What Is CPC

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Facebook Ads CPC

By Oliver Wakefield-Smith, Digital Signet. Updated July 2026.

Meta's clicks are the cheap ones: link-click CPC averaged $0.70 for traffic campaigns in 2025, down from $0.77 in 2024 LocaliQ, 2025 data. Cheap is not the same as effective; the intent gap does the real accounting.

The measured numbers, by objective

LocaliQ Facebook benchmarks, 2025

Traffic campaigns, link-click CPC$0.70
Traffic CTR1.71%
Lead-gen campaigns, CPC$1.92
Lead-gen CVR7.72%
Lead-gen cost per lead$27.66

All figures LocaliQ, 2025 data. Two details matter. These are link clicks, not the all-clicks metric that counts reactions and photo expands; and the objective you choose changes the price, because Meta auctions ad delivery against the outcome you asked for. Lead-gen clicks cost nearly triple traffic clicks and are worth it when they are the point.

What Meta itself publishes

Auction pricing with no rate card, and a published budget floor: ads can run from a $5 minimum budget over a minimum 6-day duration, a floor on spend, not a per-click rate Meta, ads pricing. Meta also documents that daily budgets may fluctuate up to 75% above the stated amount on a given day, averaged back over 7 days.

Cheap clicks, colder intent

A Facebook click interrupted someone; a Google click answered someone. That is why a $0.70 click does not simply beat a $5.42 one: conversion downstream decides. The arithmetic for comparing them properly, per lead rather than per click, is worked on Google Ads vs Facebook Ads.

When Facebook wins for a local budget: visual products, offers, and audiences you can name precisely (new residents, parents near a school). Also see Instagram, which shares this auction, the LinkedIn compare for B2B, and the search benchmarks for the other side of the market.