Have you ever wondered what a good cost per click (CPC) is for a paid social media campaign?
There are a couple of important factors to consider when looking at your CPC:
- What industry are you in?
- On which social media platform are you running your ads?
If you’re running ads for a business that revolves around entertainment, the arts, food, fashion, gimmicks, or cute pets, you’re going to get a better overall CPC. These industries are simply better suited for social media than professional industries as they are perceived as fun, and fun is a big part of why people are on social media in the first place. If you’re running ads for a business that revolves around a professional service, such as law or accounting, you’re going to pay more for your clicks on your ads, as your subject matter isn’t as naturally engaging or as well suited to social.
CPC and the Various Social Platforms
Facebook ads are definitely the way to go for businesses within the “fun” industries. The Facebook Business Manager offers excellent targeting and will allow you to run ads simultaneously on both Facebook and Instagram. For those within these industries, the goal should be to be to pay a maximum of $0.99 per click. We consider $0.15 to $0.99 to be an excellent CPC rate, and fun businesses can certainly achieve this on Facebook and Instagram.
Businesses that offer professional services should have different expectations for their cost per click. If you’re within one of these more “serious” industries, you’re probably going to be looking at $2 to $4 per click on Facebook. It’s more expensive, but this is a realistic spend.
LinkedIn may be far better suited to professional industries when it comes to running ads, but watch out! The CPC is extremely high on LinkedIn. You might get more quality leads, but oftentimes you’ll be spending closer to $20 per click.
Twitter is a bit of a wild card when it comes to ads, with the cost per click usually ranging somewhere between your typical Facebook/Instagram CPC and your LinkedIn CPC. However, your CPC on Twitter can really depend on your specific subject matter. Like we said, it’s a bit of a wild card!
A/B Testing
Doing A/B testing on your ads can help you determine what is and isn’t working for you, and can thereby help you keep your advertising on target. When you do A/B testing, you can check on your ads to see how they’re doing, and tweak the target audience as you go. You may need to engage in a lot of trial-and-error on your ad design, copy, and targeting in order to whittle down your CPC to a price that’s providing a worthwhile return on your investment. However, the quality of the leads you can get is so industry and platform dependent that sometimes one click for $25 on LinkedIn might actually be more valuable to you than the 25 clicks at $0.99 each on Facebook. It will be up to your testing and tweaking to determine what a “good” CPC is for your business.
If you need help strategizing and executing your social media ads, get in touch! We’d be happy to provide a free consultation to discuss your business and to forecast a realistic CPC for your ads.
