The short answer
A winning Facebook ad from a DTC brand carries a median of about $223K in estimated spend. One in ten passes $1.07M, and the largest on our board of 2,443 live Meta ads is past $48M. Spend is concentrated: the top 10% of ads hold 57% of all the estimated spend on the board.
The numbers: estimated spend per winning ad
We took every ad on the Ad Radar board on October 9, 2026: 2,443 live Meta ads from 749 brands. Each one has passed $50k in estimated spend, which is our entry bar. Here is how far past it they go.
~$223K
median estimated spend per ad
$1.07M
90th percentile
$48.1M
largest single ad on the board
~$1,600
median estimated spend per day live
A word on the method before the tables. Meta doesn't publish spend for commercial ads in the US. Our figures are modeled on engagement from the public Meta Ad Library, tracked over time. They are estimates, and they are most useful for ranking ads against each other: an ad at $2M almost certainly received far more budget than one at $200K, even if neither number is exact.
The full distribution
| Percentile | Estimated spend |
|---|---|
| 10th | $77K |
| 25th | $112K |
| 50th (median) | $223K |
| 75th | $467K |
| 90th | $1.07M |
| 95th | $1.85M |
| 99th | $5.44M |
And the same data as bands:
| Estimated spend | Ads | Share |
|---|---|---|
| $50K to $100K | 511 | 21% |
| $100K to $250K | 820 | 34% |
| $250K to $500K | 536 | 22% |
| $500K to $1M | 311 | 13% |
| $1M to $5M | 237 | 10% |
| $5M or more | 28 | 1% |
The shape is a long tail. More than half the board sits under $250K. Then a thin layer of ads keeps going: 265 ads past $1M, 28 past $5M, 9 past $10M.
Spend is concentrated in a few ads
The top 10% of ads hold 57% of all the estimated spend on the board. The top 1% (25 ads) hold 24%. Most winning brands have a handful of ads doing most of the work, surrounded by a larger group of solid but smaller ones.
It's burning.
- Est. spend
- $43M
- Days live
- 159
- Format
- Video, 50s
The second-largest ad on the board, and it runs from a dog's page, not the brand's. A creator ad for a fresh dog food subscription, past $42M in estimated spend in about five months.
Spend grows with time, but pace slows
Older ads have more estimated spend in total, which is what you'd expect. The pace tells a more useful story.
| Days live | Ads | Median est. spend | Median est. spend per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 to 89 | 701 | $183K | $2,657 |
| 90 to 179 | 1,037 | $203K | $1,619 |
| 180 to 364 | 367 | $271K | $1,141 |
| 365 or more | 338 | $345K | $563 |
Young winners are pushed hard. Ads in their first three months average about $2,700 a day in estimated spend. Ads past a year average under $600. Advertisers scale a winner quickly, then let it settle into a steady, lower budget as it ages. A long-running ad is still a winner, it's just no longer the one getting the big push.
For the time side of this, see how long winning Facebook ads run.
It got stuck in the branch that it was growing on, and then it also has a line from where it was strung on the plant, but still perfectly edible.
- Est. spend
- $22M
- Days live
- 581
- Format
- Video, 79s
- Variants
- 8
Over 19 months live and 8 variants. A long run, a high total and a lower daily pace: a mature winner the brand keeps refreshing with new versions.
Spend by category
| Category | Ads | Median est. spend |
|---|---|---|
| Tools & DIY | 25 | $482K |
| Business & finance | 31 | $315K |
| Apparel | 112 | $285K |
| Pets | 381 | $274K |
| Home | 119 | $249K |
| Travel | 57 | $224K |
| Food & beverage | 148 | $215K |
| Beauty | 308 | $201K |
| Health | 919 | $195K |
Health is the largest category by far (919 ads) and has one of the lowest medians. Many brands, many ads, budget spread across them. Pets and apparel sit higher with fewer brands. Tools & DIY tops the table but comes from only 6 brands, so treat it as a small sample. We rank categories by how often they reach the top tier in which e-commerce categories win most often.
Spend by format
| Format | Ads | Median est. spend | Median per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video | 1,968 | $236K | $1,697 |
| Image | 475 | $173K | $1,238 |
Video ads carry more estimated spend at the median. Image ads are fewer and smaller, but the biggest image ads still reach eight figures.
NEW Bamboo Knee Brace (50% OFF)
- Est. spend
- $26M
- Days live
- 397
- Format
- Image
- Variants
- 17
A single image ad with 17 variants and over $25M in estimated spend. The headline is a product name and a discount. Static ads can carry very large budgets when the product is simple.
Among videos, length barely moves the median. Ads of 30 to 60 seconds sit at $255K, 60 to 120 seconds at $248K, and the shortest (under 30 seconds) at $224K. Videos over five minutes are lower, at $191K. See best video ad length for the full breakdown.
What a "median" winning ad looks like
It helps to see an ad sitting right at the middle of the board, not just the giants.
Top three washing tips you'll wish you knew sooner.
- Est. spend
- $215K
- Days live
- 52
- Format
- Video, 136s
About median spend at 52 days live, and already in the top tier. A listicle of laundry tips where the third tip is the product. Most winning ads look like this: solid, young, still growing.
How to use these benchmarks
These numbers describe ads that already won. They are not a budget recommendation. Here is how to put them to work.
- Rank competitor ads, don't copy their budgets. An estimate of $1M against $150K tells you which ad the competitor is betting on. It doesn't tell you what you should spend. Our guide to estimating competitor ad spend covers how to read the numbers.
- Compare pace, not just totals. A 40-day-old ad at $300K is getting more push than a 400-day-old ad at $500K. Divide by days live before you decide which one matters.
- Look at variants next to spend. High spend with several variants means the brand is building around that ad. More on that in ad variants as a scaling signal.
- Expect concentration in your own account. If 57% of the spend on a board of winners sits in 10% of ads, your account will look similar. Feed the few ads that work, rather than spreading budget evenly.
- Size your own budget from your own numbers. For that, see Facebook ads budget for a small brand.
On the Ad Radar board every ad shows its estimated spend next to days live and variant count, so you can sort by any of the three.
Figures marked as estimated spend come from Ad Radar's model of engagement on public Meta Ad Library ads. They are estimates, labeled as such, and are best used to rank ads against each other.