The short answer
There is no price list. You set a budget and Meta sells each ad through an auction, so the cost moves with your audience, your ad and the time of year. Published Australian figures put a click at roughly $0.24 to $2.50 and a lead at roughly $15 to $65, depending on who you ask and the industry. Meta publishes no Australian average. Work your budget out from what a customer is worth to you.
Last updated 5 November 2026
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How much Facebook ads cost in Australia is the first thing most business owners ask, and most answers you find are one agency’s guess with no date on it. This guide separates three things: what Meta says about how you are charged, what has been published about Australian costs, and what we cannot tell you. Instagram ads are bought the same way, so all of this applies there too.
How Facebook ads are priced
You set the budget. Meta’s own page on cost says you decide how much to spend, and manage your cost per result through your bid strategy. There is no rate card, and some advanced ad types have a minimum spend that Meta shows you when you create them.
An auction sets the price. Each time there is a chance to show someone an ad, an auction decides which ad they see. The winner is the ad with the highest total value, which combines three things: your bid, how likely that person is to respond, and the quality of the ad. So a more relevant ad can beat one with a higher bid. Meta says its adjustments will not charge you more than your bid.
You are charged on impressions. Meta says it charges based on ad impressions, the number of times your ad is seen, billed when you reach a threshold or on a monthly date, or from a prepaid balance. Cost per click and cost per lead are what those impressions work out to, not what you are charged directly.
What a daily budget really means
A daily budget is a target over a calendar week, Sunday to Saturday, not a hard limit for each day. Meta may spend up to 75% over on a good day and less on another.
| Meta’s rule | In dollars |
|---|---|
| Target over a week | $100 a day on average |
| Most it may spend in one day (75% over) | $175 |
| Most it may spend in a Sunday to Saturday week (7 times) | $700 |
| Roughly a month, our arithmetic | About $3,000 |
Source: Meta, About daily budgets, read 5 November 2026. Meta also offers campaign and account spending limits if you need a hard ceiling. Turning on ad set budget sharing raises the limits.
What Facebook ads cost in Australia: the published numbers
Meta publishes no Australian average. These are the most specific figures we could find with a date and a stated source. None is ours, and they do not agree.
| Who and what | Cost per click | Cost per 1,000 impressions | Cost per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superads: all industries, July 2025 to July 2026 (lead cost to June 2026), from its ad data set. Currency not stated. | About $0.95. Monthly low $0.49, high $1.53 | About $14.38. Monthly low $9.63, high $21.73 | About 50.8, no currency shown. Monthly low 25.27, high 101.96 |
| Rex Software: real estate only, 152 Australian accounts, 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024, in AUD. Updated 22 April 2025. | $0.24 | $10.21 | $48.71 per vendor lead, on-Facebook forms |
| Perth Digital Edge: an agency, from campaigns it manages and unnamed industry data. Published 6 April 2026. | $0.80 to $2.50 | $8 to $25 | $15 to $65 |
Sources: Superads cost per click, cost per 1,000 impressions and cost per lead, averages of monthly medians from the written analysis on each page. Rex Software, medians. Perth Digital Edge. Superads and Rex sell ad software and Perth Digital Edge sells ad management.
How to read them:
- They measure different things. Rex covers only real estate, where its click figure is far below the other two. Superads covers every industry and every kind of campaign, including ones not trying to win leads.
- The month matters. Superads shows a click ranging from $0.49 to $1.53 across the period, with its highest click and impression costs in November 2025. Its cost per lead runs from about 25 to about 102.
- Currency is not always stated. Superads and Perth Digital Edge do not say whether their figures are in Australian dollars. Rex does.
- GST is not addressed. None of the three says whether its figures include it.
What we cannot tell you: what a lead will cost in your trade, in your suburb, next month. Nobody can, and if someone gives you one number before they know your offer, ask where it came from. We do not publish costs from the accounts we run, so no figure of ours appears here.
What moves your cost
- Your ad. Estimated response and ad quality are two of the three things in the auction. Meta says feedback from people hiding your ad and things like engagement bait count against it.
- Your audience. Meta says an audience that is too specific may cost more to reach. A small audience in one suburb will not cost the same as a whole state.
- Your budget. Meta spends on the lowest-cost opportunities first and then moves to dearer ones, so its page warns your cost per result may rise when your budget is much higher than usual.
- What you ask for. Meta says a harder event, such as a purchase, may need more budget than an easier one, such as a landing page view.
- The season. Others are bidding for the same people. Superads’ highest figures fall in November.
- Your industry’s rules. Ads about employment, housing, or financial products and services need a special ad category, which Meta says may limit your audience options.
How to set a budget without guessing
Start from the customer, not the ad platform.
- Work out what a job is worth. Your margin on an average customer, not the invoice.
- Decide what you can pay to win one. Then how many enquiries it takes you to win a job. That gives you a cost per lead you can afford.
- Check it can learn. Meta says an ad set usually leaves its learning phase after about 50 results in the week after its last significant edit.
| Cost per lead used | A week | A day |
|---|---|---|
| $15, bottom of the Perth Digital Edge range | $750 | About $107 |
| $48.71, the Rex real estate median | About $2,436 | About $348 |
| $65, top of the Perth Digital Edge range | $3,250 | About $464 |
Our arithmetic: 50 times the cost per lead, divided by 7 for a day. The inputs are the published figures above, so read them the same way.
That is why a small budget split across many ad sets often struggles. If the sum does not fit your budget, run one ad set, or optimise for an easier event, which Meta suggests if you do not want to raise your budget. If you set a cost per result goal, Meta says your daily budget should be at least five times that goal, and that 50 to 100 or more weekly conversions suits goal-based bidding best.
Is there a minimum? Yes, but Meta’s page gives its examples in US dollars and says minimums vary by country and objective, so we cannot give you a reliable Australian figure. Ads Manager shows an alert if your budget is too low.
The other costs
GST. It depends on who sells you the ads. Meta says that if the seller on your receipt is outside Australia and you are GST registered and buying for business, you give it your ABN so that GST is not added. If you are not registered, it adds GST. If the seller on your receipt is Facebook Australia, it adds GST either way. Meta does not give tax advice, so ask your accountant how to treat it.
Creative. Photos and video have to come from somewhere, and Facebook ads wear out. Allow for new ones.
A page or form. Instant forms come with Meta’s lead ads, so you may not need a page to start. A landing page on your own site gives you more room to explain the offer. See our website design service, or the trade-off in our guide to Google Ads or Meta ads.
Management, if you hand it over. Digital Nomads HQ, an agency that audited published agency pricing in June 2026, reports an average advertised entry price of $1,221 a month and a median of $1,200 for paid social management, plus ad spend. Our ads management has no set fee on the price list: it is scoped to your account and quoted in AUD plus GST before anything starts. Our guide to what an ads agency should do for its fee sets out what to check.
What to judge it on
A cheap click means little if nobody rings. Track spend, leads, qualified enquiries, booked jobs and closed deals, and work out the cost of each. Instant forms bring volume, and some of it will be people who barely meant to enquire, so a dearer lead that answers the phone can be the better buy. Our Facebook and Instagram ads page explains how we filter for that, and our Google and Facebook ads guides cover the rest.
Facebook ads cost: common questions
How much do Facebook ads cost per month in Australia?
There is no set monthly cost, because you choose the budget. A $100 daily budget is about $3,000 a month, and Meta will not spend more than $700 of it in a Sunday to Saturday week. What matters is whether your budget buys enough results for the campaign to learn, which Meta puts at about 50 results in a week per ad set.
What is the average cost per click for Facebook ads in Australia?
Meta does not publish one. On 5 November 2026 we found about $0.95 from Superads across all industries, with no currency stated, $0.24 from Rex Software for Australian real estate, and $0.80 to $2.50 from Perth Digital Edge. They measure different things, so treat them as a rough range.
What does a Facebook lead cost in Australia?
Published figures run from $15 to $65 from one Perth agency, with $48.71 for real estate vendor leads from Rex Software. Superads shows about 25 to about 102 across a year, with no currency stated. Your own cost depends on your offer, your area and your ad.
Is there a minimum budget for Facebook ads in Australia?
Meta requires a minimum that varies by country and objective, but its help page gives examples in US dollars, so we cannot give a reliable Australian figure. Ads Manager shows an alert if your budget is too low.
Do I pay GST on Facebook ads?
It depends on who sells you the ads. If the seller is outside Australia and you are GST registered and buying for business, Meta says you give it your ABN so GST is not added. If the seller on your receipt is Facebook Australia, GST is added either way. Ask your accountant how to treat it.
Why did my Facebook ads suddenly cost more?
Common reasons include a bigger budget than usual, a smaller audience, ads people have seen too often, a recent edit that restarted the learning phase, or a busy time of year. Meta says it spends on the lowest-cost opportunities first, so a much larger budget can raise your cost per result.
Can you guarantee a cost per lead on Facebook?
No. Cost per lead moves with your offer, your market, the season and the creative, and the ACCC expects any forecast to rest on reasonable grounds. We tell you how the campaign will be judged and report the real numbers every week.
How much does it cost to have someone run my Facebook ads?
One agency that audited published pricing in June 2026 reports a median of $1,200 a month for paid social management, plus ad spend. Ours has no set fee on the price list: it is scoped to your account and quoted in AUD plus GST before anything starts.