I have read that Facebook ad prices are rising steadily, but what happened to us yesterday struck me as ridiculous.
We were setting up a Facebook ad for a client in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. We targeted Facebook users within Philadelphia and its suburbs who are interested in Philly’s professional sports teams: the Phillies, Eagles, Flyers and Sixers. We chose a few other similar criteria and reduced the potential audience to less than 750,000. So far, so good.
Then a curious thing happened. We chose CPC pricing. Facebook then served up an estimated maximum bid of $15.38 per click.
Let that sink in: $15.38 per click.
The estimated range went over $17.00 per click. We couldn’t justify that high a price for a Facebook ad click, so we went with a more affordable CPM campaign.
Next day I decided to have a closer look at that quote. This time Facebook offered us a still pricey, but more reasonable, $2.98 per click for the same ad targeting the same demographic in the same geographic area.
Any guesses why? It’s a mystery to me. A rare Phillies victory in the intervening time wouldn’t explain it, right? Anyone else ever experience such an expensive Facebook ad? I’m dying to get some insight into this.
