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Average Facebook CPM: What is a Good CPM and How to Improve CPM for Facebook

When you’re running Facebook ads, you want to know if you’re getting a good return with your investment. Calculating cost per impressions (CPM) is a great way to see if your ads are reaching the right people. By tracking your CPM and looking at the average Facebook CPM, you can see if you need to improve your ad campaigns.


On this page, we’ll go over everything you need to know, including:

Keep reading to learn more about the average Facebook CPM and find out how you can improve CPM for Facebook!

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What is CPM?

CPM stands for cost per mille, or cost per thousand impressions. This metric measures the number of times people look at your ad, known as an impression. CPM is a payment option you can use when running social media ads on platforms like Facebook.

Social media ad from Target

How do you calculate CPM for Facebook?

So, if you’re opting to use the CPM model for your Facebook ads, how much can you expect to pay? It depends upon how much you invest in your campaign and the number of impressions you get.

CPM on Facebook is calculated using the following formula:

Ad Spend/(Impressions/1000) = CPM

So, if you spend $500 on a campaign and get 10,000 impressions, your CPM is $50.

Want to calculate your CPM without all the fuss? Use our free CPM calculator to get your CPM instantly!

Try Our CPM Calculator

What is the average Facebook CPM?

Now that you’ve calculated your CPM, you may wonder where your CPM falls compared to others. So, what’s the average Facebook CPM?

The average Facebook CPM varies depending upon industries, but it typically is around $11. CPM can be as low as $2, but it can also be $30 and above.

So, what is a good Facebook CPM?

It depends upon your industry. Your industry may be higher than the average Facebook CPM or significantly lower. To get an accurate estimate of whether your CPM on Facebook is good, look at industry benchmarks.

Generally, you want your CPM to be lower, so you can get more impressions for a lower cost.

How do I improve my Facebook CPM?

If you look at the average Facebook CPM for your industry and you’re dissatisfied with yours, you can take steps to make it better. Here are six tips to improve CPM for Facebook:

1. Refine your target audience

The first step to improving your average CPM for Facebook is to refine your target audience. When you run a CPM-based campaign, your focus is on getting your target audience to notice your ad and interact with it. If you have a high CPM, you need to refine your target audience so you’re reaching more relevant people.

To ensure you’re targeting the right people, you’ll want to define characteristics like:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Location
  • Occupation
  • Hobbies
  • Interests
  • Spending habits

All this information will help ensure you put your ads in front of the right people.

2. Make your ad more relevant

If you want to improve CPM for Facebook, consider making your ads more relevant to your audience. You want your audience to engage with your ads and learn about your brand. If you’re delivering an ad that’s irrelevant or not of interest to them, they’re unlikely to engage.

The best thing you can do is look at who you’re targeting with your ads and what’s interesting to them. You want to tailor your ad content to specific groups in your audience so they’re more likely to engage.

You can even use custom audiences to help your segment who you’re targeting, so you can create relevant ad copy for those different groups.

As you revamp your ad copy, think about what’s most important to your audience, like the quality of the product, the type of product, or the price.

Target ad that features their Mama Bear slippers

3. Test your ads

If you find your CPM for Facebook isn’t where you want it, consider testing your ads to see how you can improve performance. The first copy of your ad isn’t always the best, so it’s good to test your ads to see how you can improve them.

Testing ads can help you discover what interests your audience, so you can get them to engage with your ads.

When you test your ads, test one element at a time. You may try changing the wording in your ad copy or the background color of your image. Testing one element at a time ensures you get precise results to see what positively impacts ad performance.

4. Consider a different ad format

If you’re unhappy with your average Facebook CPM, try using a different ad format. You may need to try other ad formats to pique your audience’s interest in your ads.

For example, if you’re running photo ads, your audience may gloss over them without giving your ad a second look. On the other hand, a video ad may catch their attention and get them to stop scrolling.

Video ad from Target featuring a girl modeling winter clothes

You can try different ad formats to see if one generates more engagement over the other and try to incorporate that format into your ad rotation.

5. Refine your ad copy

When you think about Facebook ads, you may focus heavily on the visual. While the graphic can initially get your audience to stop scrolling and look at your ad, your ad copy is what gets them to engage.

If your CPM on Facebook is high, you may need to refine your ad copy to make it more relevant and engaging for your audience.

For example, if you’re creating a Facebook ad for your new product, consider highlighting the benefits that will entice prospects to buy.

6. Work on your frequency

When you look at the average CPM for Facebook and find your ads have a higher CPM, you may need to tweak how often people see ads from your business. If you’re continually showing your ads to the same audience, they may find it annoying to see the same ad from your company constantly.

Not to mention, if you keep showing them the same ad, it can lead to ad fatigue, which causes a drop in engagement.

To prevent this from happening, consider setting a frequency cap for your audience. A frequency cap ensures that your audience can only see an ad a certain number of times, so they don’t get annoyed with your ads.

You can also cycle out old ad versions and replace them with new ones to keep your ads fresh for your audience.

Want to do better than the average Facebook CPM? Partner with WebFX

The average Facebook CPM is a good guideline for helping you determine how much you should pay when people see your ads. If you want to improve CPM for Facebook, consider partnering with a Meta Business Partner like WebFX.

With over a decade of experience in social media, you can feel confident we’ll help refine your Facebook ad campaigns to drive better results. We’re no strangers to driving results, either — we’ve driven over $10 billion in revenue for our clients in the past five years.

Ready to gain a better average CPM for Facebook? Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our Facebook advertising services!

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