How much does it cost to advertise on facebook?
Facebook is still the number one destination for social media users and advertisers. Despite other platforms like Instagram and TikTok seeing significant growth, nearly 2 billion users still log into Facebook monthly. And this gives businesses access to a huge, diverse audience that they can target with their ads.
Moreover, the targeting capabilities on Facebook are highly sophisticated. Businesses can use data like user demographics, location, interests, browsing behavior, and past purchases to ensure that their ads are reaching the right audience.
But all of this comes at a cost. Recent estimates show businesses can expect to spend anywhere from $1 to $2 per click for basic Facebook ad campaigns. And if you want your ads to reach more people or be featured more prominently in users’ News Feeds, you may need to spend even more.
In this article, we’re exploring how much it costs to advertise on Facebook.
How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on Facebook?
There are two ways to frame the question: the first is, “how much do I need to spend for ads on Facebook?”, and the second question is, “how much does every click, impression, and download cost on Facebook?”
These two questions have very different answers, and they depend enormously on a number of different variables, including your business’ current ad budget, the relevance and quality of your target ad and product, the market you are targeting, and the year in which you are requesting this information.
In a nutshell, Facebook ads cost whatever budget you set for them. But a thousand dollars spent in 2013 targeting consumers in the US will net you a very different result from a thousand dollars spent in France or Germany in 2021.
Analytic tools for ad costs and Facebook ad ROI aren’t always up-to-date, and they are always based on averages from a large pool of mid-range ad campaigns, meaning the numbers for any given year are meant to give you an indication of what you might expect, rather than hard, actual costs. Furthermore, your costs will depend entirely on Facebook’s ad auction – more on that later. That being said, delving into the numbers for 2022, posting ads on Facebook in the US will cost you an average about:
- $0.97 per click.
- $7.19 per thousand impressions.
- $1.07 per like.
- $5.47 per app download.
What does this really tell you? To be completely blunt, not much. Your best bet to figuring out your return on investment and the general cost is to test your campaign on Facebook and revise your ads based on existing examples, case studies, and competitor attempts.
You need to understand what your competitors are doing in order to rise above them.
- Eric Sachs, CEO
It requires a lot of time and attention, which is why many business owners hire a professional digital marketing agency specializing in social media development.
Related: How to Use Social Media for Business Marketing
What Facebook Asks
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, boasts that “some people spend more on coffee daily than on their advertising campaigns.” One of Facebook’s major selling points as an advertising network is that you can set any budget you’d like. There are no minimum buys and no real hard limit.
However, the effectiveness of your ad campaign – and the value of every dollar you send to Meta – will depend entirely on how your ad will be filtered and disseminated through Facebook’s large advertising network through their proprietary ad management tool, Ads Manager.
Every ad you make must be submitted through Ad Manager and passed onto the Facebook ad auction process.
What is the Facebook Ad Auction?
The Facebook ad auction is a bit like ad-based optimization for Facebook’s ad recommendation algorithm. Ever notice how services like Facebook and Instagram know just what to recommend to you?
Well, there are many cookies on the Internet. These cookies track your surfing habits to determine your interests and create an accurate consumer profile for advertisers interested in selling you their products. That profile helps determine what ads you see.
But aside from individualizing ads, selecting ads also depends on Facebook’s own criteria for what makes an ad suitable. The ad auction process is somewhat like matching ads to people – based on cookies and Meta’s own evolving algorithms. Because Facebook relies on this type of advertising as its monetary bread-and-butter, it is a highly evolved and effective feature.
All in all, here’s what Facebook does during the ad auction process:
- Facebook will grade each and every entering ad’s potential action rates and quality based on individual factors such as the ad copy, images are chosen, and video quality.
- Facebook will use that relative quality to gauge an ad’s relevance to a certain type of consumer or Meta product user.
- Facebook determines which ads from a pool of similar ads have the “highest total value” and delivers it to the user.
The more relevant and qualitative your ad is, the more Facebook will send it to people and the more success you will see from your Facebook advertising dollars. But the inverse is also true. Less quality, less relevance, less value, less return on investment.
What Should Your Facebook Ad Look Like?
There are three key factors that inform the value of an ad, and thus, it’s likely to be shown to users through the Facebook ad network. These are an ad’s estimated action rate, quality, and relevance.
- The estimated action rate is an algorithm’s judgment of an ad’s potential to convert. If your ad specifically aims for app downloads, then it’s the number of ad downloads per thousand impressions, for example. If it’s a click-through to your landing page, then that’s an entirely different metric. An ad’s copy must reflect the action you intend the ad to fulfill and the action you’ve reported to Facebook.
- Ad quality may be subjective to any given user, but there are still a few things Facebook looks for, including property formatted images and clean text, no typos in your ad copy, and so on.
- Ad relevance is crucial. Any good online advertising service will aim to minimize sending ads to people who won’t even give them a second glance. The point of modern targeted ad networks is to ensure the people who see an ad are interested..
As such, these are the three key points you will want to emphasize and work on in your ad copy and campaign design.
Is Advertising on Facebook Worth It?
That depends entirely on how much your market regularly uses Meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Given the enormous userbases of both, it’s a good chance that a chunk of your current and future potential customers and clients are on these platforms.
But they might also be on Twitter or visiting YouTube more often. Your advertising budget for Facebook should start small – find ways to optimize your ads for Facebook audiences, and then find your sweet spot in the budget.
Once you’ve figured out what works, it may be time to up the bid. One of the most significant factors for winning the ad auction is to pay more. It’s not a guaranteed win – Facebook still chooses ads based largely on what users would be interested in, given their profiles – but a higher bid does lead to more views.
Conclusion
Advertising on Facebook can be a great way to reach out to potential customers, but it’s important to ensure your ad is high quality and relevant. To ensure success with Facebook advertising, focus on creating an ad with a high estimated action rate that shines with good quality and relevance.
With these key factors in mind, you can maximize your ROI and see great results from your Facebook ads.
So, are you ready to advertise on Facebook?
It’s important to remember that to see success with Facebook advertising, your ad needs to be high quality, relevant, and have a high estimated action rate. Focusing on these three key factors will help you create an effective ad that will reach your target audience.
If you need help with your Facebook advertising, it may be time to hire a professional for help. A professional will have the experience and expertise necessary to ensure your Facebook advertising budget works for your business.
