Facebook ads, the ever changing, but needed force of the digital marketing world; have seen a huge evolution since their introduction at the Facebook Network Convention in November, 2007. Back in their early days, Facebook ads didn’t have manageable bid features, or income level percentages to choose from; they were simpler than that, but also less engaging, because the algorithm focused its efforts on finding the lowest PPC (pay-per-click) region & on pushing ads there so that they would get as many impressions as possible.
Nowadays, Facebook ads allow bidders to set up every single aspect of their campaign manually, so that no irrelevant audiences are reached, even if the algorithm is looking for the lowest CPC or PPC available within’ a campaign’s spectrum. But, how much have Facebook ads changed costs in the last 12 years & are said shifts justified by their effectiveness or are they based on the network’s growth, popularity & businesses’ need for placement & exposure?
As complicated a question as it is, there is a factual answer to it & it goes both ways, because there has been an increase in costs that’s solely based on Facebook ads popularity & an increase justified by placement costs & audience sharpening.
With over 20 thousand people on Facebook every second, over 486,183 users every minute & between 745 million & 1.6 billion users every single day, an increase in Facebook ads costs, just based on its popularity, is understandable. However, campaign sharpening, irrelevant audience elimination, as well as feature development, have also taken a toll on Facebook ads pricing in their second decade of existence.
According to benchmark reports, released by Hub Spot every 4 months, during the second quarter of the year 2018, 50% of advertisers were paying between $0.51 dollars to $.038 dollars per ads click, with the remaining half of them paying a steady fee of around $.043 dollars per click, as of that same period.
Additionally, although that same report stated that costs per click decreased by 23% over the following two periods of 2018, from the 1st quarter of 2017 to the 2nd quarter of 2018, the benchmark on Facebook ads went from an average $3.43 dollars per a thousand impressions to $4.13 dollars per a thousand impressions. Thus, it’s safe to say that, though the benchmark of costs per click did not grow as largely, it did reach drastic new highs from one period to another.
Furthermore, Facebook ads costs on its extended exhibit, Facebook Messenger, also saw considerable growth from quarter to quarter last year.
1.Stats for Messenger Facebook Ads saw a 13% increase from the 1st quarter of 2018 to its 3rd, with an increase of 24% in its cost per thousand (CPM.)
Please note that Cost per Thousand refers to cost per a thousand impressions, but takes the M on its acronym from the word: mille.
It is also important to note that reports from the 2nd quarter of 2019 show that the current CPC (cost-per-click,) across all industries, is currently $1.72 dollars on average; a considerable increase for both Facebook ads, as well as the 7 million advertisers making $2 dollars for every single they spend on their Facebook ads.
“Almost overnight, the Internet’s gone from a technical wonder to a business must.” – Bill Schrader, internet pioneer & co-founder of the world’s first Internet service provider, PSINET (1989.)
It is completely true that, even though benchmarks are & most likely will continue to be on the rise in the quarters & years to come, as the digital age continues evolving, businesses all over the world will keep on jumping on the Facebook ads bandwagon, because social media is the future of advertising, but most importantly, because it (social media) offers the off chance of expansion that companies had been waiting on for years.
Facebook ads provide innovational, affordable chances for companies to break location boundaries, language barriers, & age ranges & gender limitations, because advertisers only pay per impression or click; if only they optimize properly & with the help of an expert, talented, & visionary hand (digital agencies.)
“Today it’s not about ‘getting the traffic’ — it’s about ‘getting the targeted and relevant traffic,’” says Adam Audette, SEO Runner at Merkle Incorporated.
2. With an increase in Facebook Ads cost that has gone from 50 cents to almost 2 dollars, advertisers can’t afford wasting their budgets on experimental long runs; instead, they need a digital marketing professional to assist them in getting some spotlight among:
-The 49 million posts generated on newsfeeds around the world every 15 minutes.
-On getting engagement among the half a million reactions registered every minute.
-On making the best of organic reach among the 1.3 million shares of content happening every minute of every day on Facebook.
After crunching the numbers, the question of if the shift in ads pricing is justified by Facebook ads effectiveness or if it’s based on the network’s popularity proves to be a solid 50/50, as initially assumed. However, there is no denying that the more a future advertiser searches the web in search of proof-of-need, the more stats will continue to flood down before their eyes.
3. Facebook & Facebook ads stats to live by:
- 8 people join Facebook every second. Their age range goes from 13 years old to 65 years old on average. That’s 7,246 people every fifteen minutes.
- Facebook generates $1.4 million dollars in revenue every hour.
- Nearly 73% of those $1.4 million dollars an hour comes from mobile advertising & small businesses expanding thanks to affordable advertising.
- Potential customers send an estimate 150 thousand messages through comment sections, Facebook messenger & company inboxes every minute around the world. That makes for an astounding 9 million messages on the move every hour & 216 million messages every day. Facebook is the show runner of digital media, no wonder.
- Last, but most certainly not least, there are 1 billion mobile app links being clicked on every day on Facebook.
Therefore, when it comes to benchmarks & increases, companies ought to drop their traditional media budgets & raise their digital ones if they want to stay ahead of the game.
SOURCES:
https://instapage.com/blog/facebook-advertising-benchmarks
https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4350015/AdStage%20Q2%202018%20Paid%20Media%20Benchmark%20Report.pdf
