49 Great Facebook Advertising Statistics

Many marketers believe that social media is the key to unlocking the potential of any good idea a business may have. With 1.9 billion people and growing, Facebook is easily the #1 target for social media marketing. That’s why a comprehensive look at current Facebook advertising statistics is always important.

64% of people who have a profile page on Facebook will connect to the site every day in some way.

Facebook Advertising

What makes Facebook advertising such a useful tool is that it can be completely customized to reach a specific demographic. Age, interests, location, and many more filter factors can be included to maximize the use of available advertising dollars.

• The number of active Facebook advertisers at any given time: 1.5 million.
• Just 1 million small- to medium-sized businesses are using Facebook advertising right now.
• 52%. That’s the percentage of Facebook advertising that is targeted regions that exist outside the United States.
• Between 2013-2014, Facebook users saw an average of 40% more ads than in the previous year.
• 92% of social marketers use Facebook advertising, which means only 80,000 small- to medium-sized businesses that haven’t hired or employed a social marketer are active on the site right now.
• 9% of all digital advertising that is spend online comes through Facebook every day.
• The average CTR of advertisers that have retargeted ads on Facebook: 0.05%.
• As of 2013, the global CTR was 0.36%. In the United States, the figure is about 3x lower, at just 0.14% for all ads.
• Facebook’s share of the global mobile digital advertising market: 18.4%.
• Almost all of Facebook’s $7.87 billion in revenues came from advertising sales in 2013.
• Due to higher quality, Facebook reported during its Q3 2014 earnings call that price per Facebook Ad has increased 247%.

The numbers right now are both good and bad for Facebook. The good news is that virtually no one outside of social marketers is advertising on the social media site right now. The bad news is that the click-thru percentages are about 4x lower than they should be. Why is this? Here’s what we think: it is because people want real products from real small businesses from down the street. If a mom and pop shop used Facebook advertising to advertise to prospects only in their community, would that be worth $5 per day for added local exposure? What other platform could allow an entire community’s worth of exposure for $150 per month? There isn’t one.

The Clicks That Do Happen Are Valuable

• Facebook users purchase an average of $234 million dollars worth of virtual goods and gifts on Facebook every quarter.
• 40 minutes. That’s the average amount of time a Facebook user spends on the social media site every time they log in.
• 1.32 billion people will log into Facebook at least once per month.
• Mobile advertising also matters: 700 million people use Facebook on a mobile device every day.
• Facebook makes an average of $6.44 from US and Canadian users, compared to $.86 from the rest of the world. In Q1 2015, that figure reached $9.00 per US and Canadian user for the first time.
• 80% of the most downloaded apps have a Facebook login.
• The average order value from a Facebook referral: $85.87.

There’s no denying that Facebook clicks are valuable when they happen. They’re also highly affordable. From a global perspective, in 2013 Facebook ads cost just $0.75 per 1,000 impressions when purchased on the CPM basis. It wasn’t that long ago when businesses thought $75 per 1,000 impressions was a ridiculously good deal. What does this mean for the small business? That a targeted ad to a highly defined demographic can be more effective than chasing random users around the internet.

Could The Design Of The Ad Be The Problem?

• CTR rates see a 2.85x lift when any call to action button has been included with the Facebook ad.
• From 11/2013-11/2014, Facebook advertising CPM saw a 5x average increase and a 2x ROI increase.
• 57%. That’s the percentage of Facebook ads that appear in targeted newsfeeds.
• The average ROI for retail advertisers that use Facebook ads: 152%.
• 500,000 Facebook pages are promoting posts right now with an average of 5 promoted posts per page.
• Half of all Facebook ads promote unpublished page posts.
• Newsfeed ads obtain a 44x higher CTR and a 5x higher conversion rate than right-side display ads.
• Creative rotations for advertising result in a 21% year-over-year performance increase compared to static creatives.
• Automated rotation results in 35% higher CTRs and 34% lower conversion costs.

Let’s just take a look at some of the basic numbers. With a conversion rate of 0.05%, that’s 50 new leads coming out of 1,000 targeted people. Now add that number to the average Facebook referral and you’ll have an additional $4,293 per 1,000 people who have a retargeted ad placed on their newsfeed. Those are revenues that can begin to add up quickly. This is why the design of the advertisement matters on Facebook. A good design can bring in tens of thousands of dollars, even with an admittedly terrible conversion rate. If you haven’t looked at Facebook advertising yet, then today is definitely the day to take a look.

Mobile Advertising Matters On Facebook

• The mobile CTR for the average Facebook advertising campaign in Q4 2014: 1.56%.
• Mobile users are 5x more likely to click on an advertisement than PC or laptop users.
• The increased click rates also increase the advertising costs: prices have gone up on Facebook by 140%.
• The mobile advertising CPC for the average Facebook ad: $0.35.
• The average CPM for 1,000 mobile impressions: $5.41.
• Non-profit companies tracked the highest CTR in Q4 of 2013, with a 1.77% CTR.
• 74% of all Facebook users will use a mobile device to access the site at least once over the course of a month.
• 49% of all advertising revenues for Facebook come through mobile newsfeed ads.

Does it cost a lot to advertise on mobile platforms through Facebook? Absolutely. Do the results of mobile advertising on Facebook speak for themselves? Absolutely. The figures stack up nicely, tripling the ROI of some businesses. When mobile users are 5x more likely to click on an ad, it’s understandable to see why 2 out of every 3 advertising dollars that is spent on Facebook goes to mobile advertising.

Why Does Targeting Specific Demographics Matter?

• Custom audience targeting on Facebook results in 64% lower conversion costs than just interest or category based targeting. Custom audience targeting also lowers the CPC by 14%.
• Audience targeting creates conversion rates that are about 4x higher than demographic targeting alone.
• Only 1 in 3 advertisers is using a creative rotation throughout the day on a regular basis.
• Fan acquisition campaigns that use advertising rotations have 60% higher CTRs than those that have no rotation with 75% lower costs.
• 41%. That’s the percentage of Facebook advertisers use CTR changes as a trigger to rotate their creatives.

The problem that Facebook advertisers face is the first impression. Users are tired of stale, boring creatives. They’ve seen most ads on their feed at least once. Sometimes they’ve seen them 5-6x in their 40 minute browsing session. No one wants to click on that stale ad. By rotating the creatives, an advertising campaign becomes fresh and this catches the user’s eye. If your campaigns don’t evolve and adapt, then you make a bad first impression.

Privacy Concerns Can Kill Your Campaign

• 27% of Facebook users are very concerned about the privacy of their personal data.
• Half of all people on Facebook have not checked their privacy settings.
• 61% of Facebook users don’t know how many third-party apps have been given permission to access their data.
• 73% of Americans who use the web are concerned about online privacy.
• 1 in 5 people have had their Facebook profile page hacked in some way. 10% of them have had personal information stolen from Facebook.
• 6% of people report that their reputation has been damaged because of content that was on the internet.
• 86% of Facebook users are actively trying to reduce their digital footprint on the social media site.
• 68% of Americans believe that there isn’t enough protections for personal privacy.

What’s the problem with security and Facebook advertising? Cookies. The problem is how cookies are being used for follow-along advertising campaigns. When retargeting happens, a Facebook user can feel like they’re being stalked by a brand. Up to 12% of people state that they’ve already been stalked or harassed while online. When a brand does that to someone, is it really going to result in a click? Probably not. That’s why understanding modern privacy concerns and demographic relationship development must come before any advertising campaign. Otherwise the campaign might be over before it ever really has a chance to begin.