If you run a business you’ve no doubt heard of Facebook ads, also known as Meta ads. Whether you’ve already dabbled in running your own Facebook ads with little results or you’ve never tried them for yourself, you’ve probably at some point wondered ‘Are Facebook ads worth it?’

As a business owner, you don’t want to be spending money on or dedicating precious time to something that doesn’t perform or isn’t suited to your brand. Therefore, you want assurance that something is going to pay off before you invest in it. So, are Facebook ads worth it for your business?

As digital advertising specialists, we’re going to explain when and why advertising on Facebook is effective, and how to run successful Facebook ad campaigns.

What are Facebook ads?

Facebook ads, also referred to as Meta ads, are ads run through Facebook’s advertising platform. They work by targeting a group of Facebook users who share similar characteristics or interests, and placing your ads on these users’ News Feeds, in between posts and stories, or on the right column when they’re browsing Facebook. Meta ads can also be shown to users across Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, as they are all owned by Meta.

Facebook ads offer eight different ad formats to choose from, which cater to different goals. These include:

  • Photo/Static ads
  • Video ads
  • Stories ads
  • Messenger ads
  • Carousel ads
  • Slideshow ads
  • Collection ads
  • Playables

Are Facebook ads effective in 2024?

Facebook has been around for a very long time in terms of social media channels. With new platforms popping up all the time and becoming more and more popular, many probably wonder if Facebook ads are still effective in 2024.

In short, the answer is yes.

Facebook is still the most popular social media platform as of July 2024, with 3.07 billion users worldwide. WhatsApp and Instagram, also both owned by Meta, are the third and fourth most popular social media channels, respectively, each with over 2 billion global users. Users also reportedly spend 19 hours and 27 minutes a month on the Facebook app, making it one of the most engaging platforms.

Facebook is also the third most visited website in the world, so it is an audience-rich source businesses can utilise for advertising. On top of this, Facebook advertising can be a very cost-effective form of advertising, compared to other platforms and marketing streams. The average return on ad spend across all ads on Facebook is 3:1. This means for every £100 you put in, on average, you would get £300 back. This ROAS differs for each industry, so it’s worth looking up the average ROAS for your sector.

Agencies who are skilled in Facebook ads, like Castle, can achieve much higher ROAS for their clients. For example, for one of our clients, we have achieved an average of 10.41:1 ROAS across their Meta ads. This is down to the different strategies we have implemented, targeting specific groups of people with tailored ad creatives and ad copy and through testing and continual refinements and optimisations.

Image of a person sat at a desk using a laptop and a mobile phone. Hovering above the laptop and phone are graphics showing ads and stats

Facebook vs. Google ads

While Google ads are great for targeting high-intent customers and those already searching for brands, products or services like yours, they generally cost more and take longer to get going. Facebook, however, is good for targeting a wide audience, as well as much more specific targeted audiences, and conducting general brand awareness. It focuses on interests you can combine to create your target audience, allowing you to advertise based on interest versus intent.

Facebook’s targeting capabilities are incredible. Their algorithm is second to none when it comes to discovering new potential customers. Facebook also offers a wider variety of ad types and formats than Google does, giving you more creative license to capture audiences in new ways with different types of ads. As Facebook is owned by Meta, along with Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and the Audience Network, you can also advertise across these platforms, too.

Ideally, you would run Facebook and Google ads in unison as an integrated strategy, as they are both great for targeting your audience and generating revenue for different reasons. Used together, you can grow your business even faster than using one channel alone. However, if you have a limited budget and want to reach more targeted audiences, Facebook Ads are probably the best option for your business.

Things to consider before investing in Facebook ads for your business

Like most things, there are advantages and disadvantages to running Facebook ads for your business. There are a few things you need to weigh up before you decide to start running Facebook ads to discover if it’s worth it for you. Before you dive straight into setting up Facebook ads, here are a few things you should consider:

Is your target audience on Facebook? A wide audience of people use Facebook, so it is likely that people in your target audience are on there, however, there may be some instances where your customers aren’t very active on the platform, and therefore, it may not be the best way to reach them. It’s worth noting that Facebook is owned by Meta, which also owns Instagram, and you can run both Facebook and Instagram ads from the Facebook ads manager. So, if you’re audience isn’t big on Facebook but they are avid Instagram users, it’s still worth considering investing in Facebook ads.

What is your budget? If you have a relatively small budget and haven’t allocated enough spend to ads, you will likely struggle to get results or scale campaigns. Facebook ads ideally require several ad campaigns to test which creatives work best, and so your budget needs to be enough to allocate enough daily spend to each creative, otherwise, your reach will be limited by budget. This said Facebook ads are one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising, with the daily minimum spend as low as $1 a day.

What industry are you in? The ad types you will run will differ depending on your business. For example, B2C eCommerce businesses can use Facebook’s product catalogue function to run dynamic carousel ads that showcase products and allow customers to tap to buy quickly and easily. Whereas B2B companies can use Facebook ads lead forms to gather data from their customers quickly through Facebook, helping to maximise the number of leads they get.

Some sectors simply cannot advertise on Facebook, whether that’s because of what they sell or the terms of service. Things like tobacco, drugs and unapproved supplements are prohibited from advertising on Facebook.

Graphic of a shopping trolley icon lit up in multicolour

How much do Facebook ads cost?

The cost of Facebook ads differs based on various factors, including industry, region, time of the year, audience etc., but there are some average stats you can use as a benchmark if you want an idea of cost.

Cost per click (CPC)

This is an important metric to monitor when running traffic campaigns to generate brand awareness or more traffic to your site. Many factors can affect your CPC, including the creative, ad copy, targeting, ad format and call to action. The average cost per click across all industries on Facebook is $1.72. Average cost per click differs from industry to industry, so it’s worth checking what your average CPC would be for your sector.

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM)

When running brand awareness campaigns, the number of people you are reaching and who are viewing your ad is important. The average CPM on Facebook as of August 2024 is $9.26 in the US and around $8.37 in the UK. The industry you are in, the people you are targeting and the quality of your ad can affect your CPM.

Cost per lead (CPL)

When you’re running campaigns to generate leads as opposed to sales, the CPL is the metric you’ll want to keep an eye on in order to optimise your campaigns effectively. According to statistics, the average CPL for Facebook ads is $18.34 as of June 2024.

Cost per conversion (CPC)

Cost per conversion is the average price you pay per converted customer. This metric helps you to determine how much your ads are costing you compared to the revenue you’re generating and can help you determine their effectiveness. The average cost per conversion for Facebook Ads was $18.68 last year.

According to Wordstream, the average conversion rate for Facebook ads is 9.21% across all industries, which is higher than other advertising platforms like Google Ads, which has an average conversion rate of 4.40% on the search network and 0.57% on the display network.

An experienced Facebook ad specialist agency will be able to help you keep your spend down while maximising your return on investment.

The benefits of Facebook ads

A man on a phone in a room surrounded by graphics of social media posts and sites.

Reach a huge audience from one platform  

As previously mentioned, Facebook is the most popular social media channel, with over 3 billion monthly active users, more than any other channel. The audience isn’t just large, it spans across a wide range of demographics, so no matter who your business is targeting, you should be able to find their audience profile on Facebook.

Facebook allows you to input advanced demographics for targeting and has its own function, where it determines your audience by testing the ad out and then refining the targeting itself. Plus, it’s a global channel, so if your business operates across several countries, you can target them all through Facebook ads.

There are options for both B2C and B2B businesses

Many people wrongly think that Facebook ads only cater to B2C customers, but many B2B companies run incredibly successful Facebook ad campaigns to generate leads, including ourselves! According to Meta, business decision-makers spend 74% more time per day on Facebook than others. They use Facebook more minutes each day, more days each week, and more weeks per month than the average person.

This means you can target other business owners via Facebook, and there are even targeting options to refine for job title, employer name, and employer industry to refine your audience further. Facebook leads ads allow you to easily build out forms that prospective customers can answer quickly and easily on the platform, so they no longer even have to leave Facebook to provide you with their details, helping to maximise conversions.

Facebook ads are also great for B2C companies. The advanced targeting options allow you to refine your audience to those who are most likely to purchase your products, and there are several ad types which are designed for eCommerce brands. Collection ads connect directly with your shopping feed on your website and dynamically update, allowing people to view and buy your products directly from Facebook. Carousel ads are also great, as they allow you to upload a collection of up to 10 images, each with its own CTA.

A graphic of a phone with blank Facebook ads. Facebook ads concept.

There are limitless targeting possibilities

Due to the huge number of people using Facebook and its associated platforms, your targeting options are endless. Facebook allows you to hone in on specific audiences based on demographics, interests and behaviours and even retarget those who have already interacted with your brand. You can target broad audiences across many regions, which is great for brand awareness and top-of-the-funnel campaigns. You can also target very specific audiences in certain locations with specific interests.

You can retarget people effectively

Showing ads to an audience that has already showed interest in your brand is a great way to maximise conversions. Thanks to the Facebook Pixel, once a user has interacted with your ad, page, website or your brand in any way, you can retarget them through remarketing campaigns so they repeatedly see your ads, encouraging them to purchase or sign up and keeping you front of mind. You can create ads that speak specifically to them, reminding them to go back and complete their purchase or even offering discount codes to sweeten the deal and encourage them to convert.

Facebook ads also allow you to set up lookalike audiences based on existing email lists or website visitors, so if these people are using Facebook too, they can be targeted with ads there.

Tailored call-to-action buttons

 Facebook has a range of tailored button options you can incorporate into your ads with a specific call-to-action you can link to your desired conversion action. For example, if you’re selling a product, you can have a ‘Buy now’ button and include a discount code like ‘SAVE10’ to encourage people to click and purchase.

Increase brand awareness

As Facebook has such a huge amount of users and you can reach a wide audience of people, running Facebook ads is a great way to increase your brand awareness, getting your brand in front of more people. And because you can simultaneously run ads on Facebook and Instagram, that’s a lot of people who can potentially be viewing your ads while they’re scrolling social media.

Get more website traffic and conversions

By running Facebook ads, you can drive a large amount of traffic to your website. Provided your website is user-friendly and optimised for conversion, this can, therefore, lead to an increase in conversions, generating you more revenue.

A persons hand touching a hovering graphic that says ads with a bar chart next to it.

They’re very scalable

Facebook ads are a very scalable form of advertising. You can choose how much you want to spend daily or throughout the lifetime of the campaign, and this can be upped or downed accordingly based on your campaign’s performance. Scaling ads that are performing well is relatively simple, and as there are no limits on budgets or spend across the platform, you can continue to scale as much as you like.

This makes Facebook ads great for businesses that want to test out different campaigns to find out what works or businesses who don’t want to invest a lot of money into ads to start with, as you can start small and build over time.

You can build an email database for email marketing

One thing a lot of people don’t realise or take advantage of is that you can build a database of emails you can use for your email marketing campaigns through Facebook ads. Facebook pixels gather all kinds of leverageable data, including gathering customer emails tied to users’ accounts that interact with your ads. Over time, this forms a robust list of contacts you can use for email marketing, which is another stream of revenue generation for your business.

You can A/B and split test ads

Facebook allows you to A/B test and Split test ads to improve your results. A/B testing gives you the opportunity to compare two versions of an ad strategy by slightly differing variables such as the creative, text, audience or placement. They show these different versions to a segment of your audience, ensuring no one sees both so you can determine which ad performs the best. The Facebook ad platform allows you to use split testing to display ad variants on one campaign, which can be set up with specific budgets, for set periods, and with custom audiences.

A/B test concept image. A graphic of two cartoon hands holding phones, the one of the left has 'A' above it and a pie chart with 75% coloured in, and on the right it says 'B' above it and with a pie chart next to it with 85% coloured in.

It can be an incredibly cost-effective form of marketing

Facebook ads are one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising as they tend to be cheaper than most other alternative sources of advertising. The average cost of Facebook ads is around $0.94 per click, and they offer some of the best return on investment (ROI) across all forms of advertising. Facebook ads allow you to stop, start and pause your ads at any time.  You can run ads on Facebook for as little as $1 a day, so if you have a lower budget for ad spend, Facebook may be the way to go. Provided you maintain a good return on ad spend (ROAS), Facebook ads can generate a significant amount of revenue, helping you to grow your business for a relatively low cost.

So, are Facebook ads worth it for your business?

In short, yes! Facebook ads are worth it. Facebook ads remain a strong investment for brands thanks to the social media platforms’ unparalleled reach. They’re great for businesses across many sectors and with differing goals, and they are cost-effective and scalable, allowing you to generate increased traffic and maximise revenue. They also offer quick results as once you have launched your ads, they’re usually approved within 24 hours and you can start seeing the data in real time.  

If you’re considering setting up Facebook ads for your business, why not get in touch with one of our specialists? With many years of experience running successful Facebook ad campaigns for clients in a wide range of industries, we can guarantee you success through Facebook ads. Read more about the success we’ve achieved for clients through Facebook ads in our social ads case studies.

Get in touch with our team today on 0151 244 7553 or info@castle.co.uk.