Facebook advertising can be an extremely effective way for businesses to reach their target audience. With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook provides a massive platform to get your brand and products in front of people. But how much do Facebook ads really cost?
Factors That Impact Facebook Ad Costs
There are several key factors that impact how much you will pay for Facebook advertising:
- Audience targeting – Narrowly targeting specific demographics and interests will increase costs.
- Ad placement – Where the ad shows up (News Feed, Stories, etc.) affects costs.
- Ad format – Different formats like single image ads, carousel ads, Stories ads, etc. have different costs.
- Ad length – Video ads lasting longer than 30 seconds cost more.
- Ad competition – Bidding for audiences and placements in high demand increases costs.
- Time of year – Holiday seasons see more expensive ad pricing.
- Ad campaign duration – Longer running campaigns often have lower costs per result.
Understanding these factors allow you to optimize your ads for lower costs and higher performance.
Average Facebook Ad Costs
Average costs for Facebook ads vary significantly based on many factors, but here are some averages:
- Single image ad – $0.97 per click (CPC)
- Carousel ad – $0.81 per click (CPC)
- Collection ad – $0.56 per click (CPC)
- Slideshow ad – $0.68 per click (CPC)
- Video ad – $0.59 per view for 10-15 second videos
Cost per click averages tend to be higher for smaller and medium-sized businesses and lower for larger brands with big budgets. Video view rates are often cheaper than image ads since they have higher view counts.
Cost Per Click by Audience Size
Your target audience size also impacts Facebook ad costs. On average:
- Broad audiences over 1 million – $0.40 CPC
- Audiences 500k to 1 million – $0.60 CPC
- Niche audiences 100k to 500k – $0.80 CPC
- Small audiences under 100k – $1.00+ CPC
Going after a smaller, more targeted audience will cost more per click. Broad audiences let you tap into more potential reach but may result in lower conversion rates.
Facebook Ad Costs by Objective and Placement
Your campaign objective and ad placement also drive Facebook ad costs. Here are average costs for common objectives and placements:
Average CPC by Campaign Objective
| Objective | Average CPC |
|---|---|
| Brand Awareness | $0.35 |
| Reach | $0.25 |
| Traffic | $0.18 |
| Engagement | $0.29 |
| Video Views | $0.10 |
| Lead Generation | $1.72 |
| Conversions | $1.01 |
Objectives focused on driving actions like lead generation and conversions have higher costs since you pay more for qualified traffic.
Average CPC by Placement
| Placement | Average CPC |
|---|---|
| News Feed | $0.51 |
| Instagram Feed | $0.76 |
| Stories | $0.36 |
| Marketplace | $0.39 |
| In-Stream Video | $0.12 |
| Instant Articles | $0.25 |
In general, mobile News Feed and Instagram are the most expensive placements. Video and Discovery placements are cheap since you pay per view rather than per click.
Ways to Reduce Facebook Ad Costs
Here are some tips to help drive down the cost of your Facebook ads:
- Use detailed targeting – Layer interests, behaviors, and demographics.
- Test different placements – Compare performance and costs.
- Use power editor bid strategies – Set specific bids for placements and audiences.
- Analyze competition – See what others are bidding to set smarter bids.
- Refresh creatives frequently – Keep ad fatigue low.
- Split test ad variations – Find the optimal creative, offer and copy.
- Schedule ads in low-demand times – Avoid competing in peak hours.
- Extend daily budget to lifetime – Slow spend for lower costs.
Low Cost Campaign Strategies
Some best practices for lower cost Facebook campaigns include:
- Video view objective for brand awareness – Maximizes reach and views.
- Lead ads for conversions – Pre-fills forms for higher quality leads.
- Dynamic ads for ecommerce sales – Automatically targets products people viewed.
- Lookalike audiences – Reaches new people similar to current audience.
How Budget Impacts Costs
Your overall ad budget plays a major role in average costs. With a higher budget, you can access Facebook’s full range of audiences, placements and optimization capabilities. Here are the approximate min budgets required to access key parts of the Facebook ad platform:
- $1000 per month – Basic text and image ads
- $2500 per month – Video ads and lead ads
- $5000 per month – Retargeting ads
- $15,000 per month – Broad targeting of cold audiences
For best results, most experts recommend a minimum budget of $5000 per month. This unlocks Facebook’s AI optimization engine for your campaigns. Of course, higher budgets allow you to scale your reach and results further.
Cost Per Results Benchmarks
While cost per click and view benchmarks are helpful, the true measurement of Facebook ad success is your cost per result. Here are some average cost per result benchmarks to aim for across objectives:
Cost Per Result Benchmarks
| Objective | Benchmark Cost Per Result |
|---|---|
| Brand awareness | Under $0.10 per video view |
| Reach | Under $0.05 per 1% reach |
| Engagement | Under $0.50 per post engagement |
| Website conversions | Under $15 per conversion |
| Lead generation | Under $15 per lead |
| Catalog sales | Under $30 per purchase |
Benchmark your campaign results against these targets and optimize to decrease your cost per result over time.
Conclusion
Facebook advertising costs are determined by many factors: audience targeting, placements, formats, competition, seasonality, objectives and budgets. Most Facebook ads cost between $0.25 to $1.50 per click, with higher costs for smaller audiences and lower costs for video views.
Carefully plan your targeting, placements, formats and bidding strategy to reduce costs. Focus on your cost per result for conversions, leads and sales. With the right optimizations, most advertisers can achieve their Facebook marketing goals for under $30 per result.