The answer to \u201cHow much do Facebook ads cost?\u201d is\u2026 \u201cIt depends.\u201d<\/p>\n
It depends on what industry you\u2019re in, how competitive it is, who you\u2019re targeting, where they\u2019re located, what your budget is, and many more ultra-specific factors.<\/p>\n
Keep reading for average Facebook ads costs in 2024. Learn how you measure up, and find out how to lower your Facebook advertising costs with data-driven decisions.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Bonus: Use our<\/strong> free Facebook Ads budget calculato<\/span>r<\/strong> to figure out exactly how much you need to spend to get the results you want. Let us do the math for you!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n There are two ways to classify the cost of advertising on Facebook:<\/p>\n There are three ways to buy Facebook ads:<\/p>\n For those new to Facebook ads, we recommend setting an overall maximum campaign budget and using automated bidding strategies (a.k.a. the auction method).<\/p>\n Only experienced ad buyers who understand the expected ROI and conversion rates of their strategies should manually control bid caps<\/a> or use reservation and\/or target point bidding.<\/p>\n Whether you\u2019re a beginner or expert, get in-depth insights into both organic and paid social media ROI with Hootsuite Advanced Analytics<\/a>. See your Facebook ad performance alongside other platforms\u2019 ad performance, and understand the true impact of how your organic and paid content works together.<\/p>\n So, so many things can affect your Facebook ad cost. Let\u2019s run through them.<\/p>\n This is the most critical factor for controlling Facebook ads costs. That doesn\u2019t mean one objective is cheaper than the other. It means Facebook uses the objective to optimize showing your ads to people most likely to take your desired action.<\/p>\n Choosing the right objective means reaching the right people and getting the results you want, whether you\u2019re spending a little or a lot on ads.<\/p>\n You can choose from six objectives:<\/p>\n As previously mentioned, only Awareness<\/strong> or Engagement<\/strong> objectives work for reservation bidding. For all others, you\u2019ll only see the Auction buying type option.<\/p>\n Not every audience you\u2019re trying to reach costs the same. On average, it will cost more to put your ads in front of a narrower audience than a broad one. That\u2019s not a bad thing.<\/p>\n Think about it. You can spend $0.20 per click targeting everyone from 18-65 living in your area and get maybe 1% of those converting into sales.<\/p>\n Or, you can micro-target your ads to reach only your absolutely ideal customers\u201420-40 year old digital nomads in your city who spend way too long researching backpacks\u2014and pay $1 per click, but get a 10% conversion rate. This Facebook ads strategy<\/a> will cost you more, but it\u2019s obviously the better deal when it comes to ROI.<\/p>\n You can set up targeting options when creating an ad in Facebook Ads Manager, including demographic information, location, interests, and more. However, Facebook now offers what they call Advantage+<\/strong> audiences, which uses AI to automatically find your ideal audience and, on average, costs 28% less<\/a> per result.<\/p>\n Advantage+ targeting makes it fast and easy to start advertising on Facebook. Set a few basic parameters, such as a broad country to show ads within, and Facebook does the rest.<\/p>\n Optionally, you can add suggestions for the AI to take into account when it\u2019s looking for your audience.<\/p>\n For example, if I\u2019m trying to sell backpacks to world travelers, I can suggest Facebook target people interested in travel. Unlike the original method of ad targeting, things you enter here aren\u2019t absolute. It means Facebook will try<\/em> to show your ads to people interested in travel, but if the campaign isn\u2019t performing well, Facebook will go beyond these suggestions to find people who it thinks will be interested in your ads, too.<\/p>\n Advantage+ targeting gives you the best of both worlds: the ability to target specific groups of people, while also using AI to find interested people outside of these parameters. (And avoiding a total campaign flop!)<\/p>\n If you want totally manual targeting, you can still do that by clicking Switch to original audience options<\/strong> at the bottom, but we recommend using Advantage+ targeting.<\/p>\n Ad placement refers to all the areas across Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp) where your ads appear. Wondering what all your options are? Check out our Facebook ads sizes<\/a> guide for 2024.<\/p>\n Again, Facebook\u2019s Advantage+ campaigns make this easy: leave it in Advantage+ mode and Facebook will automatically choose the best placements. \u201cBest\u201d means both for your ad creative, and to get in front of the right audience.<\/p>\n You can set a few options to ensure placements stay consistent with your brand, or switch to fully manual placement choices (which we don\u2019t recommend).<\/p>\n The same Facebook ad doesn\u2019t cost the same all year.<\/p>\n Halloween costume ads on June 10th? $0.75 per click.<\/p>\n Halloween costume ads from Sept 1 \u2013 Oct 30th? $1.50 per click.<\/p>\n Not real data but you get the idea. When your ad\u2019s topic is more in demand, and there are more competitors also vying for ad reach, you\u2019ll pay more. Other examples include advertising travel services during summer, and of course, Black Friday\/Cyber Monday.<\/p>\n On the two biggest shopping days of the year, ads leading up to and including those dates will cost a lot more than usual due to there being much more competition. On Amazon.com alone, ads running during Black Friday\/Cyber Monday cost 145% more<\/a> than other times of year.<\/p>\n For budget-conscious advertisers, this can mean pausing campaigns during high-cost periods if you\u2019re not trying to compete with big brands. For example, if you\u2019re a small business not offering Black Friday discounts, consider pausing your regular ads campaign during Black Friday week to avoid unnecessarily high costs.<\/p>\n Since Facebook ads cost is highly affected by competition, times of day with less competition can mean more cost-effective advertising. That often translates to between midnight and 6am.<\/p>\n By default, your Facebook ads will run 24\/7, but you can create a custom schedule for a specific ad or campaign in Meta Ads Manager.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re using an Advantage+ campaign, Facebook will automatically adjust when to show your ads, based on the results you\u2019re getting.<\/p>\n Wondering when your audience is online to customize your schedule? You can see this in Facebook analytics, or in Hootsuite Analytics for all your social platforms. Plus, auto-schedule content for your personalized best time to publish<\/a>.<\/p>\n Facebook judges the overall quality of your ad in three ways:<\/p>\n These quality scores are somewhat subjective based on the Facebook algorithm<\/a>, but it\u2019s an indicator of how competitive each of your ads is against the competition. You can see these scores in the Ads tab in Meta Ads Manager. If an ad doesn\u2019t have a score, Facebook doesn\u2019t have enough data yet.<\/p>\n Facebook stresses that these rankings are about \u201cperceived quality\u201d<\/a> rather than actual quality, but there are a few things you can do to help boost your quality score:<\/p>\n Ad quality scores are grouped into five cohorts:<\/p>\n Check your quality scores regularly as part of your ad analytics routine. It\u2019s better to focus on tweaking the below average scores to bring up their scores, instead of only creating new ads.<\/p>\n As you\u2019ll see from the benchmarks in the next section, some industries tend to have higher average costs than others. It\u2019s important to keep that in mind when setting your budget and evaluating performance.<\/p>\n You can choose either a daily budget and\/or optional total campaign budget (known as lifetime budget). However, daily doesn\u2019t mean your ad spend will stay the same; Facebook may spend up to 75% more<\/a> than your daily budget on certain days when it feels it can get you better results. But your total weekly spending won\u2019t go over your daily budget multiplied by seven.<\/p>\n You can define a budget by:<\/p>\n Campaign budgets have an extra option: Advantage+ campaign budgets. We recommend turning this on to automatically distribute your budget among ad sets to get the best results and, ultimately, best balance of cost and ROI. You\u2019ll need two or more ad sets to use this feature.<\/p>\n As mentioned previously, there are three campaign bidding strategies to choose from:<\/p>\n Most advertisers will only see Auction<\/strong> or Reservation<\/strong> options in their Meta Ads Account, and you can only choose Reservation<\/strong> for awareness or engagement objective campaigns.<\/p>\n Based on your budget, bidding strategy, targeting options, and your previous ad performance, Facebook will show you an estimate<\/a> of how many people your ad will reach and how many actions may be taken. In this case, clicks, since this campaign objective is web traffic.<\/p>\n Yes, even the smallest businesses can succeed with Facebook ads. Also, yes, it will be more difficult when you\u2019re up against ad giants.<\/p>\n Small local insurance brokerage wanting to get into ads? Cool. State Farm is the second biggest ad buyer in the U.S., spending $668.6 million<\/a> on digital advertising in 2023.<\/p>\n How\u2019s your $ 50-a-day Facebook ads budget<\/a> lookin\u2019 now?<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t to dissuade you. The key to keeping costs down and ROI high is to differentiate yourself from your competition. Be aware of what your competitors are doing, but don\u2019t let that dictate how you run your ads. Get smart, know what you\u2019re up against, and make a plan to conquer by reaching your ideal audience\u2026 not State Farm\u2019s ideal audience.<\/p>\n So, like, literally<\/em>\u2026 how much do Facebook ads cost? Let\u2019s cover a few common Facebook ads cost benchmarks.<\/p>\n It\u2019s important to remember your Facebook ads cost may be higher or lower than these averages. Having a higher cost doesn\u2019t automatically mean your campaign is \u201cbad.\u201d Your audience could be harder to reach and require a bit more budget to get there.<\/p>\n But these benchmarks are a good tool to start evaluating your Facebook ads budget<\/a>, along with other metrics and, most importantly, your campaign ROI. (Or just let Hootsuite Analytics<\/a> get all this info for you automatically in beautiful, customizable, automatic reports\u2026)<\/p>\n Forty cents.<\/a> That\u2019s how much a Facebook ad will cost you.<\/p>\n Okay, not really, that\u2019s just the average cost-per-click (CPC) for Facebook ads, according to a study by Databox.<\/p>\n But not all industries are created equal: a software Facebook ad will cost you an average of $0.85, whereas one about food will cost only $0.18.<\/p>\n Source: Facebook advertising cost-per-click (CPC) worldwide in March 2023, <\/em>Statista<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n A study by Revealbot arrived at a similar number. Here, the average CPC for Facebook ads was $0.52 in June 2024<\/a>, based on the last 12 months of campaigns targeting people in the United States.<\/p>\n Interestingly, there were two large spikes of significantly higher CPC costs: an average $0.90 the last week of July 2023, and $0.88 during Black Friday\/Cyber Monday in November 2023.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Revealbot<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Cost-per-mille (CPM) means your cost for each 1,000 views or impressions.<\/p>\n In 2024, Databox calculates the average Facebook ads CPM is $5.61<\/a>. Facebook ads have a slightly lower average CPM cost than social media ads in general, which was $6.06 in Q4 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n As you can see in Statista\u2019s study from 2023,, there\u2019s a lot of variability in CPM based on industry, with tech ads having the highest average CPM of $9.98.<\/p>\n Source: Facebook advertising cost-per-mille (CPM) worldwide in March 2023, by industry, <\/em>Statista<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Revealbot\u2019s data doesn\u2019t break down average CPM by industry, but found the average Facebook ads CPM cost to be $8.96<\/a> as of June 2024. Quite a significant difference from Databox\u2019s, although several industries weren\u2019t represented in Databox\u2019s study.<\/p>\n When looking at CPM by campaign objective, lead generation campaigns have the highest average CPM, ranging from $9.78 to $31.58, depending on seasonality. Brand awareness campaigns have the lowest average CPM, ranging from $0.74 (amazing!) to $2.58.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Revealbot<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Based on the most recent data available, the average Facebook ads click-through rate (CTR) across all industries is 1.49%<\/a>. The average CTR for all social media advertising was 0.98% in Q4 2023<\/a>, meaning Facebook ads get 52% more clicks (on average).<\/p>\n As you can see, the industry with the highest average CTR is apparel with 2.06% and the industry with the lowest average CTR is healthcare with 0.73% (besides a few industries which weren\u2019t measured in this study).<\/p>\n Source: Facebook advertising click-through rate (CTR) worldwide in March 2023, by industry, <\/em>Statista<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n How does your spending stack up against the competition? You don\u2019t need to spend as much or more than your competition on Facebook ads to be successful. But again, this will give you an idea of where you fall on the spending spectrum.<\/p>\n Overall, the average monthly Facebook ads spend is $1,691.08<\/a>.<\/p>\n Source: <\/em>Databox<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cBoosting\u201d a Facebook post means turning an existing high-performing piece of organic content into an ad. You can do this from your Facebook Page by clicking Boost post<\/strong> on any post.<\/p>\n Or, keep your budget consistent and automate this with Facebook auto-boosting<\/a> in Hootsuite. Set a budget and your criteria\u2014for example, only boost posts that receive at least 100 organic likes\u2014and Hootsuite will handle the rest.<\/p>\n It\u2019s as close to magic as advertising ever gets.<\/p>\n Also known as split testing, A\/B testing<\/a> your ads is essential for improving your ad results and Facebook ads cost. A\/B testing can answer questions like:<\/p>\n Besides A\/B testing different ad creative, also test different targeting strategies, ad schedules, and types of campaigns.<\/p>\n New to Facebook ads? Don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s easy: use Advantage+ campaigns for (almost) set-it-and-forget-it simplicity. Advantage+ options allow Facebook\u2019s ad algorithm to automatically optimize targeting, budget usage, placements, and more to get you the best results for the lowest overall Facebook ads cost.<\/p>\n For most people, Facebook Advantage+ campaigns<\/a> will be your best performing option, even for experienced users. If you want to target a highly specific audience or just prefer more control, manual options are still available.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve run Facebook ads before or have a custom audience to import, Facebook can use previous audience data to find a lookalike audience. That means people who are similar to those you\u2019ve targeted in the past, based on similar demographics, interests, or other factors.<\/p>\n You can create a lookalike audience<\/a> from your Facebook Page followers, previous ad campaigns, Meta Pixel data, or upload your own in Meta Business Manager. The only requirement is having at least 100 people located in the same country, although an audience of 1,000-5,000 people is an ideal size to base a lookalike audience on.<\/p>\n You can also create a lookalike audience right from your Hootsuite dashboard<\/a>. Click on Tools<\/strong>, then Asset Manager<\/strong>. Then New Asset<\/strong> at the top right and choose Custom Audience<\/strong>. Boom.<\/p>\n Easily manage your Facebook ads, plus organic and paid content for all your other social media platforms, in one place with Hootsuite. Schedule content, engage with followers, and optimize performance with insightful analytics designed to help you grow. Try it free today.<\/strong><\/p>\nHow does the pricing of Facebook ads work?<\/span><\/h2>\n
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![\"Hootsuite](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/AdvAnalytics-ROI-620px-2x-1-620x465.png?resize=620%2C465&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nWhat determines the cost of Facebook ads?<\/span><\/h2>\n
Campaign objectives<\/h3>\n
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![\"Create](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-1-620x723.jpg?resize=620%2C723&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nTarget audience<\/h3>\n
![\"Audience](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-6-620x529.jpg?resize=620%2C529&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Advantage+](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-7-620x246.jpg?resize=620%2C246&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Advantage](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-8-620x815.jpg?resize=620%2C815&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nAd placement<\/h3>\n
![\"advantage](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-9-620x785.jpg?resize=620%2C785&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nSeasonality<\/h3>\n
Time of day<\/h3>\n
![\"ad](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-10-620x599.jpg?resize=620%2C599&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Hootsuite](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Analytics-Best-time-to-publish-620x357.png?resize=620%2C357&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nAd quality<\/h3>\n
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![\"Facebook](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-11-620x408.jpg?resize=620%2C408&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n
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Budget<\/h3>\n
![\"advantage](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-12-620x436.jpg?resize=620%2C436&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nBidding strategy<\/h3>\n
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![\"Campaign](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-13-620x264.jpg?resize=620%2C264&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Estimated](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-14-620x581.jpg?resize=620%2C581&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nCompetition<\/h3>\n
How much do Facebook ads cost in 2024?<\/span><\/h2>\n
Average Facebook CPC<\/h3>\n
![\"graph](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-17-at-5.44.54-PM-620x558.png?resize=620%2C558&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Average](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-15-620x262.jpg?resize=620%2C262&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nAverage Facebook CPM<\/h3>\n
![\"Facebook](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Facebook_advertising_CPM_by_industry_2023___Statista-620x488.jpg?resize=620%2C488&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"graph](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-16-620x281.jpg?resize=620%2C281&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nAverage Facebook CTR<\/h3>\n
![\"Facebook](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Facebook_advertising_CTR_by_industry_2023___Statista-620x517.jpg?resize=620%2C517&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nAverage Monthly Facebook Ads Spend<\/h3>\n
![\"Databox](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/facebook-ads-cost-5-620x322.jpg?resize=620%2C322&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nHow to lower your Facebook ad spend<\/span><\/h2>\n
Boost a Facebook post<\/h3>\n
![\"Boost](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Boost-Automatic-Boosting-Settings-620x522.png?resize=620%2C522&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nA\/B test ads<\/h3>\n
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Use Advantage+ options<\/h3>\n
Use lookalike audiences<\/h3>\n
![\"new](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.hootsuite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-17-at-5.50.30-PM-620x497.png?resize=620%2C497&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n