The average cost-per-click of a Facebook ad in the US was $0.33 in Q4 2012, finds Marin Software in a new report covering a representative sample of its enterprise-class clients. That’s up from an average of $0.28 in the company’s Q3 report, and $0.26 in the Q2 report (Facebook ad metrics were not tracked in the company’s Q1 release.) While Facebook ad costs increased in the second half of the year from Q2, the average click-through rate remained relatively steady, at 0.09% in Q2, 0.12% in Q3, and 0.09% in Q4.
The company also releases paid search metrics for the US, allowing for some comparisons between search advertising and Facebook ads. While Facebook ads had a far lower engagement rate in Q4 than paid search ads (0.09% vs. 2.11%), they did present a cheaper alternative, with their average CPC of $0.33 about one-third of the $1.01 average for paid search. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.
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