💸 Meta Ads Budgeting for High-Competition Markets Like NYC and Chicago
1. Set Realistic CPM & CPA Expectations Big cities = higher costs. Typical CPM in NYC/Chicago : $18–$40+ (vs. <$10 in smaller markets) Tip : Anchor your budgeting to desired Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) , not just ad spend — then reverse-engineer your funnel (impressions → clicks → conversions). 2. Use Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) Let Meta automatically allocate your spend to the top-performing ad sets. Why it works : In high-volume markets, performance can vary wildly by time, audience, or creative. CBO helps maximize ROAS without micromanaging. 3. Start Small, Scale Fast Avoid blowing your budget early. Recommended structure : Phase 1 (Test) : $50–$100/day across 3–5 ad sets Phase 2 (Scale) : Gradually increase budget by 15–20% every few days once performance stabilizes Tip : Use lifetime budgets with tight start/end dates for short, controlled bursts (e.g., during city events) 4. Segment by Funnel Stage Don’t waste top-of-funnel (TOF) d...