The world has never felt smaller. It’s much easier to reach people from all corners of the globe through social networking. With most people being online, reaching new audiences has never been easier. This is a big opportunity for your brand to reach new audiences that could find value in what you are offering.
You’ve taken the steps towards reaching this goal. You want to run your Facebook Ad Campaign, You developed your brand, worked on your content calendar, and made a Facebook page (plus many, many, other steps along the way). Now, you can begin an ad campaign. Lucky for you, Facebook Ads can help you reach new people, and help you spread awareness for your brand.
However, it is important to decide between the two budgets for Facebook Ads. Which would work better for your campaign?
Facebook Ads’ Two Budgets
In Facebook Ads, it’s not as simple as putting in a certain amount of money and letting the machine run. When you’re getting started on creating your campaign, you’re offered two kinds of budgets on Facebook Ads: A daily budget and a lifetime budget.
What Is a Daily Budget?
A daily budget means you’re setting an average amount over the course of the week. It’s an average amount, so that means the platform will adjust how much of that budget it will spend on a given day.
Over the course of seven days, the platform can go above or below your set budget. On certain days it may require up to 25% above the daily budget. That is, if that day in particular has better opportunities for your ads to shine through.
To make up for going above the budget, the platform will spend less than your set daily budget on other days. On average, the platform will not go above your set amount per day for seven days if a week is how long you want your campaign to run for.
An Example of a Daily Budget in Action
For example, let’s say you’re setting a daily budget of around 30 dollars, with the total length of your campaign being a week long. You can expect Facebook Ads to spend 30 dollars per day, amounting to 210 dollars total, from Monday to Sunday.
However, Wednesday could be a particularly good day for your ad. There could be more people interacting with your content, for example. The platform may spend up to $37.5 to make sure it can reach as wide an audience as possible for that given day.
And then on Saturday, it could be that not many people are looking for your service. So the platform will spend $22.5 on that day. It’ll still make sure your ad is up there, but only for the people who are actively looking for your kind of service. That could be a comparatively lower number of people compared to Wednesday.
All in all, Facebook Ads will not go above the budget you set over the course of your seven day campaign.
What Is a Lifetime Budget?
A lifetime budget means you already have a set spending amount for the course of an entire campaign. That gives Facebook Ads far more flexibility in terms of daily spending for the entire period you’re running your ads. Facebook will also make sure to spend the budget as evenly as possible over the course of the campaign.
With a lifetime budget selected, you can also choose to schedule when those ads run in order to get the best results. You can choose which days of the week, and which hours of the day to run your ads.
An Example of a Lifetime Budget in Action
Let’s say you’re running a promo for the Halloween season. You can give a set budget for the entirety of October in order to drive as many leads and sales as possible.
There will be particular days in the month where more opportunities are possible for your ad. Facebook Ads will spend more money on those days compared to days where it wouldn’t be as strategic to spend more.
In days with fewer opportunities, what the platform will do is that it will spend less on, in order to save for days with better opportunities. For as long as it can evenly spend the budget over the course of October, Facebook Ads will adjust depending on the opportunities.
Reasons Why You Should Choose a Daily Budget
A daily budget will work best for people who want to try to limit the amount of spending per day. That will make it easier for your ads to have a consistent presence every day. With a constant budget, it would be easier to plan financially, and possibly run your ads indefinitely.
With a strong ad set, as well as results you want, you can also choose to add and adjust the budget to push your ads farther. It will also come in handy if you can expect your budget for ads to change over time.
Reasons Why You Should Choose a Lifetime Budget
A good reason to choose a lifetime budget is if you want to give Facebook more leeway to spend and push your ads whenever necessary. Since it is conscious of the performance of your ads, Facebook will have more freedom to show your ads to as many people as possible when days of opportunity come.
Another good thing about a lifetime budget is that you will be able to trigger your ads to run at specific times. For example, you can schedule your ads to run on Wednesday at 7 P.M. if your audience is more likely to be active on Facebook at those times.
A lifetime budget would be good if you want to set a specific period for your ads to run. If it is a seasonal campaign — like the Halloween example given above — then a lifetime budget will really benefit you.
Conclusion
A good rule of thumb is this: choose a daily budget if your campaign would be running indefinitely, if you can expect changes to how much you can spend, and if you want to get a good performance out of how much you spend per day.
Otherwise, choose a lifetime budget if your campaign would only be running for a certain period of time and if you want to schedule when your ads will be online.
While both budgets can be really good for your campaign, it’s always good to make sure that everything is in order before you begin. There are many factors that could make one budget more superior than the other for your ads.It would be great if you didn’t have to worry about all of that and instead, left up to the experts. Consider contacting The Marketing Co as your digital marketing company of choice and bypass the trial-and-error of social media ads. They can also give you a free audit, so you can develop your brand with professional advice. Give them a call in order to strengthen your online presence today.
