Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out!
I had a look at your question and I’m happy to give you some of my initial thoughts. It's one of the most common questions I see from people just starting out, and honestly, worrying about why your €2 budget isn't spending is like worrying about a leaky tap when the whole house is on fire. It's a symptom of a much bigger issue.
The real problem isn't the €0.50 spend; it's that most new advertisers are set up to fail from the very beginning because they focus on the wrong things. We need to fix your entire approach, starting with how you think about your customer, your offer, and what you're actually asking Facebook to do for you. Let's get this sorted.
TLDR;
- Your low ad spend is a symptom, not the problem. It's usually caused by a tiny audience, a poor ad, or the wrong campaign objective. We need to fix the underlying strategy.
- Stop using "Brand Awareness" or "Reach" campaigns. You are paying Facebook to find people who will never buy from you. You must use a "Conversions" objective from day one, even with a tiny budget.
- Your customer isn't a demographic ("women, 25-40"). They are a person with a specific, urgent "nightmare" that you can solve. Define this first, or all your advertising will fail.
- The offer is everything. If you're selling something nobody wants, or presenting it poorly, no amount of ad spend will save you.
- I've included an interactive calculator below that shows you exactly why a small audience will always struggle to spend your budget.
We'll need to look at why your budget isn't spending (and why it's the wrong question)
First, the simple answer. Facebook doesn't just take your €2 and spend it all in the first hour. Its algorithm tries to 'pace' the spend over the full 24 hours, showing your ad when it thinks it can get you the best results for the lowest cost. So, seeing only partial spend after 12 hours is completely normal. It's not inherently good or bad.
However, if after 24-48 hours your campaign consistently fails to spend the full daily budget, that's a massive red flag. It's your ad account telling you something is fundamentally broken. This usually comes down to two things:
1. Your Audience is Too Small: You're telling Facebook to find people in a tiny pond. If you've layered on too many interests or your geographical area is too small, the algorithm simply can't find enough eligible people to show your ad to each day. You can't force the system to spend money if there's no one to spend it on.
2. Your Ad is Rubbish: This is the brutally honest truth. In the ad auction, your ad is competing against thousands of others. If your ad has a low click-through rate (CTR) and people are ignoring it, Facebook's algorithm will quickly learn that showing your ad is a waste of its time and users' attention. It will prioritise showing better, more engaging ads from your competitors, and yours will struggle to get shown, hence the low spend.
But as I said, this is the wrong thing to be focusing on. It's a distraction. The real work starts with understanding who you're even trying to reach.
I'd say your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic
Forget the sterile, demographic-based profile your last marketing hire made. "Companies in the finance sector with 50-200 employees" or "Women aged 25-40 who like fashion" tells you nothing of value and leads to generic ads that speak to no one. To stop burning cash, you must define your customer by their pain.
You need to become an expert in their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. A person experiencing a very specific kind of hell that you can solve.
Let's imagine you sell high-quality, handcrafted leather wallets. A demographic approach would be "Men, 30-55, interested in luxury goods." It's useless. Who are you talking to? Nobody knows.
A nightmare-based approach is different. Your ICP is the guy whose cheap, bulky wallet just fell apart. He's embarrassed every time he pulls it out. He's frustrated with things that don't last. Or maybe it's the woman who is desperately searching for a meaningful, high-quality birthday gift for her partner who is impossible to shop for, and the date is next week. She's terrified of buying him another generic, soulless gift he won't use.
See the difference? Now you can write an ad that speaks directly to that pain. "Tired of bulky wallets that fall apart in a year? Your wallet should be a partner, not a liability." Or "Stop searching for the perfect gift. Give him something that will last a lifetime."
This intelligence isn't just data; it's the blueprint for your entire targeting and creative strategy. Do this work first, or you have no business spending a single pound on ads.
You probably should stop paying Facebook to find non-customers
Here is the uncomfortable truth about 'awareness' campaigns on platforms like Meta. When you set your campaign objective to "Reach" or "Brand Awareness," you are giving the algorithm a very specific, and very stupid, command: "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price."
The algorithm, in its infinite wisdom, does exactly what you asked. It seeks out the users inside your targeting who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and absolutely, positively least likely to ever pull out a credit card. Why? Because those users are not in demand. Their attention is cheap. You are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product.
This is probably the single biggest mistake I see beginners make. They think they need to 'build awareness' first. That's a myth perpetuated by big brands with millions to burn. For a small business, awareness is a byproduct of having a great product that solves a real problem and making sales, not a prerequisite for it.
From day one, with your very first euro, your campaign objective must be set to 'Conversions' (or 'Sales'). You need to tell Facebook's algorithm to hunt for people who exhibit behaviours similar to past purchasers. Even if you have zero sales, the algorithm knows what a buyer 'looks like' online. You are training the Facebook Pixel with every cent you spend. Train it to find buyers, not window shoppers. Your low budget will go much, much further this way, and you'll actualy start gathering data on what works.
You'll need to fix your targeting
Once you have your campaign objective set correctly to 'Conversions', you need to give the algorithm a decent starting point with your targeting. A lot of people get this wrong by either going way too broad or way too narrow.
For new accounts, I always start by testing detailed targeting based on interests and behaviours. This is where your 'ICP Nightmare' research becomes so important. What interests would your ideal customer have?
Let's go back to the leather wallet example. Instead of targeting a broad interest like "Fashion", which includes millions of people who don't care about quality wallets, get specific. Think about magazines they might read (`GQ`, `Esquire`), brands they might like (`Filson`, `Red Wing Shoes`), related hobbies (`Whisky`, `Cigars`, `Wet shaving`), or even competitor brands. You're building a profile of a person, not just throwing keywords at a wall.
The goal is to find an audience that is specific enough to be relevant, but large enough for the algorithm to work with. This is why underspending is often a sign of a bad audience. Have a play with this calculator - it's a simplified model, but it shows the relationship between audience size and potential daily spend.
I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:
This is a lot to take in, I know. It's a fundamental shift in thinking. To make it easier, here is a summary of the actionable steps you should take right now to fix your campaigns and start getting actual results, instead of just worrying about pennies.
| Area | Common Mistake (Your Likely Problem) | Recommended Action | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign Objective | Using "Reach" or "Brand Awareness" to "warm up" the audience. Spending money on people who will never buy. | Delete your current campaign. Create a new one with the "Sales" or "Conversions" objective from the very start. | This tells Facebook's algorithm to actively hunt for users who are most likely to purchase, making every euro you spend work harder. |
| Audience & Targeting | Audience is too small, or targeting is based on vague demographics instead of real customer pain. | Define your ICP's "nightmare". Then, build an audience of at least 500k+ people using specific, relevant interests that reflect this pain. | A large, relevant audience gives the algorithm room to find buyers. A pain-focused approach ensures your message resonates and gets clicks. |
| The Offer & Ad Creative | The ad just shows a product without context. The offer is weak (e.g., no free shipping, no discount). | Write ad copy using the Problem-Agitate-Solve framework. Make your offer irresistable (e.g., first-time buyer discount, free express shipping). | A powerful ad stops the scroll and forces a click. A strong offer converts that click into a sale. The ad's only job is to sell the click. |
| Measurement & Mindset | Obsessing over daily spend fluctuations and cost per click (CPC). | Ignore daily spend. Focus on one metric: Cost Per Purchase (CPA) or Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). Give the campaign 3-5 days to learn before judging. | The only thing that matters is profitability. Are you spending less to acquire a customer than you make from them? That's the entire game. |
Following this framework is the difference between setting your money on fire and building a predictable, scalable system for acquiring customers. It requires discipline and a willingness to ignore the vanity metrics that distract most beginners.
This is just the starting point, of course. The real work comes in the constant testing of different audiences, different ad creatives, and different offers. It's a process of continuous optimisation, and it can be a lot to handle when you're also trying to run your business. This is where professional help can make a huge differance, not just in getting better results, but in getting them faster and avoiding costly mistakes along the way.
If you feel like you could use an expert eye on your account to get things moving, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation. We'll go through your setup together and give you a clear, actionable plan. It's the same level of strategic thinking we bring to all our clients, and people usually find it incredibly valuable.
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
