How we structure testing budgets at £1k/day vs £10k/day ad spend

Article by: Jake Cronin, Paid-Ads Specialist

Not every brand needs a complex setup. The structure depends on how much you’re spending, and more importantly, how fast you’re looking to scale.

At £1k/day, keep it lean and focused

With smaller budgets, simplicity wins:

One CBO campaign for scaling
One ABO campaign for testing
Around 30-40 ads tested each month

If an ad performs well in testing, I might bump the budget within its ABO, but I don’t rely on that long-term. It gets messy fast – especially when you’re trying to scale consistently.

At £10k/day, you need more structure and control

Higher spend means higher volume. You’re testing more – often over 100 ads a month. That requires:

More ABO ad sets dedicated to testing
Tighter control over spend

Here’s the catch: testing campaigns rarely drive immediate performance. That’s why I cap testing at around 25-30% of total daily spend. The rest stays focused on proven winners.

The system that works

Let your testing campaigns do their job – find what works. Then:

Move those winning ads into a CBO campaign
Each month, launch a fresh ad set inside that CBO using the month’s best performers
Set minimum spend limits to keep top performers getting enough traction without letting one ad take over

Side note – Meta is merging ASC and CBO. If you’re seeing that shift in your account, don’t overthink it. The same principles still apply – test smart, scale clean.

Key follow-up question:
What’s the approach for accounts only spending 300-400 per day? Still use CBO / ASC?
Answer:
At 300–400/day, use one ASC, then test ads inside it, one at a time and keep it simple and focused for best results.

Post inspired by: Ben Radack

Jake Cronin

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