UPDATED: (9/3/2023)
Our team began tracking Facebook CPMs in March 2020 to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the digital advertising marketplace. Over the past three years, the data has evolved into a powerful tracker and learning tool, enabling our partners and us to make informed decisions in real-time.
First published with CPM data for Facebook only, this tracker was redesigned in March 2023 to cover other social platforms and impression-based ad channels as well.
In September, 2023, we published our first annual State of Social Media CPM Report, a comprehensive guide to the real cost of social media ads—including daily, weekly, monthly, and year-over-year trends on Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. Based on tens of billions of impressions, our Social Media CPM Report is a roadmap to seasonal fluctuations in the social-media ad market, with valuable cost-saving tactics that can make your marketing strategy more efficient.
LIVE DASHBOARD: Get access to the full 2023 CPM Dashboard, and get regular updates on Gupta Media's strategic insights, tactical intelligence, and industry expertise.
Initially, advertising prices as measured by the Cost per 1,000 Impressions (CPM) on the Facebook Ads marketplace declined to historic lows as many advertisers pulled back their spending, while usage and time spent on Facebook and Instagram exploded. Prices then rebounded above their early pandemic lows but have entered a new state of volatility as consumer behavior continues to shift.
Media Coverage:
- This Is Another Nail in the Coffin for X Among Advertisers [AdWeek]
- CPMs Have Been A Point of Contention for Digital Marketers [Digiday]
- Even Google and Facebook may face an ad slump [New York Times]
- X's Ad Price Plummets [Electronics Weekly]
- The Most and Least Valuable Social Media Advertising [Statista]
- X's Bargain Basement Advertising [Statista]
- Facebook CPMs crash, fall to all-time low [MediaPost]
- Facebook posts strong Q1 2020 results, but COVID-19 is starting to make its mark [AdWeek]
- Facebook, Google ad market rebounds from April bottom [The Information]
- What's happening to paid-media performance during COVID-19 [Search Engine Journal]
- How Resilient Is the Open Web to the COVID-19 Pandemic? [arXiv.org]
- Coronavirus Impact: Average CPM for Facebook/Instagram Ads, March 2020 [Insider Intelligence]
- With social media usage up, and advertisers pausing spend, now may be a good time to maximize reach [Social Media Today]
- Facebook, Instagram CPMs drop for a second consecutive holiday weekend [Hashtag Paid]
- Advertisers reflect on iOS 14 changes a year later [AdAge]
We created this dashboard to help our clients understand dynamic changes in the marketplace. The data is sourced from a wide sample of projects and it accurately reflects a broad mix of campaign types, ad types, bidding objectives, and industries.
Data is updated daily by 11 AM (EDT).
