Solved: Facebook Ads Showing in Batches?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

That's a really sharp observation about your Facebook ads, and it's something a lot of people notice when they're starting out. The feeling that everything happens in "batches" or "clusters" isn't you imagining things – it's actually a window into how Meta's delivery system really works. It's not a bug or some weird server job; it's a core feature of the algorithm doing what you've asked it to do.

Instead of trying to "fix" it, the real secret is to understand *why* it's happening and build your entire advertising strategy around this behaviour. Getting this right is the difference between burning cash and building a predictable engine for growth. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and walk you through the mindset shift that takes an advertiser from novice to expert. It all starts with stoping to worry about when the conversions happen, and focusing on the underlying strategy that makes them happen profitably.

We'll need to look at... Why 'Batching' Is a Feature, Not a Bug

Let's get this sorted straight away. The "batching" you're seeing is the Meta algorithm's core function in action. Its one and only job is to find people who will complete the objective you set (like making a purchase or filling out a lead form) for the lowest possible cost. It is not designed to spend your daily budget smoothly and evenly throughout the day. That would be incredibly inefficient.

Think of the algorithm as a gold prospector panning a huge river. The prospector doesn't stand in one spot and pan the same water all day. They take a sample from one area. If they find a fleck of gold, they'll work that spot hard—digging and panning intensely until it runs dry. That's your "batch" of conversions. Then, they move on to a completely different part of the river to take another sample. That's the quiet period you experience. The algorithm is constantly running this cycle: Explore & Exploit.

It identifies a small pocket of users within your target audience who share some hidden characteristics—maybe they all recently visited a similar website or engaged with a competitor's post. It then 'exploits' this pocket by showing them your ad in a concentrated burst to see if it can get some quick, cheap conversions. Once it has enough data (or the pocket stops responding), it moves on to 'explore' for the next promising group. This process is far more effective at finding customers than just showing your ad to random people evenly over 24 hours. The clusters are a sign that the system is actively hunting for your next customer, not a technical glitch you need to worry about.

I'd say you... Might Be Paying Facebook to Find Non-Customers

Now that you understand the algorithm is just a machine following orders, it's absolutly vital to make sure you're giving it the right orders. This brings us to the single biggest mistake I see new advertisers make: choosing the wrong campaign objective.

When you set up a campaign, Meta asks what you want to achieve. If you select "Reach" or "Brand Awareness," you are giving the algorithm a very clear, but very dangerous, command: "Find me the largest number of people for the lowest possible price." The algorithm, being the efficient machine it is, does exactly that. It scours your audience for the people whose attention is cheapest. And why is their attention cheap? Because they are the users who are least likely to click, least likely to engage, and definately least likely to ever buy anything. They're not in demand from other advertisers, so their ad space is sold at a bargain price.

You are actively paying the world's most powerful advertising machine to find you the worst possible audience for your product. It's a trap. Brand awareness for a growing business is a byproduct of making sales and having happy customers, not a prerequisite for it. Unless you have a multi-million-pound budget like Coca-Cola, you should almost always choose an objective that optimises for a conversion event, like "Leads" or "Sales". This forces the algorithm to ignore the cheap, passive users and start hunting for the pockets of people who actually take action. This might mean your CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) is higher, but your cost per actual customer will be far, far lower.

You probably should... Redefine Your Customer From a Demographic to a Nightmare

So, you're optimising for conversions. Great. The next question the algorithm has for you is, "Who should I show these ads to?" If your answer is something like "Companies in the finance sector with 50-200 employees," you have no business spending a single pound on ads yet. That's a demographic, not a customer. It 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 specific, urgent, and expensive pain point. Their nightmare. Your ideal customer isn't a job title; they are a person in a state of professional crisis. For a legal tech SaaS we worked with, the nightmare wasn't 'needing document management'. It was a partner terrified of missing a critical filing deadline, exposing the firm to a malpractice suit and career-ending reputational damage. That's a nightmare.

Once you've isolated that nightmare, your targeting becomes incredibly sharp. You don't target "lawyers." You find out what niche podcasts they listen to on their commute, what industry newsletters they actually open, and what SaaS tools they already pay for. Are they members of specific LinkedIn groups? Do they follow certain legal tech influencers? This intelligence is the blueprint for your targeting. It allows the algorithm to find not just random lawyers, but lawyers currently experiencing the exact pain your product solves. Those are the "pockets" you want it to find.

You'll need... The Math That Unlocks Aggressive Growth

This is probably the most important shift in thinking for any business owner running paid ads. The question isn't "How low can I get my cost per lead?" it's "How high a cost per lead can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer lies in calculating their Lifetime Value (LTV).

Most people get scared when they see a £50 or £100 cost per conversion. But that number is completely meaningless without context. Let's do some simple maths. You need three numbers:

• Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What do you make per customer, per month? Let's say it's £500.
• Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue? Let's say it's 80%.
• Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of customers do you lose each month? Let's say it's 4%.

The calculation is: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

So, LTV = (£500 * 0.80) / 0.04 = £400 / 0.04 = £10,000.

In this example, each customer is worth £10,000 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. A healthy business can typically afford to spend about one-third of their LTV to acquire a customer (a 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio). This means you can afford to spend up to £3,333 to acquire a single customer. If your sales team converts 1 in 10 qualified leads into a customer, you can afford to pay up to £333 for every single one of those leads.

Suddenly, that £100 lead from Meta doesn't look expensive, does it? It looks like an absolute bargain. This is the maths that separates businesses that stagnate from those that scale aggressively. Use the calculator below to get a feel for your own numbers.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Pulling this all together, the path forward isn't about tweaking daily budgets or worrying about delivery times. It's about building a sound strategic foundation. You need to shift your focus from the tactical minutiae to the strategic inputs that actually drive results. Below is a summary of the mindset shift from a beginner's approach to an expert one.

I know this is a lot to take in, and implementing a full-funnel strategy with proper LTV tracking and creative testing isn't simple. It requires expertise and a disciplined process. This is where working with a specialist can make a significant difference, saving you months of expensive trial-and-error.

If you'd like to discuss how these principles could be applied specifically to your business, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can review your current setup and identify your biggest opportunities for growth.

Hope this helps clear things up!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh