How much does Facebook advertising cost? The answer is varied but in short, it depends on your budget. You tell Facebook how much you want to spend and Facebook will show your ad to as many people as it can for your budget.

We know the stats…

• Facebook is the third most-visited site in the world
• Facebook has over 2 billion users
• It’s the fifth most downloaded free app in the App Store
• Over 70% of adults use Facebook
• Over 50% of teens use Facebook
• Seniors are the fastest-growing Facebook user group
• And, more!

So, what does this mean?

Facebook ads are powerful marketing. If you aren’t using them to fuel your business, you totally should be.

Now, to dig deeper into this question, how much does advertising on Facebook cost, let’s look at the following:

• How much does Facebook advertising cost per click
• Important considerations when looking at Facebook ad costs
• Facebook ad cost calculator
• The best way to use Facebook ads
• How to get the most out of your Facebook advertising budget

Let’s go.

How much does Facebook advertising cost per click (CPC)?

The cost per click is just that: how much it costs per click when a prospect clicks the ad.

According to this source, the average cost per click in 2019 was $0.55. Cost per click is an important consideration when looking at your advertising cost. It can determine the success of your ad campaign.

For example, A $50/day ad budget with a $5 cost per click means you’ll get 10 clicks per day, whereas the same budget of $50/day with a $1 cost per click, means you’ll get 50 clicks per day.

You can see that the more successful campaign is the one which is producing more clicks daily. And this is a prime example why CPC plays a major role in determining your ad budget and uncovering how much Facebook advertising costs.

Identifying the Average Cost of Facebook Ads

Next, we look at the average cost of Facebook ads. You want to look at the cost per click and the cost per 1000 impressions.

You want to also look at the average campaign cost over the period and take an average from that.

Looking at these key indicators can tell you how much you’re spending on Facebook ads, on average.

What’s the best budget to start with if you’re a beginner?

Most people new to Facebook ads start with a budget of $5 to $10 per day, though you can start below or above this.

Daily spend is important. It allows you to see your performance day over day, which will help you make the decision to continue or discontinue ad sets, optimizing and scaling the campaign, etc.

6 Important Things to Consider with Facebook Ads Cost

These things determine how much your Facebook ads cost:

• Ad Quality and Ad Relevance
• Your bid
• Audience Targeting
• Time of Year
• Placement
• Ad Delivery

1. Ad Quality

Your ad quality is all about how likely a person is to click on your ad. If you have a quality ad, your chances of that happening is higher. Quality ads perform better in the auction.

Facebook measures ad quality and it’s determined by several factors:

• Feedback from ad viewers
• Assessment of low-quality attributes and practices

Why Ad Quality is Important?

Ad quality and ad performance go hand in hand. If your ad is high quality, it will perform better, which means it will be seen by more people and subsequently, will cost you less than a low-quality ad.

If your ad account has a history of showing low-quality ads, Facebook can actually consider ALL ads from your page, domain, or account as low quality. This is the worst possible outcome.

To avoid this, ensure your ad is complying with Facebook’s Advertising Policies.

How to Improve Your Facebook Ads Quality

You can improve the quality of your ads with these tips:

• Make sure your landing page and the ad is relevant and useful to your target audience
• Avoid low-quality post-click experiences

For example, if you’re targeting dog lovers, it wouldn’t be appropriate to promote an email marketing software service. You see that the two do not align. It doesn’t make sense.

There should be a tie between your product and the audience you’re targeting. If there isn’t, you’ll get penalized in the form of a higher cost ad campaign, your ad being pinged as low quality and the chance for future ads to be labeled low quality as well.

2. Your Bid

Facebook ads are run on an auction. It’s like you’re participating in an auction, competing against other advertisers. You and the competition are both gunning for the same ad space and your bid determines how interested you are in showing your ad.

The higher the bid, the more likely your ad will be shown.

There are two bid options:

• Manual: Choosing manual means you are telling Facebook the max amount you are willing to spend per bid.
• Automatic: Choosing automatic means you will let Facebook decide the bid amount for you to get the most engagement at the best price.

Bidding is like a mix of art and science. You don’t want your bid too high because you can blow your budget but you also don’t want your bid too low because your campaign won’t get the exposure you’re looking for.

To learn more about bidding and what to consider so you get the best possible outcome, check out these tips.

3. Audience Targeting

We covered this topic at length in this article, where we discussed the different audience targeting options, what to consider and much more. Check it out if you get a chance, there’s lots of helpful info you’ll love reading.

Targeting is all about who you are reaching and how many people you can reach.

You can target your audience by:

• Behavior
• Age
• Gender
• Location
• And, more!

If you’re not sure where to start, don’t be afraid to experiment here. You can run a simple A/B test and compare the results.

A great test to conduct would be comparing a broad audience to a specific audience. And, for more on audience targeting, don’t forget to check out our post linked above.

4. Time of Year

The time of year makes a big difference in how much ads cost. Even economic changes can impact ads cost, like the COVID-19 pandemic which dropped ad costs considerably for a good part of the year.

It makes sense that during a time of the year when many businesses are advertising, that ad costs would rise, like around the holidays.

These peak times are when advertisers are running to Facebook.

Some of those times include:

• Thanksgiving
• Black Friday
• Cyber Monday
• Christmas
• New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day

If you plan to run ads around this time, prepare in advance and know that your advertising costs will be higher.

5. Placement

Ad placement is where your ads appear.

The places they appear include in Feeds, Stories, In-Stream, Search, Messages, In-Article, and Apps.

Feeds

• Facebook news feed: Your ads appear on the Facebook desktop news feed when people visit Facebook on their computers.
• Facebook desktop right column: Your ads appear on the right column of Facebook.
• Facebook marketplace: Your ads appear on the Facebook Marketplace home page or when someone browses Marketplace in the Facebook app.
• Facebook video feed: Your video ads appear between videos in video-only environments on Facebook Watch and Facebook News Feed.
• Facebook mobile news feed: Your ads appear in the mobile news feed when people use the Facebook app on their mobile device or view Facebook on a mobile browser.
• Instagram feed: Your ads appear in the Instagram mobile feed when people use the Instagram app on mobile devices.
• Instagram explore: Your ads appear when someone clicks on a photo or video in browse.
• Messenger: Your ads appear on the Messenger home tab.

Stories

• Facebook Stories: Your ads appear on Facebook stories.
• Instagram Stories: Your ads appear on people’s Instagram stories.
• Messenger Stories: Your ads appear on Messenger stories.

In-Stream

• Facebook In-Stream Videos: Your ads show up on Video on Demand. They also appear in a select number of approved partner live streams on Facebook.

Search

• Facebook Search Results: Your ads appear in the search results of relevant Facebook and Marketplace searches.

Messages

• Messenger Sponsored Messages: Your ads appear as messages and they are shown to people who have existing conversations with you in Messenger.

In-Article

• Facebook Instant Articles: Your ads appear in Instant Articles (mobile app).

Apps

• Audience Network (Native, Banner and Interstitial): Your ads appear on Audience Network apps.
• Audience Network (Rewarded Videos): Your ads appear as videos people can watch in exchange for a reward in an app.

6. Ad Delivery

What is your ad optimized for? This is ad delivery.

Ad delivery determines:

• Who Facebook shows your ads to
• When your ads are shown
• Where your ads are shown

How to Optimize Your Ad Delivery Campaign

You can find Optimization for Ad Delivery when you click Show Advanced Options while setting up your Facebook ads. This lets you choose how you optimize your ad. You can optimize for clicks, for example.

Here are the three ways you can optimize your ad delivery:

• Optimize for link clicks: showing your ads to people who are likely to click them.
• Optimize for impressions: showing your ads as often as possible.
• Optimize for audience reach: ad delivery in a way that gets your ads to reach as wide of an audience as possible

Next, let’s look at the Facebook Ad Cost Calculator.

Facebook Ad Cost Calculator

Wouldn’t it be convenient if Facebook offered a Facebook ad cost calculator? While we couldn’t find one from Facebook, there are ad cost calculators offered by other companies that seem to do the trick.

But, the truth is, you really don’t need one.

Facebook does an excellent job of showing you estimated costs for your ad campaign as you’re doing the setup of your ad campaign. You have full control over the process and can customize every part of your campaign including bidding cost, daily spend, and more.

Accessing a third-party ad calculator is an extra unneeded step that can make the entire process a little more complicated.

So, if you’re searching the net for a Facebook ad cost calculator, don’t.

Stick to Facebook’s tools to get the information you need straight from the source.

The Best Way to Use Facebook Ads

The best way to use Facebook ads considering your Facebook ad cost includes:

• Creating high-quality ads
• Adhering to Facebook’s advertising policies
• Use Facebook ad targeting
• Measuring your results
• Experimenting with A/B testing (optional)

Keep your ads short and deliver immense value. Study your competitors, stay focused and always include a call-to-action.

This is a process and it can take time.

The best Facebook advertisers have been perfecting their craft consistently on an ongoing basis.

Final Thoughts on How to Much Does Facebook Advertising Cost

Facebooks cost what you want them to cost, since you set the budget. However, you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck if you focus on sending high-quality ads to a well-targeted audience.

You do that by A/B testing your ads and audience until you find something that works.