Find the Real Social Media Ads Cost and Advertise as No One!

Social media networks are the forums of the present, inviting people to share their feelings and thoughts and gathering the best of our modern society. Even though it does not happen all the time on social media pages, they are still a good way of interacting with others and exchanging information about our interests, motivations, and conceptions of life.

Brands are aware of this situation! Not for nothing, they leverage the power of social media to reach and engage customers from the most dissimilar social strata and regions of the world. They know something that, at first sight, seems very logical and obvious but that many people overlook most of the time: social media is the best place for PPC advertising and other types of promotion!

But what is exactly the Social Media Ads Cost?

Social media advertising pricing depends on the social media you advertise and the type of ad you’re using. Even though we can say that the difference between prices is not significant, you still should consider the social media ad costs when creating your campaign.

Not going further, in this article, you’ll discover everything you need to know about social media advertising costs, the average PPC, the average CPC per platform, and more! Let’s go straight to the subject!

What Is Social Media Advertising?

Source: Shopify.com.

Social media advertising is the procedure of promoting a brand, a product, or a particular service through social media channels like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Social media advertising takes the form of static images, videos, carousels, GIFs, and a mix of them together with text to present the benefits of brands and products.  

• Image ads. These correspond to the most typical way of social media advertising since these channels are designed to present images to people. In general, you can use a single image or several, depending on the type of ad you’re using, the platforms, or the social media management tools available. 
• Video ads. Even though video images are the quintessence of YouTube advertising, they are still used in other social media like Instagram or Facebook since video ads are an outstanding way to engage customers. 
• Text ads. These are not so common since people are mainly visual and prefer to experience image advertisements. Still, they are great on text-based platforms like Twitter.

Social Media Average CPC Costs

Social Media Platform	Average Cost-per-Click (CPC)
Facebook	$0.97 per click
Instagram	$3.56 per click
TikTok	$1 per click
X	$0.38 per click
LinkedIn	$5.26 per click
YouTube	$3.21 per click
Pinterest	$1.50 per click

Source: Nutshell.com

What Are the Most Common Types of Social Media Advertising

Suppose you’ve already used a social media channel for personal or professional purposes. In that case, you know that there are several types of social media, each with its pros and cons. Moreover, each social media platform has its advertising service and allows you to reach your advertising goals according to your campaign budget.

Many businesses spend their ad budget on several social media to apply different advertising approaches. Although it’s recommended if you do not have enough funds, focus on a single platform and plan an accurate bidding strategy.

If you want to build brand awareness or increase your sales, then check the main social media channels for advertising, regardless if you have a small business or a cooperative giant.

Facebook Advertising

Source: Socialpilot.

Facebook advertising is the advertising service of Meta that allows you to foster your products by placing ads in the feed on desktop, feed on mobile, and in the right column of the platform. The most common types of Facebook ads are these:

• Image ads. You can boost your past posts or create totally new ones to promote a product, service, event, or any situation you want. This type of Facebook ad appears in the Facebook feed and is great for any content strategy. 
• Collection ads. If you have an e-commerce or are creating a virtual store, then collection ads are for you. In collection ads, Facebook algorithms select the best products from your catalog to show to a particular user. Thanks to collection ads, you can build a good campaign without needing a dedicated account manager.
• Dynamics ads. These ads are special since they connect your product catalog with the Facebook Events Manager and Meta Pixel. This way, every time a user visits your website and then enters Facebook, they will see related products in their feed. Businesses advertise by using dynamic ads when they want to keep users engaged across different platforms.
• Instant Experience ads. These are full-screen and multimedia ads designed for mobile whose goal is delivering rich content. In general, instant experience ads work through ad groups, providing several edges of the same product. Instant experience ads are excellent if you want to generate leads.
• Facebook Messenger ads. As their name suggests, these ads appear in the users’ tab chat of Facebook Messenger and Messenger stories. You can use previous assets you’ve created when building these types of ads.

There are several types of payment advertising models when placing your ads on Facebook. These are the following:

• Average Cost-per-Click ($0.26 – $0.50).
• Average Cost-per 1000 Impressions, or average CPM ($1.01 – $3.00).
• Average Cost-per-Like ($0.00 – $0.25).
• Average Cost-per-Download ($4.01-$5.00).

                                                                                               Instagram Advertising

Source: Socialpilot.

Instagram is part of Meta, meaning its advertisements are controlled and administered by the same algorithms as Facebook. However, ads are displayed on totally different social media platforms.

Instagram ads are posts that are promoted in the Instagram feed, stories, or both by aiming always at a target audience. Common types are the following:

• Photo ads. Single-image ads that will appear in the users’ Instagram feed. They are effective since they showcase what you want to show, like a simple product.
• Video ads. Similar to photo ads, but with a slight difference in that video ads are built with a short video expressing the best of the brand or product. They also appear in the feed.
• Stories ads. Full-screen vertical images or videos that appear between users’ stories. These are great for providing an immersive experience and engaging potential customers.
• Collection ads. These ads allow businesses to target users and let them shop directly within the ad. Collection ads contain a cover image and several smaller images below, allowing users to check products.

In Instagram advertising, costs vary greatly depending on the pricing method you choose.

• Average Cost-per-Click ($0.00 – $0.25).
• Average Cost-per 1000 Impressions ($0.00 – $4.00).
• Average Cost-per-Engagement ($0.03 – $0.08).

LinkedIn Advertising

Source: Singlegrain.

LinkedIn is a great alternative for businesses and professionals looking to put all their efforts into social media marketing services and promotion directly with other professionals. LinkedIn advertising allows you to create a social media advertising campaign focused on in-feed advertisements and direct messages. This social media platform is probably the best for creating outstanding ad campaigns for B2B.

• Text ads. These ads appear at the top and the right side of the desktop feed. Text ads are great for creating strong leads with professionals in your industry.
• Sponsored content. AKA native ads, sponsored content appears in users’ feeds regardless of whether they are using a mobile or desktop device. These types of ads are marked as “sponsored.” They can be event ads, carousel ads, single-image ads, document ads, and others. 
• Dynamic ads. They run on the right rail of the LinkedIn interface and speak to lookalike audiences directly. When a user experiences a dynamic ad, they will see their image and information integrated with the ad.
• Lead gen forms. These ads allow businesses to gather information about prospects by using pre-filled forms. Thanks to these, brands can send sponsored messages.

Cost-per-action on LinkedIn is more expensive than other social media cost-per-action pricing since it’s aligned with professional goals.

• Average Cost-per-Click ($2.00 – $3.00).
• Average Cost-per 1000 Impressions ($5.01 – $8.00).
• Average Cost-per-Send for Sponsored inMail Campaigns ($0.26 – $0.50).

YouTube Advertising

Source: Simplilearn.

YouTube ads are probably one of the most useful for any type of business and brand since it boasts a total of 122 million users per day. Any social media strategy or campaign should consider using YouTube advertising when creating an ad campaign to impress, shock, and affect viewers.

When creating your YouTube social media campaign, you can opt for creating in-feed ads, skippable and non-skippable ads, bumper ads, and more! Each ad type will deliver you different results and have different ad costs.

• In-feed ads. These ads are served on the YouTube Home Feed and search. They have no max length.
• Skippable ads. These are videos you can skip after six seconds. These also have no max length. Skippable ads are great for generating an impact on viewers.
• Non-skippable ads. These are short ads you can’t skip. So, you have to watch it to watch the main content. They have a max length of 15-30 seconds. 
• Bumper ads. These are quick ads that cannot be skipped. They are great for reinforcing ads and increasing awareness. They last up to six seconds. 
• Outstream ads. These are ads with no max length that work outside YouTube, in third-party pages related to YouTube.

Paid social pricing on YouTube is very similar to other social media pricing. Still, creating these ads can be more expensive.

• Average Cost-per-View ($0.31-$0.40).
• Average Cost-per-Thousand views ($10 – $30).

Twitter Advertising

Source: Financesonline.

Undoubtedly, X, formerly known as Twitter, is one of the most relevant social media platforms, especially after its purchase by Elon Musk. Nowadays, Twitter boasts over 650 million users, and this number is growing and growing. X allows you to create social media ad campaigns through four types of Twitter ads:

• Image ads. These are the most common types of X ads since they allow you to use a single photo to promote your product or service. 
• Video ads. These ads facilitate you to communicate ideas visually and lead people to your website, landing page, etcetera.
• Carousel ads. These are up to six horizontally swipeable images or videos to promote different products with the same advertising budget. 
• Text ads. These correspond to native ads that look like regular posts and the rest of the X content. They work organically and allow you to reach followers outside your audience.

The average costs of advertisements on this popular social media platform are the following:

• Average Cost-per-First Action ($0.26 – $0.50).
• Average Cost-per-Follow ($1.01 – $2.00).
• Twitter’s average CPM ($6.59 – $7.19).

Pinterest Advertising

Source: Thesocialshepherd.

Pinterest is probably the least popular social media platform on this list, but it’s still gaining thousands of followers over time. On the day of writing, Pinterest boasts over 400 million users, which means a wide group of potential customers you can’t overlook.

There are several types of social media Pinterest ads you can use to entice customers and encourage them to interact with your ad.

• Collection ads. The ads are displayed in the mobile feed and entail a large image followed by three other smaller images.
• Video ads. They are pretty similar to those you can find on Twitter since you can use a short video to promote your brand or product. They are also known as Promoted pins. You can choose between a regular vertical format or a wide version of them. These are great alternatives when creating a marketing strategy based on audio-video.
• Carousel ads. These ads are integrated with several images of the same or a different product. They are great for reaching high levels of engagement, which means masses of clicks and visits to your website.
• Shopping ads. These ads are designed especially for driving online sales through the funnel and helping leads to complete a purchase. You create an ad group, and Pinterest randomly shows the ads to potential buyers.

The average cost of Pinterest paid ads:

• Average Cost-per-Click ($0.00 – $0.10).
• Average Cost-per-Conversion ($0.00 – $2.00).
• Average Cost-per-Thousand Impressions ($1.01 – $1.50).

TikTok Advertising

Source: Blog.hootsuite.com.

TikTok is one of the most downloaded social media. In general, TikTok ads are considered expensive compared to other social media advertising, but still, the price depends on the type of ad you decide to use. However, TikTok ads show a high level of engagement, so they are an important part of any social media digital marketing strategy.

Some types of TikTok ads are the following:

• In-feed ads. These are organic ads appearing just like any other video content on the platform. In-feed ads receive the most engagement and get a high social media presence. The most recommended is that these ads last 21 seconds.
• TopView ads. These types of ads are similar to in-feed ads but with a subtle difference: brands have guaranteed three seconds of attention since viewers cannot scroll down the video before this time finishes. Any social media agency interested in promoting ads on TikTok should pay extra attention to TopView ads.
• Brand Takeover ads. These are full-screen ads that are put in the front and center of the screen. These play for five seconds and appear as soon as you open the ad. It’s recommended to create several different types of brand takeover ads to obtain higher brand recognition. This way, you can also avoid repetitiveness while keeping users’ attention.
• Branded effects. These are ads that allow you to add filters, shareable stickers, lenses, and more to build creative ads in this ad space. Branded effects are excellent for spreading awareness and enhancing a particular campaign or mission. Small businesses should implement them to excite viewers with funny ad content. 
• Branded hashtag challenge. Through this type of ad, brands prompt users to participate in campaigns as well as promote a particular product or service related to the challenge. These ads work greatly when combined with other ads, like the two types mentioned above. These ads ensure hundreds and thousands of plays and encourage creators and influencers to use the hashtag.   
• Spark ads. These correspond to in-feed ads that are generated from brands’ own TikTok videos or content. Besides, these ads allow users to use audio or video in their content.

TikTok features a minimum daily budget of $50 and a minimum of $20 per day at the ad group level.

• Average Cost-per-Click ($0.02 – $0.10). 
• Average Cost-per-Mile ($0.50 – $9.16).

What Are the Benefits of Social Media Advertising Campaigns?

One campaign with several ad groups on different social media platforms is useful in many ways. Let’s check the main benefits of advertising on social media. 

Low-Cost Advertising

Contrary to other types of advertising, such as Google Ads, social media channels allow you to place ads at a really low cost. Of course, and as you can notice in the section above, average costs differ from platform to platform, but they remain among the cheapest ways of promoting ads across the entire Internet.  

Increase Brand Awareness

Since you can reach people who are not following you or your brand, audience targeting is a bit wider on social media, especially in those that have a big number of users.

In general, advertisements that integrate visuals, videos, images, carousels, and more are better for increasing brand awareness. The same occurs with Google display ads, which are perfect for searchers and viewers to know your logo and become familiar with your brand’s name.

A Higher Lead Generation

Social media services are designed to maintain your profile or brand in front of thousands of people to expand your horizons and increase sales. Social media lead-generation ads are perfect for attracting users to interact with your paid advertising by subscribing to an email list before the release of a product or participating in a special event or sale.

For instance, LinkedIn ads are excellent when looking for more leads in a B2B model and even increasing website traffic from experts or other brands or businesses. Therefore, whether you have an e-commerce site or a SaaS company, you should want to implement a LinkedIn ad strategy to boost your lead acquisition.

Drive Traffic to Your Landing Page

One of the main goals of most marketers, retailers, and other incumbents is to increase direct sales. In this sense, one of the most important strategies is to lead potential customers to your landing page and encourage them to complete the purchasing process.

A marketing budget for social marketing efforts should be allocated to increase website visitors, give crucial information about the final product, and include a call-to-action button to make the purchase easier.  

Present an Attractive Format for Your Audience

Social platforms have a crucial advantage over search engines or general websites. This is because social media advertising is visually appealing and aims at viewers’ senses. They are also capable of reaching people according to their target demographic and interests. This way, businesses and brands can communicate ideas and convey their conception of the products and benefits to viewers in an appealing manner.

How to Calculate the Social Media Advertising Cost?

The general formula for calculating custom pricing on social media advertising is to divide the total amount spent by the number of impressions, visualizations, or clicks, depending on the platforms in which you’re advertising.

The aforementioned is the general rule for CPC or Cost-per-Click advertising, the most common pricing method on most social media.

However, when advertising on social media, you need to set up a maximum and minimum daily spend and demographics to determine the segment you want to target.

Most social media advertising works through an auction system, which means you must set a determined amount of money you’re willing to pay for each impression, visualization, or click. The reason for this is to get the best ad placement so that your ad appears for users with the highest intent. 

What Should You Consider When Creating Your Social Media Ad?

The data you include when creating your advertisements is also crucial to determining the target audience and users watching your ad when navigating through the social media feed.

For instance, the title or header of the ad should reflect the name of the product and its benefits. Of course, you should also include the main keywords of your brand’s industry.

When writing the description of your ad, you should also include primary keywords, highlight direct benefits and offers, and generate a sense of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Finally, it’s also crucial you configure the target audience as accurately as possible since targeting users interested in your product or service depends on this. The power of precise targeting on Meta and other social media channels can drive you to substantial ROI, especially for B2C businesses.

How Much Should You Invest in Social Media Ad Spend?

Despite businesses spending different amounts of money on ads, whether you have a big or a small business, you should allocate between 10-20% of your total budget to advertising.

Of course, the percentage of your total budget should be directly related to the effectiveness of your campaign, in other words, to the cost-effective ratio of your ads.

Suppose your campaign is not delivering the results you expect. In that case, you probably should change the perspective and change the ad types by hiring a professional designer, marketer, or marketing agency to help you with the creation of your ads and campaign.

This is when GamerSEO comes to the scene!

GamerSEO is the professional marketing agency you need if you want to reach the top of social media advertising. Our team of experts, creatives, editors, writers, and marketers will analyze your case and the nature of your brand and propose the best approach to achieve your goals.

Keep in mind that not all social media will fit your brand, product, and goals. As such, we help you choose those that deliver the best campaign performance according to your targeting options, lifetime budget, and followers. 

We invite you to send us a message through our contact form to ask for our social media advertising services and, together, find out the cost of social media advertising. As your social media manager, we will find the right balance for the social network is the best for you!

Summing It Up!

How much do ads cost on social networks? How many ads does your brand need to achieve the goals that it’s expecting? Tough question that we’ve answered in the previous sections. Still, the total cost of a social media campaign will depend on the amount you’re willing to spend on primary social media and additional networks.

Summarizing: ad costs will vary depending on different factors, including the platform and the type of ad. However, they are significantly cheaper than other advertising models, like PPC or display ads on the Display Network. In this context, Instagram boasts the lowest cost for cost-per-click. Moreover, it’s a great platform to entice new customers and increase conversions.