How Much Does Social Media Advertising Cost in 2024?

Your cheat sheet to social media advertising costs in 2024

Need a quick reference for social media advertising costs in 2024? Check out the handy graphic below:

[Summary] Social media advertising costs

We asked 270 marketing professionals to share how much they spend on social media advertising. Here’s a quick overview of their answers:

Key takeaways

• 74% of businesses say that social media advertising is effective
• 70% of businesses invest in social media ads to build brand awareness and drive sales
• 63% of businesses allocate 5% – 40% of their overall advertising budget to social media ads
• 48% of businesses spend $1000 – $25,000 annually on social media ads

Average annual social media ad spend

On average, companies typically spend $1000 – $25,000 per year on social media advertising (48% of respondents). How much you spend annually will vary depending on several factors, like your chosen platforms, ad type, bidding model, budget, and more.

Average CPC for social media ads

With social media advertising, your business can use several bidding options, like cost-per-like (CPL) or cost-per-view (CPV). A universal bidding option, however, is cost-per-click or CPC. That’s why many companies, when looking at the cost of social media advertising, research CPC first.

Get an idea of what businesses typically pay per click on different social media platforms below:

Average cost per click

• Facebook: $0.26 – $0.50
• Instagram: $0 – $0.25
• LinkedIn: $2 – $3
• Pinterest: $0 – $0.10
• Twitter: $0.26 – $0.50
• YouTube: $0.11 – $0.40

Average CPM for social media

The top social media networks also offer cost-per-thousand-impressions or CPM as a bidding option. With this bidding option, your company focuses on ad views rather than ad clicks. The average cost for CPM is generally higher because you’re paying per 1000 impressions, versus a single click.

Get a breakdown of social media advertising costs by CPM below:

Average cost per 1000 impressions

• Facebook: $1.01 – $3
• Instagram: $0 – $4
• LinkedIn: $5.01 – $8
• Pinterest: $0 – $1.50

Social media advertising costs by platform

While the leading social media networks all offer CPC and CPM, many also use several other bidding options. Twitter, for example, lets businesses use cost-per-follow or CPF, while LinkedIn includes cost-per-open or CPO.

Ready for an in-depth look at social media advertising costs by platform? Just select your platform:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Pinterest
• TikTok

Facebook advertising costs

On average, you can Facebook advertising to cost the following:

• $0.26 – $0.50 per click
• $1.01 – $3 per 1000 impressions
• $0 – $0.25 per like
• $0 – $5 per download

Most businesses typically spend $51 – $500 per month on Facebook ads (49% of respondents).

With more than 1.4 billion daily active users, Facebook is a go-to advertising channel for any business. That’s why many companies want to know how much Facebook advertising costs, so they can build a reasonable budget.

Remember, these numbers are only averages.

Depending on your business and social media ad strategy, you may have a higher or lower budget. That’s why it’s helpful to use these numbers as a benchmark, rather than as a standard for your Facebook advertising costs.

Facebook advertising: Bidding options

On Facebook, you can access four bidding options:

1. Cost-per-click (CPC): You only pay for your ad when someone clicks on it.
2. Cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM): You only pay for your ad when 1000 people see it. The average CPM on Facebook ranges from $2 to $30 depending on the industry.
3. Cost-per-like (CPL): You only pay for your ad when someone likes your business page.
4. Cost-per-download: You only pay for your ad when someone downloads your app.

For the best results, most companies use CPC. While you can use the other bidding options, CPC offers the most cost-effective choice for achieving your goals. Even if you’re looking to earn likes or conversions, social media specialists often recommend CPC.

Specialists recommend this bidding approach for a few reasons.

To start, CPC is one of the most cost-effective bidding strategies available. With CPL and CPA, your company can expect to pay more, without necessarily increasing the performance or results of your social media strategy. Impressions also rarely support long-term strategy goals, like follows or purchases.

When you advertise on Facebook, you can also select one of two bidding strategies:

• Automatic bidding: Also known as lowest cost, automatic bidding allows Facebook to tweak your bidding strategy (without exceeding your monthly budget) to help your business earn the lowest possible cost per click or action.

• Manual bidding: Also known as target cost, manual bidding provides your company complete control over your bidding strategy, which can help your team reach your preferred cost per click or action.

Depending on your experience, your business may start with automatic bidding versus manual bidding. If you partner with a social media advertising agency, like WebFX, we have the expertise to use either option and maximize its results.

Facebook advertising: Professional management

As more businesses invest in Facebook advertising, the platform becomes more competitive. That’s why many companies partner with a social media advertising agency to develop, manage, and lead their ad strategy.

While every agency varies, leading providers (like WebFX) provide the following:

• Ad account setup
• Ad account optimization
• Ad development and design
• Advanced ad targeting
• Facebook Pixel installation
• Monthly reporting and analysis
• Personal consultations
• And more

We also provide your team access to MarketingCloudFX, our client-exclusive platform. With MarketingCloudFX, we make it easy for your business to review and share your campaign results. Plus, with the machine learning power of IBM Watson, you get unparalleled insights to advance your strategy.

Facebook Ad Management

Instagram advertising costs

On average, you can expect Instagram advertising to cost the following:

• $0 – $0.25 per click
• $ 0 – $4 per 1000 impressions
• $0.03 – $0.08 per engagement

Businesses typically spend $0 – $500 per month on Instagram ads (53% of respondents).

With more than 500 million daily active users, as well as a higher engagement rate than Facebook users, Instagram provides businesses with a new channel for reaching consumers. That competitive advantage, however, results in higher ad costs.

It’s important to mention that while Facebook and Instagram share a similar monthly ad spend, your campaign performances can vary due to average costs for CPC and CPM. That’s why, if Instagram performs well for your business, you may increase your monthly ad spend beyond the average.

Curious about projecting your CPA with the help of CPM data? Explore our CPA CPM calculator at your convenience.

Instagram advertising: Bidding options

Like Facebook, Instagram offers the following four bidding options:

1. Cost-per-click (CPC): You pay every time someone clicks on your ad.
2. Cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM): You pay every time 1000 people see your ad.
3. Cost-per-like (CPL): You pay every time someone likes your post.
4. Cost-per-action (CPA): You pay every time someone completes your desired action, like a purchase.

While companies can use any of the above bidding options, many choose CPC. In some cases, established brands (think Target, Starbucks, or Home Depot) use CPM to build awareness and keep their business top-of-mind.

Instagram advertising: Professional management

Whether you’re promoting your business on one or more social media networks, partnering with a professional team of social media specialists can help your company earn more from your social media ads.

If you decide to invest in management and advertising services for Instagram, choose an experienced agency with an excellent track record. WebFX, for example, offers more than 25 years of experience. Plus, we’ve published more than 165,000 social media posts for our clients.

In fact, we’ve generated more than $3 billion in revenue for our clients in the last five years.

While more experienced social media advertising agencies, like WebFX, provide their services at a higher rate, they also offer higher value. You receive a custom strategy backed by years of experience, which can improve the performance of your ads.

This kind of approach also helps your business achieve its marketing goals.

Your agency’s role in your company’s success is why settling for “cheap” social media advertising services is often a mistake. While these agencies offer an enticing price, they often fail to deliver on their promises, which hurts your company and your reputation.

That’s why you need to go with a proven and trusted agency to maximize your online success.

Instagram Ad Management

YouTube advertising costs

On average, YouTube advertising costs $0.11 – $0.40 per view (43% of respondents). Most businesses typically spend $101 – $1000 per month on YouTube ads (53% of respondents).

Every day, people watch more than one billion hours of video on YouTube. For businesses, the popularity of YouTube offers a new way to reach consumers, especially users between the ages of 18 to 34, an age group that dominates the social media network.

YouTube advertising: Bidding options

When your company advertises on YouTube, you have access to four bidding options:

1. Cost-per-click (CPC): With CPC, you pay when someone clicks on your YouTube ad.
2. Cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM): With CPM, you pay when 1000 people see your ad on YouTube.
3. Cost-per-view (CPV): With CPV, you pay when someone views your video ad for 30 seconds or until the end.
4. Cost-per-action (CPA): With CPA, you pay when a person takes the desired action, like visiting your site.

If you advertise on YouTube, many businesses have success with CPC, as well as CPV. With CPV, however, your team will need to create a video ad. While you can shoot an ad in-house, the best results come from a professional-grade video.

YouTube Ad Management

LinkedIn advertising costs

On average, LinkedIn advertising costs the following:

• $2 – $3 per click
• $5.01 – $8 per 1000 impressions
• $0.26 – $0.50 per send for sponsored InMail campaigns

Most businesses typically spend $0 – $1000 per month on LinkedIn ads (66% of respondents).

As the leading professional social media network (it features more than 590 million members), LinkedIn is a useful lead generation platform for business-to-business (B2B) organizations and companies looking for top talent.

LinkedIn advertising: Bidding options

When you advertise on LinkedIn, you can use three types of bids:

1. Cost-per-click (CPC): With CPC, you pay only when someone clicks on your LinkedIn ad.
2. Cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM): With CPM, you only pay when 1000 people see your LinkedIn ad.
3. Cost-per-send (CPS): With CPS, you pay every time you send a sponsored email to a user.
4. Cost-per-open (CPO): With CPO, you pay every time someone opens your sponsored email.

While many businesses focus their ad strategy on CPC, some do use CPS and CPO. If you’re looking to recruit applicants, for example, CPS and CPO can help your business reach top candidates and fill the opening. For lead generation, however, CPC is a go-to choice.

LinkedIn advertising: Professional management

For many companies, advertising on LinkedIn is a new adventure, which is why it’s helpful to partner with a social media advertising agency. With their experience, as well as advertising expertise, they can help your business build a campaign that allows you to hire top candidates, reach valuable leads, and more.

With a talented and award-winning team of more than 500 digital marketing specialists, WebFX removes the uncertainty, stress, and frustration that can come with advertising on social media. Plus, we partner you with a dedicated account manager, ensuring you always have a familiar point of contact.

That’s why we’ve received more than 300+ four- and five-star reviews from our clients.

LinkedIn Ad Management

Twitter advertising costs

On average, you can expect Twitter advertising to cost the following:

• $0.26 – $0.50 per first action for promoted Tweets
• $1.01 – $2 per follow for promoted accounts

Most businesses typically spend $101 – $1000 per month on Twitter ads (53% of respondents).

Compared to social media networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter features a smaller user base. The social media platform has more than 255 million users, which is why many businesses use Twitter’s advertising services.

Twitter advertising: Bidding options

If you advertise on Twitter, you can access five different bidding options:

1. Cost-per-click (CPC): CPC allows you to pay for every click on your Twitter ad.
2. Cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM): CPM lets you pay for every 1000 impressions on your Twitter ad.
3. Cost-per-engagement (CPE): With CPE, you pay when someone interacts with your Twitter ad.
4. Cost-per-follow (CPF): With CPF, you pay when someone uses your ad to follow your business.
5. Cost-per-download (CPD): With, you pay when someone downloads something, like an app.

While CPC works well for businesses advertising on Twitter, CPE also offers value. When people engage with your ad and your company, whether by commenting or retweeting, it demonstrates the importance of your ad campaign.

You’re moving people to act, which can lead to several benefits.

For example, that initial engagement can generate brand awareness. It can also result in future, organic interactions between your company and that user. As engagement increases, potential customers move through the buying funnel, which can result in a later purchase or new lead.

Twitter advertising: Professional management

While you can now exceed the 280-character limit on Twitter, that doesn’t change the challenge that comes with advertising on the network. If you want a campaign that makes the most of your social media advertising costs, professional management services can help.

With the hands-on approach of our social media specialists, your company receives a campaign tailored to you. Plus, you have a consistent point-of-contact for chatting about your strategy, reviewing your results, and more.

Unlike other social media advertising agencies, WebFX provides you with a partnership. We invest ourselves in your success and measure our performance by your results, which is one reason why our client recommendation score is 488% higher than the industry average.

Twitter Ad Management

Pinterest advertising costs

On average, you can expect the following Pinterest advertising costs:

• $0 – $0.10 per click
• $0 – $2 per conversion
• $0 – $1.50 per 1000 impressions

Most businesses typically spend $0 – $500 per month on Pinterest ads (59% of respondents).

Each month, a quarter of a billion people use Pinterest. For business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations, Pinterest offers a unique opportunity for reaching and engaging with their target market. It does, however, come with some higher advertising costs.

Pinterest advertising: Bidding options

Pinterest offers two bidding options:

1. Cost-per-click (CPC): This bid strategy charges your company when someone clicks your Pinterest ad.
2. Cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM): This bid option charges your business when 1000 people see your Pinterest ad.

Due to the high average cost for impressions, it’s cost-effective to use CPC. With CPC, you also ensure people interact with your ad and take notice of your pin, which may include a product, blog post, or another feature.

Pinterest advertising: Professional management

For many businesses, Pinterest is a new social media advertising channel. While you may feel comfortable with promoting your business on Facebook or Instagram, advertising on Pinterest poses new challenges and risks. It also requires more of your team’s time.

WebFX can help your business use Pinterest to your advantage. With a custom strategy, plus data-driven decisions from our proprietary and client-exclusive software, MarketingCloudFX, we can generate brand awareness, engagement, and even sales from Pinterest for you.

All these actions can help your company experience real growth.

Pinterest Ad Management

TikTok advertising costs

As the 6^th most used social platform globally, TikTok presents an excellent opportunity for your business to reach more people. To get your business in front of more TikTok users, you’ll want to invest in TikTok advertising — which means you need to know the TikTok advertising costs.

Check out this breakdown of the average costs for advertising on TikTok:

TikTok advertising: Bidding options

When it comes to TikTok pricing, you can choose from these four bidding options:

• Cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM): With CPM, you’ll pay for every 1000 impressions on your TikTok ad.
• Optimized CPM (oCPM): With oCPM, you still pay for every 1000 impressions, but oCPM targets users most likely to complete a conversion or similar advertising goal.
• Cost-per-thousand views (CPV): With CPV, you’ll pay for every 1000 video views. Your views can be either 2-second or 6-second views.
• Cost-per-click (CPC): With CPC, you’ll pay for every click your TikTok ad receives.

The best TikTok bidding strategy for your business depends on your advertising goals. For example, you might want to use CPC or oCPM if your goal is to increase conversions. Meanwhile, CPM is an excellent choice for increasing reach.

TikTok advertising: Professional management

Between ever-changing trends and well-edited videos, TikTok advertising presents a unique challenge for many companies. If you don’t have the time to learn another new social media platform, consider turning to professional management services.

At WebFX, our team of social media experts will create a custom plan to optimize your TikTok account for advertising success. We’ll help you create a video that’ll make a splash, set up tracking, and, with ongoing management, we’ll also provide goals-driven reporting.

Take advantage of TikTok advertising for your business by partnering with WebFX.

TikTok Ad Management

FAQs about social media advertising costs

If you’re looking for some additional answers on how much social media advertising costs, read our FAQ:

1. What is the average cost of social media advertising?

You can usually expect to pay around $0 – $4 per action on Instagram ads, $0 – $5 per action on Facebook ads, $0.26 – $8 per action on LinkedIn ads, $0 – $2 per action on Pinterest ads, $0.31 – $0.40 per view on YouTube ads, $0.26 – $2.00 per action on Twitter ads.

2. Why do companies advertise on social media?

The majority of businesses advertise on social media to build brand awareness (39% of respondents) and drive sales (31% of respondents). While 17% of businesses use social media ads to generate leads while 12% of businesses advertise on social media to drive web traffic.

3. How much of your advertising budget should you allocate to social media ads?

Most businesses typically allocate 5% – 40% of their overall advertising budget to social media ads (63% of respondents). How much you allocate to social media ads will depend on your company’s unique needs and goals, as well as the return you receive from your ad campaign.

4. What are the different bidding options for social media ads?

When you advertise on social media, you have access to several bidding options, including:

• Cost-per-click (CPC): You pay every time someone clicks on your ad.
• Cost-per-impressions (CPM): You pay for every 1000 ad impressions or views.

A few bidding options specific to different platforms include:

Facebook

• Cost-per-like (CPL): You pay for every Facebook like resulting from your ad.
• Cost-per-action (CPA): You pay for every action generated from your Facebook ad.

YouTube

• Cost-per-view (CPV): You pay for every view on your YouTube ad.

LinkedIn

• Cost-per-send (CPS): You pay for every LinkedIn Sponsored mail sent.
• Cost-per-open (CPO): You pay for every LinkedIn Sponsored mail opened.

Twitter

• Cost-per-engagement (CPE): You pay for every Twitter ad
• Cost-per-follow (CPF): You pay for every follower resulting from your Twitter ad.
• Cost-per-download (CPD): You pay for every download generated from your Twitter ad.

TikTok

• Optimized CPM (oCPM): You pay for every 1000 impressions, but oCPM targets users most likely to complete a conversion or similar advertising goal.
• Cost-per-thousand views (CPV): You pay for every 1000 video views. Your views can be either 2-second or 6-second views.

5. What is the difference between a budget and a bid?

To understand the difference between a budget and a bid, you need to know ad hierarchy.

When you advertise online, you have your campaign, which includes a set of ad groups. Each ad group contains ads. For example, you may have a campaign for red shoes, with an ad group for red sneakers and an ad group for red heels.

Now, when you create a campaign for social media, you set a budget. A budget is what you’re willing to spend each month on your campaign. In some cases, you may not use your entire monthly budget, due to campaign performance.

Once you determine your campaign budget, as well as build your ad groups, you set your bids. A bid is what you’re willing to pay for a user to complete an action on your ad, like following your page or viewing your video.

Keep in mind that your company doesn’t always pay your full bid amount.

Depending on the quality of your ad, as well as additional factors, you may pay less — you will never pay more than your bid. That’s why companies try to achieve high ad quality scores because it can help maximize their social media advertising costs.

6. What is the average cost for social media advertising?

The average cost of social media advertising ranges from $1000 – $25,000 per year. This amount includes advertising on multiple networks, as well as expenses related to technology, talent, and professional management.

For professional social media advertising services, prices range from $850 to $2750 per month. This rate does not include ad spend. Agencies like WebFX, however, recommend an ad spend of $200 to $1000 or more to maximize the results and performance of your campaign.

7. How does social media pricing work?

With social media pricing, there are several factors to consider, including:

• Ad spend: Your ad spend is how much you pay to each social media platform. For example, you may have an advertising budget of $800, which includes a $500 ad spend. The remaining $300 goes to other social media advertising costs, like hiring a freelance graphic designer.
• Ad management: Your ad management generally refers to what you pay an agency to manage your social media advertising campaign. This cost is optional. Agencies, however, can offer significant value in the quality and performance of your ad strategy.
• Technology: Your technology is what you spend on software for managing and monitoring your social media ad campaign. Companies often use free and paid applications. In some cases, your agency, like WebFX, provides you access to exclusive and advanced marketing software.
• Talent: Your talent can include in-house and outsourced labor. For example, your team may hire a freelance copywriter to develop your ad copy. Or, you may hire a social media agency to lead and manage your campaign.

It’s also worth mentioning that social media pricing can include marketing and advertising costs.

8. Is advertising on social media worth the cost?

Yes! In fact, 74% of businesses say that social media advertising is effective. With the right campaign, ad creatives, and audience targeting, you can drive a positive return from social media ads to drive more revenue for your business.

Wondering how happy businesses are with the ROI they receive from different social media platforms? Check out the graphic below: