The Costs of Advertising on Social Media Platforms Explained

Social media advertising is becoming increasingly popular with businesses in terms of marketing strategy.

The majority of people use least one social platform like Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, etc. So if you advertise on these platforms, you are sure to reach your audience. 

There is a real potential to advertise on social platforms, but another question arises. What is the cost of advertising on social media?

The answer varies by social media network. That’s why today’s article will examine the cost of advertising on social media spend by platform and type of offering.

Advantages of Social Media Advertising

Whether you are a large company or a young startup, advertising on social media has many advantages that can develop your business efficiently and attract more customers. Here are some examples. 

Cost-effectiveness: Pay Per Click (PPC) strategies generally have an excellent return on investment, 200% on average, which makes them very profitable. It is one of the most efficient solutions to make your company known to consumers.

Brand Awareness: In addition to benefiting from a huge audience present on social networks, you can create visuals and custom ads that match your brand image.

Engagement: Many formats of social media ads allow for active interaction with customers. Your audience can actually interact with the ads on social media by liking, sharing, and commenting, as well as clicking on the ads.

Alignment: Another advantage is that you can effectively target your customers (gender, age, location, hobbies, etc.), increasing your posts’ reach and effectiveness.

Types of Social Media Advertising

Whether you promote your products or services on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, or Pinterest, each platform shares more or less the same characteristics when it comes to the type of advertising. Here are the most common types of advertising.

Image Ads: These might be the most prevalent kinds of advertisements on social media. Image ads are the most common format used by platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. Images are great for spreading the word about your brand or product because they grab people’s attention immediately.

Video Ads: Video ads are particularly effective at attracting the attention of your target audience due to their visual appeal, which also makes them very effective.

Stories Ads: Stories are ideal for promotions that require immediate attention due to their short duration. Stories are great for raising awareness because they are at the top of users’ feeds, where they have more visibility.

Carousel Ads: Using carousel social media ads, you can display many marketing videos and/or photos in a single ad. Every image or video can have a title, a description, a link, and a CTA.  Carousel ads are perfect for promoting various products, a brand’s history, behind-the-scenes images, or any other suitable product or event.

Collection Ads: These ads start with a cover image or video, then have smaller product images that highlight the costs and benefits of your goods or services.  It functions like a storefront and enables your target audience to purchase your items without leaving social media.

Message Ads: You can also send advertising messages directly into the conversations of your potential customers. Interested users can tap the advertisement to start an automated discussion with your business. Or, the message may lead them to your website’s pages for products or services.

The Cost of Social Media Advertising in 2023

The cost of your social media advertising is not the same depending on your social network or your activity sector. You also have to take into account other factors, such as the objective of your campaign, the bidding strategy, and the budget.

To estimate the price of an advertisement, the two widely used metrics are the cost per click (CPC) and the cost per 1000 impressions (CPM). Here is the difference between them:

Average CPM

Average CPM is a useful metric for high-volume video campaigns. In fact, it breaks down the total spend by increments of 1000 impressions.

Average CPC

Cost-per-click is the price of each click you get. It’s a monetary average of all the clicks from a keyword, ad, ad group, campaign, or anything else you analyze.

The graph above shows an overview of the different cost of advertising on social media, companies can expect depending on their social network.

For example, the lowest CPC is on Twitter at $0.38. However, the CPM is much higher at $6.48. The most expensive CPC is on LinkedIn, with a price of $5.26. We also notice that the CPM is about the same, costing $6.59.

If you want a low CPM, you’d better choose Snapchat or Pinterest, respectively, at $2.19 and $3.50. The highest CPM is on YouTube, with $9.68, mainly due to the video format of the platform.

To help you better understand the price for each platform, we have detailed the cost and the types of advertising on social networks.

Facebook

Facebook is the most used online social network in the world, with approximately 2.96 billion monthly active users. The platform offers many options and ad types that companies can use to promote their service or products, such as:

• Image
• Carousel
• Video
• Boosted posts
• Facebook Shops
• Instant experience
• Collection

Regarding the cost of advertising, the prices proposed by Facebook are:

• The average CPC is $0.97 per click.
• The average CPM is $7.19 per 1000 impressions.
• The average CPL is $1.07 per like. With cost-per-like, you just have to pay for your ad when a user likes your business page.
• The average CPA is $5.47 per action. With cost-per-action, your ad is only charged when a conversion occurs.
• Minimum Budget: You will need to spend a minimum of $1 per day for impressions, $5 per day for clicks, likes, or views, and $40 per day for conversions.

Instagram

Instagram is also a platform you shouldn’t miss in your marketing strategy, as it has over 2 billion active users per month. Images make up the majority of advertisements, but this social network also provides other forms of advertising, such as:

• Photo
• Stories
• Carousel
• Reels
• Video
• Collection
• Explore

Here are the prices you can expect when advertising on Instagram:

• The average CPC is $3.56 per click.
• The average CPM is $7.91 per 1000 impressions.
• Minimum Budget: Same as Facebook, you will need to spend a minimum of $1 per day for impressions, $5 per day for clicks, likes, or views, and $40 per day for conversions.

YouTube

YouTube is the most popular online video-sharing platform, with 2.56 billion monthly active users. Here are the different types of advertising you can use on this social network.

• Skippable in-stream ads
• Bumper ads
• Masthead ads
• Non-skippable in-stream ads
• Overlay ads
• Outstream ads

To give you an idea, here are the average prices of ads on Youtube:

• The average CPC is $3.21 per click.
• The average CPM is $9.68 per 1000 impressions.
• The average CPV is $0.10 to $0.30 per view. With cost-per-view, you only pay if someone watches your video ad for at least 30 seconds.
• Minimum Budget: You will need to spend a minimum of $10 per day.

LinkedIn

The social network for professionals has about 849.6 million users. The platform is handy for reaching other companies and offers different types of advertising, such as:

• Sponsored content
• Sponsored messaging (Sponsored InMail)
• Text ads
• Dynamic ads

Here are the different bidding options you can find on LinkedIn:

• The average CPC is $5.26 per click.
• The average CPM is $6.59 per 1000 impressions.
• The average CPS is $0.80 per send. When using cost-per-send, you are charged each time you send a user a sponsored email.
• The average CPO is $1.70 per open. With the cost-per-open option, you pay every time someone opens your sponsored email.
• Minimum Budget: You will need to spend a minimum of $2 per click or $10 per day.

Twitter

With an audience of over 368 million monthly active users worldwide, Twitter allows companies to communicate about their brands with short, powerful messages. Here are the different advertising options available on this social network.

• Promoted ad with images, videos, carousels, moments, and texts
• Follower ads
• Takeover
• Live
• Amplify

Regarding the different bidding options, here is an overview of the prices of ads on Twitter:

• The average CPC is $0.38 per click.
• The average CPM is $6.46 per 1000 impressions.
• The average CPE is $1.35 per engagement. With cost-per-engagement, you only pay when someone interacts with your Twitter ad.
• The average CPF is $2.50 to $4.00 per follower. With cost-per-follow, you pay when someone uses your ad to follow your business.
• The average CPD is $1.95 to $3.25 per download. With cost-per-download, you pay when someone downloads something, like an app.
• Minimum Budget: You don’t have any minimum budget to start a campaign on Twitter.

Pinterest

The social network Pinterest has 445 million monthly active users worldwide. The platform is particularly known for its Pins which allow users to share pictures. In terms of advertising, companies have different Pinterest ads, such as:

• Idea Pins
• Promoted Pins
• Try on product Pins
• Collection
• Shopping ads
• Carousel

For the cost of ads, Pinterest offers different rates:

• The average CPC is $1.50 per click.
• The average CPM is $3.50 per 1000 impressions.
• Minimum Budget: You will need to spend a minimum of $2 for impressions.

TikTok

TikTok is the most recent social network, established in 2016. Despite this, the platform has experienced rapid expansion and now has more than one billion monthly active users. Businesses can use the platform for advertising using, for example:

• Image
• Video
• Spark
• Collection

The overall cost of advertising on TikTok is as follows:

• The average CPC is $1 per click.
• The average CPM is $6.06 per 1000 impressions.
• Minimum Budget: You will need to spend a minimum of $50.00 per day for campaigns and $20 per day for ad groups. 

Key Takeaways 

Now that you know more about the cost of advertising on social media, here’s a reminder of what we discussed in the article.

• Advertising on social media has an excellent return on investment (ROI), which makes it a great way for companies to reach their target audience.
• The costs can vary considerably depending on the audience, the competition, the sector, and the choice of platform.
• Each platform offers different types of advertising. So, it is essential for companies to develop a clear marketing strategy.

Now it’s your turn! Which social network will you use for your ads and reach new leads? Tell us in the comments!