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Facebook and Instagram ads budget calculator

Meta charges by the thousand views, so what you get depends on what views cost in your sector, how many people click, and how many of them buy or enquire. Pick your sector and goal to see what a monthly budget should buy, the cost of each lead or sale, whether one ad set can get out of Meta's learning phase, and the budget a goal needs.

Views, clicks and results a budget buys
Your cost per lead or sale
Whether it is enough for Meta to learn

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Your sector

What you want

Monthly budget

What a customer is worth

Leads that become customers

Not every enquiry buys. 20% is a cautious figure if you do not know yours.

Or: leads you want a month (optional)

Local services

£1,000 a month should reach about 100,000–200,000 views and bring 88–176 leads, at £5.68–£11.36 each.

£5£10

Typical UK cost per 1,000 views in your sector.

200,000Views
2,200Clicks
176Leads

88–176Leads a month

£5.68–£11.36Cost per lead

In your full report

Paying customers and your return on ad spend
The budget your goal needs
Whether Meta can learn at this budget

Rather have a person look at it? We will go through your numbers with you on a free 30-minute call.

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How much does a lead from Facebook ads cost in the UK?

It depends mostly on two things: what 1,000 views cost in your sector, and how many people who see the ad act on it. Consumer sectors with cheap views and quick decisions sit at the bottom of the range; B2B, property and finance, where views cost more and fewer people click, sit at the top.

A sale costs several times more than a lead, because far fewer people buy on a first visit than fill in a form. That is why businesses with a long buying cycle usually ask Meta for leads, not sales.

Typical UK Meta ads costs by sector
Sector	1,000 views	Link click rate	Cost per lead	Cost per sale
Local services	£5–£10	1.1%	£5.68–£11.36	£22.73–£45.45
Online shop: fashion	£5–£9	1.2%	£6.94–£12.50	£23.15–£41.67
Online shop: home and gifts	£5–£9	1.0%	£8.33–£15.00	£33.33–£60.00
Health and beauty	£6–£11	1.1%	£6.06–£11.11	£27.27–£50.00
Food, drink and stays	£4–£8	1.3%	£4.40–£8.79	£12.31–£24.62
B2B services	£8–£16	0.7%	£19.05–£38.10	£142.86–£285.71
Education and courses	£5–£10	1.0%	£5.56–£11.11	£33.33–£66.67
Property	£6–£12	0.9%	£9.52–£19.05	£133.33–£266.67
Finance and insurance	£8–£15	0.8%	£16.67–£31.25	£100.00–£187.50

Typical UK figures for 2026, the ones the calculator uses. Cost per result = cost of 1,000 views ÷ 1,000 ÷ click rate ÷ conversion rate. Not quotes or measurements of your account.

How do you work out what a Facebook ads budget will buy?

Work down the funnel. Divide the budget by the cost of 1,000 views to get views, multiply by the click rate to get clicks, then by the conversion rate to get leads or sales.

For a local service business, £1,000 at £5–£10 per 1,000 views is 100,000–200,000 views. At a 1.1% click rate that is 1,100–2,200 clicks, and with 8% of clickers enquiring, 88–176 leads.

For an online fashion shop, £1,500 a month buys about 36–64 sales. With a £55 average order that is £1,980–£3,520 of sales, a return on ad spend of 1.3–2.3, so whether it pays depends on the margin.

Views = budget ÷ cost per 1,000 views × 1,000.
Clicks = views × click rate.
Results = clicks × conversion rate.
Cost per result = budget ÷ results.

How much budget does Meta's learning phase need?

After launch, or after a significant edit, Meta spends a learning phase finding out who responds. An ad set leaves it after about 50 optimisation events in seven days; one that cannot get there is marked Learning limited, and its results stay less stable.

So the budget an ad set needs depends on the event it is chasing. For leads, most consumer sectors get there on £1,300–£2,800 a month for one ad set, while B2B and finance need about £4,750–£5,550. Sales cost too much for most small budgets to reach 50 a week, which is why small shops often optimise for an earlier step, such as add to basket, or run fewer ad sets.

Monthly budget for one ad set to reach about 50 results a week
Sector	Optimising for leads	Optimising for sales
Local services	£1,650	£6,600
Online shop: fashion	£1,950	£6,500
Online shop: home and gifts	£2,350	£9,300
Health and beauty	£1,700	£7,650
Food, drink and stays	£1,300	£3,600
B2B services	£5,550	£41,300
Education and courses	£1,650	£9,650
Property	£2,800	£38,550
Finance and insurance	£4,750	£28,300

The calculator's own arithmetic at typical UK costs for 2026: the monthly budget, to the nearest £50, at which the middle of its range reaches 50 results a week.

How do you get cheaper results from Facebook and Instagram ads?

Most of the cost per result is decided after the view: by the ad itself, and by the page or form people land on. Doubling the share of clickers who enquire halves the cost per lead, whatever views cost.

The other lever is focus. A small budget split across many ad sets keeps all of them in learning, so fewer, broader ad sets usually do better than many narrow ones.

Install the Meta pixel and the Conversions API so Meta can see who enquires or buys.
Run a few strong ads, with video and still pictures, and replace the weakest each month.
Show the price, the offer or the result in the first seconds of the ad.
Send people to a page that matches the ad and works well on a phone.
Avoid large edits to a live ad set; each one can restart learning.
Expect views to cost more in November and December, when retailers bid hardest.

How the tool works

Pick your sector and whether you want leads or sales.
Set a monthly budget, or the number of results you want.
Add what a sale or customer is worth, and for leads how many become customers, to see the return.
See views, clicks, results, cost per result and whether the budget is enough to learn.

How Scale Oxford helps

Want a Meta ads budget that pays for itself?

We set your budget from your own cost per result and what a customer is worth, then build the ads and the pages people land on. We keep the account simple enough to leave learning, and move money each month towards the ads that bring customers.

We set up the pixel and Conversions API so every lead and sale is counted.
We make and test ads built for Facebook and Instagram, not resized print adverts.
We report cost per lead or sale and return on ad spend each month, not just reach.

Book a free call See our Meta ads service

Case study · KappaScale Oxford cut the cost of each sale from paid social by 23% for Kappa. The same few studio ads had run on Meta and TikTok for months. Every month we now make new UGC-style ads and test each one against the current best.↓ 23%Lower cost per sale↑ 2.8xHigher click-through rate↑ 1.6xHigher return on ad spendRead the case study →

Questions people ask

How much do Facebook ads cost in the UK?

In the UK, 1,000 views typically cost £4–£16 depending on the sector and the audience. A lead usually costs about £4–£20 for consumer businesses and £17–£38 for B2B and finance; the calculator shows the range for your sector.

What is a good budget for Facebook ads?

Enough for each ad set to get about 50 results a week, which is when Meta stops "learning" and settles. For leads at £15 each, that is about £3,250 a month for one ad set; with less, expect bumpier results.

Is Instagram cheaper than Facebook?

Not reliably. Both run from the same Meta account, and the prices move with the audience and the time of year. Let Meta place ads on both and compare the cost per result.

Are Facebook ads better than Google Ads?

They do different jobs. Google catches people already searching; Meta reaches people who are not looking yet, usually more cheaply per view. Many businesses run both.

How long should I run Facebook ads before judging them?

Give each ad set two to three weeks, or until it has had about 50 results, before deciding. The first week is learning, when costs jump around. Judge on cost per lead or sale, not on likes or reach.

What is a good click-through rate for Facebook ads in the UK?

Around 1% of viewers clicking the link is typical; the calculator uses 0.7% for B2B services up to 1.3% for food, drink and stays. A rate well below your sector usually means the ad or the audience is wrong, not the budget.

Why are my Facebook ads so expensive?

Usually because of one of three things: a narrow audience that many advertisers want, an ad people scroll past, or a page that few visitors act on. Views also cost more in the run-up to Christmas. Find the weak step in the funnel before raising the budget.

Should I boost posts or use Ads Manager?

Use Ads Manager for anything meant to bring leads or sales. Boosting a post is quick, but it offers fewer choices of goal, audience and placement, and it is harder to test one ad against another. A boost suits a post you simply want more people to see.

Do I need the Meta pixel and Conversions API?

Yes, if you want Meta to find people who enquire or buy. The pixel reports actions from the browser and the Conversions API sends them from your website's server, which fills gaps when browsers block tracking. Without them Meta can only aim for clicks.

Are Facebook lead form ads better than sending people to a website?

Forms that fill in a person's details for them usually bring cheaper leads, but more of those people never answer the phone. Adding a question or two, or choosing the form type that asks people to check their details, trades a higher cost per lead for better leads. Compare the cost per customer, not per lead.

How many ads should be in one ad set?

For a small budget, three to six different ads is plenty. More ads split the budget so thinly that none gathers enough results to judge. Replace the weakest each month rather than adding more.