Facebook ad costs are auction prices, so a single "average" is the wrong starting point. The current primary benchmark for unit costs is WordStream's 2026 Facebook ads benchmarks. Meta's earnings release is a different report: it states how much advertisers paid the company, and how the average price per ad moved, across every placement.
Two kinds of Facebook cost
Unit costs are what one click or one lead cost in a defined sample. WordStream reports these by campaign objective. A traffic campaign and a leads campaign are not the same price.
Total ad spend is what advertisers paid Meta in a quarter. Meta's Q2 2026 advertising revenue was $59.363 billion. That number does not tell you the cost of one click for a local business.
This page uses the first for planning a campaign and the second only to show the direction of Meta's own pricing.
How the auction sets a unit cost
Facebook and Instagram ads run in an auction. You do not buy a fixed rate card. For each impression, Meta weighs your bid, how likely the person is to take the action you chose, and ad quality. A relevant ad can pay less than a larger advertiser's weak ad for the same audience.
The unit you watch depends on the objective:
CPM: cost per 1,000 impressions. WordStream's 2026 Facebook benchmark page does not publish a CPM. This page does not fill that gap with a range.
CPC: cost per click. Reported separately for traffic and leads.
Cost per lead: cost per lead on leads-objective campaigns. This is an inquiry cost in that sample, not a booked job.
Cost per acquisition: cost per sale or other conversion you define. The WordStream report below does not publish a cross-industry CPA.
WordStream 2026 unit costs
WordStream, with LocaliQ, calls the figures below "averages." The methodology note says they are medians, in U.S. dollars, so a few expensive campaigns do not set the midpoint. Sample, from that same note:
Traffic objective: 1,377 U.S. Facebook campaigns running from April 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. Each industry row has at least 11 active campaigns.
Leads objective: 452 U.S. Facebook campaigns in the same window. Each industry row has at least 4 active campaigns.
All-industry medians:
| Metric | Objective | 2026 median | Prior report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per click | Traffic | $0.60 | $0.70 (14.29% lower) |
| Click-through rate | Traffic | 1.93% | Higher than the prior report. The 2026 summary does not print the old all-industry rate. |
| Cost per click | Leads | $1.80 | $1.92 (down 6.25%) |
| Conversion rate | Leads | 8.54% | Up 10.62% versus the prior report |
| Cost per lead | Leads | $27.39 | $27.66 (down 0.98%) |
The $0.70, $1.92, and $27.66 figures that older versions of this page called "2026" are the prior WordStream report. The 2026 page replaces them with the medians above.
Industry medians move the number more than the all-industry line. On traffic campaigns, Home and Home Improvement is $0.63 per click. On leads campaigns, that category is $2.18 per click, a 5.32% conversion rate, and $42.95 per lead. Dentists and Dental Services are $61.56 per lead. Restaurants are not in the leads cost-per-lead table on the 2026 page. Use the row for your category, and remember a lead here is a form or message in the sample, not a job you booked.
The WordStream page shows a byline date of February 18, 2026, and a sample that runs through June 30, 2026. This article follows the methodology note for the window and the sample size. It does not treat the byline date as the end of the sample.
Meta's reported totals are not those unit costs
Meta's Q2 2026 results (quarter ended June 30, 2026) report:
Advertising revenue: $59.363 billion, up 27% from a year earlier (26% if foreign exchange is held at 2025 rates). This is total spend, not a CPC.
Ad impressions: up 14% year over year across the Family of Apps.
Average price per ad: up 12% year over year. Meta's earnings call attributes that to ad performance, a stronger comparison with Q2 2025, and currency, partly offset by impression growth on lower-priced surfaces and regions.
Family daily active people: 3.60 billion on average in June 2026, up 3%. That is reach, not a price.
A 12% rise in Meta's average price per ad can sit next to a lower WordStream median CPC. They measure different things. Meta's price per ad covers every objective, placement, and country. WordStream's medians are U.S. campaigns on two objectives, in one vendor's client set, over April 2025 through June 2026.
What moves your unit cost
Two accounts can miss these medians by a wide margin. Costs tend to rise when many advertisers bid on the same people, when the ad gets little response, when the audience is too small to exit the learning phase, or when the same creative has been shown too often. Costs tend to fall when the creative gets the action you bid for, when the audience is broad enough for delivery, and when you avoid the weeks when every retailer bids at once.
Meta still needs a conversion signal. Install the pixel and the Conversions API before you judge a cost per lead. Without events, the auction optimizes for a proxy and the unit cost is hard to read.
How to plan a budget
Meta does not publish one minimum that applies to every objective, country, and bid type. Each ad set has its own delivery requirements. See Meta's budget help for the current rules, and expect them to vary.
A practical way to set the number:
Start from what a customer is worth and the share of leads that become customers in your own records. If you do not know that share, do not borrow one from this page.
Give the campaign enough weekly results to leave learning. Many local accounts use something like $20 to $50 a day per campaign as a planning floor. That is a planning habit, not a Meta rule and not a WordStream finding.
Hold creative and audience steady long enough to read the median, then refresh creative when response drops.
$1,000 to $1,500 a month is a common planning budget for a first test. It is not a required spend, and it is not a promise of leads at $27.39.
Facebook is one layer. Adwave runs Facebook and Instagram in the same daily budget as TV and, at higher budgets, Google Search. On the published ladder, Facebook and Instagram are on at $30 a day. Google Search opens at $67 a day. TikTok is early access at $91 a day and is not in the default mix. Details are on pricing.
Common questions
How much is a Facebook click in 2026? In the WordStream sample, the median is $0.60 on traffic campaigns and $1.80 on leads campaigns. Those are medians for U.S. campaigns from April 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, not a rate card.
What is a Facebook lead worth in that sample? The all-industry median cost per lead is $27.39 on leads campaigns. Home and Home Improvement is $42.95. A lead is not a booked appointment.
Did Facebook get more expensive? Meta's average price per ad rose 12% year over year in Q2 2026. WordStream's U.S. medians for traffic CPC and leads CPC were lower than its prior report. Quote the metric you mean.
What is a good CPM? This WordStream report does not publish one. Do not use a CPM from an older version of this page.
Is Facebook cheaper than TV? They are different units. A Facebook CPC is not a connected TV CPM. Compare them only after you pick the result you are buying, such as a site visit or a lead, and measure that result on each channel.
