If your business is utilizing Facebook to run advertisements, there are a lot of factors that come into play. One of the most talked about is the CPM score, which is cost per one thousand impressions. It’s a popular metric in the world of Facebook advertising, because it provides you with an estimate for the cost of running an advertising campaign. When analyzing this metric, keep in mind that the “impressions” referenced are the total number of times your audience is looking at your ad. So, you’ll pay according to the impressions you get on the ads you run.
Do you have a good Facebook CPM?
Before you can determine whether you have a good Facebook CPM score, you first need to boil down the numbers and calculate your score. To do this, you’ll need to take the total ad spend and divide that by the number of impressions the ad has received. Then, you’ll multiply that number by 1,000.
For example, if you’re investing $50 on an ad campaign and getting 5,000 impressions, then your CPM will be $10.
This is calculated by:
50 divided by 5,000 = 0.01
0.01 X 1,000 = 10
Is $10 a good CPM to have? it depends.
On average, a good CPM is $1.39, $1.38, $1.00, $1.75, and $0.78 for the telecommunications, general retail, health and beauty, publishing, and entertainment industries, respectively. It’s important to keep in mind that the estimate will vary depending on the industry your business falls in, so you can’t rely on any number you come across during your research - unless it’s for your specific industry.
So, in this case, if you’re a general retailer, the average CPM is $1.39. If you’re running Facebook ads and your CPM is above $1.39 -- you’re paying too much to run the ad. But, if it’s below $1.39, it’s money well spent, and you’re getting a good deal.
Before you make moves to reduce your Facebook CPM, you should also consider that the average cost per thousand impressions is usually around $11.20, which is not too far from our example above of $10. When you know the average spent on CPM, this can help you from spending an excessive amount of money on your ad campaign. Even this average can fluctuate when you take into consideration variables like ad quality and competition.
It’s all in the numbers
While calculating your Facebook CPM is an exact science, predicting what your CPM will be ahead of time is not. Be sure you stay on top of your CPM factors, and pay attention to the averages within your industry. The last thing you want to do is waste money on an ad campaign that isn’t getting you the results you had hoped for.
