Facebook Advertising Cost is Rising. Hey! -What about your results?
Facebook advertising has come a long way. You can run ads on Facebook, Instagram ads, and Audience Network on any budget. Facebook charges that anytime a user scrolls through your content it’s counted as an impression. Over the years social media has gone through many changes trying to manage demand and its quest to improve performance for both advertisers and users. There is no doubt that Facebook advertising cost is increasing year over year. You need to decide what results you want and how much you are willing to pay for them. Let us look into why and what you can do about it.
Facebook Ads Cost Types
| Cost Structure | Advertisers Are Charged… | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per Click (CPC) | For every click an ad receives | Advertisers push users to a landing page |
| Cost per Mille (CPM) | Every time an ad receives 1,000 impressions | Advertisers looking to increase brand awareness |
| Cost per View (CPV) | For every view a video ad receives | Advertisers with powerful messages looking to capture users’ attention with a video |
Reasons for the Facebook Advertising cost increase
- More Advertisers - Social Media is rising and there are more advertisers on the platform than before
- Bad Ads – ( High text in images – leads to less delivery and higher cost per impression
- Wrong objectives – Example – if you want lead generation, don’t opt for engagement ad objectives
- Another wrong objective – Example – if you want to send traffic to your website or app don’t select brand awareness
- Wrong Audience Targeting - If you are selling something of high value, exclude some audience size between 500,000 - 1000,000
- Ad types – Trying only let’s say single image ads all times won’t work, mix with carousals and videos too to measure results
- Wrong Bidding Methods – Daily or lifetime bid? Don’t waste your ad spend at night when you are not likely to get results.
- Cost increases at certain hours of the day and day of the week, like festivals and special holidays it increases.
- Poor Quality ads lead to negative comments or reports which increases your cost. Low Ad relevance = High cost
- Ad Frequency – If your ad is shown more than 3 – 4 times it’s high and the cost of ads increases and results decline
- Ad Placements – We have seen that the newsfeed ads in Facebook and Instagram impressions are expensive but they work too.
- Some industries are high cost and competitive – for example real estate
- If you make too many changes it will reset the learning and can lead to higher costs
- Facebook advertising costs can fluctuate a lot, this depends on many unknown factors too.
There are more than 300 audience attributes you can select and combine. Perfecting your perfect audience seems like a distant dream.
Average Facebook CPC & Other Benchmarks by Industry in 2019
| Industry | Avg. CPC | Avg. Click-through Rate | Avg. Conversion Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apparel | $0.45 | 1.24% | 4.11% |
| Automotive | $2.24 | 0.80% | 5.11% |
| B2B | $2.52 | 0.78% | 10.63% |
| Beauty | $1.81 | 1.16% | 7.1% |
| Consumer Services | $3.08 | 0.62% | 9.96% |
| Education | $1.06 | 0.73% | 13.58% |
| Employment & Job Training | $2.72 | 0.47% | 11.73% |
| Finance & Insurance | $3.77 | 0.56% | 9.09% |
| FItness | $1.90 | 1.01% | 14.29% |
| Home Improvement | $2.93 | 0.70% | 6.56% |
| Healthcare | $1.32 | 0.83% | 11% |
| Industrial Services | $2.14 | 0.71% | 0.71% |
| Legal | $1.32 | 1.61% | 5.6% |
| Real Estate | $1.81 | 0.99% | 10.68% |
| Retail | $0.7 | 1.59% | 3.26% |
| Technology | $1.27 | 1.04% | 2.31% |
| Travel & Hospitality | $0.63 | 0.90% | 2.82% |
(Source: WordStream)
Facebook & Instagram Advertising Placement Options
FeedsFacebook News Feed
Instagram Feed
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Video Feeds
Facebook Right Column
Instagram Explore
Messenger Inbox
StoriesFacebook Stories
Instagram Stories
Messenger Stories
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Facebook In-Stream Videos
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Get visibility for your business as people search on Facebook
Facebook Search Results
MessagesSend offers or updates to people who are already connected to your business
Messenger Sponsored Messages
In-ArticleEngage with people reading content from publishers
Facebook Instant Articles
Apps and SitesExpand your reach with ads in external apps and websites
Audience Network Native, Banner, and Interstitial
Audience Network Rewarded Videos
Audience Network In-Stream Videos
Most companies we work with have very high expectations from Facebook ads. Problem is that the audience data on Facebook is not nurtured well and we expect quick results. With over 8 million users on Facebook in UAE alone, your ads can be shown to anyone and you pay for those impressions and clicks. This is a dangerous game, and often bad quality leads are generated. Wrong ad targeting is the main reason for this. Also, a wrong creative or wrong offer with incomplete information is promoted. Often people click in misunderstanding and this results in low-quality leads. Another blog on this another day. Most traffic from social media is mobile-only and a poor mobile landing page experience leads to a loose situation. No implementation of Facebook pixel means valuable data is lost. It is important to have the basics done right. Have great creative ad copy and the image/video which is of value to the users. Right audience targeting will not only get better quality results but save the cost too.
Do you want to decrease your Facebook & Instagram Ads costs? – Contact us so we can share with you PDF guided tips to help reduce your marketing costs and improve results. Running Social Media Ads can be tricky with so many changes happening every week. It can be hard to keep up.
As a Digital marketing agency in UAE. We run global ads for companies in Lead Generation via Google Ads, SEO, and social media marketing. We invest in learning to improve your marketing campaign. Patience and the right approach is the key to decreasing your Facebook advertising cost.
Also, read our new article – why your Instagram ads are not working and the 3 tups