Facebook Ads for Small Businesses: How to Get Started with $10/Day

Facebook and Instagram ads can feel intimidating, especially if you're working with a limited budget. But here's the truth: you don't need thousands of dollars to see results. With just $10/day, you can reach hundreds of potential customers if you know what you're doing.

In this guide, I'll walk you through exactly how to set up your first Facebook ad campaign, choose the right objective, target the right audience, and optimize for conversions — all on a small business budget.

Why Facebook Ads Work for Small Businesses

Facebook (now Meta) gives you access to over 3 billion users across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. More importantly, it allows you to target people based on:

• Demographics: Age, gender, location, job title, income
• Interests: Hobbies, pages they follow, activities
• Behaviors: Purchase history, device usage, travel patterns
• Custom audiences: Website visitors, email lists, lookalikes

This precision targeting means you're only paying to reach people who are actually likely to become customers.

Step 1: Set Up Your Facebook Business Tools

Before you run ads, you need the right infrastructure in place.

What You Need:

1. Facebook Business Page: Create a professional page for your business
2. Meta Business Suite: Your central hub for managing ads
3. Facebook Pixel: Tracking code for your website (critical for conversions)
4. Instagram Business Account: If you want to run ads on Instagram
5. Payment method: Add a credit card to your ad account

Step 2: Choose the Right Campaign Objective

Facebook offers different campaign objectives based on what you want to achieve. Choosing the wrong one wastes money.

Campaign Objectives Explained:

• Awareness: Get your brand in front of as many people as possible (not recommended for small budgets)
• Traffic: Drive clicks to your website or landing page
• Engagement: Get likes, comments, shares on your posts
• Leads: Collect contact information through lead forms
• Messages: Get people to message you on Facebook/Instagram
• Conversions: Drive specific actions like purchases or form submissions (best for sales)

For most small businesses, start with:

• Leads if you want to collect contact info
• Conversions if you want sales or form submissions
• Messages if you offer services and want direct conversations

Step 3: Define Your Target Audience

This is where most small businesses waste money. If you target too broadly, you'll burn through your budget reaching people who will never buy.

How to Build Your Audience:

1. Start with your ideal customer profile: Who are they? Age, location, interests, job?
2. Use detailed targeting: Layer demographics + interests + behaviors
3. Keep it focused: Aim for an audience size of 50,000-500,000 for most small businesses
4. Exclude irrelevant people: Don't waste money showing ads to existing customers (unless retargeting)

Advanced Audience Types:

• Custom Audiences: Target website visitors, email subscribers, or people who engaged with your content
• Lookalike Audiences: Facebook finds people similar to your best customers
• Retargeting: Show ads to people who visited your site but didn't convert

Step 4: Create High-Converting Ad Creative

Your ad creative (the image/video and text) determines whether people stop scrolling and click.

Ad Creative Best Practices:

• Eye-catching visuals: Use high-quality images or videos (videos perform 20-30% better)
• Clear benefit: Lead with what's in it for them, not what you do
• Strong hook: First line must grab attention
• Social proof: Include testimonials, reviews, or results
• Clear CTA: Tell them exactly what to do next
• Mobile-first: Most people see ads on mobile, so keep text minimal

Ad Copy Framework:

1. Hook: Attention-grabbing first line
2. Problem: What pain point are you solving?
3. Solution: How your product/service helps
4. Proof: Testimonial, stat, or result
5. CTA: Clear next step

Step 5: Set Your Budget and Schedule

With $10/day, you need to be strategic about how you spend.

Budget Types:

• Daily budget: Spend up to $X per day (recommended for beginners)
• Lifetime budget: Spend $X over the entire campaign duration

$10/Day Budget Strategy:

• Week 1: Test 3-5 different audiences with the same ad ($10/day split across all)
• Week 2: Kill underperforming audiences, double down on winners
• Week 3+: Test new ad creatives with your winning audience

Step 6: Launch and Monitor Your Campaign

Once your ad is live, don't just set it and forget it. Check performance daily for the first week.

Key Metrics to Track:

• Reach: How many people saw your ad
• Impressions: How many times your ad was shown
• Click-through rate (CTR): % of people who clicked (aim for 1-3%)
• Cost per click (CPC): What you pay per click (varies by industry)
• Cost per result: What you pay per lead, purchase, or conversion
• Return on ad spend (ROAS): Revenue generated ÷ ad spend

When to Kill an Ad:

• CTR under 0.5% after 3 days
• Cost per result is 2x higher than your target
• No conversions after spending $50-100

Step 7: Optimize for Better Results

Once you have data, start testing and improving.

What to Test:

• Ad creative: Try different images, videos, and headlines
• Ad copy: Test different hooks and CTAs
• Audiences: Try new interests, demographics, or lookalikes
• Placements: Facebook feed vs. Instagram stories vs. Reels
• Landing pages: A/B test different page designs and copy

Common Facebook Ads Mistakes to Avoid

• No Facebook Pixel: You can't track conversions without it
• Wrong objective: Using "Engagement" when you want sales
• Too broad targeting: Reaching millions of irrelevant people
• Weak creative: Low-quality images or generic copy
• No testing: Running one ad and hoping it works
• Giving up too soon: Facebook needs time to optimize (3-7 days minimum)
• Ignoring mobile: Most users are on mobile devices

30-Day Facebook Ads Plan for Beginners

Week 1: Setup

• Set up Business Page, Pixel, and Ad Account
• Define your ideal customer
• Create 3 ad variations (different images/copy)
• Launch first campaign with $10/day budget

Week 2: Test Audiences

• Monitor performance daily
• Test 3 different audience groups
• Identify which audience performs best

Week 3: Optimize

• Kill underperforming ads
• Create new ad variations for winning audience
• Test different placements (Feed, Stories, Reels)

Week 4: Scale

• Increase budget by 20% on winning campaigns
• Create lookalike audiences from website visitors
• Set up retargeting for people who didn't convert

Final Thoughts

Facebook ads work for small businesses — but only if you're strategic. Start small, test everything, and scale what works. Even $10/day can generate real leads and sales when you target the right people with the right message.

The key is to be patient, track your data, and continuously improve. Most successful Facebook ad campaigns take 3-4 weeks to find their rhythm.

If you need help setting up or managing your Facebook ads, we specialize in helping small businesses get results on tight budgets. Get in touch for a free strategy call.