Solved: Facebook Ads Spend Limit Help for New Accounts

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out about this. It's a really common, and frankly, a very frustrating problem for new advertisers. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on how to navigate this without getting your account into more trouble.

The short answer is you can't force it, but you can absolutely influence it by playing Meta's game. It's all about proving to their automated systems that you're a legitimate, trustworthy advertiser who pays their bills and provides a good experience for users. Let's get into how you can do that.

We'll need to look at why this is happening (and why support are useless)...

First off, you need to understand what this limit actually is. It's not a punishment. It's a standard security feature for pretty much all new ad accounts. Think of it like a probationary period. Meta has been burned by countless advertisers who run up huge bills on stolen credit cards and then disappear, or who run scammy, policy-violating ads from day one. This daily limit is their automated defence mechanism.

This is why Facebook's chat support is no help at all. They're not lying when they say it's all automated and they can't manually lift it. They genuinely don't have a button to press. The decision is made by an algorithm that's looking at dozens of trust signals from your account. Your job isn't to fight the support team; your job is to give that algorithm exactly what it wants to see.

Trying to find a way around it, like opening new ad accounts, will only make things worse. This is a massive red flag for their system and the fastest way to get your entire Business Manager permanently restricted. You gotta play the long game here.

I'd say you need to play their game...

The only way to get this limit increased is to prove you're a legitimate business who will spend money responsibly over the long term. It's a trust-building exercise. Every single day you successfully spend your full limit and pay your bill on time, you're adding a little bit more trust to your account's score. After a period of consistent, clean activity, the algorithm will automatically increase your limit. Then the process repeats. You hit the new, higher limit consistently, and it'll get raised again.

Here’s the process you need to follow, laid out visually. Your goal is to move through these stages as smoothly as possible.

So, what does "playing the game" look like in practice?

• Payment Method: Make sure you have a solid, legitimate payment method on file. A business credit card is best. Debit cards and prepaid cards can look suspicious to their system. Most importantly, ensure there's always enough funds available so that Meta's payments never, ever fail. A single failed payment can reset your trust score to zero.
• Spend The Limit: You MUST spend the full $78 every single day. If you only spend $30, you're signalling to the algorithm that you don't even need the current limit, so why would it give you a higher one? Set a single campaign with a daily budget of $78 and let it run.
• No Policy Violations: This is a big one. You need to be squeaky clean. Read their ad policies carefully. Avoid anything that could be considered borderline. Every time you have an ad rejected, it's a black mark against your account. Too many of those, and you'll be stuck at this limit for ages, or worse, get the account shut down.

You probably should optimise within the limits...

Okay, so $78 a day isn't a lot, especially if you're in a competitive market. This means you can't afford to waste a single penny. You need to be ruthless with your strategy. The goal here isn't to get thousands of customers from day one. The goal is to get *consistent, high-quality conversions* that prove to Meta your ads work and your business is real.

This is where so many new advertisers go wrong. They think, "I only have a small budget, so I'll run a 'Brand Awareness' or 'Reach' campaign to get my name out there." Tbh this is the worst thing you can do. When you chose those objectives, you're literally paying Facebook to find the lowest quality users in your audience – the people who are cheap to show ads to precisely because they never click or buy anything. You're paying to find non-customers.

Instead, you must set your campaign objective to 'Conversions' (or 'Sales' or 'Leads'). Yes, your cost per result will be higher, but you'll be feeding the algorithm the exact data it needs to find people who will actually take action. This gives Meta positive user signals, which is another massive trust factor. It shows them that users like your ads and find them relevant.

Here’s a small calculator to help you think about what's realistic with your current budget. Play around with the numbers. Notice how a small change in your Cost Per Click (CPC) or your website's Conversion Rate can drastically change the number of leads or sales you can get.

You'll need to think about campaign structure...

With a $78 daily budget, simplicity is your friend. Don't try to run multiple campaigns or test dozens of ad sets. You'll spread your budget too thin and the algorithm will never have enough data to properly learn and optimise.

Here's what I'd suggest:

• One Campaign: Create one single campaign with the 'Sales' or 'Leads' objective. Set the budget to $78/day at the campaign level (Campaign Budget Optimisation).
• One or Two Ad Sets: Inside that campaign, start with one, maybe two ad sets maximum. Your first ad set should target your absolute best, most specific audience. Don't go broad. Use detailed interest targeting to build a profile of your ideal customer. Think about what magazines they read, what tools they use, what brands they follow. Be specific. If you have data, a lookalike audience of past purchasers is even better, but you likely don't have enough data for that yet.
• Two or Three Ads: In each ad set, run just your two or three best-performing ads. You don't have the budget to be testing 10 different creatives. Use what you believe to be your strongest message and image/video.

The goal is to create a small, hyper-focused campaign that can consistently generate conversions within your daily budget. Once your spend limit increases, you can then start to expand your testing and scale up, but for now, focus is everything.

You probably should set realistic expectations...

This process takes time. Don't expect your limit to be lifted in a few days. Typically, you might see the first increase after 1-2 weeks of clean, consistent spending. It might jump from $78 to something like $150 or $250. Then you repeat the process at the new level. It can take a couple of months to get to a point where the spending limit is no longer a major issue. Patience is absolutly required.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below in a table to give you a clear action plan.

I know this is probably not the quick fix you were hoping for, but it's the only way that works reliably without risking your account. It's about being methodical and patient.

Navigating these initial stages can be tricky, and getting the campaign strategy right with such a small budget is challenging. A small mistake in targeting or ad creative can waste your limited funds and slow down the trust-building process. This is often where expert help can make a big difference, ensuring your limited budget is used as effectively as possible to generate results and, crucially, to send all the right signals to Meta's algorithm from day one.

If you'd like to discuss this in more detail, we offer a free initial consultation where we can review your specific situation and campaign goals to give you a more tailored strategy. Feel free to book a time that suits you.

Hope that helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh