 Spoiler alert: there's no concrete answer to this, some marketers I know respond with 'well how long is a piece of string?", a phrase I hate, but it makes a good point. When it comes to Facebook Ads there are many variables and many questions required to answer the above one. Let explore some questions that do have easier answers. What's the minimum I can spend? $2 per day is my answer to this. Technically Facebook has stated a minimum budget of $1.70/day (in most cases you won't be able run ads for less than this) so $2 is simply rounding this up to a whole number. I prefer to work with clients on a monthly basis and run monthly campaigns so this becomes $60/mth ($2 x 30 days). Many businesses will then round this up to be $100/mth for ease of calculating it across a year and $100 is a nice clean number to keep track off. Therefore my recommended minimum Facebook ad spend would be $2/day or between $60-$100/mth. How much should I spend? This is another popular query that follows the above and it depends on many variables. A big one, perhaps the most important, is your target audience and the estimated size of it. If you want to target a broad audience like the entire country then a smaller budget is going to reach a tiny percentage of your target audience. If you're only targeting a smaller region then $100 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 this tool and it's estimates can be found in my blog post linked below... Are your ads reaching the right people? Other factors that may impact how much you 'should' 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. A natural follow up questions is... How many people can I except to reach with $X? Fill in X with your desired budget, for this blog let’s use an example of $100. To calculate this we need to look at the cost-per-1,000 people reached figure, a metric available to everyone who has run ads in the past. For those who have never run ads before, as a rough benchmark, I make an assumption that this is generally around $5. This means for every $5 you spend you can expect to reach 1,000 people. At $5 per 1,000 people reached, for a campaign budget of $100 we can expect to reach 20,000 people*. From recent campaigns across my clients, the cost-per,1000, reached figure varies between $2 and $4.70 so this is actually usually lower than $5. Variables that influence this figure include the size of your target audience, the type of content you’re targeting, what campaign goal you’ve selected and the time of year/demand from other advertisers. 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. Many business may allocate a certain $ amount to boosting some posts and not see any 'result' and decide Facebook Ads doesn't work for them. It's important to look at the ad campaign performance to understand what didn't work. When should I increase my budget? Many businesses have an all or nothing approach, they'll either spend $1,000s on adverting or they'll spend nothing. For small businesses this isn't the way to go to. If looking to increase your ad spend you'll want to ensure you have ad content that is working well. Spending more money will help you reach more people, however doubling your budget will not necessarily double your reach. It all depends on how your ads are set up. Before increasing your budget, it's best to look at your goals and what you're trying to achieve. 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. If you're keen to explore options in regards to cost I'm happy to have a chat to understand your goals and the budget you're working with. My ads management fees start from $125/mth. 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. Back to the title question.... How much does it cost to run Facebook Ads? As much as you're happy to spend! The beauty of Facebook Ads is that there are no set costs and you have the flexibility to spend as little or as much as you'd like (from $2/day). It's one of the most cost-effective ways to reach a large targeted audience in a short period of time making it a great platform to get your name out there. If you'd like to discuss Facebook Ads further I'm always happy to chat and provide a second opinion. *( (100 / 5 ) x 1,000)
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