Ever feel that Facebook ads dashboards speak a totally different language? We've all been there! Budgeting, targeting, and algorithms can be overwhelming for the human mind.
This platform has over 1.84 billion daily users — including your target audience. It’s massive. But launching your ad campaign still feels like having to go to war without ammunition.
But hold on, there's a solution — Facebook CBO (Campaign Budget Optimization). You no longer have to micromanage every ad set budget. CBO lets you set one big pot of money for your entire campaign.
The interesting part is Facebook spreads your cash around based on where it thinks it'll work best. And it’s doing this quite successfully, giving you more clicks, more leads, and more sales.
In this post, we’ll learn about Campaign Budget Optimization, what it is, and how to use it.
P.S. We'll even throw some pro tips to create Facebook ad campaigns with CBO. Keep reading!
Recap: What is Facebook CBO (Campaign Budget Optimization)?
Do you find it hard to get a hold of your budget? Distributing the budget of a campaign among ad sets can be a difficult decision. And this is where CBO comes in.
Instead of setting distinct budgets for each ad set within your campaign, CBO allows you to allocate a single, overall budget for the entire campaign. Facebook's algorithm then takes over and automatically distributes that budget across your ad sets. This distribution is based on the performance of those ad sets.
CBO is powered by Facebook's machine learning algorithm, which constantly analyzes data from your campaign. This data includes things like clicks, click-through rates, and conversions. If an ad performs better, the parent ad set will also perform better. So, eventually, the performance of that campaign will also be better. The Facebook CBO algorithm identifies which ad set is performing the best and automatically allocates more budget to it.
By automatically allocating your budget to the most successful ad sets, CBO helps you get the most value out of your advertising spend. You never have to fiddle with individual ad set budgets as it takes care of the distribution, saving you time and effort. So your ad campaign’s results and efficiency both improve.
However, keep in mind that CBO requires at least two active ad sets within your campaign for it to work. And while CBO offers more automation, it's still essential to monitor your campaign performance and make adjustments if needed.
How can you use Facebook CBO?
Using Campaign Budget Optimization can streamline your advertising efforts and maximize your budget impact. Here’s how you can use it:
1. Start a new campaign and set a campaign-level budget
Fire up your new Facebook campaign and select your objective (e.g., conversions, traffic). You’ll see that the CBO is off by default in Ads Manager, so flip the switch to implement this automated tool.
Once you’ve turned it on, allocate your overall budget. This tells CBO how much you're willing to spend, giving it room to optimize efficiently. Choose between a daily budget for consistent spending or a lifetime budget for total campaign expenditure.
2. Choose your bidding strategy
After setting the campaign-level budget, define how you want CBO to allocate your budget within your ad sets. This can be defined by setting the bid strategy. Keep in mind your campaign objective changes the different bid strategy options you have.
Let's say you’ve selected “Conversion” as your objective; the following are the bid strategy options you’ll have:
Lowest cost: This strategy prioritizes affordability while securing conversions. Ideal if you want maximum reach within your budget constraints.
Highest value or lowest cost: Focuses on maximizing conversions regardless of cost. This strategy best suits campaigns where ROI isn't the primary concern.
Cost cap: Sets a limit on your average cost per acquisition (CPA). Offers control over spending but might limit reach.
Minimum ROAS: With this bid strategy, you can target conversions with a minimum return on ad spend (ROAS). This ensures your investment results in profit.
3. Optimization and delivery
Once you have selected the bid strategy, it is time to tell the Campaign Budget Optimization tool what action you want to achieve.
Your goal could be:
Conversions: Drives people to take a specific action, like purchasing or signing up.
Link Clicks: Increases clicks on your ad links, sending traffic to your website or landing page.
Landing Page Views: Get more people to view your landing page, potentially leading to conversions.
Once you’ve set what you want to achieve, set your delivery window — when your ads are delivered. You have four options: 1-day click, 7-day click, 1-day click or view, and 7-day click or view.
Let’s say you’ve selected the 7-day click or view option. The CBO algorithm would learn from conversions over seven days and deliver ads to people likely to convert within that time frame.
4. Choose your audience
Now comes a very crucial step, after choosing the optimization and delivery, you have to choose your target audience. It helps the algorithm understand who would be the best set of people to see your ads.
Here are some things you need to keep in mind while choosing your audience:
Avoid overly niche audiences: The size of the audience matters. If your targeting is too narrow, it might interfere with CBO's ability to optimize effectively. If your target audience is very specific, it’s best for you to manage your budgets manually.
Experiment with demographics, interests, and behaviors: Create distinct audience segments to test variations.
Use custom and lookalike audiences: Use the existing customer data and expand your reach to similar individuals.
After choosing the audience, all you have to do is sit back and watch as the algorithm analyzes performance in real-time, allocating more budget to high-performing ad sets and scaling back underperformers.
Note: There’s no replacement for strategic planning. Monitor performance, adjust settings as needed, and give CBO time to learn. By combining your expertise with CBO's data-driven approach, you can make your campaigns more effective.
8 Tips for creating Facebook ad campaigns with CBO
Follow the tips below to make the most of the Facebook Campaign Budget Optimization tool:
1. You can rely on automation
While the option exists to manually choose ad placements, trust CBO's ability to learn and optimize. The more control you hand over, the more data it gathers. And the more data it has, the more refined your next campaign performance will be.
2. Give CBO time to learn
Especially with smaller budgets, resist the urge to tinker after just a few days. Remember, CBO is in its learning phase, gathering data and fine-tuning its optimization. Give it at least a week to stabilize before considering adjustments.
3. Avoid the low-bidding trap
Don't think that you can outsmart Facebook algorithms with unreasonably low bids in the "Cost Cap" strategy. Facebook needs breathing room to identify high-performing placements and deliver results. Trying to outsmart the algorithm often leads to limited ad distribution and missed opportunities.
4. Prioritize ROAS with strategic set management
If an ad set significantly drives up your cost per action (CPA), consider pausing it while letting CBO focus on better-performing sets. This can lower your overall CPA effectively and boost your ROAS.
5. Measure performance at the campaign level
Unlike manual budget allocation, CBO distributes funds dynamically across ad sets. Therefore, analyze campaign performance holistically, focusing on total results and average cost per optimization event, not individual ad set metrics.
6. Control distribution with spending limits
Want to put more control over budget allocation? Use ad-set spend limits within your campaign budget settings. This allows you to prioritize specific sets while ensuring others receive adequate funding.
7. Streamline setup and optimization
When you’re starting out, create campaigns and ad sets in bulk. This gives CBO a head start on learning and optimization, allowing you to see results faster. Additionally, applying changes to multiple campaigns or ad sets at once reduces their learning time, further accelerating your progress.
8. Resist the urge to pause
Remember, CBO thrives on active ad sets. Pausing one throws off the budget balance, potentially leaving others underfunded upon reactivation. Trust the algorithm to identify opportunities within each set, even if performance seems subpar initially.
Keep a watch on CBO performance with Graas marketing deep dive
If data matters to CBO, it matters to you too. You must keep a close eye on how CBO is performing for the budget you have and the audience you’re targeting. And this is where Graas Marketing Deep Dive comes in. It’s a tool that allows you to leverage the true potential of your marketing efforts.
While the Facebook algorithm optimizes your bidding and budget, Graas gives you creative and keyword analytics, complementing the CBO for further optimization. The platform gives you customized intelligence and recommendations to take your Facebook ads to the next level.
Want your Facebook ads to perform to their fullest potential? Try Graas Marketing Deep Dive today!