How Much Does it Cost to Run Facebook Ads?
Spoiler alert: there's no single answer to this.
When it comes to Facebook Ads there's a lot of flexibility around setting your ad budget. It's important to note the suggested default options are always higher than what you need to spend. See frequently asked questions below.
What's the minimum I can spend?
Facebook generally won't let you run ads for less than $2/day.
Across a month this becomes $60/month ($2 x 30 days). However many businesses round this up to $100, both to make it more worthwhile and to make the maths easier for setting a budget across a longer term.
Therefore a recommended minimum Facebook ad spend would be $2/day or between $60-$100/mth.
A quarterly campaign is an alternative to monthly for businesses on with a tighter budget, it's possible to have a campaign running with ads showing everyday across a three month period with an ad budget of just $200.
You may wish to spend $250/quarter which equals $1,000/year, a relatively cost effective way to have ads running everyday of the year.
Note: This excludes any management fees of working with someone like myself.
How much should I spend?
It depends.
Largely on your target audience and the estimated size of it. Obviously the more you spend the more people you can reach, however doubling your ad spend doesn't mean you're doubling your reach.
If you want to target a broad audience like all of New Zealand then a smaller budget is going to reach a tiny percentage of your target audience. If you're only targeting a city or smaller region then $100 (or even less) might be sufficient to have an impact.
The Facebook Ads Audiences tool is great for estimating the size of your target audience available to reach on Facebook when inputting location, age, gender and interest parameters. It's essential to know how whether you're trying to reach 20,000 people or 200,000 people.
An example of some target audiences using this tool can be found on this blog post: Meta Ad Audience Examples
Other factors that may impact how much you 'should' spend include the price and profit margin of your products/service, if you're running any other advertising and whether or not you're working with an agency to manage your ad spend for you.
Note that Facebook will always nudge you to spend as much a possible, this is how the platform makes money (a lot of it too!). If you're just starting out, I say best to start small and scale up over time as your budget allows.
How many people can you reach with a $100 spend?
You can expect to reach 20,000-50,000 people* with a $100 ad spend assuming a cost-per-1,000 people reached figure of between $2-$5 which is pretty common for the Awareness ad objective.
Variables that influence this figure include the size of your target audience, what campaign goal you’ve selected and the time of year/demand from other advertisers.
If you select a different goal and optimising for website visits, page likes or engagement then the expected reach can be a lot lower.
The only way to get an accurate measure of how much it will cost you to reach 1,000 people and what results to expect is to start running ads and get some data specific to your business and target audience.
*actual results vary, this is an indicative figure based on campaign averages.
It costs more to outsource ad management, right?
It does.
If you're seeking help from a freelancer or agency then they will charge a monthly fee or similar on top of the ad spend figures above. This can easily double the total figure you're paying each month.
My Facebook Ads Intro Package starts from $250+GST with a choice of ad spend from $50-$250 designed to help you set up ads for the first time and understand your expected reach.
I've found many smaller business don't need to be changing their ads every month so I also offer quarterly ads management packages that make it possible to have Facebook Ads running every day of the year for less than $2,500! (which includes $800 ad spend, exc GST).
My quarterly Facebook Ads management fees start from $400/quarter with a $200/quarter minimum spend.
I've worked with many small business owners who are just starting out and appreciate the need to run ads and get their name out there on the limited budget. My services are flexible and work to your budget.
Keen to learn more?
Reach out to jason@jbdm.co.nz with your social media links and target audience details and I can prepare a target audience estimate for your business and provide pricing options.
