The essentials
- Small business order of magnitude for 2026: €1,500 to €5,000 of media per month for a Meta lead generation campaign, €3,000 to €8,000 for LinkedIn in B2B, €1,000 to €3,000 for a TikTok test.
- The total budget is not the media budget: add 15 to 20% of fees (or a flat fee), 10 to 25% of creative production and the cost of measurement.
- The method: start from the number of conversions targeted, multiply by the expected cost per conversion, then check that the result exceeds the platform's learning threshold.
- Common split: 60 to 80% on prospecting, 20 to 40% on retargeting; the opposite signals an account that is no longer recruiting.
The question of the social ads budget too often gets an answer as a percentage of revenue, unrelated to what the platforms require in order to work. A budget is built backwards: how many conversions are needed, at what unit cost they are available, and whether the total clears the technical thresholds of Meta, LinkedIn or TikTok. Here are the 2026 figures for France and the calculation method.
Technical thresholds by platform
Every platform has a learning phase during which the algorithm looks for the profiles that convert. Below a certain volume, it never completes it and the results stay unstable.
| Platform | Learning condition | Realistic minimum media budget | Common cost per conversion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta (Facebook, Instagram) | Around 50 conversions per ad set over 7 days | €1,000 to €1,500 per month per ad set | Lead: €8 to €40; e-commerce sale: €15 to €60 |
| No formal threshold, but a CPC of €5 to €12 | €2,500 to €3,000 per month | B2B lead: €40 to €150 | |
| TikTok | Around 50 conversions per group in 7 days | €1,000 per month, plus video production | Lead: €10 to €35; sale: €15 to €50 |
These thresholds explain why a campaign at €300 per month “tests” nothing: it produces around ten conversions, not enough to tell good targeting from a stroke of luck. The cost per click and CPM ranges behind these figures are detailed in the cost per click in social ads and the CPM.
Calculating the budget from the objective
The method in four steps:
- Set the volume: the number of leads or sales expected over the period. Example: 100 quotes in three months.
- Estimate the unit cost: from your own history, or the ranges above. Example: €35 per quote on Meta.
- Multiply: 100 × 35 = €3,500 of media over three months, or €1,170 per month.
- Check the threshold: €1,170 per month only just clears the Meta threshold for a single ad set. Plan for €1,500 to keep room for testing, or revise the objective.
Then check profitability: if a quote is worth €90 of expected margin and costs €35, the ratio is 2.6, which is acceptable. The break-even calculation is developed in ROAS in SMA.
The complete budget, beyond media
Media accounts for between 60 and 75% of a complete social ads budget. The rest breaks down as follows:
| Item | 2026 order of magnitude | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Media (spend on the platforms) | Per the calculation above | The only item paid to the platforms |
| Management (agency or freelance) | 15 to 20% of media, or a flat fee of €500 to €1,500 per month | The percentage tapers above €20,000 of media |
| Creative production | 10 to 25% of media; UGC video from €150 to €500 each | The most underestimated item; plan for 4 to 8 new creatives per month |
| Measurement and tools | €0 to €200 per month | Pixel, conversions API, reporting tool |
| Landing pages | €300 to €2,000, one-off | A dedicated page per offer improves the conversion rate by 20 to 50% compared with the home page |
A complete example for a small business: €3,000 of media, €600 of management, €500 of creative, €50 of tools, or €4,150 per month. Presenting this total, rather than media alone, avoids unpleasant surprises at board level.
Splitting the budget between prospecting and retargeting
Retargeting always shows a better cost per conversion, because it addresses people who are already interested. The temptation is to concentrate the budget there; that is a mistake, because the retargeting audience empties if prospecting stops. Benchmarks:
- Launch: 80% prospecting, 20% retargeting (the retargeting audience is still small).
- Steady state: 60 to 70% prospecting, 30 to 40% retargeting.
- E-commerce with a catalogue: up to 40% on dynamic retargeting in periods of high demand.
How retargeting works and its limits are explained in retargeting on social media.
Growing the budget over time
Two rules avoid breaking what works:
- Increase in steps of 20 to 30% at most every three to four days on Meta and TikTok, so as not to restart the learning phase.
- Set aside 10 to 15% of media for tests (a new audience, a new format, a new platform), without expecting immediate profitability from that share.
Also anticipate seasonality: Meta CPMs rise by 30 to 60% between mid-November and the end of December in France. A constant budget across the year therefore buys fewer impressions in the fourth quarter. To align budget and metrics, see the KPIs for managing a marketing budget.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's return on investment module brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of revenue should be spent on social ads?
The ratio is not a good starting point, but as a guide profitable e-commerce businesses spend between 8 and 15% of their revenue on advertising across all channels, and B2B service companies between 3 and 8%. The reverse calculation, from the number of conversions to the budget, remains the reliable method.
Can you start with €500 per month?
On Meta or TikTok, €500 lets you test creative and an audience, provided you have only one ad set and accept noisy results. On LinkedIn, €500 buys around fifty clicks, which supports no conclusion at all. In that case, it is better to save for two months and launch at €1,000.
Should you use a daily budget or a total campaign budget?
The daily budget gives simple control and steady spend; the total budget lets the platform smooth spend towards the best-performing days, which is useful for operations with fixed dates. For a continuous small business campaign, a daily budget with a weekly review remains the clearest.
How do you justify a budget increase to management?
With three figures: the current cost per conversion, the margin per conversion, and the proof that the last increases have not degraded the cost. Present the complete budget (media, management, creative) and a scenario with a ceiling: at what cost per conversion the increase will be stopped.