If you don't recognize activity on your advertising account, below are a few things you should review:

1. Review your purchase history and account history. Reviewing your purchase history will give you a detailed breakdown of charges on your account. You can click into each Transaction ID to see which ad the transaction was for and how the amount you spent was calculated.
   
   Reviewing your account history will allow you to see recent activity on your ad account.

2. Check to see if you have a daily budget or a lifetime budget. Each time you create a new ad, you'll select a budget for that ad. You'll be able to choose between a daily budget or a lifetime budget. If you set a daily budget but meant to set a lifetime budget or vice versa, you may be billed differently than expected.

• Daily budget: This is the amount you've indicated you're willing to spend on a specific ad set per day. Each ad set will have a separate budget, so keep this in mind if you have more than one active ad set in your account. Your ads will automatically stop showing once your daily budget for the ad set has been met for that day. Learn how to edit your daily budget.
• Lifetime budget: A lifetime budget lets you set an amount to spend over the lifetime of an ad set. Our system will automatically try to evenly spread the amount you spend across the period of time that you've selected. Learn how to edit your lifetime budget.

Note: If you wanted to spend a specific dollar amount over the lifetime of your ad, double check to make sure you set a lifetime budget, not a daily budget.

3. See if your billing threshold was reached. In the Billing Summary section of your Ads Manager, you can view your billing threshold. If your ad is scheduled to run across multiple months, or if it runs longer than when your billing threshold was met, you may see the remaining balance carry over to your next bill.

Check out this infographic for more information on how billing threshold works:


4. Check for other spenders on your account. If you aren't the only person with access to your ad account, or to the payment method you're using, it's possible you might see another person's spend on your bill. If you suspect this is the case, go to your ad Account Settings in Ads Manager. In the Ad Account Roles section, you'll be able to see who has access to your account. Contact anyone you know who may have placed an order for ads with your payment method.

If you've checked these things, still see purchases that you don't recognize and believe someone has hacked your ad account, please let us know.

If you are seeing multiple charges on your bill here are a few things you can check to determine the cause. This article explains:

1. Viewing your invoice
2. Multiple charges of differing amounts
3. Multiple charges of the same amount
4. Reporting a billing problem

It's easy to see a detailed breakdown of what you've been billed for, down to the ads that charges relate to. Here's how you see that:

1. From your Ads Manager, click Billing in the upper left menu. This will take you to a list of all charges organized by month.
2. Set the time from which you like to see transactions for.
3. Click the “Transaction ID” for the charge you'd like more info about.
4. From here you can view the ads and details associated with each charge. You can even click into the ad sets and ads to view the performance and better understand how the charges were accumulated. If you're still unsure, learn how ad billing works on Facebook.

Are you seeing multiple charges of *different* amounts?

This is most commonly not an error, but the result of how you have your billing preferences set. You always have the ability to edit those preferences yourself from the Billing section of your Ads Manager.

There are two times you will pay for Facebook ads:

1. At the end of every month
2. When your billing threshold is reached. (If you have a billing threshold, your account is charged when you reach your billing threshold and at the end of the month.)

The first option above always happens, and then second option can happen multiple times a month depending on your threshold and how much you're spending. For this reason you may see multiple charges throughout the month. Learn more.

Are you seeing multiple charges of the same amount?

It's likely that these charges are associated with clicks that your ads received on different days. It's possible that one of these charges was delayed through your bank, which is why you're viewing 2 of the same charges on the same day.

If you've looked at your invoices and still believe there is a problem, please let us know.

Manage your Ads

Additional Resources:

• How do I remove, add or change my payment method for ads?
• My ad payment has failed. What can I do?
• How does ad billing work on Facebook?
• How do I lower my billing threshold?

It's important to know the difference between budget and spend.

• Budget: The maximum amount of money you're willing to pay for your ad to run.
• Spend: The amount you will actually be billed for (in other words, how much money was used from the maximum budget)

Because of this distinction, your amount spent may be different because it appears as an estimate in your Ads Manager and your account spending limit. It's an estimate because it can take up to 48 hours for your ad results to be fully processed. You may also also see a different amount depending on whether or not you've reached a new billing threshold.

The Amount Spent in the Billing section of your Ads Manager is the accurate amount you've spent (if you've set up an account spending limit).

When you run ads on Facebook, you'll set a budget for each ad you run. You won't be charged more than the budget you set for each ad. Remember, you're always in control of how much you spend.

The budget you set for each ad is spent over the ad’s lifetime as people see, click or engage with your ad. How fast your budget is spent depends on a few things:

• Audience size
• Your bid to reach your audience
• Your schedule

It's important to know the difference between budget and spend.

Budget: The maximum amount of money you're willing to pay for your ad to run.

Spend: The amount you actually will pay (in other words, how much money was used from the maximum budget)

When you're selecting your budget for Facebook ads, that's not necessarily the amount you'll spend. For example, you don't buy an ad for $30. You budget a maximum of $30 to be spent on the ad over a given time period using one of the budgeting options below.

If you set a budget of $100 to be spent on an ad over a month, but only $70 is spent during that month based on the ad's performance, your bill will be $70.

It's also important to know the difference between daily and lifetime budget.

Daily Budget: This is the average amount you're willing to spend on a specific ad set every day. Each ad set will have a separate budget, so keep this in mind if you have more than one active ad set in your account.

Lifetime Budget: A lifetime budget lets you set an amount to spend over the lifetime of an ad set.

To learn how to see a more detailed report of your Facebook ads bills, click here.

When you're charged

When you're charged depends on the currency and payment method you're using to pay for ads.The frequency of your charges also depends on whether you have a billing threshold. Learn how you're charged:

• If you have a billing threshold
• If you don't have a billing threshold

View your charges

When you want to see how much you're spending on your ads, you can see an estimated daily spending limit in Ads Manager. In the Billing section of Ads Manager, you'll find all your final charges including the specific ads you paid for and exactly what you paid for, like running an ad for awareness or getting people to click your ad.

View Your Billing Information

You can expect a bill:

• At the end of every month
• When you reach your billing threshold (if available)

Note: You don’t have a billing threshold if you use direct debit to pay for Facebook ads. If your account has a billing threshold, you may see multiple charges a month depending on your current billing threshold and ad spend.

How does billing threshold work on Facebook?

Use the below chart to learn how billing threshold works on Facebook. You can also apply this chart to the equivalent billing threshold amount for your currency.

Tip: You can change how frequently you're billed by lowering your billing threshold.

Learn more about how you're billed on Facebook if you don't have a billing threshold.

Additional Resources:

• How do I remove, add or change my payment method for ads?
• My ad payment has failed. What can I do?
• How does ad billing work on Facebook?
• How do I lower my billing threshold?

You can access a detailed breakdown of your Facebook ad charges in the Billing section of Ads Manager:

1. From your Ads Manager, click Billing. This will take you to a list of all charges organized by month.
2. Click the description next to the charge you'd like more info about.
3. In this detailed breakdown, you can view the ads and details associated with each charge.

Click any Transaction to see your charges, the date range of your charges and the impressions or clicks you were charged for. Learn more about what it costs to advertise on Facebook.

Keep in mind that you can click the Ad Name within any transaction to see the ad set that contains your ad along with the metrics from that ad set. You can also download an invoice of your charges.

Additional Resources:

• How do I remove, add or change my payment method for ads?
• My ad payment has failed. What can I do?
• How does ad billing work on Facebook?
• How do I lower my billing threshold?

You can pay for ads using one of our accepted currencies with one of the following:

• Credit cards or co-branded debit cards

  • Visa
  • MasterCard
  • American Express in one of their supported currencies
  • Discover
• Payment methods for advertisers outside of the United States
• Manual payment methods for some countries and currencies
• PayPal in one of their accepted currencies
• Direct Debit in one of their accepted currencies

More Resources

• Learn more about how you're charged for ads.
• Learn how to add a payment method.
• Learn about next steps to take if your ad payment fails.
• Get more info about payments in the ads billing section of the Help Center.
• Learn how to change your currency and business country.

You have the option to choose a variety of payment methods when you run Facebook ads. You can always view, add, change or remove your payment method from your Ads Manager.

Removing

To remove a payment method:

1. Click
2. Select Billing & Payment Methods and then click Add Payment Method.
3. Click Edit Payment Methods.
4. Find the payment method you want to remove. If you only have one payment method listed on your account, you won't be able to remove it unless you deactivate your ad account.
5. Click Remove on the right.

Keep in mind that if you've added a credit card to your Facebook account previously (ex: to purchase games or apps), you'll see it listed as one of your payment methods. You can remove it if you no longer want it available in your account.

Adding

To add a payment method:

1. Click
2. Select Billing & Payment Methods and then click Add Payment Method.
3. Choose the method you want to add, fill in your information and then click Continue.

If you're having trouble adding a payment method, make sure that the payment method you're trying to use is supported. Learn more about your payment options for advertising.

Also, learn what to do if you're able to add a credit card, but your payment still fails.

Changing

To change your primary payment method:

1. Click
2. Select Billing & Payment Methods.
3. Click Edit Payment Methods. If you've just recently added a new payment method, it'll need to be verified before you can make it your primary payment method.
4. Find your payment method and then click Make Primary.

You can also add a payment method to your Business Manager account.

Additional Resources:

• How do I remove, add or change my payment method for ads?
• My ad payment has failed. What can I do?
• How does ad billing work on Facebook?
• How do I lower my billing threshold?

If the payment method you're using to run ads on Facebook fails, you can try one of these options:

• Contact your payment provider for help
• Add a new payment method to your account by visiting the Payment Methods section of your Ads Manager

Most payment failures happen when your bank or payment provider experiences an issue processing your payment.

If your ad payment fails, we'll:

1. Try to charge your primary payment method again.
2. Try charging another payment method you've set up on your ad account.
3. If all of your payment methods fail, we'll stop all the ads you're running until your balance has been paid.

During this time, you won't receive any additional charges. Once your balance has been paid, we'll resume any active or scheduled ads and attempt to make up any lost time to meet the original campaign dates and budgets you've set.

Additional Resources

• How does ad billing work on Facebook?
• How do I remove, add or change my payment method for ads?

This article contains an overview of what budgets are, how they work, and explanations of common points of confusion.

What's a budget?

A budget is the amount of money you're willing to pay to have ads from your ad set shown to people in your target audience who can get you the result you're optimizing for over the period of time you set the ad set to run.

Important:

• When setting a budget, you're not buying ads or the ability to show ads. You're telling us how much you're willing to spend on ads. If your ad set can consistently compete in ad auctions, we'll likely spend your full budget. If it can't, we may not. In other words, your budget is distinct from your amount spent.
• Each ad set has a separate budget, so keep this in mind if you have more than one active ad set.

What kinds of budgets are available?

• Daily Budgets: The average amount you're willing to spend on an ad set every day. Learn more.
• Lifetime Budgets: The amount you're willing to spend over the entire runtime of your ad set. Learn more.

How do I decide what my budget should be?

We can't tell you exactly what your budget should be, but when deciding, keep in mind what constraints you want to put on your ad set and what tradeoffs those constraints necessitate. The most relevant constraints in this context are your bid, your budget and your targeting.

If you're bid-constrained (meaning you can't afford to pay more than a given amount per result) or targeting-constrained (meaning you only want results from a very specific audience), you may be well-positioned to set a higher budget. For example:

If you're optimizing for purchase conversions from a high-intent audience for a specific product and know exactly how much revenue you get from a purchase, you could set a maximum-cost bid that ensures profit on a conversion-by-conversion basis. Since you're profiting from each conversion, there's probably no reason you wouldn't want as many conversions as possible. In this scenario, you may want to set a high budget. Eventually we might run out of available results from your target audience or your creative might stop working, but this type of constraint may be preferable to missing out on results because your budget is too low.

Alternatively, if you're budget-constrained, you don't want to set a budget any higher than your limit, but you also want to spend the full amount. For example:

If you're given a specific amount of a marketing budget to drive people to your website and just want as many link clicks as possible given that budget, you could constrain yourself to that budget and use automatic bidding to let Facebook set the bid that helps you get the most results at the best price.

How do you approach spending my budget?

How we spend your budget depends on what type of delivery you choose: standard or accelerated.

Note: You can only choose accelerated delivery if you're using manual (not automatic) bidding.

Standard Delivery

If you choose standard delivery, we'll deliver your ads (and, by extension, spend your budget) evenly over the course of your campaign (this is called “pacing”). We recommend this option in most cases.

Accelerated Delivery

If you choose accelerated delivery, we'll deliver your ads (and, by extension, spend your budget) as quickly as your target audience and bid allows. This means we're prioritizing speed over efficiency when choosing who to show your ads to, and when. There's no pacing (slowing of spend) of any kind. Facebook doesn't take the end date of your campaign into account. It just tries to spend your entire budget as quickly as possible.

Lifetime budgets can be spent in less than a day. Daily budgets can be spent in less than a hour and won't spend again until the next day. Accelerated delivery may be worth it if you're campaign is extremely time sensitive, but use it with caution.

How do budget changes work?

You can change your budget at any time. It takes about 15 minutes for our delivery system to apply an updated budget to an ad set. This is especially important to keep in mind if:

• You've paused your ad set to change its budget. You can un-pause an ad set as soon as you've changed your budget, but doing so may lead to it delivering with the old budget for 15 minutes. We recommend waiting 15 minutes to un-pause an ad set with an updated budget, especially if you've lowered the budget significantly.
• You're also changing your bid. Unlike budget changes, bid changes are applied immediately. If you try to change both at once, you could end up with a short period where your new bid has taken effect but your new budget hasn't. Because of this, we recommend waiting 15 minutes after changing your budget to change your bid.

Also keep in mind that there's a difference between a change being applied and our delivery system learning how to optimally deliver your ads given the change. Depending on the magnitude of the change, the system may need time to learn who it will be most effective to show your ad to.

Do budget changes affect performance?

Not really, though they can be used to scale success. Making changes to your bid, targeting and/or creative are better ways to improve performance.

If your ad set is spending (or on track to spend) its full budget:

• Raising its budget. This could lead to more results. (However, keep in mind that your average cost per result may rise since you may have to go after more expensive results to spend this higher budget - learn more.) If you raise it so much that we can't find enough results within your constraints, we may not be able to not spend your full budget (under-delivery).
• Lowering its budget. You'll likely continue to spend your entire budget, but may get fewer results due to the decrease.

• Raising its budget. This won't do anything. You'll just spend an even lower percentage of your budget.
• Lowering its budget. You may spend a higher percentage of your budget, but assuming that isn't your ultimate goal, this won't do anything.

When do you charge me money from my budget?

Remember: What you choose to be charged for is a different choice from what you want your ad set optimized for.

We charge money from your ad set's budget only when this result occurs (ex: we show an ad impression or an ad's link is clicked). The amount charged for a given result is determined in the auction.

Frequently Asked Questions

You can set an account spending limit to ensure your ad account doesn't spend more than you're comfortable with. If you set an account spending limit, your ads will turn off when your limit is reached.

An account spending limit is an overall limit on how much your ad account can spend over its lifetime. It doesn't reset automatically after a certain amount of time, such as at the end of the month. To continue advertising after you've reached your limit, you can reset the amount spent towards your limit to $0.

You can create, change, reset or remove a spending limit on your account at any time.

Creating

To create an account spending limit:

1. Go to the Billing section of your Ads Manager
2. In the Account Spending Limit section, click Set Account Spending Limit
3. Enter the account spending limit you'd like to use
4. Click Set Limit

Changing

When you change your spending limit, the amount you've already spent for that limit will be applied to your new spending limit. For example, say you have a spending limit of $100 and you've already spent $50. If you change your spending limit to $200, you'll be able to spend only $150 more ($200 minus $50).

To change an account spending limit:

1. Go to the Billing section of your Ads Manager.
2. In the Account Spending Limit section, click Change.
3. Enter the limit you'd like to use. Keep in mind that you won't be able to set a limit less than 10% above what you've already spent. So, if your current spending limit is $150, and you've spent $100, the minimum you can lower your account spending limit to is $110.
4. Click Change Limit.

Resetting

An account spending limit is an overall limit on how much your ad account can spend over its lifetime. It doesn't reset automatically after a certain amount of time, such as at the end of the month. If your account spending limit is reached, you'll have to reset it to continue advertising. When you reset your account spending limit, the limit won't be changed, but it'll reset the amount spent towards your account spending limit to $0.

To reset an account spending limit:

1. Go to the Billing section of your Ads Manager
2. In the Account Spending Limit section, click Reset
3. Click Reset Amount Spent

Removing

To remove an account spending limit:

1. Go to the Billing section of your Ads Manager
2. In the Account Spending Limit section, click Remove
3. Click Remove Limit

Note: An account spending limit is different from a lifetime budget. Learn more about how spending money on advertising works.

A campaign spending limit allows you to set an overall spending limit for an entire campaign. It ensures that all the ad sets and ads in your campaign stop running once your campaign spends the amount you've set.

1. Go to your Ads Manager
2. In the table at the bottom of the page, find the campaign you want to edit
3. Hover over the campaign name and then click > Edit Campaign
4. Below Campaign Details, find Campaign Spending Limit
5. To set your campaign spending limit:
• Click Set a Limit. Type in your limit and click enter on your keyboard
6. To edit your campaign spending limit:
• Type in your new limit and click enter on your keyboard
7. To remove your campaign spending limit:
• Click Remove Limit

Manage your Ads

1. Go to Power Editor
2. Click Manage Ads in the top-left corner
3. Click on the left side
4. In the Campaigns table, check the box next to the campaign you want to edit
5. Click Edit
6. Below Campaign Details, find Campaign Spending Limit
7. To set your campaign spending limit:
• Click Set a Limit. Type in your limit and click enter on your keyboard
8. To edit your campaign spending limit:
• Type in your new limit and click enter on your keyboard
9. To remove your campaign spending limit:
• Click Remove Limit
10. When you're done, click Review Changes to publish your changes

Go to Power Editor