A realistic starting budget for Facebook ads or Instagram ads is usually $20 to $50 per day ($600 to $1,500 per month) if you want enough data to judge performance, not just “run something.”
Here’s why: Meta ads run on an auction, and costs swing by audience size, competition, seasonality, and how strong your creative and landing page are. In Orlando, you’ll often feel spikes around big buying periods like holidays, back-to-school, and travel-heavy months, so “starter” budgets that work in slower seasons can feel thin when CPMs climb and results get noisier.
| What you’re trying to do | Realistic starting ad spend | How long to run before judging | What this budget can realistically support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick test to validate an offer (one audience, 1-2 creatives) | $10-$20/day ($300-$600/mo) | 10-14 days | Early signal on messaging and clicks; leads can happen, but volume is usually low |
| Local lead generation (service business, one location) | $20-$50/day ($600-$1,500/mo) | 3-4 weeks | Steadier lead flow, room for simple retargeting, and basic creative testing |
| More competitive local markets (law, medical, high-ticket home services) | $50-$150/day ($1,500-$4,500/mo) | 4-8 weeks | Enough volume to learn what converts, test multiple angles, and avoid “one bad week” decisions |
| Ecommerce sales (purchase objective, multiple products) | $75-$250/day ($2,250-$7,500/mo) | 6-8 weeks | Creative rotation, broader audiences, and time for the algorithm to stabilize around purchases |
A simple way to sanity-check your number is to work backward from your target cost per lead or cost per purchase. If you’d be happy paying $40 per lead, a $20/day budget only buys you about 15 leads per month on a perfect month, and that’s before you account for learning, creative fatigue, and slower weeks. Many campaigns also behave better when they can collect a meaningful number of conversion events per week, so budgets that are far under your expected CPA often feel stuck.
We also like splitting early budgets into two lanes: about 70% to your main conversion campaign (calls, forms, bookings) and about 30% to either retargeting or creative testing. If you do not have enough traffic for retargeting yet, put that 30% into testing 2-3 different hooks and one clear offer instead.
Budget is only half the math. If your landing page is slow, confusing, or missing trust signals, you’ll pay for clicks you cannot convert. Tightening that up usually drops your cost per lead faster than tweaking targeting. If you want us to map a clean starting plan and spend level for your niche, our PPC management team can build a test that answers “will this work?” without burning your month’s marketing money.
If you’re trying to get more out of the same spend, track the few numbers that actually matter (lead volume, cost per lead, booked rate, and close rate) and review them weekly. Our guide on SEO metrics to track applies to paid traffic too, because the goal is the same: leads that turn into revenue. And if you suspect the website is the bottleneck, it’s worth checking the basics in what makes a good small business website before you raise budget.
If you tell us your industry, service area (Orlando only vs Central Florida), and whether you need calls, form fills, or purchases, we can give you a tighter starting range and a simple first-month plan that fits your numbers.
