March 2020 Roll-Out.
So, Facebook has again announced the new mandatory launch of Campaign Budget Optimisation. We have all seen the message that’s been floating about on Facebook Ads Manager warning us of the change but this March it’s becoming compulsory for any new campaigns. Since its launch, it has become a divisive topic with some social media marketers loving it and some not so much.
For anyone that doesn’t know what we are talking about, Campaign Budget Optimisation (CBO) means you now have to set lifetime or daily budgets at the campaign level rather than the ad set level. Facebook’s algorithm will then work to fulfil the optimisation goal that you have set for your campaigns.
The Good.
- As Facebook will be working in real-time to capture the most results for your budget, this should effectively lower your total cost per result. This also means there is less to manage (supposedly).
- Using CBO prevents the learning phase restarting when you make changes which I’m sure we can all vouch for has killed many a campaign.
The Bad.
- Due to Facebook’s algorithm controlling the budgets it likely you will probably spend a bit more. Especially as with any change it will require testing to see what works best for your campaigns. (See loopholes for a tip!)
- CBO can take longer to provide results due to a longer initial learning period. It recommends 14 days to learn about the campaigns before you make any changes. This can be hard if you have angry clients asking you why you have no results.
The Loopholes.
- Right now, we wouldn’t recommend using CBO for all of your campaigns. If you do, your account will be locked into using the feature. CBO will only come in for new campaigns so continue on using ad set level whilst you can.
- Facebook allows you to set a minimum and maximum spend. If you set a minimum spend limit, Facebook will aim to spend that amount. If you set a maximum spend limit, Facebook will not exceed that amount (meaning it won’t run away with the budget)
Conclusion.
We recommended starting to test CBO now so you have some idea of how it will work with your different campaigns/objectives before it becomes mandatory. We will be doing a follow-up post in two weeks talking about our personal experience.
