How Much Does It Cost To Advertise Online?

Every online advertising platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, and there are dozens of ad formats, campaign types, and performance metrics for advertisers to consider. Aside from all these is the need to know how much online advertising costs.

However, the cost of online advertising depends on the medium to be used; email marketing, content marketing, Pay per click, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing.

Let’s take a look at the average Cpm in online advertising.

Overview

In 2020, marketers spent approximately $378 billion on online advertising. Some small businesses chose to spend nothing or spend very little on their marketing efforts, while others paid millions of dollars for elaborate online advertising campaigns across multiple channels. Of course, the majority fell somewhere in between those two extremes

Every website owner and online advertising service is free to use any model and charge whatever they wish for ads. Some websites may charge a monthly or annual fee for ads, while services like Google Ads will charge you per advertisement click.

To understand these differences, there are three terms you should know 

  • Cost-per-click (CPC): You pay every time someone clicks on your ad.
  • Cost-per-Action (CPA): You pay only when someone clicks on the ad and then completes a required action, such as buying a product, going to a sales page, or signing up for a newsletter.
  • Cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM). In this model, you pay a set amount for every 1000 views of your ad. You pay for the views whether someone clicks on your ad or not.

How Much Does Online Advertising Cost?

Online advertising costs vary widely depending on factors such as the channels you advertise on, the services you use, the size of your campaigns, and more. On average, small-to-medium-sized businesses pay $2500 to $12,000 per month or $1000 to $7500 per project for online advertising.

What Is The Average CPM By Channel?

The advantage of online advertising is that your business has complete control over how much you spend. You decide what your budget is, and you can experiment to see which channels offer the highest returns for that budget.

There are many options to choose from, including:

1.  Email marketing

Although it’s one of the oldest forms of Internet marketing, email still has one of the highest ROIs of any online channel. However, the amount you invest in it depends on the platform you choose, as well as who creates the content for your emails.

Even if you choose to write and send the emails yourself, you’ll most likely need to use an email platform in order to reach all of your customers. Depending on how many subscribers you have, this can cost anywhere from $9 to $1000 per month.

However, you can also hire an Internet marketing agency to manage your email marketing for you. This service typically includes strategy development, content creation, and sending and tracking emails. Managed email marketing services may cost between $300 and $1500 per month.

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2. Content marketing

If your company’s website has a regularly updated blog, you’re already engaging in content marketing to a certain extent. This strategy simply refers to the creation and promotion of original value-packed content, with the goal of informing readers and reaching new potential customers.

You can create content yourself to reduce your costs. However, working with a professional content marketing agency will save you time and may produce better results due to the expertise of the agency. Content marketing services include strategy development and planning, creating, distributing, tracking, and promoting content. 

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3. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

Google, Bing, and other search engines allow you to create and run ads that show beside or above the regular search results for specific keywords. These ads operate on a pay-per-click (PPC) system, meaning that you pay every time someone clicks on your ad.

They also operate on a bidding system, meaning that in order for your ad to display, you have to be willing to pay more than your competitors for clicks. Depending on the level of competition within your industry, your online advertisement rate, called cost per click (CPC), can be anywhere from a few cents to a few hundred dollars.

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4. Google Search Ads

The average benchmark cost per click is $2.32. Advertising costs on keywords for the exact kinds of services your business performs can range significantly. Ads on search results are advertising to prospects at the exact moment they’re looking for information on products/services that your business sells. Not only are we seen by those prospects at a CPM of $38.40 ($38 per 1,000 viewable impressions), we can also reasonably assume that we’ll get about 30 of them to visit our site and turn a few of them into leads or sales. 

5. Google Display Advertising Cost

Advertising on Google’s Display Network is very inexpensive on a CPM basis. The display campaign averages $0.50 – $4 CPM, with an average of $3.12. With a more general awareness goal and less targeting, CPMs can be driven to incredibly low costs. The average CPC on display network campaigns is $0.58.

6. Youtube Advertising Cost

Advertising on YouTube through Google Ads is typically done on a Cost Per View (CPV) basis, so it’s a bit tough to compare on a CPM model. At an average CPV of $0.10, you’re looking at about $100 per thousand VOLUNTARY ad views. And CPM for the first 5 seconds of the ad could be $9.50 or less depending on how great (or terrible) your ad is. Youtube ads average  $3.21 CPC.

Related Post: How To Make Money on YouTube Without Making Videos

Social Media Advertising Cost

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram allow you to create free accounts and engage with customers. This can be effective on its own, but the online advertising options available on each can help you get even more out of your social media strategy.

8. Facebook Advertising Costs

Facebook allows for a daily budget or a lifetime budget for advertising. That said, the minimum budget is $1.00. Using the Facebook platform allows you to advertise on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Facebook audience network.

On average, Facebook’s average CPM for marketers is $1.35 Cost Per Click (CPC) and around $8.60 CPM, depending on how broad your target audience is.

Facebook advertising costs are very flexible, Facebook Ads have become a great option for online advertising. The platform offers exceptional targeting options, which helps your advertising dollars go further by reaching the right people.

Read Also: What is Testimonial Advertising? How it Can Help Your Business

9. Instagram Advertising Costs

Instagram Ads are managed via Facebook’s ad platform and offer an impressive way to reach your target audience. The average CPC for Instagram ads is $3.96 and the average CPM is $8.96. That being said, Facebook ads typically perform better for campaigns focused on traffic and clicks, while Instagram typically performs better for campaigns focused on impressions and reach. Both platforms are great to advertise on and both should be considered as a part of your digital marketing strategy.

10. Twitter Advertising Costs

Advertising rates on Twitter are really dependent on what type of campaign you choose. It can range from $0.50 per engagement all the way up to $200,000 per day for promoted trends.

While promoted trends provide huge exposure and awareness in a short amount of time, the price is costly but can be worth it as it guarantees placement in the Trends section for an entire day.

For those who don’t have the $200,000/day budget, there are two other options:

  • Promoted Tweets. The cost for which can range anywhere from $0.49 per click. Keep in mind this price is dependent on targeting. The average CPM is $6.46.
  • Promoted Accounts. The cost can range from $2.50 to $4.50 per new follower.

11. Linkedin Advertising Costs

LinkedIn allows both CPC and CPM advertising, but is more costly than other online platforms and requires a larger daily budget to be effective.

Depending on your targeting criteria and competition on LinkedIn, CPC can start anywhere from $2.00 to $5.00 or more, which is quite high compared to other social networks. The industry-wide average CPC is $5.26.

For CPM, LinkedIn charges per 1,000 impressions. We’ve recorded an average CPM of $7.85 for LinkedIn Ads.

For professional social media advertising management services, costs range from $850 to $2750 per month. Total online advertising costs for social media strategies, including advertising across multiple networks, hiring professionals, and technology costs, typically range from $450 to $6000 per month, with monthly ad spending ranging from $200 to $50,000.

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12. Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO is the process of improving the pages on your website so that they rank higher in search engine results for relevant terms. The better optimized your site, the more interested visitors and potential customers you’ll attract.

Unless you have prior experience with SEO, a successful strategy requires hiring an experienced agency. The cost is typically a monthly rate, and most often runs between $750 and $2,000 per month.

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How Do You Choose The Right Online Advertising Channel?

Choosing the right online advertising channel is dependent on your target audience and budget.

For example, if you’re an eCommerce site, PPC ads for specific product names are typically a good option. But if you’re a B2B software provider, content marketing makes more sense. 

No matter what kind of online marketing you choose and no matter what your budget is, it’s important to think strategically and always keep your potential customers in mind. Focus your marketing strategy on the places they look online, and you’ll see much better results in the long run.

For most businesses, a combination of multiple strategies will help get the best return on their online advertising costs. A professional digital marketing agency can help create the ideal online advertising strategy.

Is Online Advertising Worth It?

Sometimes businesses don’t see results with online advertising because they don’t have the time or expertise to manage an online advertising campaign as well as they’d like to. With so many ads to choose from, constantly changing technology, and multiple responsibilities as a business owner, it’s no wonder online advertising could be overwhelming but to see results for your business, it’s important to use the most effective ad types

However, Online advertising is worth the time, money, and effort for the revenue it can generate for your business, it also brings in new customers, gets leads, and increase brand awareness.

So, why not jump into it?

FAQs On Online Advertising

Search engine marketing (SEM) is the most-used method for online advertising, with Google providing by far the best opportunities for exposure.

No, participation in AdSense is free. Even better, Google will pay you for clicks or impressions on the Google ads you’ll display on your site

The average CPC for Instagram ads is $3.96 and the average CPM is $8.96.

Depending on how many subscribers you have, this can cost anywhere from $9 to $1000 per month.

Bottom Line

It’s difficult to put a price on Online advertising since there are so many channels and pricing models to consider. However, this simply means that you have the freedom to set a budget and experiment with several options within it.

It will take some testing to determine which channels and strategies work best for your business, but once you do, Internet marketing can definitely be a cost-effective way to reach new customers.

References

  • webfx.com – Online Advertising Costs: How Much Does It Cost to Advertise Online?
  • bizfluent.com – Disadvantages and Advantages of Online Advertising
  • topdraw.com – Online Advertising Costs In 2021
  • revlocal.com – Why You Need to Give Paid Advertising a Chance

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