Even with hurdles presented by Apple iOS updates in the past year, Facebook remains a profitable platform for brands to connect with, engage, and ultimately convert customers. But exactly how profitable? For one, it stands as the most budget-friendly social media advertising platform (excluding Twitter, whose reach pales in comparison).

To give a concrete answer, let’s explore the current cost of Facebook ads, based on the latest data, and outline strategies to minimize your expenses.

Table of contents

• Facebook Ad Cost Breakdown
  • Cost per click by month
  • Cost per click by region
  • Cost per click by industry
• Factors Influencing Facebook Advertising Costs
• Strategies to Reduce Facebook Ad Costs
• The Value Proposition of Facebook Ads

What is the Cost of Facebook Ads?

We’ll analyze different reports to give precise figures, but here’s a general idea. The average cost per click for Facebook ads is:

• Ad Espresso: $0.30 – $0.50
• Emplifi: $0.40 to $0.65
• Revealbot: $0.43 – $2.32
• nexus-security: $0.42 – $3.89 (For campaigns with a Conversions objective) It’s crucial to remember that each study uses different data sets, and costs can fluctuate depending on the industry and the campaign’s goal, which we’ll cover shortly.

Examining Facebook Ads Cost per Click by Month

Ad Espresso’s Facebook benchmarks report offers a detailed breakdown of average cost per click and cost per like, categorized by month, day, and even hour. Based on their findings, the average cost per click for Facebook ads across all sectors is $0.44, a slight increase from the previous year’s $0.38.

AdEspresso’s monthly breakdown of Facebook ads cost per click from the first quarter to the third quarter of 2021 is as follows: Monthly Facebook ads cost per click:

• January – $0.30
• February – $0.33
• March – $0.42
• April – $0.46
• May – $0.44
• June – $0.47
• July – $0.46
• August – $0.47
• September – $0.5

Analyzing Facebook Ads Cost per Click by Region

Emplifi’s State of Social Media and CX delivers comprehensive global Facebook ad benchmark data spanning from the second quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2021. Their data reveals that the cost per click for Facebook ads in North America fell between $0.40 and $0.65 in the previous year. Here’s a comparison with other global regions, ordered from highest to lowest cost: Regional Facebook ads cost per click

• North America: $0.40 – $0.65
• Western Europe: $0.30 – $0.50
• East Asia: $0.18 – $0.20
• Southern Europe: $0.11 – $0.21
• Worldwide: $0.12 – $0.19
• South America: $0.05 – $.10
• Central America: $0.05 – $.10
• Southeast Asia: $0.05 – $.10 The data clearly indicates that competition is fiercest in North America and Western Europe, as reflected in the higher Facebook ad costs within these regions. Additionally, a clear trend emerges from January 2021 onward.

Breaking Down Facebook Ads Cost per Click by Campaign Type

Revealbot provides real-time cost benchmarks. Their data shows an average cost per click of $1.01 across all campaigns over the past year, marking a slight increase from last year’s $0.97.

We can further examine the average cost per click on Facebook by specific campaign objectives:

• Brand awareness: $2.32
• Lead generation: $1.74
• Traffic: $0.43
• Conversions: $1.33

Exploring Facebook Ads Cost per Click by Industry

The most recent industry benchmarks for Facebook ad costs we could locate were from our own data collection in 2019. Our findings showed that the average cost per click (CPC) for Facebook Ads was $1.68 across all industries. Notably, the food and drink sector had the lowest CPC at $0.42, while finance topped the chart at $3.89. [

](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Nexusdecode/images-549143589519/main/1722570588327.webp)

Analyzing Facebook Ads Cost per Lead by Industry

Our benchmark data indicates that the average cost per lead (CPL) for Facebook ads across all sectors is $19.68, with costs varying from $12.91 for the food and drink industry to $56.89 for the news sector.

Understanding Facebook Ads CPM

Data from Revealbot suggests that the average CPM (cost per thousand impressions) on Facebook across all industries stands at $14.40, reflecting an increase from last year’s $11.54.

When categorized by campaign type, average CPMs vary significantly, ranging from a low of $2.28 for brand awareness campaigns in February to a high of $30.97 for lead generation campaigns in June.

If you’re experiencing high CPMs, explore our insights on lowering your Facebook ads CPM.

Exploring Facebook Ads Cost per Engagement

Revealbot’s data also highlights that the average Facebook cost per engagement (CPE) is $0.12, a one-cent increase compared to the previous year.

Breaking down the average CPE by campaign objective reveals a range from nearly a penny to $0.58.

Factors Influencing Facebook Ad Costs

Similar to Instagram ad costs, several variables affect the cost of advertising on Facebook.

1. Campaign Objectives

The objectives you set for your Facebook campaigns play a significant role in determining ad costs. This is because pricing is linked to the value of your desired outcome and your target audience’s position in the sales funnel. For example, campaigns focused on brand awareness or engagement typically cost less than lower-funnel campaigns, like those aiming for conversions or driving purchases. Encouraging someone to engage with an ad is generally easier than persuading them to click through, make a purchase, and become a paying customer.

2. Audience Size

Targeting a larger, broader audience with your Facebook ads will generally result in lower costs compared to targeting a smaller, more niche audience. Prospecting campaigns, upper-funnel initiatives, and those targeting cold audiences often see lower costs than retargeting campaigns, lower-funnel efforts, and those focusing on warmer audiences. This difference stems from the fact that the latter group tends to involve more specific, smaller audiences, making them more competitive.

3. Daily Budget

Setting a lower daily budget might extend the time it takes for Facebook’s algorithm to move past the learning phase. This is because, in the initial stages, costs for new ad sets are often higher while the system analyzes how your audience interacts with your ads and identifies ways to optimize them for maximum engagement. As your ads start performing well and garnering engagement, Facebook and Instagram will reward your success with lower costs over time.

4. Bidding Strategy

Your chosen bidding approach, or how you instruct Facebook to allocate your ad budget, directly influences your ad costs. Available Facebook bidding strategies include:

• Lowest cost
• Highest value
• Cost cap
• Minimum ROAS
• Manual

5. Click-Through Rate

Your click-through rate (CTR) can also factor into your Facebook ad costs. A low CTR, especially for website traffic campaigns, could lead to higher costs as Facebook interprets this as a potential mismatch between your target audience and your ad messaging. A healthy Facebook CTR typically hovers around 2%. In many cases, as your CTR improves, your CPCs will decrease.

6. Industry

As evident in our benchmark data, Facebook ad costs fluctuate across industries, with varying click-through rates also playing a role.

Analyzing ROI by industry is crucial. For instance, the average cost per acquisition (CPA) for restaurants is $12.91. However, if a customer acquired through an ad spends $50 and becomes a repeat customer for years to come, that ad essentially generates a positive return on investment.

7. Seasonality

Historically, ad costs tend to see a temporary rise during the latter part of the third and fourth quarters. This shift coincides with the holiday ecommerce season, when changes in the advertising landscape come into play. Competition intensifies as brands increase their budgets to secure a larger share of impressions, subsequently driving up costs for all advertisers. AdEspresso’s chart (also depicted above) illustrates this upward trend in costs from the first quarter to the fourth quarter.

It’s essential to factor this seasonality into your yearly budget. If you’re not in the ecommerce sector or running promotions towards the year’s end, you might consider adjusting your strategy to either maintain a presence or strategically scale back your advertising efforts.

Strategies to Reduce Facebook Ad Costs

Numerous strategies can help you lower your Facebook ad costs. Let’s explore some of the most effective approaches:

1. Implement a Comprehensive Full-Funnel Strategy

To maximize your budget and position yourself for scalable Facebook ad campaigns, align your campaign objectives with different stages of the marketing funnel.

• Awareness and Consideration campaigns are generally suitable for the top of the funnel.
• Consideration and Conversion campaigns align well with the middle of the funnel.
• Conversion campaigns are most effective for bottom-funnel conversions, focusing on driving desired actions. In essence, starting with upper-funnel campaigns allows you to reach a wider audience within your target market at a lower cost. As you progress, you can shift toward conversion campaigns optimized for purchase-driving events.

You can learn how to develop an effective full-funnel Facebook advertising strategy in our comprehensive guide. It’s worth noting that some brands can successfully run Conversion campaigns targeting upper-funnel audiences, especially with lower-priced products or items that lend themselves well to impulse purchases. While some people might make purchases upon their first interaction with a brand on Facebook, most users require multiple touchpoints to build trust, understand the benefits offered, and feel compelled to convert.

2. Leverage the Automatic Placements Setting

While it might be tempting to handpick where your ads appear within the Facebook network, opting for the default Automatic Placements setting often proves to be a more cost-effective approach. In fact, deviating from this default is a common mistake that can drain your budget. Utilizing all available placements provides Facebook with more data to determine the most effective placements for your ads, ultimately leading to cost reductions. This approach also helps you navigate the learning phase faster, allowing you to implement data-driven, budget-friendly optimizations sooner. Importantly, your targeting parameters remain consistent across all placements. This means Facebook can effectively serve ads to users in lower-volume, lower-cost placements that can still contribute to your revenue growth.

3. Expand Your Audience Targeting

As previously mentioned, audience size directly impacts Facebook ad costs. While maintaining a focused targeting approach is essential, strive to make your target audiences as broad as possible within your desired parameters. This has become slightly more challenging with recent privacy measures. However, we offer recommended Facebook ad strategies to help you navigate these changes effectively.

4. Utilize Facebook’s Audience Overlap Tool

Facebook’s audience overlap tool can be a valuable asset in your quest for cost savings. Let’s imagine you have two ads running simultaneously: one targeting users interested in startups and another geared towards those interested in entrepreneurship. You’ve crafted distinct Facebook ad copy and creative assets to resonate with each audience. However, the overlap tool reveals that half of your startup audience overlaps with your entrepreneurship audience. Armed with this insight, you can implement exclusions to prevent these ads from competing against each other. Without this adjustment, you risk wasting budget by essentially bidding against yourself.

5. Implement Bid Caps

Bid caps represent Facebook’s manual bidding strategy. This approach allows you to set a maximum bid, preventing Facebook from dynamically adjusting bids based on your campaign goals. However, proceed with caution when using bid caps. This strategy is most suitable for advertisers with a firm grasp of conversion rates and profit margins, and it necessitates regular monitoring and adjustments. Setting your bid cap too low could hinder Facebook’s ability to fully utilize your budget.

6. Leverage Both the Facebook Pixel and the Facebook Conversions API

The primary objective of these technologies is to provide you with comprehensive tracking of your ad performance. By gaining clear insights into what’s working effectively and what’s not delivering results, you can allocate your budget more strategically. You can also gather valuable information about the users viewing your ads, which you can then leverage to further optimize your campaigns and ensure you’re getting the most out of your budget.

While the Facebook Pixel is still operational, it’s gradually losing its effectiveness as it relies on cookies, and cookies are facing challenges. In contrast, the Facebook Conversions API operates independently of cookies, but it doesn’t capture data with the same level of granularity as the pixel. Therefore, using both tools in conjunction ensures you’re collecting the most accurate data possible. Our guide on utilizing the Facebook Conversions API can provide more detailed information.

7. Conduct Regular Facebook A/B Testing

A/B testing is a valuable technique for lowering costs at the ad level. By testing different variables in your ads—one element at a time—you gain a deeper understanding of what resonates with your audience and what falls short. Consider testing elements such as ad text, headlines, images and videos, landing pages, and more.

Facebook advertising requires ongoing optimization; it’s not a platform where you can simply set it and forget it. Continuous testing is crucial for driving better results. Conducting tests at the ad level can significantly enhance your engagement rates and CTR, allowing you to stretch your budget further. Our Facebook ad examples offer a source of inspiration and creative ideas to fuel your testing efforts.

8. Target Your Page Fans Separately

Your existing page fans represent your most valuable audience segment, as they’re more likely to convert. By creating separate campaigns specifically targeting this group, you can allocate more budget to initiatives with the highest potential for generating ROI.
Retargeting page visitors is gaining traction as a lesser-known but increasingly effective Facebook ad strategy, particularly in light of recent privacy changes.

Why Choose Facebook Ads? Exploring the Value Proposition

Social media advertising offers numerous advantages, but let’s focus on what makes Facebook a compelling option compared to platforms like Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Unmatched Reach: Facebook Still Reigns Supreme

With 2.8 billion users users globally, Facebook currently holds the top spot as the largest and most widely used social media platform. In comparison, YouTube boasts 2.3 billion users, Instagram has 1.3 billion, and TikTok has 7.3 million.

Broad and Diverse User Base

Facebook stands out for having a more evenly distributed user base compared to other popular platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. This demographic diversity enables you to target a wider range of age groups with your ads, maximizing your reach.

Precise Targeting for Higher ROI

Facebook’s advanced targeting options are a key factor in maximizing your return on investment. If your goal is to target individuals within a 15-mile radius of a specific address or zip code, Facebook’s granular targeting makes it possible. Similarly, you can effectively reach parents with children between the ages of 3 and 5 who have expressed an interest in ice cream. And we haven’t even delved into the power of lookalike and custom audiences.

Image source While recent Apple iOS updates have introduced some targeting limitations, Facebook remains one of the most effective PPC channels for reaching your desired audience with precision. Navigating these changes effectively requires adaptation. For a deeper dive into the latest strategies, refer to our comprehensive guide on Facebook Ad Targeting.

Budget Flexibility

Facebook understands that different advertisers have different needs. To accommodate these varying approaches, the platform offers two budgeting options.

• Lifetime budgets are well-suited for advertisers running scheduled ads or working with a fixed budget and end date.
• Daily budgets are ideal for maximizing ongoing campaigns and adjusting spending based on fluctuating budgets.

Cost-Effectiveness

Facebook ads stand out as one of the most budget-friendly advertising options for businesses of all sizes, whether your daily spending is $10 or thousands. With robust testing, remarketing, and reporting features, Facebook equips you with the tools you need to maximize the value of every dollar you invest. To put things into perspective, let’s compare the average cost per click across four major social media advertising platforms:

• Twitter: $0.38
• Facebook: $0.97
• Instagram: $3.56
• LinkedIn: $5.26

Data source

Effectively Managing Your Facebook Ad Costs This Year

Ready to embark on your Facebook advertising journey or elevate your existing campaigns? We’re here to support your success with a range of valuable resources.

• Explore our comprehensive tutorial on How to Advertise on Facebook, guiding you through every step of the process.
• Utilize our Free Facebook Ads Performance Grader to instantly identify areas where you might be overspending.
• Leverage our free Facebook ads courses, designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to optimize your campaigns for maximum impact.
• Gain valuable insights into ad costs with our informative posts on How Much Do Instagram Ads Cost? and How Much Does Google Ads Cost?, providing a broader perspective on social media advertising.
• Download our insightful guide, 7 Fundamental Facebook Advertising Tips, packed with essential advice every advertiser should know.