How Meta spends a budget
Your daily budget is a target, not a hard cap for each day. Meta averages it over the week. On a busy day it may spend up to 75% more than your daily budget, and on a quiet day less. Across a week it will not go past seven times your daily budget. For example, a ₹500 daily budget can spend up to ₹875 on one day, but no more than ₹3,500 in the week. So do not panic at one expensive day. Judge spend by the week, the same way Meta plans it. Meta spends less on other days to stay inside the weekly limit.
A starting daily budget
Meta does not publish one minimum for every account. It varies by country and objective, and Ads Manager warns you if you go too low. A better starting point is your own numbers. Meta says an ad set usually leaves the learning phase after about 50 results in a week. Here is a worked example. If a purchase costs you about ₹400, 50 purchases a week is ₹20,000, or close to ₹3,000 a day. That is a lot for a new store. The number is only as good as your guess at the cost of a purchase, so treat it as a rough guide. After the first week, swap in your real cost per purchase and work it out again.
Pick an event you can afford
If that figure is too big, do not starve a purchase campaign. Meta's own advice is to optimise for an easier, cheaper event instead. Landing page views need less budget than purchases. You learn which ads pull people in, then move to purchases once orders start coming. A small budget spread over many ad sets learns very little, so keep it to one. Meta also suggests combining similar ad sets, because each one then learns from more results. Fewer, bigger tests beat many tiny ones.
A first two-week test plan
- Work out the most you can pay for one order and still make money.
- Set up one campaign with one ad set, one audience and three or four ads.
- Choose purchases if your budget covers about 50 a week, or landing page views if it does not.
- Leave the ad set alone for the first week while it learns.
- In week two, pause the weakest ads and keep the budget steady.
- On day 14, compare your cost per order with the most you can pay.
What a result should cost you
The right cost per order depends on your margin, not on what other stores pay. Take your selling price and subtract product cost, shipping, packaging and payment charges. What is left is the most one order can cost in ads before you lose money. On COD, also allow for parcels that come back. For example, a ₹1,000 order that leaves ₹350 after costs can afford up to ₹350 in ads, and less if some orders return. Aim well below that ceiling, because an order that costs ₹350 in ads makes you nothing.
When to raise or stop
Raise the budget when cost per order stays below your limit for a full week. Change it rarely, because Meta says frequent budget changes can send an ad set back into learning. Fix the ad or the product page when people click but do not buy. Stop when cost per order stays above your limit after the test. The Storemate's built-in analytics show orders and average order value in one place, so the weekly check takes minutes.