If you’re new to Facebook advertising, you may have a question or two about how you are billed for your Facebook ad account. No worries! We’ll cover everything you need to know about Facebook ads billing here…including a tool that can make paying for Facebook ads easier…and help you earn cash back!
How Facebook Ads Billing Works
There are a few things you need to understand about Facebook ads billing. First, you set a budget for each new ad campaign you create. That’s the amount you’re willing to spend on an ad (though you may not actually spend that amount). You will never be charged more than the budget you set.
You can create daily, lifetime, or total budgets. Daily budgets, as you’d guess, cover how much you are willing to spend each day for the duration of the ad campaign. You can also set the lifetime or total budget for the duration of your campaign.
So how much do you pay for Facebook ads? It depends. Facebook uses an auction system, and your ads will compete with others that use the same keywords and target the same demographics. The higher your ad budget, the more your ad will be shown, as compared to others with the same criteria. You pay per click or impression, depending on the type of ad you paid for.
You can establish your budgets, both daily and lifetime, in Facebook Business Manager, where you can also create ads and view their performance.
Establishing budgets for your ads is important because you can track your ROI on a given ad to ensure you’re making a profit.
Facebook Ad Spending Limits
Once you get the hang of how Facebook budgets work, you’ll quickly find the sweet spot of the right amount to spend to get the results you’re looking for. Many ecommerce companies find that the more they spend on Facebook ads, the better the results.
Keep an eye on how much you’re spending by logging into your Facebook Business manager account regularly. In the Billing section, you can see how much you’ve paid, separated by ad.
Now let’s talk about your billing threshold. When you first launch a Facebook ad campaign, Facebook sets a payment threshold that limits how much you can spend on ads before the social media site charges you. At the start, that billing threshold will be low, since you haven’t yet established a relationship with Facebook. As you pay your bill on time, that threshold can be increased. But until you get that amount raised, you may struggle with hitting that threshold, having to pay off your ad balance, hitting it again, paying it off, and so on.
Using a Credit Card for Facebook Ads Billing
In addition to the downfalls of working with a low billing threshold if you’re new to Facebook ads, you may also struggle with issues with your payment method.
First, there are a few different payment settings you can choose with Facebook. You can set up automatic payments with your credit or debit card or PayPal. Every time you hit that payment threshold, your card will automatically be charged.
Or you can opt for manual payments. You first add money to your account, and what you spend is deducted from that balance. When you run low, you have to top up your balance so that your ads continue to run smoothly.
The problems can come in if you’re spending a high amount of money on ads each day or week. First, if you use manual payments, you’ll have to log in and add money as soon as you run out of your balance. That in and of itself can be a headache.
But even if you opt for automatic payments, you aren’t necessarily exempt from headaches. Advertisers who have deep pockets for ad spend often encounter issues when their credit card companies flag their accounts for unusually high spending. If you were spending money on normal business expenses like coffee for the break room or toilet paper, this would be a great security feature that would keep you protected from fraud, but if you’re spending tens of thousands of dollars on Facebook ads, this feature could hinder you from making money.
Once a credit card flags your account and pauses future spending on it, Facebook freezes all your campaigns. That means your target audience isn’t seeing your ads…and they’re not buying your products. This seemingly small hiccup can cause a major loss of revenue if not remedied.
The Right Way To Handle Facebook Ads Billing
The folks at dash.fi recognized this problem for advertisers and set out to create a smart solution. The result? A virtual credit card with 10-20x higher spending limits than traditional credit cards. A card that doesn’t operate on traditional monthlong billing cycles but rather lets you customize that billing cycle based on your spending and needs.
Not only that but with dash.fi, you can also get unlimited virtual cards, so your Facebook ads specialist has one…your LinkedIn ads specialist has her own…your accountant has one…you get the picture.
Earn Cash Back on Your Facebook Ads Bill
I know by now you’re hysterical with joy over how dash.fi solves a major problem for you as an advertiser, but allow me to blow your mind a bit more: dash.fi also offers some pretty impressive cash back on ad spend. For your first two months, you can get up to 3% cash back on your ad spend, and 1-1.5% after that.
You can also get cash back if you work with one of dash.fi’s advertising agency or payment processing partners. For most companies, advertising is a huge spending category, so just imagine the cash back potential!
Avoid Campaign Shut Offs Due to Billing Errors
Not only do you risk your Facebook ad campaigns getting shut off because you’ve reached your billing threshold before you were done advertising…or because your credit card company thinks something’s wonky with your high spending…but you also risk campaign shut offs if you have even the tiniest discrepancy in your account data.
Let’s say you have an address for your office and another for billing. Your account manager inputs the one that isn’t used with your credit card on your Facebook ads account, and Facebook rejects it. Your account manager can’t figure out what the problem is, and while he’s investigating the issue, your ads aren’t running.
Each of your virtual credit cards with dash.fi can have its own unique name, address, and zip code, making it easier to keep card and account details consistent.
Being on top of your Facebook ads billing is paramount if you want to succeed with social media advertising. Start by using a smarter payment method, then manage your ad budgets wisely.
