Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization: Say Goodbye to Ad Set Level Budgeting

Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization is a budgeting option that allows Facebook advertisers to budget their campaigns at the overall campaign level instead of the traditional ad set level. When you set your budget at the campaign level, you ultimately allow Facebook to allocate the bulk of your budget towards the top performing ad set.

Why is this important you ask? Well, starting in September of 2019, this will be the ONLY way that advertisers will be able to budget their campaigns which means that, like the dinosaurs, ad set budgeting will be extinct.

Here’s a more visual example of campaign budget optimization from Jon Loomer.

As you can see, with ad-set level targeting, the money spent by the advertiser is evenly distributed across the three ad sets providing a total of 10 conversions. Comparing that to the campaign budget optimization, you can see how Facebook has clearly determined that ad set #2 will provide the highest return, therefore, Facebook will spend more money in that ad set in aims to accumulate more conversions rather than spend more money on less performing ad sets.

Issues with Campaign Budget Optimization

So, what can advertisers do if they want to capitalize spending on a certain ad set? For example, if I have a cold audience ad set and a warm audience ad set, I might want to spend more on the cold audience because I want new people to see my ads. However, since the warm audience is likely to respond better to the ads because they are more familiar with your brand, Facebook could be obligated to spend more money on that ad set rather than the cold audience.

Solution to Campaign Budget Optimization for Less Performing Ad Sets

How to fix this? Set minimum spending limits at the ad set level. This will at least provide Facebook with more information about how you want to spend your money and give advertisers more control over their ad budgets even if it may not provide the most optimal results for your overall campaign.

Have you used Campaign Budget Optimization for any of your Facebook campaigns yet? Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the change!