Welcome back! We'll set a sensible ad budget together and show what each rand should return.
| Quick answer: start small and scale what proves itself; the account, the pixel and the history stay yours no matter who runs the ads. |
Nobody can quote you a flat price for a Facebook ad 📣, because you are not buying an ad — you are buying a place in an auction that runs a few hundred times a second against everyone else targeting your area. What you can control is the budget, the offer and the quality of the creative, and those three decide your cost per enquiry far more than any platform setting.
Realistic Budget Bands
| Daily budget | Monthly | What it can realistically do |
|---|---|---|
| R50 – R100 | R1,500 – R3,000 | Test one offer in one area; expect a trickle of enquiries |
| R100 – R250 | R3,000 – R7,500 | Steady lead flow from a proven offer |
| R250 – R500 | R7,500 – R15,000 | Scale, retargeting and creative testing |
Cost Per Enquiry, Not Cost Per Click 💸
Clicks are cheap and irrelevant on their own. Ask what one genuine enquiry costs: for many South African service businesses, a workable range is roughly R30 – R150 per enquiry, varying with competition and how compelling the offer is. The number that matters most is not the enquiry cost — it is the enquiry-to-sale rate behind it. A R90 enquiry that converts one in four beats a R40 enquiry that converts one in twenty.
The Split Nobody Explains 🎯
Two numbers appear on every invoice. Ad spend goes to the platform. The service fee pays for strategy, creative, targeting, tracking and weekly management. Ask for them as separate lines: a “cheaper” all-in deal usually means less reaching the platform and a bigger fee.
What Changes Your Cost 🔁
- Offer strength: a specific, dated promise beats a general service ad
- Creative freshness: the same image for a month gets expensive
- Area and audience: narrow targeting raises cost, improves quality
- Response speed: unanswered enquiries make a working campaign look broken
Writing an Offer That Lowers Your Cost
Ad costs follow competition, but the offer is your lever. Specific beats general: “Free quote within 24 hours for burglar bars in Roodepoort this month” outperforms “quality craftsmanship, 20 years’ experience”, because the first answers a question and the second describes a feeling.
Three ingredients lift any small ad: a concrete outcome, a reason to act now that is genuinely true, and a next step that takes one tap. Add proof — reviews, before-and-after photos, a permit number — and cost per enquiry usually drops within the first fortnight, often without touching a single targeting setting.
The Weekly Routine That Protects the Budget
Monday: check the weekend’s enquiries were answered and note the response times. Wednesday: review which creative is winning and pause anything over your target cost per enquiry for three consecutive days. Friday: decide one change for next week — a new image, a sharper first line, a different area — and write down what you expect it to do.
That cycle, repeated monthly, is most of what professional management is. The platforms reward consistency and punish long stretches of inattention, which is why a small budget managed weekly usually beats a larger one set and forgotten.
When a Campaign Stops Working
Costs creep up for a reason, and the reason is usually findable in ten minutes. Enquiries fell but spend held steady: the creative has tired, and new images are needed. Cost per click rose sharply: competition increased in your area, and the offer needs sharpening. Clicks arrived but enquiries did not: the landing page or the response time is the problem, not the ad. Results collapsed overnight: a policy rejection or a broken tracking pixel, both visible in the platform’s own notices.
Work through those four in order before touching the budget. Raising spend on a tired campaign does not fix it — it simply buys the same underperformance at a higher price.
Splitting Service Fee From Ad Spend
| Line | Goes to | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | The platform | Paid directly, visible in the ad account |
| Strategy and creative | Your marketing provider | One-off or included in the fee |
| Management fee | Your marketing provider | Monthly, should be stated separately |
| Tools and tracking | Either | Ask who owns the accounts |
Insist on the split in writing and insist that the ad account belongs to you. When the accounts are yours, switching providers costs a conversation rather than a rebuild — and your history gives the next campaign a head start.
| The budget ladder Weeks 1–2: test one offer, small. Weeks 3–4: kill the losers, scale the winner. Month 2: add retargeting on proven audiences. Never scale an unproven ad because it looks nice in the manager. |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the minimum I can spend?
R1,500 a month is enough to test one offer honestly. Below that, the platform cannot gather enough data to optimise.
How fast do results come?
Enquiries can arrive within days. Reliable cost-per-enquiry averages take two to four weeks.
Should I boost posts or use the ads manager?
Boosting is fine for reach on a small budget. The ads manager gives you targeting, tracking and real reporting — use it as soon as enquiries need to be counted 📊.
Should the ad account belong to me?
Always. Own the account, the pixel and the history, and let any agency work inside it. When the accounts are yours, changing providers costs a conversation instead of a rebuild — and your campaign history keeps working while you decide.
Do boosted posts count as advertising?
Yes, for reach. They are simply less controllable. Use boosting when you want an audience to see something, and the ads manager when you want enquiries you can count and compare.
What about advertising on Instagram too?
Often worth it, since ads can run across both from the same campaign. Judge each placement by cost per enquiry, not by which platform you personally prefer.
Let next month’s budget work harder. See social and ad management optionsGet my free marketing quotation |
