How do payments and credits work with Facebook/Instagram Ad Campaigns?

Budget and Ad Spend

When you launch a Facebook or Instagram Ad Campaign, you will set a duration and budget. As soon as the ad becomes Active, the card you have on file in Campaigns will be charged the full amount. 

• Click here to learn how to add a card and manage your payment profile in Campaigns.

Facebook will run the ad, never exceeding your total budget, but there is a chance that the total budget might not be used in the course of the ad. The actual amount you're charged is per click or impression, not for the ad duration. When you set the total campaign budget, Facebook attempts to space the funding out over each day in the campaign. For example, a $50 campaign over five days will try to allocate an average of $10 per day for you. 

However, according to Facebook, if the campaign is doing really well, it's possible for the daily spend to go above that $10 amount, but will never exceed your total budget for the campaign. Facebook uses the overall budget to get the best results. If the ad duration time is compressed, including when an ad is paused, Facebook will then accelerate promotion of your ad toward the end of the campaign. This helps offset the time it wasn't live in the platform. 

From what we've seen, success with campaigns usually comes down to timing and targeting. If your ad takes off and starts generating a spike in clicks or impressions, Facebook will try to build on that momentum by positioning your ad to take advantage of the increased traffic. If they did the opposite and let your daily budget max out for the day, activity changes so quickly on social media that your ad may not achieve the same success the following day. The system treats your daily spend like more of an average than a hard limit.

Stopping Campaigns and Credits

As your ad is actively running, you have the option to stop the Campaign, if you notice you aren't getting results. You can also restart a paused Campaign, though stopping the ad does not change the duration. The Campaign will end when the duration runs out. 

• Click here to learn how to stop/pause an active Campaign.

When you stop a campaign, you will get credits back, which will apply to the next Facebook or Instagram Ad Campaign you launch, but those credits will not appear until the full duration of the ad is complete. If you did not stop the Campaign, you might still get credits back. Depending on how you targeted your ad, or how it performs, Facebook/Instagram might not spend the full amount. You can view the total number of credits on the Payments page, in Campaigns. Keep in mind, credits only apply to Facebook and Instagram, not Google or Twitter.