How Much Do Facebook Ads Cost in Australia? 2025 Benchmarks and Breakdown

You’re not alone if you’ve ever launched a Facebook campaign and felt like your budget vanished faster than a freebie at a trade show. Facebook ad costs in 2025 are as fluid as ever, shifting with market trends, competition, and even the day of the week.

The good news? You do not need a bottomless budget to compete. All you need is a thorough understanding of how Facebook’s ad ecosystem works, and, most importantly, how to make the algorithm work in your favour.

This comprehensive guide covers all the important aspects, from how much Facebook ads cost in Australia to the factors influencing pricing, budgeting tips, and performance benchmarks.

What Should You Expect to Pay in 2025?

Even though Facebook advertising isn’t free, it can offer great value for money only if you understand the current rates and how they relate to your business goals. This helps set a realistic benchmark and evaluate the performance of your campaigns.

Here are some ballpark figures.

Cost Per Click (CPC): 

In 2025, the average CPC in Australia ranges from AUD 1.15 to 3.20. If you operate within highly competitive industries like finance, insurance, or legal services, expect to pay towards the higher end. On the other hand, businesses in sectors such as retail, food delivery, and hospitality typically pay CPCs at the lower end of the range. The actual rate will depend heavily on how specific and competitive your audience targeting is.

Cost Per Mille (CPM):

CPM, or cost per 1000 impressions, averages AUD 11.04. This is a slight decrease from the previous year, but rates still vary widely based on factors such as audience size, ad relevance, bidding strategy, and creative quality. Compelling visuals and crisp copy boost engagement and reduce Facebook CPM.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA):

If you want people to take action, such as generating leads, getting sign-ups, making purchases, or downloading an app, you can expect to pay between AUD 20 and AUD 50 for each acquisition.

Warmer audiences, such as retargeted users or existing email lists,  cost less to convert than cold or broad demographics.

Click-Through Rate (CTR):

One of the more encouraging trends is the rise in average CTR, which now stands at 2.8%. This improvement reflects enhanced ad targeting and better creative output across the platform. If your ad messaging is strong and your offer resonates with the target audience, you will see improved performance at a lower cost per result. For comparison, CTRs closer to 1% or below may indicate poor audience alignment or underwhelming creative execution.

These Facebook ad benchmarks are reliable compasses, not some strict rules. Whether you are devising a Facebook advertising budget for the first time or refining your existing campaigns, staying informed on cost trends is the key to benefiting from your ad spending in 2025.

Facebook’s Ad Auction: It’s Not Just About Money

It is a common misconception that Facebook’s ad system is simply a highest-bidder-takes-all scenario, i.e. it shows ads from whoever pays the most. However, that’s not the case. Facebook has a sophisticated ad auction to decide which ads get shown, and it considers three key factors.

1. Your bid:
   It is the maximum amount you are ready to pay for a specific outcome, whether a click, a lead, or a purchase.
   
2. Estimated action rate:
   This is Facebook’s prediction of how likely a user will perform the desired action after seeing your ad. Facebook can make an accurate estimate if your ad has a strong history of engagement with similar audiences, which can significantly boost this rate.
   
3. Ad quality and relevance:
   It is the most important factor. Facebook assesses how well your ad resonates with its target audience based on positive and negative feedback, as well as overall engagement. A highly relevant ad that genuinely speaks to a user’s interests will receive a higher quality score.

So, do not fret over a limited budget. A well-crafted ad that addresses a user’s problem will usually outperform a poorly targeted ad, even if the latter has a much larger budget.

Takeaway: You can absolutely win ad auctions with a modest budget if your ad is relevant, well-targeted, and visually compelling.

Let’s Decode the Facebook Ad Metrics

You don’t need to be glued to Ads Manager, but you might miss out on an important insight that could impact your results. These key metrics tell the real story behind how your ads are performing and where improvements might be needed.

CPC (Cost Per Click):

It’s the amount you pay every time someone clicks on your ad. A lower CPC generally means your ad’s doing its job, reaching the right people with the right message.

CPM (Cost Per 1000 Impressions):

This tells you how much you’re paying for your ad to be seen, whether or not anyone clicks. It is ideal for brand awareness campaigns where visibility is the goal. If the CPM is high, your ad might not resonate with the audience, or you’re targeting too broadly.

CPA (Cost Per Acquisition):

This measures how much you spend to persuade someone to take a specific action, such as completing a purchase or signing up. A high CPA indicates that your landing page or targeting may need improvement.

CTR (Click-Through Rate): 

This is the percentage of people who viewed your ad and clicked on it. The current average on Facebook is about 2.8%. A CTR below 2.8% might indicate your ad is getting ignored, and a high CTR means you’re striking the right chord with your audience. 

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): 

This is your ultimate performance metric , your north star. It shows how much revenue you’re making for every dollar spent. For example, if you’re paying $100 and earning $400, that’s a strong 4x ROAS. It’s a direct reflection of how well your entire campaign is converting.

These aren’t just vanity metrics, they tell a story about how your audience responds and where you might need to fine-tune your strategy.

Why Australian Facebook Ad Costs Vary

Facebook ad prices vary like Melbourne weather, and for good reason:

Your costs should always be benchmarked against your data, not someone else’s average.

How Facebook Stacks Up Against Other Platforms in 2025

Thinking about putting your eggs in another basket? Here’s a side-by-side comparison:

Choose based on your objectives. Facebook is still king for full-funnel marketing, broad reach, and retargeting.

Budgeting for Facebook in 2025: What’s the Minimum?

You can run a campaign with just $5-10 per day, but if you aim to reach the sky, then $20–30 per day is a good starting point to get meaningful insights and enough data for optimisation.

You can set daily budgets to control your spending or choose lifetime budgets, allowing Facebook to distribute your ad spend based on performance. In 2025, most advertisers prefer lifetime budgets because of their flexibility.

Why Your Facebook Ad Costs May Be Creeping Up?

No, you did not dream of those soaring ad costs; they are a reality. There’s a method behind the madness, and knowing these triggers will help you manage your spending better.

Bid Strategy

Automatic bidding is convenient, but many people are switching to cost-cap bidding for better control in performance-focused campaigns.

Campaign Objective

Brand awareness is cheap however, conversations are not. Your chosen objective significantly impacts cost. Awareness objectives are generally more cost-effective than conversion objectives, which aim for higher-value actions. If you’re running a purchase-focused campaign, be ready to pay more, but also expect better ROAS.

Audience Targeting

The more competitive your audience, the higher your ad costs will likely be. When you target a specific or niche group, there’s usually strong demand from other advertisers aiming to reach the same audience. This increased demand can increase the price. However, the benefit of niche targeting is that it often leads to better engagement and stronger results, since your message reaches the right people. Lookalike audiences and high-intent retargeting lists offer the best returns per dollar.
For further insights into optimising this vital element, check out AdVisible’s Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Ad Targeting. 

Creative Quality

In 2025, Facebook will score your ads more heavily based on creative relevance and user experience. A low relevance score due to poor feedback and low watch time can sink your budget.

Seasonal Spikes

Ad costs often surge during high-demand periods like major sales events, public holidays, and the last quarter of the year. If your product or service allows, consider running test campaigns during quieter times when competition is lower and costs are easier to manage.

This helps gather valuable performance data at a lower cost and lets you refine your targeting and messaging before investing heavily during peak seasons.

Placements

In 2025, mobile News Feed is still the most expensive  and effective, but Reel ads are gaining traction, often with lower CPMs and higher CTRs. Moreover, time and day significantly impact ad costs. They can fluctuate based on when your audience is most active and when competition is highest.

Calculating Your Facebook Ad Budget: Start With Your Goals

Best practices from industry experts emphasise testing multiple creatives and audience segments to identify what truly works before scaling your budget.

Let’s say your CPA is $40 and you want 100 new leads. That’s a $4000 budget. It’s basic math, but essential if you want to scale predictably. 

Use Facebook’s built-in budget estimator or plug your goals into Revealbot or Vaizle for a more accurate forecast.

How to Lower Facebook Ad Costs in 2025?

Reducing costs should not mean compromising on quality. That’s why it’s important to focus on boosting efficiency while cutting costs.

Here’s what you can do to minimise costs without sacrificing quality.

Segment your Facebook audiences. 

Too many cooks spoil the broth, and that’s exactly why lumping everyone into one ad can hurt your brand’s visibility. Instead of consolidated campaigns, test smaller segments such as age and gender splits. This way, your ad will reach more customers and the right ones.

Test creatives weekly. 

The best ads can also become stale, so it’s essential to refresh your copy, images, and calls to action at least once every 10 to 14 days.

Use exclusions and ad scheduling. 

The users who have already converted should be excluded. The best time for ads is during high-activity periods, such as weekends.

Experiment with bidding. 

Try setting a cost cap slightly above your ideal CPA to give Facebook room to deliver without overspending.

Optimise landing pages. 

If you’re paying $50 per conversion but losing people on your site, it’s time to address post-click experience issues because the ads alone cannot fix a broken funnel. Slow-loading pages, confusing layouts, or unclear CTA’s can kill conversions.

So, Is Facebook Still Worth It in 2025

Absolutely, but only if you go in with a clear strategy, not just wing it.

Facebook, undoubtedly, remains one of the most powerful platforms for digital marketing worldwide, and Australia is no exception. Its advanced targeting capabilities, real-time feedback, and measurable ROI make it an unmatched tool for marketers.

However, you cannot just set up an ad, walk away, and expect magic. Facebook demands attention, creativity, and optimisation.

It’s still a great platform, and you can reach a huge audience there only if you’re willing to test, iterate, and invest wisely; the payoff is still there.

How Much Should You Allocate to Facebook?

The latest stats revealed that most Australian businesses allocate 15 to 25 per cent of their marketing budgets to Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns. During sale periods, e-commerce brands can increase their sales by as much as 40%.

A good rule of thumb is to allocate a reasonable budget to test at least 3–4 ad creatives and 2–3 audience segments, then double down on what performs best.

FAQs for 2025

How much does advertising cost on Facebook in Australia?
The cost depends on your audience, creativity, and timing and ranges from $1.15 to $3.20 per click, or around $11.04 per 1,000 impressions.

Is $100 enough for Facebook ads?
Yes, for testing. You can run a 5-day campaign at $20 per day targeting a specific group and obtain useful data on creative performance and targeting strategy. However, this is not enough for scaling up.

Final Thoughts

Facebook advertising in 2025 is continuously evolving. It doesn’t seem to get cheaper, but it is getting smarter. If you’re clear on your objectives, testing often, and watching your metrics like a hawk, it’s still one of the most powerful tools in your digital marketing arsenal. Do not just throw money at Facebook to scale up. You must build purposeful campaigns, test consistently, track performance, and use data to make well-informed decisions.

Need help getting your campaigns up to speed? Get in touch with us for a free audit. 

Let’s strategise, and we’ll ensure your next ad dollar is your most productive one yet.