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How to Set Lifetime Budget on Facebook Ad

Cody Schneider•

Setting a lifetime budget on your Facebook ad campaign can feel like giving up control, but it's actually one of the smartest ways to automate your ad spend and let Meta's algorithm find the best opportunities for you. Instead of trying to manage spending day by day, you give Facebook a total budget and a timeframe, and it handles the rest. This article will walk you through the difference between lifetime and daily budgets, when to use them, and how to set one up step-by-step in your Ads Manager.

Lifetime vs. Daily Budgets: What's the Difference?

In Facebook Ads Manager, your budget is set at the campaign level (using Advantage campaign budget, formerly CBO) or the ad set level. You have two primary options for how this budget is spent: daily or lifetime. Understanding the distinction is the first step to managing your ad spend effectively.

Daily Budget

A daily budget tells Facebook the average amount you want to spend each day. This is the key word: "average." Some days, Facebook might spend slightly more (up to 25% more) if it identifies high-potential opportunities. On other days, it might spend less. It's designed to even out over a calendar week to hit your target average spend.

  • Best for: Ongoing, "always-on" campaigns that don't have a fixed end date.

  • Pros: Consistent daily ad spend, easy to scale up or down.

  • Cons: Less flexibility in spending based on audience activity, no access to dayparting (running ads on specific days/times).

Lifetime Budget

A lifetime budget sets a maximum amount you will spend over the entire duration of a campaign. You must set a specific start and end date. With this information, Facebook's algorithm has the freedom to dynamically adjust daily spending. It might spend more on a Saturday if it knows that's when your audience converts, and much less on a slow Monday morning - all while ensuring it never exceeds your total budget by the end date.

  • Best for: Campaigns with a fixed duration, like a flash sale, event promotion, or holiday special.

  • Pros: Allows Facebook to allocate budget to high-opportunity days, unlocks the Ad Scheduling (dayparting) feature.

  • Cons: Requires a defined end date, less predictable daily spend.

Think of it like planning your coffee expenses for a month. A daily budget is like deciding to spend exactly $5 on coffee every single day. A lifetime budget is like putting $150 on a gift card for the month - you might spend $10 on a rough Monday and just $3 on a relaxed Friday, but you won't exceed the $150 total.

Why Use a Facebook Ads Lifetime Budget?

Opting for a lifetime budget isn't just a different way to pay, it unlocks specific strategic advantages that can improve your campaign's efficiency and results.

1. Automated Pacing and Optimization

The primary benefit of a lifetime budget is entrusting your pacing to Meta's powerful machine-learning algorithm. It analyzes thousands of signals in real-time to determine when your target audience is most likely to be online and take your desired action (like making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter). Instead of spending your budget evenly across high-performing and low-performing days, Facebook actively invests more when results are cheaper and easier to get, ultimately improving your overall return on ad spend (ROAS).

2. The Power of Ad Scheduling (Dayparting)

This is arguably the most significant tactical advantage of using a lifetime budget. You can only use the Ad Scheduling feature if you select a lifetime budget. Ad scheduling allows you to choose specific days of the week and times of the day to show your ads. This is incredibly useful for:

  • Local Businesses: A restaurant can run ads primarily during lunch and dinner hours (e.g., 11 am - 2 pm and 5 pm - 9 pm).

  • B2B Companies: You can target users only during standard business hours (e.g., Monday-Friday, 9 am - 5 pm) when they are most likely to be in a professional mindset.

  • E-commerce Stores: If your performance data shows conversions spike on weekday evenings and weekends, you can restrict your ads to only run during those peak times.

3. Predictability for Time-Based Campaigns

If you're running a promotion with a clear end date — like a Black Friday sale from Friday to Monday — a lifetime budget is the perfect tool. You can set your budget for the entire 4-day period and let Facebook manage it. This guarantees you won't accidentally overspend or underspend, and it allows the algorithm to push your budget harder on Saturday and Sunday if that's when people are shopping the most.

4. Set It and Forget It Simplicity

For busy marketers or business owners, a lifetime budget offers brilliant simplicity. You determine your total campaign spend upfront, set the schedule, and then you can largely let it run without constant daily tweaks. This frees you up to work on other aspects of your business, confident that Facebook is handling the spend optimization in the background.

How to Set a Lifetime Budget in Facebook Ads Manager (Step-by-Step)

Ready to put it into practice? Here's how to create a campaign with a lifetime budget from scratch.

Step 1: Create a New Campaign

In your Facebook Ads Manager, click the green + Create button. Select your campaign objective (e.g., Sales, Leads, Engagement).

Step 2: Enable Advantage Campaign Budget

On the new campaign setup screen, scroll down until you see the "Advantage campaign budget" toggle. Turn this on. This ensures your budget settings are controlled at the campaign level, which is best practice for optimization.

Step 3: Choose 'Lifetime Budget'

Right below the toggle, you'll see a dropdown menu for 'Campaign budget'. Click it and switch from the default 'Daily Budget' to 'Lifetime Budget'.

Step 4: Enter Your Total Budget and Dates

First, input the total amount you want to spend for the entire campaign duration in the 'Budget' field. Next — and this is critical — you must set a Start and End date for your campaign at the ad set level. A lifetime budget will not work without a defined schedule.

Step 5: (Optional) Configure Ad Scheduling

Now for the unlock. Navigate to the Ad Set level of your campaign. Scroll down to the "Budget & schedule" section. You will now see an option for "Ad scheduling."

Click "Edit" and select "Run ads on a schedule." A grid will appear, allowing you to click and drag to select the exact days and hours you want your ads to run. You can choose to base the schedule on your viewer's time zone or your ad account's time zone.

Step 6: Finish Setting Up and Publish

Complete the rest of your ad set and ad configurations (targeting, placements, creative). Once everything looks good, review your setup and click "Publish." Your campaign will now run according to your lifetime budget and schedule.

Best Practices for Using Facebook Lifetime Budgets

Setting up your budget is only half the battle. To get the most out of it, keep these tips in mind.

  • Give the Algorithm Enough Time: Lifetime budgets work best for campaigns that run for at least seven days, and ideally up to a month. Campaigns shorter than a week often don't provide enough data for the algorithm to learn and optimize pacing effectively. For very short campaigns (2-3 days), a daily budget might offer more control.

  • Use Data for Your Ad Schedule: Don't just guess when your customers are active. Look at your past advertising data. When do most of your conversions happen? Check your Google Analytics or Shopify sales data to identify peak days and times of day. Use that data to create an informed ad schedule.

  • Set a Realistic Budget: A $50 lifetime budget for a 30-day campaign works out to less than $2 a day. This is too low for the algorithm to gather meaningful data and exit the learning phase. Ensure your lifetime budget provides a reasonable average daily spend (a general rule of thumb is at least $5-$10 per ad set per day) to give your campaign a fighting chance.

  • Avoid Major Mid-Campaign Edits: Making significant changes to your budget (more than 20% up or down) or radically changing the schedule halfway through can force your campaign back into the learning phase, temporarily hurting performance. It's better to plan your budget and schedule ahead of time and let it run its course.

  • Monitor Performance Holistically: Remember, daily spending will be inconsistent with a lifetime budget. Don't panic if you spent only $5 yesterday and $50 today. This is the system working as intended. Judge performance based on the campaign's overall metrics - Cost per Purchase, ROAS, Cost Per Lead - over its full duration, not on a day-to-day basis.

Final Thoughts

Using a lifetime budget in your Facebook Ad campaigns is a move toward more intelligent, automated advertising. It allows you to leverage Meta's powerful optimization algorithm, gain access to precise ad scheduling, and enjoy predictable total spending on all your time-sensitive promotions.

Once those campaigns are running, the next challenge is understanding performance, especially when you're running ads on Facebook, Google, and other platforms. Tracking ROAS across different channels often means spending hours bouncing between reports trying to piece it all together. To solve this, we built Graphed. You can connect your various ad platforms in seconds and instantly ask questions in plain English like, "show me a dashboard of ROAS by campaign from Facebook and Google Ads this month," and get a live, automated dashboard built for you.