How much does it cost to advertise on Facebook’s website?

Facebook (Meta) Ads is one of the key platforms for advertisers. Despite the challenges posed by the reduced tracking of Apple iOS users, Facebook continues to be a major platform for brands to reach customers, build engagement and generate conversions. According to data from Statista, the average cost per click ranks Meta Ads as one of the cheaper channels. Linkedin averages $5.26 per click. Right behind this business portal we have Instagram with 3.56, followed by YouTube video ads with 3.21, then Pinterest 1.50 and just FB Ads with a score of $0.97 per ad click. Importantly, Twitter/X is currently the cheapest, generating 0.38 cost per click. Cost per click is, of course, just one advertising metric that says nothing about the effect, but it’s worth starting with. In performance marketing, KPIs such as return on advertising spend (ROAS), customer lifetime value (LTV) compared to customer acquisition cost (CAC), and ultimately net profit will matter more.

What does the price of advertising on Facebook depend on?

The price of Facebook ads depends on the auction, that is, on the number and quality of competitors vying for the same audience at a given time. Thanks to an auction-like system, each ad destination becomes, so to speak, a battleground, in this case just for the display of the ad.

In a nutshell, the mechanism works like this: you set a budget for your Facebook campaign and decide on the maximum amount you want to spend per day or for the entire campaign. This doesn’t mean that you’ll use the entire budget, as Facebook tries to spread your spending evenly over the entire time the ad is displayed, although this can vary depending on the effectiveness of the ad or your goals (for example, if you set a maximum conversion cost you expect). In most cases, Meta Ads will aim to spend your entire daily or total budget, unless you impose restrictions that are impossible to meet (such as too low a cost per click or too low a cost per conversion you expect).

Then your ads compete for visibility, competing based on a set budget and effectiveness, and the auction system decides where your ad will appear and how much it will cost. In most cases, you will pay per ad display (that is, in the system, per so-called CPM). For payment methods, you can choose between automatic billing, which charges you when you reach a certain amount (this will increase with your ad account history and increasing spending), or prepayment. In the Meta Ads Manager tool, you will be able to track all your ad spending and its effectiveness, as well as set maximum spending limits to control your budget more easily.

Remember that ultimately your goal is to maximize the business effect, which does not always go hand in hand with minimizing the cost-per-click CPC. In most cases, better metrics will be return on investment (ROI, ROAS) or margin/profit generated. Ad costs and destinations are not fixed once and for all – they are dynamic and depend on your rate-setting strategy and ad effectiveness. They can also change over time, hence periods such as Christmas or Black Week are sure to increase advertising volume and CPC rates.

How much does it cost on average to advertise on Facebook?

Some popular sources like Business of Apps, Emplifi and Revealbot publish reports with average cost per click (CPC).

Business of Apps – average $0.44

The report shows that despite significant fluctuations in the CPM rates of Facebook ads, cost-per-click CPC rates typically settle around 40 cents per click (more ad space, higher CTRs)

Emplifi: $0.40-$0.65

The most important findings of the report showed social media ad spending on Facebook and Instagram increased by 50% year-on-year (2021 data here). In addition, the video format was the most engaging (though underutilized) type of Facebook posts in the second quarter of 2021.

Revealbot: $0.43 – $2.32

The tool updates most regularly and shows that Facebook’s average CPC in December 2023: USD 0.724 (here we have only US advertisers).

The tool also shows the average CPC of Facebook in December 2023.

Why is my Facebook CPC so high?

Facebook CPC rates are determined by your CPM and click-through rate (CTR). Before you start looking into why your CPC rates are high, first make sure your CPM rates are not too high. High CPM rates are mainly due to narrow target groups. We see this mistake often in remarketing campaigns that have small audiences but high daily budgets. Naturally, this leads to very high CPM (and CPC) rates, as the Facebook Ads system tries to spend the entire daily budget repeatedly reaching the same people (hint: check the frequency metric in your Meta Ads account regularly).

Next, check what your CTR is. A higher CTR click-through rate will severely reduce CPC, while a lower CTR will dramatically increase CPC, even if your CPMs are low. So what could be the reason for a high CPC on Facebook?

• Poorly matched target audience
• narrow audience
• not very interesting creations
• unconvincing copy and headlines
• no highlighting
• no video or animation materials
• weak offerings

How to lower CPC on Facebook?

If your optimization strategy is to minimize CPCs on ads, ad sets or campaigns, focus primarily on increasing CTR.

Here are four good and proven ways to lower CPC by improving CTR:

1. Improve the relevance of your ads to your audience. You can do this by adjusting your ad message, or more easily, adjust your targeting to make your ads more relevant. Think about what kind of offer your audience expects. Apply experiments to test your thesis.
2. Be more creative with images and advertising videos. Take advantage of the advertising inspiration tool from Meta
3. Your ads need to stand out in order to get a high CTR, and one of the best ways to achieve this is to attract attention by breaking a pattern, asking a controversial question or publishing an incredibly good promo.
4. If you’re using a campaign to get an audience at the beginning of the path (cold), perhaps the content needs to be more engaging, arouse more curiosity or appear to solve a problem better. For end-of-path (remarketing) offers, more will depend on price.

When you manage to get a high CTR, your CPC on Facebook will naturally drop because the two metrics are related.

Feel like your Meta Ads campaigns can perform better?

Contact us and we will analyze your ad account and prepare an optimization plan!

Let’s talk!

How do I establish a budget and schedule for Facebook ads?

Facebook allows you to set a daily or total budget. The daily budget determines the maximum amount you can spend each day. Once you reach the limit, Facebook will stop displaying your ads until the next day. Your budget resets each day at midnight as determined by your selected time zone.

For the total budget, you specify the amount you want to spend over the life of the campaign. Facebook averages the amount you spend per day over the course of the campaign, based on the amount you indicate.

Facebook averages the amount you spend per day over the course of the campaign.

Is 1,000 zlotys enough for Facebook ads?

1,000 zlotys can be a good start for small, targeted campaigns or to run tests on Facebook. In the Polish market, for example, such a budget will allow you to get 100,000 ad impressions, which can translate into 500 – 1,000 ad clicks. The better you match your audience groups and the more interesting creations you present, the more traffic you will get.

What is a good ROAS for Facebook ads?

There is no good ROAS for Facebook ads, a good one will be one that will give you a positive return on investment. This is usually from about 400% upwards, but can vary depending on your industry and margins.

What are the best ways to target ads on Facebook?

Precise targeting can increase the effectiveness of a campaign, but this is not always the case. It’s worth using your own databases and building lookalike profiles. It is also worth working with remarketing campaigns, separating them from new user acquisition.

Optimal Facebook advertising strategy

A good place to start is to get at least three times your acquisition budget compared to your remarketing budget. You need to ensure a steady pipeline of new users for your remarketing to be effective. 

One-third of your budget for building a new audience base can be spent on lookalike audiences. This is one of the more effective ad targeting strategies.

Remarketing is one of the most effective.

Another ⅓ can be spent on interest-related targeting. You need to be able to describe your target audience using parameters related to content, associations, competition, work, etc.

The target audience can be described as a person who is interested in your business.

The last part of your acquisition budget can be spent on testing and experimentation. For example, you can use age groups, location, proprietary data and exclusions to verify that you will be able to get a higher CTR, and lower CPC for the tested group.

The last part of your acquisition budget can be used for testing.

What budget do you need to advertise on Facebook?

Meta Ads does not specify a minimum budget necessary to start advertising on the platform. You can start with as little as a few zlotys to begin displaying ads. The PLN 100 level will allow you to get up to 100 ad clicks and collect your first data. A level of PLN 1,000 will already allow you to use several targeting criteria, and a level of PLN 10,000 will allow you to divide your campaign into remarketing, acquisition and testing different variants of groups and ads. The next steps will already depend on performance and such metrics as ROAS, LTV or generated profit from ad spend.