Is Your Average CPC on Facebook Too High? You’re Not Alone

As a Facebook advertiser, you will notice your CPC varies across your ad campaigns.

Why? And how does Meta calculate this? 

In this article, I’ll explain what CPC means, how to tell if yours is too high, and what to do about it. I also cover industry benchmarks and compare them against other platforms, as not all average CPCs are the same.

Let’s dive in.

What is CPC on Facebook?

Firstly, Facebook CPC is an advertising term that means cost per click on your ads. It refers to the price you pay to Meta for each click you get on your ad. 

When you place an ad on Facebook, you compete with other advertisers for impressions (CPM) and clicks. Meta determines the outcome based on your bid and your ad’s performance, and it matches your ad to a user most likely to take your specified action. 

Therein lies the power of Meta’s algorithm, as this handshake happens instantaneously. Plus, you will only pay for the impressions and clicks you actually get. This system is called the ad auction. 

Facebook defines a click as a “link click” related to an ad objective. This could include a click to visit another website, call-to-action clicks like “Shop now,” clicks to install an app, or clicks to view a video on another website. A click denotes an action taken.

To calculate the cost per click, divide the total cost of your campaign by the number of link clicks. 

Facebook CPC vs. CPM

You usually pay for impressions as the default bidding method on Facebook (CPM or cost per mille, meaning 1000 impressions.) Your Facebook CPM is the base cost for calculating all other ad costs.

What is the difference between CPC and CPM? An impression is a count of every time an ad appears on the screen, whether the user interacts with it or not. An impression is not unique, meaning that impressions are counted each time your ad pops up in the user’s feed.

A click is more intentional by nature. The user's action indicates interest in your ad, and they’re one step closer to your finish line. Think of a click as the action that causes Facebook users to enter your sales funnel, making it an important marketing metric.

Even though they’re different, clicks and impressions work together to give you vital information about your audience’s behavior.

What is a good average CPC on Facebook?

It’s important to know that the average cost per click on Facebook is a fluid number that varies wildly across industries, regions, time of year, and more. We need to consider different factors to reach the answer.

Because of this ever-changing state, we look to various sources that gather and analyze this data to provide us with Facebook ad benchmarks from which to work. 

Each has a different figure because of how they gather this sample data. Why am I telling you this? Because you need to see that the figures differ significantly in their findings.

For example, Revealbot reports an average Facebook CPC of $0.59 in May 2024.

Meanwhile, Wordstream says the average CPC on Facebook is $1.72. Yet, in the graph below, which shows the average CPC across industries, this figure slides drastically up and down.

How does Facebook's Average CPC compare to other platforms?

Just as the average Facebook CPC fluctuates, the average CPC on other ad platforms varies, too. 

According to Business of Apps, the average TikTok CPC is $1. 

The average Instagram CPC is between $0.40 and $0.95, but in some competitive industries like apparel, you can pay up to $3.00 per click.

Then, the average Google Ads CPC was $4.22 in 2023, according to Wordstream. Read our article about Google Ads vs. Facebook ads to delve into more detail.

Every social media platform has benefits and drawbacks, so it’s essential to match your advertising platform to your target audience and the objective you want to achieve. 

It’s best to know the average Facebook CPC for your industry when choosing an advertising platform so you know what you’re in for.

Factors influencing your average CPC on Facebook

These are the prime suspects for a high average CPC on Facebook:

• Boring ads in both creative and ad copy (we’ve all seen them)
• Irrelevance to the target audience
• Unconvincing claims or offers
• Cluttered messaging with too many asks of the user
• Mismatched objective

With sources claiming differing average CPCs according to their data, it makes it somewhat nebulous. Let’s unpack the factors influencing your average cost per click on Facebook:

1. Your target audience - Who you target impacts your cost per click, namely, their demographics, their disposable income, and buyer personas.
2. Your bidding strategy - Whether you opt for budget-based, goal-based, or manual bidding, your choice affects your cost per click.
3. Industry competition - Are you in an industry with super high CPC averages, like finance or home improvement, where you can see a high CPC of $3.77, or travel and hospitality with lower averages below the dollar mark?
4. The time of year - Facebook ad costs fluctuate around seasonal holidays and other special days during the shopping season, like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and more.
5. Your location - Where you are in the world can factor into your average Facebook CPC.
6. The time of day - It stands to reason that Facebook users will make more purchases at certain times than others. Sprout Social analyzed 400,000 accounts and over 2 million engagements and found the best times to post are Monday through Thursday between 9 am and 2 pm. Instigo found that B2C businesses have a higher ROI between 10 am and 5 pm. These times can vary between industries and are unique to your specific audience. 

Caption: Sprout Social

7. Your ad formats - The format of your ad should match how you want the user to interact with it, and trying different ad formats caters to other types of people. More formats equals more clickability.
8. Your campaign objective - For example, the cost per click for brand awareness campaigns is far less than for sales campaigns. Getting someone to purchase your product is more valuable than simply seeing your ad.

How to reduce your average CPC on Facebook

1. Master your messaging

Your goal is to woo your audience enough to take action. Plan ads that entice, inspire, and delight them. Be playful, give them the feels, use humor, speak to them how you would to a friend or someone you know, and be authentic. 

Warm them up before you ask them to jump through the extra hoops required to buy from you. These are the things to incorporate into your messaging to make standout clickworthy ads.

2. Create sizzling creative

Improve your ad creative by using lots of photos and videos to show off what you’re selling. 86% of users say they want to see more videos from the brands they love. Try different ad formats to appeal to users in as many placements as possible, and create multiple variations to use dynamic creative.

Something as simple as changing the color of the CTA button can improve conversions by 35%. The more options you try, the better odds of a winning combination. 

Your ad creative gets people to notice, so don’t hold back.

Let’s look at why this ad’s creative is strong:

1. The hook copy uses humor to make it more memorable, and it speaks to the pain point of the audience; razor bumps.
2. The image clearly shows what they’re advertising
3. The product features and benefits are highlighted in the image which helps to sell the product.
4. For a single-image ad, this one gets the point across instantly

3. Use first-class ad copy

Don’t announce, ask a question. Use the words “You” and “Your” in your ad copy. Work on great hooks for your headlines, and in most cases, aim to sell the click, not the product. Use simple and concise language that helps the user take baby steps toward your end goal. 

Inspire action versus being descriptive in your ad copy. Try different versions of your copy to see which one performs better. And for crying out loud, use Grammarly - it’s free. Platforms can charge up to 72% more if your ad has spelling or grammatical errors, and typos turn off users so they won’t engage with your ad.

Let’s look at another ad but focus on the text. Why is this a good example of ad copy?

1. The ad copy tells you what it does in the first sentence. 
2. The ad copy includes statistics to support its claim and clarifies the features and benefits for the user.
3. While the creative is meant to be subpar on purpose, it supports the narrative of the copy that governs this ad. The text in the image adds humor and implies the discount is only available while the boss isn’t looking. This lets users in on a secret and brings the element of scarcity to the ad because it implies the special disappears when the boss returns. This angle may encourage more users to take advantage of the discount.
4. The headline sells the click and not the product but clearly shows the benefit at the same time by including the discount.
5. The CTA button is aligned with all of the copy in the ad.

4. Refine ad relevance

Improving your ad relevance means optimizing your targeting by focusing on specific audience segments and creating personalized ads that speak to that segment. Personalizing your ad CTAs specifically can convert 202% better. 

For example, single professionals between the ages of 25 and 34 will have very different messaging than stay-at-home moms between the ages of 35 and 44. 

You should also ensure your ad matches the campaign objective and that the flow from seeing your ad for the first time through clicking on it to conversion is seamless.

5. Address your audience’s pain points

Empathizing with and understanding your audience’s pain points in your ad goes a long way to improving its clickability. When approaching ad creation, focus on the problems you solve for your audience so they resonate with your ad. 

An excellent storytelling formula describes the problem your audience is facing, and clicking on your ad will lead them to a solution.

The ad below does just that. Problem = Need a sports drink that isn’t filled with sugar and other crap. Solution = Drink LMNT.

6. A/B test your ads

The best way to optimize your ads is to split-test them to discover what works and what doesn’t for your audience. There are a few ways to do A/B testing on your ads. You can set up an A/B test campaign in Meta, or you can do it yourself by creating ad sets for different versions of your creative and audiences. 

You can also use Meta’s Advantage+ features to use their AI to enhance your campaign and deliver your desired results. The downside is that you have less control over your campaigns and don’t always learn along the way. Read our creative testing guide to learn more.

How to monitor your Facebook CPC

You can monitor your Facebook CPC in the Meta Ads Manager, which can be a learning curve, but you can set it up so your CPC shows there. 

Head to your Meta Ads Manager and click the column button with three vertical lines to open a menu. Then click on “Customize columns” to adjust them.

Type CPC into the text field, and select either CPC (All) to measure all link clicks, including comments, shares, and likes, or CPC (link clicks) only to measure clicks relating to your ad objective. You can change the order of the columns by moving them up and down the grey column on the far right of the popup. Click “Apply” when you’re ready.

Or you could use a simpler report designed by advertisers for advertisers… One-Click Report. 

One-Click Report is a live dashboard where your data is silly putty in your hands. It’s so customizable you can mold it exactly how you want your data displayed. 

It comes with many prebuilt templates you can use as is or modify to suit you. Connect your ad accounts (Meta, TikTok, Shopify, Google Analytics 4, and Google Ads), set which metrics you want, and you have a live dashboard of everything in one place. It’s a reporting game-changer. Try One-Click Report for yourself.

Conclusion

If your average CPC on Facebook is too high, rest assured there's a ton you can do about it. In this instance, data is key, and the more you know about your industry benchmarks and target audience, the better. 

Finally, keeping tabs on your CPC and other important Facebook metrics is crucial to your success. It empowers you with the data to make choices that lead to better results. Use Madgicx’s One-Click Report for a cross-channel live dashboard. Test it free today.