Facebook Ads Campaign Budget Optimization

In Facebook’s algorithm we trust, or at least we’ll have to come September! In case you haven’t heard, Facebook Ads budgeting will soon need to be set at the campaign level. We’ll no longer be able to set specific budgets for each individual ad set. Campaign budget optimization is something Facebook previously rolled out, but because of ineffectiveness, never really stuck. Facebook decided to go back to the drawing board to provide marketers with a better product, and for the most part, they did.

What is Facebook Ads Campaign Budget Optimization?

Campaign budget optimization is a great concept. Instead of setting budgets at an ad set level, budgets are set at the campaign level where Facebook’s algorithm optimizes and distributes budget automatically to help marketers achieve goals. For example, if our campaign is set up for conversions and we have 6 ad sets, Facebook’s algorithm allocates budget between ad sets to produce the greatest number of conversions at the lowest cost.

Challenges with Campaign Budget Optimization?

Campaign budget optimization gets messy when marketers attempt to incorporate cold and warm audiences into a single campaign. For example, let’s again say that our overall campaign goal is to maximize conversions. Now imagine we have four ad sets. One ad set is aimed at running ads at cold audiences and the other three are geared toward warm audiences. Naturally, our ad sets associated with warm audiences are going to outperform our ad set aimed at cold audiences. Moving forward, Facebook’s algorithm will distribute the majority of our budget to the ad sets containing warmer audiences. In certain cases, this is ideal. However, there will be instances where we want an equal budget allocated for cold audiences. To accomplish this, build separate campaigns for cold and warm audiences.

Another challenge that marketers encounter when implementing campaign budget optimization is that Facebook’s algorithm is quick to choose a winner in terms of budget allocation. Often times it’s too quick. To ensure all ad sets have equal performance opportunity, we have the ability to set minimum and maximum spends at the ad set level. For example, if our campaign includes three ad sets and a $75 per day budget, we can set $25 minimum daily spends for each of the three ad groups. This ensures a more equal budget distribution at the start of our campaign. It’s important to keep in mind that this should only be done to start a campaign. Once sufficient data is collected, minimums are removed and Facebook’s algorithm does the rest.

Test, Test & Test More!

As with anything new in the social media or digital marketing world, testing is important. Marketers will have the ability to allocate budget at the ad set level until September. Take this opportunity to test campaign budget allocation so when it becomes mandatory, you’re ahead of the competition.

I hope you found this blog useful. If you have any questions about campaign budget optimization for your Facebooks ads, please email me directly at greg@corcoranpr.com. You can also subscribe to be notified each time we update our blog below. Thanks for reading!