Meta (Facebook/Instagram) Ad Budget Planner 2026
Plan your Facebook and Instagram ad budget based on CPM, CTR, CPC and conversion rate. Work backwards from your target leads or sales to calculate the required daily and monthly budget — with expected impressions, clicks, leads and ROAS at your target metrics.
Key Inputs
- Target leads or purchases per month
- Expected CPM (£) — cost per 1,000 impressions
- Expected CTR % — click-through rate from ad to landing page
- Expected landing page conversion rate %
- Average order value or lead value (£)
What You'll Get
- Required monthly ad budget (£)
- Required daily budget (£)
- Expected monthly impressions, clicks and conversions
- Implied ROAS and CPL (cost per lead) at target metrics
Important Notes & UK Benchmarks
UK Meta Ads benchmarks 2025: average CPM £5–15 for broad audiences, £10–25 for retargeting; average CTR 0.5–2% (feed ads), 1–3% (Stories/Reels); average landing page conversion rate 1–3% for e-commerce cold traffic, 3–8% for retargeting. Meta ROAS benchmarks: 2–4× for top-of-funnel cold audiences; 4–10× for retargeting warm audiences. Meta Ads algorithm needs 50+ conversions per week per ad set to exit learning phase — budget must support this minimum to achieve stable delivery.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good CPM for Meta Ads in the UK?
UK CPM benchmarks 2025: cold audience prospecting £8–15; retargeting warm audiences £15–30; video views campaigns £3–8 (CPM optimised). CPMs are highly variable and depend on audience size, creative quality, ad relevance score and competition. CPMs spike in Q4 (October–December) by 30–60% due to e-commerce competition. Broad audiences (all UK 25–54) have lower CPMs than narrow interest-based or lookalike audiences. Monitor CPM trends as a leading indicator of campaign efficiency.
How many conversions does Meta Ads need per week per ad set?
Meta's algorithm requires at least 50 conversions per week per ad set to exit the "learning phase" and achieve stable, optimised delivery. Below this threshold, performance is volatile and CPA can be 30–50% higher than when fully optimised. This means your daily budget per ad set should be at least: target CPA × 50 ÷ 7 per day. If your target CPA is £20, the minimum daily budget per ad set is approximately £143/day (£20 × 50 ÷ 7). Consolidating campaigns into fewer, larger ad sets helps accumulate data faster.
What ROAS should I target for Meta Ads?
Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ gross margin % — the same formula as for Google Ads. For a 40% margin business, break-even ROAS is 2.5×. UK Meta Ads benchmarks: 2–4× for cold audiences (prospecting), 4–10× for retargeting warm audiences. Unlike Google Search, Meta is an interruption channel — users are not in buying mode, so conversion rates are typically lower and ROAS is lower for equivalent spend. Meta works best for brand building, product discovery and retargeting, supplementing Google Search intent capture.
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