Determining the right cost per page (CPP) for Facebook ads can be tricky. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, as the optimal CPP depends on factors like your objectives, target audience, industry, and type of product or service. However, there are some general guidelines to follow when setting a CPP for Facebook ads.
What is Cost Per Page (CPP)?
Cost per page (CPP) refers to the amount you pay, on average, for each page like generated by your Facebook ad. It is calculated by dividing your total ad spend by the number of page likes garnered from the ad.
For example, if you spent $100 on a Facebook ad campaign and got 50 new page likes, your CPP would be $2 ($100 ad spend / 50 page likes = $2 CPP).
CPP is a useful metric for gauging the efficiency and ROI of your Facebook ad campaigns. Generally, the lower your CPP, the better. A low CPP indicates your ads are generating likes at a relatively low cost.
What is a good CPP for Facebook ads?
So what constitutes a “good” CPP? Here are some benchmarks to consider:
- Under $1 – Excellent
- $1 – $2 – Good
- $3 – $5 – Average
- Over $5 – High
However, these thresholds can vary significantly based on your niche and objectives. A CPP under $1 may be unrealistic for some industries.
Factors that influence cost per page
There are several factors that impact your ad CPP, including:
- Industry – CPP varies widely between industries. For example, ecommerce brands tend to have higher CPPs than B2B companies.
- Target audience – Pages targeted towards younger demographics often have lower CPPs.
- Competition – Highly competitive markets drive up advertising costs and CPP.
- Offer/incentive – Pages running promotions or contests can decrease CPP.
- Ad objective – Pages focused on engagement over conversions typically have lower CPP.
Ways to reduce your CPP
Here are some tips for lowering your cost per page:
- Refine your target audience – Narrow your targeting to fans of brands or interests closely related to your business.
- Test different placements – Try placements beyond just the News Feed such as Stories or Marketplace.
- Split test ad creatives – Test different images, captions, or video content.
- Offer an incentive for liking – Giveaways, contests, and coupons can help garner more likes.
- Retarget people who’ve engaged – Remarketing to people who’ve already engaged with you tends to have higher conversion rates.
Ideal CPP Benchmarks by Industry
Below are some typical cost per page benchmarks for key industries and niches. However, you should optimize for your own business objectives and not purely focus on matching these CPPs.
Ecommerce
- Good CPP: $1 – $3
- Average CPP: $4 – $8
Ecommerce brands tend to have higher CPPs due to intense competition. But exclusives, giveaways, and lead generation can help improve CPP.
SaaS & Software
- Good CPP: $2 – $5
- Average CPP: $6 – $10
SaaS products appeal to a business audience so fewer likes are needed. Focus on targeting IT decision makers, engineers, and tech enthusiasts.
B2B Services
- Good CPP: $1 – $3
- Average CPP: $4 – $7
Targeting a niche B2B audience allows for lower advertising costs. But extensive testing of copy and visuals is needed.
Restaurants
- Good CPP: $3 – $5
- Average CPP: $6 – $10
Location-based targeting and foodie-focused creatives help restaurants connect with nearby customers. Promos and giveaways can also lower CPP.
Agency Services
- Good CPP: $2 – $4
- Average CPP: $5 – $8
Showcasing client testimonials and results in your ad creatives builds trust with prospects. Hyper-targeting potential clients can also control costs.
Tips for Setting a CPP Goal
When establishing a target CPP, keep these tips in mind:
- Benchmark against competitors – Research average CPP for top brands in your niche.
- Factor in conversion value – If conversions are highly valued, a higher CPP may be warranted.
- Consider stage of growth – Early-stage startups may aim for lower CPPs than mature brands.
- Analyze historical data – Look at CPP trends from past campaigns to set realistic goals.
- Leave room for optimization – Set initial CPP target above expected average to allow for improvements.
Rather than an arbitrary number, your CPP goal should factor in your unique objectives, audience, and business constraints. Test different CPP levels and assess the impact on conversion rates.
Calculating CPP to Optimize Spend
Ongoing CPP calculations are crucial for optimizing your Facebook ad spend. Here are some best practices:
- Measure CPP daily – Check on CPP frequently to detect any spikes or dips.
- Segment by campaign – Calculate CPP separately for each ad campaign for easier optimization.
- Factor in all conversion actions – Include all desired conversions like clicks, additions to cart, etc.
- Optimize towards target CPP – Make bid, budget, or targeting adjustments to reach your ideal CPP.
- Automate reporting – Use Facebook analytics integration or ad software to automatically surface CPP.
Regularly monitoring your cost per page metric enables you to spot rising CPPs and quickly implement changes to control Facebook ad costs.
Should CPP be the only optimization metric?
While cost per page is an insightful metric, it should not be the sole focus when optimizing Facebook ad campaigns. Here are some other key metrics to consider:
- Relevance Score – How well your ads match the interests of your target audience.
- Click-Through Rate – The percentage of impressions that resulted in clicks.
- Landing Page Views – How many people visited your landing page from the ad.
- Button/Form Clicks – Clicks on call-to-action buttons or form fills.
- Conversion Rate – The percentage of landing page visitors that converted.
A singular focus on lowering CPP could come at the expense of relevance, engagement, or conversion impact. The best approach is to analyze CPP trends along with other metrics to make informed optimization decisions.
Should you have a separate CPP for awareness and conversion campaigns?
In most cases, it is wise to have different CPP targets based on your campaign objective:
Awareness Campaigns
- Objective is brand reach and visibility.
- Higher CPP may be acceptable.
- Main metric is impressions delivery.
Conversion Campaigns
- Objective is lead gen or sales.
- Lower CPP is better to maximize ROI.
- Focus on click and conversion rates.
For awareness campaigns, you may be willing to accept a higher CPP if it means maximizing reach. But for conversion-focused campaigns, keeping CPP low is critical for driving profitable results.
Should you lower your CPP target over time?
In most cases, you should gradually lower your CPP target over an ad campaign’s lifespan. Here’s why:
- Facebook’s algorithm improves – Better targeting and optimization decreases CPP.
- You exclude poor performers – Removing low-converting placements, creatives, audiences lowers CPP.
- Competition declines – As competitors hit targets and pause campaigns, costs drop.
- Top of funnel builds – Retargeting to engaged users is cheaper than new prospecting.
Continually lowering your CPP expectation over a campaign’s duration pushes you to extract maximum performance as the algorithm and targeting improves. Just make sure to analyze other metrics as well.
Should you have different CPP targets for different campaigns?
In most cases, having distinct CPP targets for each campaign is advisable. Reasons why include:
- Lets you test different segments – Have lower CPP expectation for hot leads vs cold.
- Accounts for different objectives – Lead gen vs straight sales conversions.
- Adjusts for audience variance – Age, income, geography differences matter.
- Considers funnels position – Top vs mid vs bottom funnel CPPs often vary.
- Reflects creative differences – Video, image, carousel CPPs are not equal.
Custom CPP benchmarks enable greater optimization and reflect the reality that costs and conversion rates differ significantly across segments and formats.
Should you optimize for the lowest possible CPP?
It’s generally not advised to aggressively optimize solely for the absolute lowest CPP without considering other factors. Here’s why:
- Can reduce relevance – Cheapest audiences may not be a perfect match.
- May cut reach – Limiting targeting shrinks potential conversions.
- Often increases frequency – More impressions per person drives down CPP.
- Lowers engagement – People stop noticing overexposed ads.
- Doesn’t factor impact – A high CPP ad could still be profitable if conversions are valuable.
While you want to reduce CPP as much as possible, it shouldn’t come at the expense of reaching your full target audience, maintaining relevance, and driving high-quality conversions.
Should you have a single unified CPP target or separate ones?
The best practice is maintaining separate CPP targets for each campaign, ad set, and audience rather than one unified target. Benefits of separate CPPs include:
- Accounts for different funnel stages – Higher CPP for awareness, lower for sales qualified leads.
- Allows testing of segments – Have distinct CPPs for men vs women, age groups, locations, etc.
- Reflects changing conditions – Can lower CPP for maturing campaigns.
- Enables deeper insights – See what messaging resonates best with each segment.
- Provides greater control – Optimize spend efficiently across many campaigns.
One size rarely fits all when it comes to CPP. Custom benchmarks tailored to each campaign and audience enable tight targeting, efficient spend, and better performance.
Conclusion
Setting the right cost per page target is crucial for efficient and profitable Facebook advertising. While there are general benchmarks to guide you, your specific CPP goal needs to consider your objectives, audience, industry, and other factors. Regularly monitor CPP, but don’t solely optimize towards the lowest possible number. Maintain relevance, reach, and engagement as well. With the right CPP strategy tailored to your business, you can maximize Facebook ad results and ROI.