The short answer?

One of the questions I get asked most is, "How much should I spend on Meta ads?" Everyone is looking for a magic number. $10 a day. $20 a day. $100 a day. The truth is, there isn't one.

Why most artists overspend.

The right budget has less to do with how much money you have, and more to do with what you're trying to achieve. If you're releasing your first single, you don't need a $5,000 campaign. You need enough budget to learn what actually works.

That's the mistake I see artists make over and over again. They either spend too little and expect Meta to perform miracles, or they spend too much before they've proven that their creative, audience and campaign are actually working.

Every dollar should teach you something

Every impression, click and conversion tells you something. Which creative is stopping people from scrolling? Which audience is responding? Which songs are earning saves instead of just plays?

Without enough data, you're guessing. With too much budget too early, you're paying to guess faster.

For most independent releases, I recommend starting with a testing budget rather than a scaling budget. The goal of the first week isn't to reach as many people as possible. It's to find the combination of creative and targeting that people genuinely respond to. Once you've found that, increasing spend becomes a much safer decision.

I also encourage artists to stop thinking in daily budgets. Think in release budgets.