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Meta Ads budget_□×

How much should a small shop spend on Meta Ads?

Work it out from what a customer is worth to you, not from a round number. Find the most you can afford to pay for a new customer, multiply by the number of sales a campaign needs to learn from, and count the repeat orders email brings in afterwards.

Start with what a customer is worth

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Take your average order value and your margin after product cost, postage and fees. That is what a first order is worth. Then add what a typical customer spends in the following year, because a customer who joins your email list rarely buys only once.

A worked example

An average order of £40 at a 50% margin is worth £20 on the first order. If customers spend another £40 over the next year through email, that is another £20 of margin. A new customer is worth about £40, so paying £20 to £30 to win one is reasonable, even though it looks expensive against the first order alone.

Give the campaign enough to learn

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Meta's system learns who buys from your ads by watching sales happen. Since Meta's Andromeda updates, the guidance is around 30 conversions a week for an ad set to leave its learning phase. Most small shops will not reach that on purchases, which is why a simple structure with few campaigns matters more than a big budget split many ways.

In the example above, ten sales a week at £20 each is £200 a week, or roughly £870 a month. If that is too much, optimise for a cheaper event such as sign-ups through lead ads and let email do the selling.

Count the email side of the sale

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Ads that look unprofitable on the first order often pay back once the welcome series, post-purchase flow and monthly campaigns have done their work. Without email, you only ever count the first order, and every repeat sale costs another click.

That is the core of running Meta Ads and email together.

Want a starting budget worked out for your shop? The free audit includes one, based on your own margins.

Get the free auditSee Meta Ads pricing

What the total monthly cost looks like

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Two parts: ad spend, paid to Meta, and management, which with me starts from £250 a month. A shop spending £500 a month on ads with management at £250 is spending £750 a month in total. The pricing page shows how that combines with an email retainer.

Questions people ask

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What is the minimum budget for Meta Ads?

Meta lets you spend a few pounds a day, but a budget that small rarely produces enough sales to learn from. Work out the budget from the number of sales you need, not the other way round.

Should I spend more in December?

Clicks cost more in the run-up to Christmas. Many small shops do better growing the list with lead ads in October and November, then selling to it by email in December.

Does the £250 management fee include ad spend?

No. Management starts from £250 a month. Ad spend is paid by you straight to Meta.

How long before I know if it is working?

Give a new campaign two to four weeks before judging it, unless it is clearly failing. Judge it on cost per customer and what those customers go on to spend.

Read next

ServiceMeta AdsAds managed every month, with email alongside.Meta Ads guideMeta lead adsGrow the email list from Facebook and Instagram.GuideWhat email marketing costsPlatform fees, freelancer and agency, in pounds.
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