Need advice: New account + small budget

Hey everyone, I’m getting back into Meta ads after an 8-year break and could really use some advice.

I’ve got a brand-new ad account (less than a month old) promoting a digital product. I started with traffic campaigns, but the results were awful:

- Bounce rate around 95%
- Average session duration under 2 seconds

It honestly looked like I was paying for bot traffic (and based on what I've read on this community, it seems to be true), so I killed those campaigns.

After that, I watched Ben Heath’s “How to CRUSH Facebook Ads with a Small Budget in 2026” and decided to switch to lead gen campaigns using instant forms.

Here’s the problem now:

- Budget: $100/day
- Audience size: 5M+
- Campaign type: Lead generation with instant forms

Results: Insanely high CPMs and very low impressions (around 70–80 per day) Leads: so far 0

I did some research and according to Perplexity, It says I should expect to get leads at $40-60 per lead.

For those of you who’ve run Meta ads on smaller budgets or with newer ad accounts:

- Is this kind of CPM/impression pattern normal in the early stages?
- Are instant forms still a good idea for lead gen in 2026, or should I try a different objective?
- Any specific settings, optimizations, or structures you’d recommend for a new account with a $100/day budget?

Any feedback, troubleshooting tips, or things I should test next would be massively appreciated.