The question every UK business asks first, and the one no honest answer can put a single number on. Facebook and Instagram ads are sold at auction — you are bidding against every other advertiser who wants the same people’s attention at the same moment. Your cost is not a price list. It is the outcome of that auction, and you control more of it than you would think.
What actually sets your cost
- Your sector and audience. Finance, legal and property pay more per click than a local bakery, because more advertisers with bigger margins are bidding for the same people.
- Your objective. Asking Meta for link clicks is cheap. Asking it for purchases or qualified leads costs more per result — and is usually worth far more.
- Your creative. This is the lever most businesses ignore. An ad people stop for gets shown more and charged less. Meta rewards attention; boring costs extra.
- The learning phase. New campaigns pay an inexperience tax for the first days while the system works out who converts. Constant edits restart it, which is how impatient accounts stay expensive forever.
- Your offer. No auction mechanic rescues an offer nobody wants. Weak offer, high cost per result — every time.
Rough starting budgets, by business type
USD figures are approximate conversions. These are the test budgets I typically suggest for a fair four-week read — not promises, and not what you will pay per result:
| Business | Daily test budget |
|---|---|
| Local service business | £20–£40 · $25–$50 |
| Clinic or high-value service | £30–£60 · $40–$75 |
| E-commerce store | £40–£100+ · $50–$125+ |
Below these ranges, Meta rarely collects enough conversion data to optimise, so the month tells you very little either way.
The only number that matters
Cost per click and CPM are trivia. The number that decides everything is cost per result against what a customer is worth to you. Work out your customer’s lifetime value, multiply by your close rate, and you have the most you can pay for an enquiry at break-even. Spend a comfortable fraction of that. The full method is on the budget page.
When costs come down
Accounts get cheaper with age and data: the pixel learns, retargeting audiences fill up, winning creative gets found, losing ad sets get switched off early. Most of the expensive accounts I audit are not unlucky — they are churning through edits, skipping retargeting, and boosting posts instead of running campaigns.
Frequently asked
Is there a fixed price for Facebook ads?
No. Meta sells ad space at auction, so your cost depends on your sector, your objective, your creative and how much competition wants the same audience at the same moment.
What is a sensible starting budget?
For a UK local service business, roughly £20–£40 a day for a four-week test. Clinics and high-value services sit higher, e-commerce higher still. Below those ranges Meta rarely gathers enough data to optimise.
Why do my costs keep rising?
Usually creative fatigue, constant edits restarting the learning phase, or no retargeting layer. Accounts get cheaper with age and clean data — not with more budget alone.
If budgets are on your mind.
I’ll run the numbers on your business for free.
Tell me what a customer is worth and what you are selling. You will get an honest read on whether the maths works before anyone quotes you.