What does it cost to advertise on Facebook and Instagram?

You pay for two things

When people ask what Facebook ads cost, two things often get mixed up:

• The ad budget – the money that goes to Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram) to show your ads. You decide this yourself, and it is charged to your own ad account.
• The work – the time it takes to write text and create images, choose an audience, set up the campaign and keep an eye on the results. Either you do it yourself, or you pay someone to do it.

It is a good idea to keep these two separate when you compare quotes. An agency that seems cheap may take a large share of the ad budget, while one that seems more expensive may give you more in return because the ads perform better.

How the price is set: an auction

Meta does not sell ad space at a fixed price. Every time someone opens Facebook or Instagram, an auction decides which ads they will see. Who “wins” depends on three things:

1. How much you are willing to pay – set by your budget.
2. How likely the person is to do what you want – for example, click or buy.
3. How good and relevant the ad is – ads that people like and react to are rewarded with a lower price.

This means a good ad literally becomes cheaper to show. That is why it pays to spend time on the text and images, not just on the budget.

What makes ads expensive or cheap?

• The audience. A small, sought-after audience – for example, managers in a particular industry – costs more to reach than “everyone aged 25 to 60 in Innlandet”.
• Time of year. In the run-up to Christmas and during big sales, many advertisers compete for the same people, and prices go up.
• The campaign goal. Showing the ad to lots of people (awareness) is usually cheaper per person than getting people to fill in a form or buy something.
• The quality of the ad. Ads that stop the scroll and get reactions are shown at a lower price.
• How well your website works. If people click through to a slow or messy page, you get fewer customers for the same money.

How much should a small business start with?

There is no single right answer, but a few rules of thumb help:

• Start with a test budget that you can afford to spend over two to four weeks. That gives Meta enough data to find the right people, and you enough numbers to see what works.
• Test two or three versions of the ad at the same time, instead of betting everything on one.
• Scale up gradually on what works, and stop what doesn’t.

A small budget can deliver good results when the audience is local and the message is clear. A big budget does little good if the ad misses the mark.

How do you know if it pays off?

Before you start, decide what counts as a result: an enquiry, a booking, a sale or simply more people in the area knowing about you. Then do a simple calculation:

What does it cost to get one new customer, and what is a new customer worth to you?

If a customer is worth NOK 5,000 over time, and it costs you NOK 500 to get one through ads, that is good business. With Campaign Shark, you get these numbers in a weekly report in plain language, so you don’t have to guess.

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