IT Strategy

Instagram ads got more expensive because of a tax change

Since January, Meta started passing sales taxes directly onto advertisers' invoices in Brazil — about 12% more on the final campaign cost. Small businesses feel it first.

February 16, 2026|5 min read

What changed on the invoice

Since January 2026, Meta started itemizing Brazilian sales taxes (PIS/Cofins at 9.25% and ISS at 2.9%) directly on the invoices of anyone advertising on Facebook and Instagram in Brazil — taxes that used to be baked into the price now show up separately and added on top. The practical effect is an average 12% increase in the final campaign cost, without reach or strategy changing at all.

Anyone only watching "cost per click" in the dashboard might not immediately notice that the final amount charged to their card rose more than expected.

Why it hits harder for tight budgets

A large company usually has room to absorb a 12% increase in media cost without needing to recalculate the whole campaign. A small or mid-sized business, already running its ad budget at the edge, feels this kind of tax pass-through more directly — the same budget now buys less reach.

The upside: the same wave of change brought more AI automation to the platform — image, video, and ad copy generation, automated targeting — which reduces the time (and sometimes agency spend) needed to set up a campaign from scratch.

What to check on your ad account

Three things help you adapt: check your most recent Meta invoice and confirm whether the itemized tax matches the roughly 12% average cited — the exact percentage can vary by campaign type. Then recalculate your monthly paid media budget accounting for this increase, instead of keeping the same number and unknowingly accepting less reach. And test the platform's native AI tools for creative generation, which can offset part of the cost increase with less time spent on production.

Where Diglion comes in

Diglion helps small businesses recalculate paid media budgets accounting for the real after-tax cost, and evaluate where the platform's own AI automation already handles part of the manual work.