Facebook Ads Spend Limits: What Agencies Can (and Can’t) Control

Facebook’s built-in spend limits

Facebook imposes daily spend limits on new ad accounts (often $50 or $250/day) until a history of successful payments is established. This is a trust mechanism, not a financial tool.

Ad Account Limits ≠ Payment Limits

A common confusion is between the platform limit (what FB allows you to spend) and the card limit (what your bank allows). You might have a $50k limit on Facebook, but if your card has a $10k daily cap, your ads will stop running mid-day.

Where overspend actually happens

Overspend rarely happens because Facebook ignores a cap. It happens because media buyers manually increase budgets without checking the bank balance or credit limit available on the card attached to the account.

Why finance teams get nervous

Finance teams hate surprises. When an agency scales spend for Q4, the sudden increase in credit utilization can spook traditional lenders, leading to credit line freezes exactly when you need liquidity the most.

What agencies need beyond Facebook controls

Agencies need card-level controls. Being able to issue a card with a hard cap of $5,000 ensures that even if a media buyer sets the wrong budget in Ads Manager, the card itself will act as the final safety net.