---
name: set-1-day-budget-per-ad-set
description: "Price a small ad test before it starts. Check the real spend limit and the end date."
category: Dollar a Day Campaigns
stage: Promote
definitive_article: /dad
status: complete
---

# Set $1/day budget per ad set

A small ad test needs a clear price. This guide helps you set a starting budget and check the total cost. Start with the number of tests and the date each one must end.

**The path:** Test rows → real budget controls → total commitment → saved limits.

**Use this when:** The approved content and audience plan is ready to be priced and configured for a small test.

## Inputs
- The exact test rows, goal, dates and planned number of active tests.
- Account currency, time zone, current minimums and available budget/limit controls; access for the planned configuration.
- The billing owner, authorized total, any fees and existing campaign commitments; due review and stop authority.

## First-run prompt

> Price this test matrix using the actual account’s budget controls. Use $1/day for seven days only where supported, show the full commitment, and distinguish averages from caps. Re-read any authorized saved settings. Leave a plan that exceeds the supplied amount pending instead of silently raising it.

## Steps
1. Confirm the goal and qualified source content before funding anything. The method starts with a small paid test of proven work; small spend still has a real cost and does not guarantee useful sample size.
2. Map the actual budget level. In a Meta setup with ad-set budgets, a row can use that control; a pooled campaign budget may allocate differently. Google Ads budgets belong to campaigns, not ad groups. Do not force the task’s historical title onto every platform.
3. Read the account’s accepted minimum, currency, billing terms and objective-specific settings. Try the nominal $1/day only if supported within scope. If a platform requires more, show the true amount or choose fewer tests through the existing decision process; do not relabel $20 as one dollar.
4. Choose a supported daily or total/lifetime plan appropriate to the ceiling. A daily average can vary by day. For a hard total, verify the actual total/limit control and dates; an informal reminder is not a platform-enforced cap.
5. Calculate every commitment, including overlapping old tests. At the nominal method amount, one seven-day test plans $7; five plan $35. Show currency and any separately applicable fees. The calculation is a plan, not a fabricated future charge.
6. Set the exact start/end dates and the due review before an authorized activation. Record what happens at expiry and who can pause. A calendar entry alone does not prove an automatic stop exists.
7. Re-read all saved budgets, limits and dates by ID. If the chosen campaign mode pools spend, preserve that fact in the log. A successful save is distinct from policy approval and actual delivery.
8. Check spend and delivery early within the existing scope, then review the full planned window. Avoid unnecessary mid-test changes, but do not ignore a wrong amount, broken destination or other agreed protective-stop condition.

## Definition of done (QA checklist)

- [ ] Real budget level, minimum, currency and pacing are documented.
- [ ] Nominal daily math is not confused with a hard total cap.
- [ ] All overlapping commitments fit the actual authorized envelope.
- [ ] Saved limits, dates and expiry behavior are read back.
- [ ] The due reviewer and early protective checks are real, not model promises.

## Example(s)

**Fictional teaching example:** Five eligible seven-day tests at a nominal $1/day plan $35 in total. Two start Monday and three start Wednesday, so their end dates differ. The operator records the platform’s actual spend controls and any fees before activation. If only $21 is authorized, the five-row plan does not pass: three rows may fit after scope is reconciled. The guide does not call $35 “zero risk,” and it does not promise that typing a daily amount creates a hard weekly cap.

## Handoff and Content Factory context

Send the priced, checked rows to [run multiple simultaneous tests](https://local-service-spotlight.github.io/task-library/?task=run-multiple-simultaneous-tests#task-run-multiple-simultaneous-tests) or the specific platform setup task. The campaign owner receives any unsupported minimum or total-cost conflict.

This task is in Promote within the [Content Factory](https://blitzmetrics.com/content-factory/). Produce gathers real source material; Process makes useful assets; Post places and checks them; Promote distributes suitable work within its own scope. Use the proof and checked posts from earlier stages; a Promote task does not automatically redo all four stages. Use the actual next step above; catalog neighbors are not prerequisites.

## When this runs

Set once per test plan and recheck after any authorized budget/date change. Day-seven review follows the actual test dates. Recurring launches require an existing budget arrangement and a working trigger.

## First-run setup and continuity

Open the supplied task file and its linked source. Verify the project’s real inputs, account, access and output folder before work. This Markdown file is a guide; it does not install an app, connect an account, supply a subscription or create a schedule. Carry out work already authorized; do not ask for the same approval again. Keep any unsupplied destination or new action outside that scope clearly pending.

Save source IDs, versions, decisions, checked outputs and next owner in the project tracker. Before a retry, check the saved state and other workers’ changes. A model name does not guarantee memory or a running timer. Repeated work needs an actual configured trigger and durable state; one-off work can be started by the prompt above.

Keep agent media muted with volume zero before playback. If mute cannot be verified, use captions, metadata or still frames. State the limit: silent visual checks do not prove spoken-word accuracy or audio quality. Do not start sound through the user’s speakers unless explicitly asked.

## Write up the real run

For every actual attempt, [write its meta article](https://blitzmetrics.com/meta-article-prompt/) with this recipe and revision, trigger, steps performed, output evidence, measured result, gaps and next owner. Failed, blocked and partial attempts also get a written record. A draft can satisfy writing; publishing it follows the existing job scope.

Keep one stable execution ID across retries and edits. A separately scoped child task may have its own ID linked to its parent. Writing the parent’s meta record is part of that run, not an endless new chain. The [recipe and meta-article guide](https://localservicespotlight.com/meta-articles/) explains this distinction. Teaching examples are not real executions and must not enter the run count.


<!-- factory-layer:start -->

## Factory chain (do not treat this as isolated)

- **Phase:** Promote
- **Importance:** 5/5 `●●●●●` — frequency 5, revenue 5, gating 4 (runs every factory cycle or weekly; ads/revenue path; gates a phase)
- **Suggested previous station:** `boost-one-minute-videos-for-personal-branding`
- **Suggested next station:** `create-facebook-instagram-campaigns-with-location-targeting`
These stations are generated neighbors, not verified prerequisites or handoffs. Follow the task’s actual Inputs and Handoff sections.
- **Handoff:** Organic metrics CSV (or Ads Manager export), pixel ID, creative filenames, kill/scale log. Next week's ranking starts from this file.

## Model routing (same factory, any engine)

- **This task's lane:** `computer` — Logged-in UI (Meta Ads Manager, Descript, GSC, wp-admin when REST is blocked). Requires a supported browser tool and the right account access.
- **Single-engine path:** Use the capable AI app you already have. Check its required tools and access before starting. Pass the actual result and proof to the next task.
- **Optional multi-engine:** A tested local model may draft; a stronger model may review facts and voice. Use supported tools for approved actions. Pick models from observed quality and cost; a model name does not prove it can run this task.
- **Never** store the working state in one vendor's memory. Files in the Content Library are the bridge.

<!-- factory-layer:end -->
## Definitive article & links

- Maintained method: https://blitzmetrics.com/dollar-a-day/
- Source mapping needs reconciliation: the preserved `definitive_article: /dad` points to the coaching program. The method page above is `/dollar-a-day/`; this record does not certify the coaching page as a task recipe.
- Exact task: [Set $1/day budget per ad set](https://local-service-spotlight.github.io/task-library/?task=set-1-day-budget-per-ad-set#task-set-1-day-budget-per-ad-set)
- Writing standard: [Article Guidelines](https://localservicespotlight.com/article-guidelines/)
- [Dollar-a-Day method](https://blitzmetrics.com/dollar-a-day/)
- [Goals, Content, and Targeting](https://blitzmetrics.com/gct-business-strategy/)
- [Google Ads campaign budgets](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375454?hl=en)
- [Google Ads total budgets](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10486938?hl=en)
- [TikTok Ads Manager budgets](https://ads.tiktok.com/resources/help/article/budget?lang=en)
- [Meta budget help](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/190490051321426)

## Review and evidence still needed

The source contributor status is preserved. It is not certification of this draft or proof of account access, completed work or a live outcome. The worked example teaches the method and is explicitly fictional.
- The exact live account minimums, limit behavior and billing fees are not supplied.
- Some platforms cannot run the named dollar amount; their real budget must be stated without expanding authority.