatively, fill in the form below to have my paid ads agency do a free audit of your Facebook Ads and show you how we’d run Facebook ad campaigns for your business.