Facebook Ads Cost: How to Make the Most of Your Budget
Last update: 3 August 2023 at 05:36 pm
3.00/5Did you know that there are 7 million active advertisers on Facebook?
This stat not only showcases the popularity of Facebook ads but also implies their effectiveness in boosting an online business. Otherwise, why would marketers spend their energy, time, and money on creating them?
As a business owner, if you are looking for ways to expand your business’s digital reach, then perhaps now is the time for you to invest in Facebook ads.
But before that, dive into this blog to determine Facebook advertising costs and ways to make the most out of your Facebook marketing budget!
How much do Facebook ads cost?
Experts suggest that advertisers can pay $0.971 per click or $13.27 per 1,000 impressions on Facebook ads. The bills generated for Facebook ads are based on two known metrics – CPM (Cost per thousand), also known as cost per impression, and CPC (Cost per click).
The average CPM for Facebook ads
With Facebook having 2.8 billion active monthly users, there is no surprise that a good deal of e-commerces are using this platform to build their brand awareness.
If your business goal is to expand the reach and awareness, then get ready to pay $13.72 to reach 1000 people (EUR 14.13 for 1000 people) using the Facebook application.
The average CPC for Facebook ads
Compared to other popular applications like Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, the average cost per click on Facebook is $0.971 (EUR 1.00), which is quite cheap.
When it comes to winning the Facebook ad auction, competition and seasonality play a crucial role. If possible, stick to the first half of the year to roll out Facebook ads if Facebook advertising cost is your biggest concern.
The average cost per lead or CPL
Even though there are only two metrics that help in determining how the advertisers pay for their ads, CPL or cost per lead comes into play to determine the cost of your Facebook ad campaigns.
Research suggests that the average CPL for a Facebook ad is $8.29 (EUR 8.54) But, targeting the audience properly can cut this cost significantly.
What factors impact Facebook advertising costs?
There are many factors that dictate how much you will end up paying for your Facebook ads, including –
Audience
Did you know your audience can impact your Facebook advertising cost in a few ways? Depending upon their features, they can either increase or decrease the ads’ cost. Hence, it is important to create a list of the specific audience instead of targeting a broad group at once.
Ad budget
Even though your ad budget offers you flexibility in your strategy, you can still accomplish your advertising goals with limited monthly ad spending, too. This means your ad budget can have an impact on your Facebook advertising cost.
Ad objective
The objective of your Facebook ad can be anything from creating awareness to consideration and conversion. And they have an impact on your ad cost, too. For instance, a conversion-related objective can cost you more than an awareness-related campaign.
Ad bid
Even the ad bid can boost your Facebook ad cost significantly. By choosing the automatic bidding strategy (read the auction system to determine how bidding works) and maintaining a high ad score, you can lower your ad bid cost.
Ad placement
The placement of your ad throughout the Facebook properties, including the Facebook, audience property, and Instagram, can impact the advertising Facebook ad costs. You can automate the ad placement or choose where you wish your ads to appear.
Ad quality
The relevance score of your ad can have a huge impact on Facebook advertising costs, too. It is imperative to design ads that engage and deliver user expectations. By doing so, you can lower your ad cost, too.
Ad season
If you are interested in launching a Facebook ad campaign during popular shopping seasons like Christmas, Halloween, etc., you can expect to pay higher due to increased competition in the ad auction.
Industry niche
Your industry niche can also shape your Facebook advertising cost. Markets like insurance, finance, and consumer services tend to have the highest advertising cost. If you belong to one of the competitive sectors, consider creating top-notch ads to decrease the cost.
How does the Facebook auction system work?
When you decide to run your ads through Facebook, you will require defining your target audience initially.
To serve your ads to the targeted audience, you will need to compete in this auction against other advertisers who may also be targeting an audience similar to yours. This directly impacts the competition you might face in the market.
Fast forwarding to ad auctions success. Remember, the size of your budget isn’t the only thing when it comes to winning the auction. Even the quality of your ad is taken into consideration. Your ad needs to be engaging and interesting for the audience, too.
Here are three factors that contribute to the success of your Facebook ads –
- Bid – The amount you are willing to pay to obtain the expected outcome.
- Estimated action rates – A ballpark of how likely a user might engage with your brand or convert from the ad.
- Ad quality – The quality measure of your ad. This is determined through platform assessments and user feedback on the ad’s content.
In short, running genuinely engaging ads for your customers is key to success.
If you need some help running your Facebook ads, you can always work with a qualified Facebook advertising agency.
How does Facebook advertising work?
Facebook ads typically appear in Facebook newsfeeds and work by targeting the users on the basis of demographics, profile data, and location. Whenever a Facebook ad posted by you receives a click, purchase, or impression, you will be charged.
And how much you might pay depends upon factors like the bid and budget (we discussed previously) set before launching the Facebook ad.
Are Facebook advertising costs worth the investment?
It is common to question whether or not the investment in Facebook ads is at all worth it, given so much money is getting used.
Well, to be honest, well-designed Facebook ads are usually worth the money invested in them, irrespective of your business size and niche.
The scale
As mentioned earlier, Facebook has 2.8 billion active monthly users. This means, as an advertiser, you have a large audience to target and convert.
Not only does this means that your Facebook ads will have an exceptional reach, but you are likely to find significantly higher prospect within this colossal audience.
The size of the Facebook platform offers you the flexibility to scale up your campaign and boost your revenue over time.
Powerful targeting option
For cost-effective conversions, effective targeting is imperative. Thankfully, Facebook gives you a solid selection of targeting audiences.
Based on location, behaviors, and interest, you can create and utilize a standard demographic audience. With Facebook, you can also build more advanced audiences to obtain better results. For instance, you can create a more custom audience using Facebook pixel data (site visits, app activity, engagement, etc.)
Since your custom audience is built upon real user data, it can perform incredibly well.
Total control over Facebook ad spend
Facebook makes it possible for advertisers to have complete control over their Facebook advertising costs. Most Facebook campaigns are low-cost, making them accessible to the huge majority of brands.
As soon as the results become clear, you can experiment with your budget and scale up your investments. Such an opportunity is beneficial for advertisers who are interested in collecting data and information before increasing their Facebook advertising budget.
How to reduce your Facebook ads cost
No matter how effective Facebook ads are, advertisers, especially those with limited budgets, steer clear from playing around with their digital marketing budgets. However, stopping the ad campaigns completely won’t do anything good either.
In such situations, you can focus on making tweaks to your campaigns to bring down the cost without hampering the outcome.
Here are some tips on how you can do that –
Choose a relevant campaign objective
Selecting a campaign objective should be your priority. It is the overarching goal that you wish to achieve from your campaigns.
Being crystal clear about what your expectations are through this campaign can reduce the cost of the Facebook ads significantly, given there won’t be any guessing work involved.
Besides, Facebook algorithms will pair your objective with the users that fit the category, thereby increasing the chances of conversions and sales.
Narrow down your target audience
When calculating the bids, the Facebook algorithm considers the ad relevance score. The more relevant and smaller your audience is, the better your chances of winning the ad auction.
Start with a bit broader target audience initially to determine users who are most likely to take relevant action before narrowing it down. Starting the target audience too narrow will result in fewer conversions and higher costs.
Focus on running retargeting campaigns
Did you know Facebook Pixel collects data about your website’s visitors and pairs it with your Facebook profile? These data can be anything from which pages they visited, how long they stayed on the site and what items they added to their site. All of these data can be used for running retargeting campaigns.
When compared to creating a new campaign, remarketing adsare quite cheaper.
Remember, when retargeting campaigns, try uploading your customer list regularly and excluding them from your ad set. This way, your paying customers won’t stay lumped in your retargeting audience list.
Make the campaigns relevant
Once you are aware of your target audience, it is time to use the data you have collected to make relevant ad campaigns.
If possible, dig deeper while doing customer research to figure out information on –
- Pain points
- Tone of voice
- Favorite influencers
- Aspirations and goals
- Interests, etc.
Use these details to produce the ad. Every aspect of your ad – from creativity to message is determined based on customer data.
Reduce the ad frequency score
If your potential customer views your ads several times a day, then he/she will likely become frustrated over time. This may result in them not engaging with your brand at all. And this is one of the reasons why Facebook’s ad algorithms consider ad frequency in determining the score of your ad.
Facebook’s algorithms favors fresher, newer ads that aren’t popping up in front of the customers occasionally.
It is important that you pay close attention to reporting dash for frequency score. If you notice the ads creeping more than two to three times, refresh the campaign with new images, ad copy, or videos. The idea is to keep things interesting for your target audience.
A/B test placements and creatives
Facebook advertising is a combination of both science and art. And since there are so many variables at play, it can prove challenging to determine what the “perfect” ad – one that brings your digital store more ROI without costing a fortune – is. Thankfully, you get closer to determining one by performing A/B testing.
You can use Facebook’s built-in A/B testing to find the winning combinations.
With each campaign, ensure to experiment with the following elements and then monitor their impact on your costs –
- Placements – Even though the newsfeed is the first place of call for advertisers, it is crucial to test whether or not your ad gets more attention elsewhere.
- Ad creatives – Do carousels, videos, images, etc., help in doing a better job of audience engagement? How about short-form Vs long-form content? Do you need user-generated or influencer-created visuals?
Wrapping Up
No matter what size your business is or which industry niche you belong to, Facebook is a valuable marketing tool that you should never overlook. Not only will Facebook help you find customers from different income levels and interests but from varying locations, too.
So, wait no more and find your company a relevant Facebook ad expert to start experimenting with different campaigns and creatives. With the ideal Facebook agency at your disposal, you can obtain low-cost, winning advertising formulas custom-made for your audience and business, thereby helping you yield profitable outcomes in no time!
