Meta’s New Location Fees - what they are, when they’re coming and how they’ll impact

From 1st July 2026, Meta is introducing location based fees on advertising, and whilst they won’t change how your campaigns perform, they will affect how much you’re billed.

What are location fees?

Location fees are an additional charge Meta is applying to ad spend to cover Digital Services Taxes (DST) imposed by certain countries. You’ll pay a small percentage on top of your ad spend, based on where your ads are shown (not where your business is based).

For the UK, that fee is expected to be 2%. Other countries that will see a location fee added are:

France, Italy, Spain (3%)

Austria, Turkey (5%)

For now at least, other big markets such as the US and Germany don’t have Digital Service Taxes, and therefore won’t have Meta location fees.

When are they coming in?

The official rollout date is 1st July 2026, but some accounts may see early references or billing changes as early as May, but July is when they’re expected to fully apply.

How will this affect your ad account?

What won’t change:

• Your campaign budgets won’t change

• Your ads won’t perform any differently

• Your targeting and optimisation will stay the same

What will change:

Your actual cost will be slightly higher than what you see in Ads Manager. For example, in the UK:

• Ads Manager spend: £10,000

• Actual billed: ~£10,200

Where will you see the fee?

You won’t see location fees in Ads Manager reporting, instead, they’ll appear on your invoice, within your billing or transaction summary, as a separate line item.

Why does this matter?

Whilst the fee is relatively small, it clearly has a few knock-on effects. Reported ROAS from Ads Manager vs real ROAS will differ slightly, CPA will increase marginally and invoices won’t match Ads Manager exactly.

What should you do next?

Whilst there’s nothing you need to change in your campaigns, you do need to be aware that the true cost of advertising has increased. We’d suggest talking to your agency about how you manage this in your reporting in order to keep things fully transparent.

Meta ads will work exactly as they did before, they’ll just cost slightly more than they appear in-platform. For information on changes in your account look out for an email from Meta, or pop-up notifications in your account.