What should your Facebook advertising spend be?

Social Commerce
Social Media Insights
Social Media Strategy

With more than 2.4 billion active users every month, Facebook is a digital hub in the truest sense.

As a business, that means Facebook is a medium through which you can advertise your goods and services with strong results. 

Facebook is the second largest online advertiser after Google. This means that if you are not convinced of the power of Facebook, it is time to reconsider.

A Facebook ads campaign allows businesses to place themselves in front of their most relevant audiences.

But a frequently asked question around Facebook advertising is around your Facebook ads cost. 

In our latest blog, we look to answer this question, offering a quick guide to Facebook ads budgets and ad costs. This is to help you ensure you get full bang for your buck when it comes to Facebook paid social advertising.

Why Facebook advertising?

[the Facebook homescreen loaded onto a mobile phone with a laptop beside it]

We have covered the reach of Facebook already. But with plenty of other advertising avenues out there, why should a business adopt Facebook advertising over alternatives?

One vital element is cost, and this is something we will cover in greater detail in the next section. Creating your ad and showing your ad on Facebook is cheaper than doing similar on Instagram or LinkedIn. Costs are comparable to those for Twitter.

Another reason is Facebook makes it easy to achieve ad objectives. Campaigns are easy to set based on the specific intentions of your overall strategy. These could be based on increasing brand awareness, website traffic, or boosting conversion.

Another major benefit of advertising with Facebook is being able to spread your ads further than you might initially think. This is due to the various targeting options available.

Your ads can have a big impact through Facebook itself. You can also create a business advertisement for Instagram via the Facebook Business API. This is advantageous if your business model and industry lends itself to Instagram as a medium. If you have a strong visual presence or aimed at younger demographics, both Facebook and Instagram advertising can work together.

You can also advertise on Facebook Messenger and via the Facebook Ad network. This does not cost you a penny more, as they are all included as ad placements. This is a great way to spread your reach even further.

And you can tailor your ads to make them highly relevant for certain audiences. Facebook gives each ad a relevancy score to help you ensure your ads are on the money.

What costs can you expect with Facebook advertising?

It is hard to provide a definitive answer to this question, as so many variables are at play.

The overall cost of your Facebook ad spend will depend on the daily budget you have. It will also depend on the types of ad campaigns you are looking to run. 

It is hard to deliver specific amounts. But, in our experience if you’ve optimised your Facebook advertising campaigns you can expect to see something close to: 

  • 3-4p per engagement for engagement campaigns
  • 3-10p per Facebook page like 
  • 15p-30p average cost per click (CPC) for traffic campaigns
  • 50p-£2 for cost per mille (CPM) for reach (if you are running reach campaigns)

Reach campaign costs will vary massively depending on how big your target audience is, and which ad types you are running. 

The cost per acquisition for any conversion campaigns can also vary. This is dependent on:

  • The industry you are in
  • What you are selling or promoting
  • The cost of what it is you are selling or promoting

However, you should see a lower cost per acquisition if you take the approach of running dynamic product ads for remarketing, for example targeting basket abandoners.

In essence, your Facebook advertising cost will be dependent on a variety of factors. But your return on investment can be greater if you manage, optimise and research your Facebook ad campaigns really well.

How much should you spend overall?

This again depends on the type of business you are. It depends on how established your market presence is. It depends on how experienced you are with Facebook advertising and paid social generally. 

If you are just starting off in the world of Facebook advertising, we would advise investing around £10-£15 per day. This is enough to allow you to target certain groups and enable a heightened level of brand engagement.

As results start to be seen, that daily budget can be substantially increased. Facebook has a system whereby it will only spend as much as you set your limits to. So this means having another set of eyes on this can help you reap greater rewards.

Williams Commerce’s digital marketing team has worked with companies who have gone from starting with a low daily budget to investing as much as £500 a day on Facebook ads, once they saw the results they could achieve on this platform. We can help monitor your budgets and maximise your spending. This will help you engage with a wider audience online.

Facebook Ads in Action

In action, Facebook ads can look something like this. Say you are a local second hand store that opens Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm. Your optimum time to advertise is during this time period. This is because you will be most responsive and available during these hours. You can also be easily visited by potential customers. 

Now you know the best times to target your customers through Facebook ads, you can adjust your budget accordingly.

You do not want to waste budget across the UK for example, but only in areas relevant to you. You can use this to give you an idea of how much budget you should spend, as Facebook also provides forecasts on the results you might achieve for your budget, based on your targeting options.

Our 5 top tips for Facebook advertising

1 - Start small and work your way up. Test and trial different budgets and objectives until you find the right combination for you.

2 - Consider spanning your Facebook ads across Instagram, Facebook Messenger and the Facebook ad network.

3 - Experiment with different objectives and targeting criteria to learn what works best for you.

4 - Remain vigilant and committed. Do not waste money by taking your eye off the ball and presuming your Facebook ad campaigns will look after themselves. Things change, new competition emerges, and you need to stay on top of all the campaigns you run. 

5 - Consider a collaborative approach, appointing an agency to provide strategic insight and direction, helping you efficiently manage your budget, find ways to save money and explore ways to enhance targeting and spending on your Facebook ads account.

In Conclusion…

Judging how much your Facebook advertising spend should be can only be done on a case by case basis.

Consider all the factors around your Facebook ad spend and identify your end goals. Then take the time to establish how best to get there.

As they say, Rome wasn't built in a day. Don’t rush in and look to do too much, too soon. Think strategically and logically about how to make the very most of the spending you commit to with Facebook advertising. 

Get in touch with Williams Commerce to discuss your paid social needs today.