Running Facebook ads is awesome, but let’s face it — they can get expensive. Luckily, you can lower your costs without cutting your reach. Here's how to stretch your ad budget and still get killer results.
1. Optimize Your Audience Targeting
The better you target, the less you spend. It’s that simple. If your audience is too small, it can get costly to reach them. On the flip side, going too broad can waste your budget.
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Use Advantage Detailed Targeting: This Facebook feature helps expand your audience while keeping things relevant. By widening your reach, you can lower costs without losing the right people.
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Lookalike Audiences: Targeting people like your current customers means you’ll get more engagement at a lower cost.
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Try LeadEnforce: If you're looking for precise audiences, LeadEnforce lets you create custom audiences based on your Facebook group or Instagram followers. These are warm leads who already know you, making them more likely to engage and convert.
Experiment with both broad and specific targeting to find what works best and cuts your costs.
For more on reaching the right audience, check out Facebook Ad Targeting 101: How to Reach the Right Audience.
2. Try Different Ad Formats
Sticking to one ad format can limit your results and cost more. Facebook offers a variety of ad types—testing them can help you find what works best for your budget.
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Carousel Ads: These let you show off multiple images or products in one ad. People interact more, which lowers your cost per click.
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Video Ads: Videos drive engagement and can lower costs because they’re more captivating. Show your product in action or tell a story!
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Single Image Ads: These are simple and effective, especially for quick promotions. They’re cheap to create and can perform well with the right copy.
Want to dive deeper? Check out The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Ad Formats.
3. Use A/B Testing
Not sure what’s working? A/B testing is your best friend. It lets you compare different versions of your ad to see which one gets better results—and saves you money.
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Why It Works: Even small changes, like swapping out a headline or image, can make a big difference. A/B testing helps you find the most cost-effective version.
Test and learn. Once you see what works, scale it up and watch your costs drop.
Learn more about testing strategies in A/B Testing Strategies for Facebook Ads.
4. Use Dynamic Creative Optimization
Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) is like a magic trick for Facebook ads. It automatically tests different combinations of your ad’s headline, image, and call-to-action and delivers the best ones to your audience.
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Why It Works: You don’t have to manually adjust your ads. Facebook’s algorithm does the heavy lifting, ensuring the best-performing combinations are shown to your audience at the lowest cost.
Save time and boost your results with DCO. Let Facebook optimize for you.
5. Adjust Your Bidding Strategy
The right bidding strategy can help you lower your costs. Facebook gives you different options, so you can find the one that fits your goals.
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Cost Cap: This sets a maximum cost per conversion, so you won’t spend more than you want. Facebook will aim to get you conversions without exceeding your budget.
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Lowest Cost: Facebook will automatically get you as many conversions as possible for the lowest cost.
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Bid Cap: This lets you set a cap on what Facebook can bid for each ad impression.
Play around with different options to find the one that keeps costs in check. For more info, check out How to Use Facebook’s Cost Cap to Maximize Budget Efficiency.
6. Retarget Your Engaged Users
Retargeting is like hitting a reset button on interested customers. If someone has already engaged with your brand—whether by visiting your website or liking a post—they’re more likely to convert. Retargeting these users saves money because you're focusing on a warm audience.
Use Custom Audiences to retarget people who’ve already interacted with your brand. Since they’re familiar with you, you’ll get a better return for your spend.
Learn how to retarget more effectively in How to Set Up Facebook Retargeting.
7. Leverage Facebook’s Optimization Tools
Facebook’s Advantage+ features are designed to make your life easier and help lower your costs.
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Advantage+ Placements: This tool automatically places your ads across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network, optimizing for the best performance at the lowest cost.
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Advantage+ Campaign Budget: This tool distributes your budget to the best-performing ad sets in real time, so you’re always getting the most for your money.
For more on these tools, check out How to Improve Campaign Performance with Meta Advantage+.
Conclusion
Reducing Facebook ad costs doesn’t mean sacrificing reach. By improving your targeting, testing ad formats, adjusting your bidding strategy, and using Facebook’s optimization tools, you can lower costs while still getting great results. Keep testing, adjusting, and refining your campaigns to get the best return on your ad spend.
