How much does it cost to advertise on Facebook?

A quick overview of the average cost per click on Facebook and the various factors that affect the cost of advertising on Facebook.

The first thing you probably want to know before you advertise on Facebook is how much it’s all going to cost you. It’s a fair question, but a tricky one to answer. In theory, you can advertise on Facebook with any budget but you’re not going to get particularly great results by spending a few quid every day.

To put things into perspective, let’s look at how much each click is going to cost you.

How much do clicks cost on Facebook ads?

According to analysis carried out by WordStream, the average cost per click (CPC) on Facebook ads is $1.72 in 2022, which works out at £1.27 per click at the time of writing.

The average CPC varies across different industries, ranging from $0.45 (£0.33) for apparel brands to $3.77 (£2.78) for finance companies. Keep in mind these figures are calculated from limited US data and WordStream – so don’t take these numbers too seriously.

Your actual CPCs are determined by a range of factors, including the quality of your ads and your campaign settings.

Here at Vertical Leap, we find the average CPC for B2C companies running conversion campaigns in Facebook ads costs between £0.83 and £1.40. For B2B companies running conversion campaigns, average CPCs are significantly higher at around £5 – although, the conversion value and ROI from B2B clicks are generally much higher than B2C clicks.

This brings us to the problem of looking at CPCs to judge the cost of advertising platforms like Facebook ads. Cost per click doesn’t tell you anything about the return you get on your ad spend (ROAS) and, in theory, higher CPCs should generally produce higher returns – provided you manage campaigns correctly.

For example, CPCs are highest for finance companies on Facebook ads because these are some of the most competitive clicks to fight out for – and the reason for this is they’re some of the most profitable.

How much should I spend on Facebook ads every month?

Ad spend is the only single metric that tells you how much your Facebook advertising campaigns cost you. Meta (aka Facebook) says you can run advertising campaigns on any budget but this doesn’t tell the whole story.

“You can run ads on Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network on any budget. Some people spend more on coffee each day than they do on their advertising campaigns.” – Meta for Business

Yes, you could generate a small amount of traffic by spending the equivalent of a hazelnut macchiato every day but you’re not going to build any traction this way.

You’d be lucky to convert one of these visitors into a paying customer within a few months and the slow trickle of campaign data makes it impossible to optimise for better performance.

Some of our customers spend as little as £300 per month on Facebook ads and we recommend a minimum of £10+ per day to build any traction on the network. At the other end of the spectrum, we have customers spending more than £100,000 every month on Facebook ads and generating millions in revenue from the social network.

What else affects the price you pay for Facebook advertising?

Cost per click (CPC) isn’t the only factor that impacts how much you spend on Facebook ads. With visual platforms like Facebook, you can often choose to pay for ads per thousand impressions (CPM), which can make better use of your budget for campaigns designed to build awareness rather than generate traffic.

CPM for our B2C clients typically range between £5-£8 and B2B pay more per thousand views with CPMs ranging between £15-£25.

Whichever pricing model you use in Facebook advertising, CPM is a useful metric for understanding how much you’re paying to get your message in front of eyes.

Cost per action (CPA) is another important cost metric to track in Facebook advertising. Instead of dividing your ad spend by clicks, CPA divides it by the number of visitors who convert into viable business opportunities after they click through to your website – ie: how much you’re paying for each lead from Facebook ads.

Average CPAs for our B2C clients are £0.83-£1.40 while the average CPLs (a similar metric called cost per lead) for our B2B customers range between £80-£100.

If your average CPCs and other cost metrics are higher than the numbers we’ve looked at in this article, there are many factors that could be pushing up your Facebook ads expense.

Facebook wants advertisers to get results and keep spending money so it rewards quality campaigns with lower CPCs. Campaign settings also have a big impact on ad spend and here’s a quick look at some of the factors that influence how much you spend on Facebook ads:

• Click-through rates: The more people click your ads, the lower your CPCs will become.
• Engagement: Likes, video views and other engagement metrics.
• Ad Relevance Score: Just like Google’s Quality Score, the higher your Facebook Ad Relevance Score, the less you’ll pay for clicks.
• Facebook ad objectives: The objective you choose when creating a campaign also affects CPCs.
• Target audience: Certain audiences are more expensive to target than others.
• Timing: CPCs vary by the hour, day, month and year.
• Ad placements: More competitive ad placements tend to cost more.
• Your bidding strategy: This is one of the biggest influences on ad spend.

The better your Facebook advertising campaigns perform, the cheaper they’ll generally become. Highly clickable, relevant ads are the most important factor in driving down the cost of Facebook advertising. But don’t get too caught up in how much you’re spending when you start to advertise on Facebook; how much profit you’re making from it is far more important.

Need further help?

Find out more about our Facebook advertising services or if you’d like to speak to one of our PPC specialists, contact us on 02392 830281 or submit your details here.