Ask ten agencies what Facebook and Instagram ads cost and you will get ten different answers, usually without numbers. So here are real ones, from campaigns we have run, and an explanation of what makes the same budget produce very different results.
Real numbers from our campaigns
- Awareness campaign: Rs. 2,100 of spend delivered 1,43,221 video views and reached 98,160 people. That is roughly 1.5 paise per view.
- Lead campaign (WhatsApp messages): Rs. 4,000 of spend started 61 messaging conversations, about Rs. 66 per conversation.
- For comparison, Google Search: across our Google Ads campaigns, clicks averaged Rs. 9.61 each with a 7.6% click-through rate.
These are not promises for your business. They show the range: reach is cheap on Meta, and an actual conversation costs more. The number that matters is the second one.
Views are cheap. Leads are what you are buying.
Meta charges you for attention. If you optimise for views or reach, the algorithm finds the cheapest attention it can, often people who will never buy. When you optimise for leads or messages, it looks for people more likely to act, and each result costs more. A campaign that costs Rs. 60 per enquiry and brings buyers is far cheaper than one that costs Rs. 5 per click and brings nothing.
What actually drives your cost per lead
1. The offer
"Contact us for more information" converts poorly. "Get a free sample", "See price list on WhatsApp" or "Book a free site visit" converts much better, because it gives a reason to act now. Improving the offer is often the fastest way to cut cost per lead.
2. The audience
Very narrow targeting in India often raises costs, because the algorithm has too few people to learn from. Most accounts do better with broader targeting plus a clear creative that speaks to one type of buyer. The creative does the filtering.
3. The creative
The first second of a video or the headline of an image decides whether someone stops scrolling. We usually launch three to six variations and let results pick the winner rather than guessing.
4. What happens after the click
A slow website, a long form or a WhatsApp number nobody answers makes every lead more expensive. Meta also learns from who converts, so a smooth path after the click improves targeting over time.
5. Season and competition
Costs rise around Diwali, the wedding season and the end of the financial year, when more advertisers are bidding for the same people. Plan budgets and offers around these periods.
How to set a starting budget
Work backwards from what a customer is worth:
- Estimate the value of one new customer (average order value multiplied by repeat orders).
- Estimate how many enquiries your team turns into one customer. If one in ten buys, you need ten leads per sale.
- Decide what you can afford to spend to win one customer. Divide by the number of leads needed. That is your maximum cost per lead.
- Budget enough for at least 30 to 50 leads in the first month, so the algorithm has data to learn from and you have data to judge.
For many small and mid-sized Indian businesses this lands between Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 50,000 a month in ad spend to start, separate from any agency fee. B2B companies with high-value orders can justify more.
Common mistakes that waste money
- Pressing the "Boost post" button instead of building a proper campaign with a clear objective.
- Judging a campaign after three days. Meta needs time and conversions to settle.
- Running one ad for months until results fall off a cliff.
- Not tracking which leads became customers, so you optimise for cheap leads instead of good ones.
If you want to know what a realistic cost per lead looks like for your industry, our ads management team can review your current account, or you can use our free ad budget estimator first.