What's a starting Facebook Ads budget in 2026?

The question I get every week

“What’s the starting budget for Facebook Ads?” Short answer: minimum €30/day per ad set, minimum 3 ad sets active = €2,700 / month.

The long answer depends on the vertical, what you sell and how competitive the auction is in your category.

Why minimum budget went up

Three reasons:

1. CPMs grew 40-60% vs. 2022 in competitive categories.
2. Learning phase for Advantage+ Shopping requires ~50 events/week per ad set to exit.
3. Creative diversification is mandatory — a single hero creative with 3 variants no longer cuts it.

Per-vertical recommendations (in 2026)

DTC e-commerce

• AOV < €50: start at €90/day on Advantage+ Shopping, with mandatory CAPI server-side.
• AOV €50-150: €60/day is enough for initial testing; scale after creative validation.
• AOV €150+: €30-40/day is fine if you have a clear offer and mature retargeting.

B2B lead-gen

• €40-60/day on native Lead Forms, mid-tier audiences (1-3% lookalikes from client list).
• Below €30/day: hard to optimize on lead quality, you need volume.

Local services (medical, dental, beauty)

• €20-40/day on Lead Forms + strict geo targeting (15-20km radius around the location).
• Volume vs. quality — qualifying questions in the form mandatory.

The learning phase trap

If you change creative, audience or budget by more than 20% on an active ad set, you reset it to zero. That’s why you start with 2-3 ad sets identical in structure but with different creatives, and you keep the winner intact for 14 days.

Conclusion

The right budget is the one that hits the signal threshold for the algorithm. Below it, you’re in chaos. Above it, decisions get made on data.