This may sound hard to believe, but Facebook is setting limits. Effective as of February 16, 2021, the social media giant implemented ad limits. While social media users might issue a huge sigh of relief at this news, this big change could create some headaches for advertisers. Here’s everything you need to know to stay in compliance with the new Facebook ad limits.
Why the Limit?
You might have heard that you “can’t get enough of a good thing”, but that isn’t true when it comes to social media advertising. It might feel like Facebook is punishing you, but this change is actually meant to improve your ad’s performance. Ads have what Facebook calls a learning phase, which is a period of time where the system tries to target the right audience for your ad. Running too many ads at once limits this learning phase. By reducing ad numbers, Facebook will be able to deliver a better service and increase the bang you get for your advertising buck.
Facebook’s New Ad Limits
Facebook has set different limits based on page size. Since the ad performance improves the more times it is shown, Facebook encourages advertisers to use different ad volumes to improve ad performance. Currently there are four ad volume tiers, and they are:
- Small to medium-sized pages (spending less than $100K per month on ads) are limited to 250 ads.
- Medium to large-sized Pages (advertising less than $1M in their highest spending month) can purchase up to 1,000 ads.
- Larger Pages (less than $10M in their highest spending month) are capped at 5,000 ads.
- Largest Pages (Advertising more than $10M) are limited to 20,000 ads.
Not sure where your page stands? Facebook makes it easy to check the ad limit for each of your pages. Head to the Ad Limits Per Page tool, which is accessible through the Business Manager menu. This will show you both your limit as well as ways to reduce your ad volume.
Keep in Mind
What happens when you reach the Facebook ad limits? You won’t be able to purchase any more ads, unfortunately. This is why a smart social media advertising policy is more important than ever. Some other concerns are:
- Which ads count toward the limit? All ads that are running and in review count towards your page limit. Fortunately, ads that use many creatives (ie. a dynamic creative ad and an automatic placement ad) only count as one ad.
- What if your Page has multiple ad accounts? There is only a single ad limit per Page and not per user. Only the ads for the page count towards that page’s limit. Page administrators can set additional ad limits for other people on their account by using the Ad Limits Per Page Tool.
- Can I just create another page to increase my limit? This really isn’t a great idea, mainly because separate pages competing in the same auctions will bid against each other in the ad auction, so you might end up increasing your costs.
In the long run these limits will make Facebook ads more effective for both advertisers and consumers. These changes will make it easier for you to target and reach your specific audience. Still not sure who that audience is or whether you are reaching them? Our Online Impact Audit will save you time and money when it comes to advertising on social media.