Are you wondering what you should budget or spend on your Facebook Ads?
Let me tell you a little bit more regarding which strategy would be best to use when budgeting for your Facebook Advertising, as well as how much you should spend per day, and how much you should start with before starting to scale upwards.
Spoiler alert!
Start by spending just R 20 per day.
Boom!
So, no need to read the rest of this blog post, as you have just gotten the answer to your question right?
Wrong!
No, you actually do need to finish reading this blog post, as there is a lot more to this whole budgeting thing.
So, yes, you can start by spending as little as R 20 per day, also known as the $ 1 a day Facebook ad spend.
Take it from someone who has been running Facebook ads for their own businesses for years now, as well as running Facebook ads for RAS Digital Marketing, I would recommend using the R 20 – R 100 per day strategy.
Well, at least for the first 1-2 weeks.
Why do I say that?
Well, let me explain to you a little better in this blog post, along with the strategy that I used to take a small marketing budget, and scale it upwards in such a way that it gave me a great ROI!
Where I went wrong with my Facebook marketing budget
Deciding that you are going to start spending money on Facebook Advertising for your business, grow your brand awareness, as well as aim to bring in some new customers is a great plan!
Facebook is the world’s most affordable place to run marketing ads for any business.
When I started my first Facebook ads campaign, I did a thumb suck and decided that I can afford R 150 a day.
I jumped into Facebook advertising with both feet in first and went for it…
Little did I know that you need more than just some cash, a cool-looking photo, and some basic call-to-action tactics for a Facebook ad.
I had no strategy, no idea what my ROI should be, I had set no goals for the end result in the campaigns, and I did not research my market before launching my Facebook ad.
BIG MISTAKE!!!
And boy, oh boy, did I waste A LOT of money on that mistake!
So, what should you budget?
So, what should you spend on your Facebook Ad budget, and what strategy should you use?
I have to admit that deciding on your Facebook marketing budget, and what you should spend is no easy task.
This important decision needs to be made based on actual data goal setting, and a strategy before any money even leaves your bank account.
Below, I have listed what you will need to do in order to create your Facebook Ad budget, as well as to start running Facebook ads that will give you a good ROI.
Let’s get started!
Please remember that you are more than welcome to ask me any questions regarding this blog, at any time, in the comment section below.
What are your marketing goals?
Before a budget or strategy can be created for your Facebook ad budget, you are going to need to ask yourself, “What do I want out of this?”
As an example, “I like to set out some basic goals”. See the example below, relating to what I do for each campaign:
The goal for my Facebook Ad campaign:
With this campaign, I want to reach 1,000 targeted prospects online every month.
What does this goal mean to me and my business?
This was a simple example, but as you can see, I have set 3 goals for my campaign.
Do not underestimate the power of this short-term goal, you will be amazed at what a small goal can do once you have put it onto paper. Your team will also feel that there is something they can work towards as a team, once the campaign has been launched.
Also, look at the numbers…
I want to reach 1,000 prospects, convert 20% = 200 new leads, and sell to 10% = 20 sales.
This could change as you progress through deciding what amount of money you decide to spend on your Facebook advertising, and that’s OK!
So, what’s next?
Next, you need to understand what your product or service costs are.
Now, I don’t really need to tell you about this, as you should know about this part…
Or else, I am going to ask, what are you doing here haha! Does your keeper even know that you are outside? Unsupervised? No, but seriously – know that first.
Okay, but seriously…
You should have a pricing model or budget, based on what your product/service costs you, broken down into detail!
Do not underestimate this step
Having a budget is not something you should overlook, and I am not talking about some basic spreadsheets, I am talking about some really detailed figures!
Once you know what it costs to run your business, from rent, salaries etc. you then need to break down the costs of your product/service and don’t forget to work on your marketing costs.
Create your Facebook Ads strategy
This is where things can get a bit complicated, and I really recommend that you get our team of experts at RAS Digital Marketing to help you out with this next step.
YES, SERIOUSLY!
I personally like to use something called the S.M.A.R.T. strategy.
This stands for. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
As this blog is related to creating a Facebook marketing budget, I will not go into depth on the S.M.A.R.T Digital Marketing Strategy.
But I would like to give you some insight, as to how I would do a basic Facebook strategy, and how I would use my marketing budget in different areas within the strategy.
Let’s say I have a daily budget of R 100 that I have dedicated to my Facebook marketing campaign…
I want to run 3 different Facebook Ad campaigns, with the same R 100 budget.
The first campaign would be my Facebook Awareness campaign
In the Facebook Awareness campaign, I would promote some content on my website, relating to what we do from our “About Us” pages, “Blog Posts”, and our website’s “Home Page”, pushing to gain more followers.
The daily budget for this will be R 30.
See the image below regarding what this Facebook Campaign would look like:

The second campaign would be my Facebook Click campaign
Next, I would create a Click Ad, which will allow people to download a free brochure of our products/services.
The key to this ad is to only let the ad be seen by the people who have already seen the content which I promoted previously, in my Awareness Campaign also known as Retargeting.
The daily budget for this will be R 30.
If you want to learn more about how we can help you create Facebook campaigns like this, then let us do a Digital Marketing Proposal for you by clicking here.
See the image below regarding what this Facebook Campaign would look like:
I would use a Facebook Lead Generation campaign, and send it to people who have downloaded my FREE brochure.
The offer would either be a free quote, or a number of different things that you can think of that could be an offering as a free lead magnet.
The aim is to gain an email address from a potential prospect so that you have a new lead.
The daily budget for this will be R 40.
See the image below regarding what this Facebook Campaign would look like:

This is a simple, but extremely effective Facebook strategy that really works!
Why on earth does this work so well?
So, you see most people who run Facebook Ads, create an ad, and just send it out telling people to buy, buy, buy or signup. Rush, rush, rush.
This follows the jab, jab, and right hook method. Great book by Gary Vaynerchuk
At RAS Digital Marketing, we help people first, and then we ask for something in return.
By following this simple strategy, you will gain much better leads, which will require less time in educating them about who you are, and what you do.
I know that this was a simple strategy, but the aim was to explain to you how you should spend your Facebook marketing budget in a smarter way, to get a better ROI.
Oh, and ROI means Return on Investment… just in case you were wondering. I should have probably mentioned that earlier. Blond moment.
Launch your Facebook Ads campaigns at the right time
Once you have decided what your total marketing budget is, you have your goals, and your strategy set…
It’s time to launch that bad boy into the world!
Next is another thing that I learned the hard way…
When launching your Facebook Ads, make sure to deploy them at 12:00 midnight.
This will help your ads gain better data.
Pity that I only learned this after running thousands of Facebook campaigns.
Check out the image below to see where you can set the starting time for your Facebook campaign:

How much to spend?
So, what should you be spending on your Facebook Ads every month?
Once you have your strategy, and you have worked out what percentage you can add on top of your product/service for your Facebook marketing, you will have a better spending strategy, to measure your ROI against.
I will recommend that you work into your budget a 2-10% cost for your marketing ads. Remember that this can change based on industry, as well as the number of products/services you sell per month or per quarter.
Right now, at RAS Digital Marketing, we use a 5-8% marketing markup on our services.
This percentage changes from time to time, and we review our marketing strategy, budget, and pricing, every quarter, to ensure that we are getting the best ROI.
Your challenge
The Facebook budget process can be a powerful tool for launching effective advertising campaigns. So, here’s a challenge for you:
Create a Facebook advertising campaign for your business or organization with the goal of generating awareness, traffic, and leads. Use the Facebook budget process to allocate your budget and track the performance of your ads.
Here are the steps to follow:
- Set up a Facebook Business Manager account and create a new ad account.
- Define your campaign objective as “Awareness,” “Traffic,” or “Lead Generation.”
- Create your target audience by selecting relevant demographics, interests, behaviours, and locations.
- Create your ad creative by choosing from the available formats, including images, videos, slideshows, or carousel ads.
- Set your budget by selecting either a daily or lifetime budget and determine your bid strategy.
- Launch your campaign and monitor its performance using the Facebook Ads Manager.
- Optimize your campaign by testing different ad creatives, targeting, and budget allocation.
Once you’ve completed the challenge, share your experience with us. Let us know how the Facebook budget process worked for you, what results you achieved, and any tips or insights you gained from the experience. Good luck!