ADVERTISING ON FACEBOOK & LINKEDIN
Updated: June, 2020
First off, let’s give a huge shout out to you for taking the next steps in marketing and promoting your business online! Now we can figure out how much you should be spending on digital advertising.
When it comes to paid social media campaigns there is only one social media news feed to scroll through and posts are displayed based on supply and demand. The more campaigns there are at any given time, the more it costs to display ads to potential paying clients.
4 Key Factors That Determine the Cost of Social Media Ad Campaigns
There is a minor amount of overlap (and some exceptions) between these points, but I’ll give some examples to put things into perspective.
1. Holidays & Seasons
Christmas time, peak Summer months, and even long weekends are all prime times of the year for spikes in ad costs.
2. Geographic Location
If your business is a local company in a small city, it’s likely that there will be less competition for ads in a social media feed (if this is the case for your business, there are huge opportunities available for just a couple of dollars a day).
3. Business Industry
Finance, Insurance, Construction, Health & Fitness, and Real Estate, have some of the highest overall advertising costs. This is due to the fact that these industries cater to a larger group of people in various stages of business.
4. Target Audience
Statistically speaking, marketing products and services to senior citizens will net lower average costs because it’s a less competitive audience. On the other hand, business owners/managers/executives will exponentially cost more to reach because there is a huge financial upside to business-to-business relationships and sales.
The Brass Tacks of Digital Campaign Costs
Weighing in how supply and demand work in a social media environment, and the 4 key factors listed above, here are some benchmarks costs from surveyed data in North America.
Please Note:
- Prices are in USD
- CPM = Cost Per 1,000 Impressions
- CPC = Cost Per Click
Facebook Ad Cost
Minimum Daily Bid – $1.00
Avg. CPM – $5.40
Avg. CPC – $1.21
Facebook is also the gateway to advertising on Instagram as well. As you can see, for a few dollars a day, you can easily market your business to thousands of potential customers that some of which may not even know your company existed!
LinkedIn Ad Cost
Minimum Daily Bid – $10.00
Avg. CPM – $8.89
Avg. CPC – $5.25
LinkedIn has a firm hold as the social media platform for professionals. Delivering an ad to a niche, high profile audience like a CFO for a tech company can almost double (or more) the average cost. Whereas promoting general IT services to small and medium size businesses will typically have lower total costs.
PLANNING YOUR DIGITAL ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS
When digital ads are done right, they work. In business, sometimes you have to weigh the cost of not pursuing new marketing initiatives.