In short
- There is no rate card: you pick the budget, and an auction sets what each impression costs.
- Budget for about 50 results a week per ad set, the point where Meta says delivery settles.
- Meta adds GST to ad charges in India. An agency fee is separate from the ad spend.
Is there a fixed price for Instagram ads?
No. Meta, which runs the ads on Instagram and Facebook, has no rate card. You decide how much to spend, either as a daily budget or as a total budget for the campaign, and Meta's delivery system spends it on the people most likely to take the action you chose. Meta aims to spend your budget evenly over the time the ad runs, and you typically won't be charged more than the budget you set.
What each impression, click or lead costs is decided in an auction, so the same budget can buy very different results for two brands.
How does Meta decide what an ad costs?
Every time there is a chance to show someone an ad, Meta runs an auction among the ads whose audience includes that person. According to Meta's help centre, the winner is the ad with the highest total value, which combines three things:
- Your bid: what you are willing to pay for the result you want, set by your bid strategy.
- Estimated action rates: how likely this person is to click, buy or fill in a form after seeing your ad.
- Ad quality: judged partly from people's feedback, such as hiding the ad, and from low-quality signs like clickbait or withheld information.
Because relevance counts, a well-made ad can win against ads with higher bids, and Meta says its auction adjustments never charge you more than your bid. Better creatives and a sharper audience lower what each result costs. When more advertisers want to reach the same people, each auction gets more competitive.
How are you charged for Instagram and Facebook ads?
Meta usually charges for impressions, the number of times your ad is shown, unless you choose otherwise when you create the ad. That is why ad costs are often compared by CPM, the cost of 1,000 impressions. Our guide to ROAS, CPL, CPM and CTR explains each number with examples in rupees.
| Setting | How it works |
|---|---|
| Daily budget | The average you want to spend each day. On days with better opportunities Meta may spend up to 25% more, so a ₹1,000 daily budget can spend up to ₹1,250 that day. |
| Lifetime budget | A total for the whole campaign, spread over its dates. Meta may spend more on busy days and less on quiet ones, without going over the total. |
| Automatic billing | Your payment method is charged each time spending reaches your payment threshold, and again on your monthly bill date. |
| Prepaid funds | You add money to the ad account first, and Meta deducts what the ads spend, up to once a day. |
Is there a minimum budget for Meta ads?
Yes. Meta sets a minimum daily budget for each currency, and it is higher for ad sets aimed at rarer actions, such as app installs, than for ad sets aimed at impressions or clicks. The minimum only lets an ad run, though. The budget that matters is one big enough for Meta to learn who to show your ad to.
How much should you spend on Meta ads to start?
Enough for each ad set to get about 50 results a week. Meta says a new ad set leaves its learning phase once it can deliver stably, which usually happens after about 50 results in the week after its last significant edit. Until then, results are less stable and the cost per result is usually higher. Meta also advises against budgets that are very small or inflated. So work backwards from what one result costs you:
| If one result costs | 50 results a week need | About a month (4.35 weeks) |
|---|---|---|
| ₹100 per lead | ₹5,000 a week | ₹21,750 |
| ₹300 per lead | ₹15,000 a week | ₹65,250 |
| ₹800 per sale | ₹40,000 a week | ₹1,74,000 |
If that is more than you can spend, Meta's advice for learning-limited ad sets helps: combine similar ad sets so they learn together, widen the audience, or optimise for a result that happens more often, such as add-to-cart instead of purchases.
Do you pay GST on Instagram and Facebook ads in India?
Yes. Since October 2018, ads bought by accounts with India as the business country are sold by Meta India, billed in rupees and subject to GST and TDS, according to Meta's GST page. GST is added on top of what your ads spend, and Billing and payments shows every charge, fee and tax.
- GSTIN: optional. If you are registered for GST and want to claim input tax credit, add the GSTIN of your main state of operations in Payment settings.
- TDS: if you pay by card, bank account or another manual method, Meta's charge includes TDS and you also pay TDS to the government. Send Meta the TDS certificate and it refunds the amount as ad credit.
Meta doesn't give tax advice, and neither do we, so ask your accountant how GST and TDS apply to your business.
What about Google ads?
Google Ads works on an average daily budget. Google may spend more on days when it expects more clicks and conversions and less on others, but for most campaigns you never pay more than twice your average daily budget in a day, or 30.4 times it in a month. To turn a monthly budget into a daily one, divide by 30.4: ₹30,400 a month is ₹1,000 a day. Search ads are usually paid per click.
What does an agency charge to run Meta ads?
An agency fee pays for the work around the ads: strategy, creatives, setup, tracking and reports. It is separate from the ad spend. Agencies commonly charge a flat monthly fee, a percentage of your ad spend, or a mix of the two, so check which one a quote uses and what happens to the fee as your budget grows. At Digifyus the fee is flat, and your monthly ad spend picks the plan.
| Plan | Management fee | Monthly ad spend | Ad creatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silver Pixel | ₹15,000 a month | Up to ₹20,000 | 6 a month |
| Golden Pixel | ₹20,000 a month | Above ₹20,000, no cap | 10 a month |
The fee stays the same however big the budget grows, extra creatives are ₹200 each, and you pay the ad spend directly to Meta or Google, so you always see exactly what was spent. Try the fee finder at ads.digifyus.com.
What does a month of Meta ads cost in total?
Add up three parts:
- Ad spend. The budget you set, paid to Meta.
- GST and TDS. Added by Meta to each charge for the ads.
- The management fee, if someone runs the ads for you. On Silver Pixel it is ₹15,000 a month for up to ₹20,000 of ad spend.
Then weigh the total against what the ads bring back. Divide the revenue from ads by the ad spend for your ROAS, and compare it with your break-even ROAS, which is 1 divided by your margin: at a 40% margin, ads need to return at least ₹2.50 for every ₹1 spent.
What does a good result look like?
For a real-estate project, Digifyus ran Meta lead-generation campaigns that brought the cost per lead down about 70%, to ₹299. At the same spend, that is more than three times the leads. Client names stay private, so ask us on WhatsApp for references from your category.
Should you get help running Meta ads?
If you would rather spend your time on the product than in Ads Manager, Digifyus plans, makes and runs your ads on Meta or Google, from ₹15,000 a month: competitor research first, then pixel and tracking setup, new creatives every month and a monthly report with spend, leads and cost per lead. See performance marketing at Digifyus, or start with what performance marketing is.
Ad cost questions, answered
How much does it cost to run Instagram ads for a day?
As much as you set, above Meta's minimum daily budget for your currency. Meta treats a daily budget as an average and may spend up to 25% more on a day with better opportunities. For steady results, plan for about 50 results a week in each ad set.
Is GST charged on Facebook and Instagram ads in India?
Yes. Meta India bills ads in rupees and adds GST and TDS to each charge. If you are registered for GST, add your GSTIN in Payment settings to claim input tax credit.
Is ₹20,000 a month enough for Meta ads?
It can be, for one ad set with one goal. ₹20,000 a month is about ₹4,600 a week, enough for around 50 results a week if each result costs about ₹90 or less. If your results cost more, run fewer ad sets or optimise for a result that happens more often.
Is the ad spend included in the agency fee?
Not at Digifyus. You pay Meta or Google directly, so you see every rupee spent, and our flat monthly fee covers the strategy, creatives, setup and reports.
Why do my ads cost more on some days?
Every impression is priced in an auction, so costs move with the competition for your audience. A daily budget can also spend up to 25% more on a good day, and new or edited ad sets usually cost more per result while they are in the learning phase.
Sources: About ad auctions, How Meta charges for ads, About the learning phase, About learning limited and About India's GST (Meta Business Help Centre) · Budgets and Minimum budgets (Meta for Developers) · About average daily budgets (Google Ads Help), checked 31 October 2026
Written by Arnav, founder of Digifyus, a digital marketing agency for D2C and e-commerce brands. Published , updated .