SEQUENCE

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Where should your ad budget go?

Put a small budget into one Facebook and Instagram campaign first, add Google Search once it can get clicks every day (around $1,000 a month), and wait on paid TikTok until one campaign above TikTok's minimum of more than $50 a day is a small part of the budget. Spreading a small budget across every platform starves each one of the results it needs to learn.

Facebook + Instagram · new customers$22/day
One campaign, one audience, 3–4 ads.
Facebook + Instagram · bring-back$3/day
Visitors who didn't buy, and past customers.
Google Search$8/day
Only searches that match what you sell.
TikTokOff
Post for free for now. Paid TikTok starts at about $4,400/mo.
About 6 results a week on Facebook + Instagram, under the 50 it learns best on. It still works: keep it to one campaign and give it a few weeks.
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How it's calculated

  1. 1Daily budget = monthly budget ÷ 30.4.
  2. 2Facebook and Instagram learn on about 50 results a week per ad set, so the split keeps one new-customer campaign as large as possible.
  3. 3Google Search turns on at about $32 a day ($1,000 a month): 25% of the budget, never less than $8 a day.
  4. 4Bring-back ads (people who visited but didn't buy) turn on at about $30 a day: 8%, never less than $3 a day.
  5. 5Paid TikTok turns on at about $146 a day ($4,400 a month), with one campaign at $51 a day, just above TikTok's minimum.

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Questions

How much should a small business spend on ads?

Facebook and Instagram learn fastest at about 50 results a week, so multiply your cost per lead by 50 for the weekly spend that gets there ($25 leads → about $1,250 a week). Less still works, it just learns more slowly, so keep a smaller budget in one campaign.

Should I run ads on every platform at once?

Not on a small budget. Each platform needs enough results to learn who to show your ads to. Two well-funded campaigns beat five starved ones.

Why does TikTok wait?

TikTok requires more than $50 a day per campaign and $20 a day per ad group, which is over $1,500 a month for one platform. On a smaller budget, post on TikTok for free and turn the best posts into ads later.

Platform rules checked October 28, 2026: Meta: About the learning phase · TikTok: About budgets

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