Did Meta Change Ad Billing?

Is Meta making a drastic change to ad billing?

Panic spread last week that Meta was changing how advertisers are billed. Here’s what you need to know…

The Reported Change

There was a version of the “How Meta charges for ads” page that said this (emphasis is mine):

You’re charged at the moment you confirm your ads purchase. Your ads charge will be equal to the budget your set for your ad and we will not charge you an amount exceeding the budget that you set for your ad. For example, if your campaign is set to run for two days with a daily budget of $10, you’ll be charged $20 at the moment you confirm your purchase.

That sounds like nothing with $20, but imagine a campaign with an end date a month in the future. I had so many questions about this, and advertisers were rightfully freaked out.

What about campaigns you stop early? What about lifetime budgets? What about campaigns or ad sets without an end date?

Honestly, it didn’t make any sense.

The Retraction

But then Social Media Today provided this update from Meta:

A technical error caused a small number of people to see a Help Center article with outdated information. We have not recently changed our billing policies, and the technical error has since been fixed. Meta offers advertisers a variety of different ways to manage their expenses and determine when they are charged for ads.

Good. Because paying for campaigns up front would be diabolical.