Budget and schedule
Every budget and scheduling option in the builder and what it does.
All budget and schedule settings sit in the Budget & Schedule section of the settings drawer. This page lists each one and what it does.
Budget optimization
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| BUDGET OPTIMIZATION: CBO or ABO | Campaign level only. CBO sets one budget on the campaign and lets the ad platform spread it across the ad sets. ABO sets a budget on each ad set. |
| Adset Spend Limits | CBO only. Sets a minimum and maximum that each ad set can spend, as Daily Minimum and Daily Maximum (or Lifetime, with a lifetime budget). The ad platform still spreads the budget, within those limits. |
Changing CBO or ABO updates every ad set that follows the campaign's settings. With CBO, an ad set's settings show that the budget is managed on the campaign.
Budget
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Budget Type | Daily Budget spends up to the amount each day. Lifetime Budget spreads a total amount over the run, and needs an end date. |
| Daily Budget or Lifetime Budget | The amount, in your ad account's currency. With ABO the campaign-level field reads Daily Budget Per Ad Set and applies to each ad set. |
Amounts follow your currency's decimals. Some currencies, such as JPY, take whole amounts only, and the field says so ("Whole amounts in JPY."). If you type more decimals than the currency takes, the field shows why, such as "Amounts in JPY take whole units only.", and the publish button stays greyed out with the same reason until you fix it.
Minimums
| Daily | Lifetime |
|---|---|
| $1.00 | $7.00 |
If a budget is under the minimum, Review & Launch flags it before anything goes live.
Bidding
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Bid Strategy | Highest Volume (the default), Cost Per Result, Bid Cap or Highest Value. |
| Bid Amount | For Cost Per Result and Bid Cap: the cost per result you're aiming for, or the cap. |
| Target ROAS | For Highest Value: a return between 0.01 and 1,000. For example 1.5 means a 150% return on ad spend. |
| Attribution Setting | How conversions are credited, for example 7 Day Click 1 Day View (the default). Traffic campaigns and lead campaigns with instant forms only support 1 Day Click. |
If a campaign is already live on Meta with CBO, its bid strategy applies to every new ad set and can't be changed.
With Messenger on, Highest Value can't be used: "Messenger ads optimise for conversations, which carry no purchase value. Pick another bid strategy." See Messenger.
Schedule
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start Date | When delivery starts. By default, tomorrow at midnight. |
| Launch Immediately | A toggle on the start date. Starts delivery as soon as the launch finishes. |
| End Date | When delivery stops. It shows only with a lifetime budget, where it's required and defaults to a week after the start. Switching back to a daily budget clears it. |
Start and end times follow your ad account's timezone, not your computer's. A start date in the past is flagged before launch.
Day parting
With a lifetime budget you can turn on Use Day Parting (campaign level) to run ads only at certain hours.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Day Parting Schedule | Click the hours your ads should run on each day. |
| Day Parting Timezone | Ad Account Timezone or Viewer Timezone, the timezone of the person seeing the ad. |
Changing budgets later
On a live campaign you can change the campaign and ad set budgets and the ad set start and end dates. The quickest way is the pencil next to the budget in the table view. See Edit a live campaign.