The Coming Change in Facebook Ads Budget Optimization

If you’re involved with social media advertising, you probably already know that Facebook campaigns very effective. In other words, they are one of the most effective ways out there to get across your message. Find new audiences or gather leads for your business. The coming change in Facebook ads budget optimization will change the game.

If you’ve talked to Facebook PPC experts lately, you may have noticed they are unnerved by a coming change in what is called Budget Optimization. Here’s some information to help you understand what that means and how the change will influence your Facebook advertising strategy.

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What’s the Deal With Facebook Campaign Budgets?

Since the beginning of time, or at least in the ten years Facebook advertising has existed, the advertising budget was set at the ad-set level. If you’re not familiar with these terms, let’s just say that you had to decide on the amount you want to invest in advertising to a specific audience. Above all, this way to do things was often confusing. Specifically because we tend to think of a Campaign as a marketing venture that comes with a dedicated budget. 

However, in Facebook’s Ads Manager, ‘Campaign’ was synonymous with ‘Objective’. A Campaign could include a long list of ad-sets each targeted at a different audience with a separate budget.

The Coming Change in Facebook Ads Budget Optimization

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Back in November 2017, Facebook announced the introduction of a new optional feature called Campaign Budget Optimization. This new button gave advertisers the possibility to set one budget for the whole campaign.  Facebook will then distribute that budget between your different ad-sets (audiences). 

Moreover, Facebook stated that the distribution will be done according to top-performing ad sets in real-time. In other words, they will allocate more money from your budget to those audiences where your ads performed best.

What is Changing Now?

Earlier this year, Facebook stated that beginning September 2019 Campaign Budget Optimization will become mandatory and ad-set level budget optimization will cease to exist. However, worth mentioning, after September 2019 it will still be possible to control spending at the ad set level. By using ad set spend limits you will be able to control it. 

If you set a minimum spend limit, Facebook will aim to spend all of that amount. If you set a maximum spend limit, Facebook will not exceed that amount.

The Coming Change in Facebook Ads Budget Optimization

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Is It a Big Deal?

Well, yes, and no. The new situation is very similar to what currently happens with ads. For instance, you don’t set a budget at the ad level. Although you can have multiple ads within a single ad set. And Facebook determines how to distribute the budget between them. Additionally, as we already mentioned, the possibility of setting a minimum spend for each ad-set sill leaves the control in the hands of advertisers.

That means, PPC professionals still have quite a few reasons for concern. Moving the setting that determines how much money you want to spend is a significant change in the way Facebook campaigns are planned and executed. Any shift in the familiar way to do things can be unsettling and may cause higher expenses. If that’s not reason enough to worry, many experts dis-trust Facebook. Furthermore, they view this change as a way to take more control out of the hands of advertisers. Facebook’s algorithms are secret, and many parts of the advertising mechanism are vague for users. So we can’t really discredit the claim that the change was meant to give us less control of how our dollars are spent.

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Campaign budget optimization. Off for now.

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So What Should You Do?

For advertisers and those who work with professionals, it’s important to be aware of the change and make sure all campaigns are set accordingly. The real significance of this change will become clearer over the coming weeks. And it remains to be seen whether it will cause a change in overall advertising costs. But, if your Facebook advertising strategy relies on reaching out to a very particular audience, it may be worthwhile to set up a separate campaign for it. Just to be on the safe side.

In any case, September promises to be an interesting time for Facebook advertising. We would advise everyone to keep a close eye on their stats and monitor campaigns. Get in touch with your advertiser to make sure they are ready for what may be a shift in paradigm for budgeting your Facebook Ads.

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