At WordStream, we’ve published the latest Google Ads and Meta Ads benchmarks for the last 10 years. For this guide, we researched the latest cost per click (CPC) data and compiled our best tips to help you keep your costs low across your campaigns.
Of course, CPC isn’t one-size-fits-all. Costs can vary widely depending on your industry, targeting, and campaign setup—which is why simply knowing the averages isn’t enough.
So beyond the benchmarks, we’re sharing practical, platform-specific ways to lower your costs without sacrificing performance. We spent the time finding the best and most accurate information so you can get the clearest picture of advertising costs and how to manage them.
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Average cost per click in Google Ads and Meta Ads
You’ll want to know the overall average cost per click in each platform to see how much lower your average CPC can go.
💡 Want personalized recommendations to save money in Google Ads? Use our Free Google Ads Grader and get an instant report!
Google Ads average cost per click
Over the past ten years, the average CPC for Google Search ads has ranged from $2.32 – $5.26.
Historical Google Ads CPCs:
- 2016: $2.32
- 2021: $3.53
- 2022: $4.01
- 2023: $4.22
- 2024: $4.66
- 2025: $5.26
Facebook ads average cost per click
Your Facebook ad costs will vary depending on the campaign objectives you’re using. The average Facebook ads CPC for the leads objective is $1.92, while the average CPC for traffic campaigns is $0.70. Both of these campaign types can be excellent options for your business to increase leads, drive website traffic, and complement your search advertising strategy.
Learn more Facebook ads costs here.
How to lower your cost per click in Google Ads
Google Search is still one of the most effective ways to get in front of new customers. Yet, the cost of running Google Ads still bewilders many. Here are some practical tips to lower your Google Ads cost per click.
Choose your keywords wisely, and don’t just jump for the cheapest one!
Keyword research is a given when it comes to Google Search, but we’re not just talking about ruling out the priciest on average keywords. In fact, don’t jump to ignore any one keyword based on price, but choose based on volume and the types of search queries you want to attract.
For example, if your best converting keyword is also your most expensive, you don’t want to miss out on all those conversions in the name of frugality. But you may want to downsize your keyword list to save on spend elsewhere while you bid on that one high-converting keyword.
Or, a pricier keyword may have a higher average search volume, which could equate to bringing in more clicks to your website—increasing your expected CTR. This improves your Quality Score, which will allow you to pull in more clicks for less in the long run.
In short, you can still choose your keywords based on cost. But be sure to also consider the volume and intent behind those keywords. Having a healthy mix of low-cost keywords and high-reward keywords will ensure that you get the lowest CPC possible without sacrificing conversion quality or quantity.
⚡ Looking for more ways to find high-impact, low-cost keywords? Try our Free Keyword Tool!
Improve your ads and landing pages to raise your Quality Score
Remember, bids are only half the battle when it comes time for you to pay for a click in an auction. For example, an advertiser with a low bid but a high Quality Score could still win the auction and be more likely to pull in a click for cheaper.
Google is willing to make that trade-off because it wants to make as much money as possible off of paid Search ads without sacrificing the searcher’s experience. Google will accept a bid that results in a cheaper click if it means the ad will be of more use to the viewer (in other words, a higher Quality Score).
Aside from expected CTR, your Quality Score also factors in ad relevancy and landing page experience. For your ads, try to carve out time to regularly refresh them and include any newly added keywords. You could also take a look at Google’s suggestions right from within the ads editor section of the platform to see where your current ad strength is and where you could improve.
As for your landing pages, ensure your core keywords are on the page just like you would with your ad copy.
Try out the Search Partner Network
The Google Search Partner Network allows your ads to show on any additional sites with an online search feature that are owned by the Google family. Historically, clicks from Search Partners can trend cheaper since they can be less competitive. You can opt your campaign into these and measure the results compared to Google’s SERP whenever you please—making it a great way to test for cheaper clicks.
Take advantage of lower CPCs on the Google Display Network
Google Display campaigns tend to be cheaper, averaging a much lower CPC of $0.34 compared to the $5.26 search ads CPC I mentioned earlier. You can use this Google Ads campaign type in unison with your search ads campaigns to bring down your account’s overall costs.
What’s even better is that once you start building display ads, you can recycle those assets across other media networks that offer cheaper ad placements outside of Google-owned sites. Media networks across separately-owned sites offer display and video advertising at a cheaper CPC compared to Google search ads as well, so this tip can help your business’s strategy flourish into a full-funnel advertising approach.
This example media ad could double as a Google Display ad.
Consider other automated Google Ads campaigns
Aside from Google Display campaigns, there are a ton of other Google Ads campaign types that can complement your standard search campaigns in terms of cost per click. Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns allow your business to simultaneously place ads on the search network in addition to other placements, like the Display Network or Gmail, so these campaign types also tend to yield a cheaper cost per click overall. For instance, these automated campaigns have been reported to have CPCs as low as $0.67.
Leverage exclusions
It’s important to use exclusions to save you from spending on pricier clicks that are irrelevant. There are the normal exclusions available to all campaign types, like locations.
On top of those must-have basics, like locations, there are a few other types of Google Ads exclusions you’ll also want to check on, depending on your campaign type:
- Audiences: Are there any additional audiences that you don’t want to show to? For example, your converters or your remarketing audiences.
- Content: Do you want to show on all types of websites, pages, or apps? For example, mobile app games could result in accidental clicks should you feel that placement isn’t the best fit for your business. Excluding mobile app and games placements is a popular strategy for lowering cost per click.
Use Smart Bidding
How much you’re willing to pay per click correlates with how much the platform is willing to take. While competition and other factors help you determine how much to bid manually, you may also want to try Smart Bidding to dynamically edit your max CPC bids.
If you’re on an automated bidding strategy, Google’s algorithm will adjust your bids according to fluctuations such as campaign performance and search behavior, which can be hugely helpful when you’re juggling multiple different campaign budgets.
A/B test your targeting
Along with testing out different ways you can bid to get the lowest bid possible, you can also apply multiple audiences to your campaigns and compare which ones pull in the lowest CPCs. Now, you can approach this similarly to how you would pick keywords for a search campaign.
The audience with the highest reward may not have the lowest CPC. However, you don’t want all of your eggs in one basket. It’s best to try multiple audiences to see which one brings in the best bang for your buck, or to have a healthy balance of a high-reward audience working for you alongside a low-cost audience.
Try Google Shopping ads if you can
Based on our most recent data, the average CPC for Google Shopping ads is $0.66.
If you sell any type of product, see if you can build out a Google Merchant Center and product feed to use Shopping ads. When you do, just be sure all attributes for each product are accurate and match your ideal searcher’s intent.
Enable Google Local Services Ads
If you’re not an ecommerce business, there are lower-cost specialty Google Ads you can take advantage of. Google Local Services Ads (LSAs) are available to businesses in over 70 different service-based industries. These ads allow you to generate leads directly on the search results page.
Businesses running Local Services Ads avoid high CPCs altogether as they’re only charged for valid leads. The Google Local Services Ads average cost per lead is about $60—which is significantly lower than the search ad benchmark average cost per lead of $70.11.
Build negative keyword lists
This tip to lower your Google Ads cost per click is one I would say is most important (and it’s backed by data from over 15,000 accounts!). The core of any strong Google Ads campaign is a healthy negative keyword list. But how can you optimize that list for CPC?
We know heavier competition on the SERP can jack up CPC prices. It may be a good idea to negate big brand competitor names that you don’t feel fit well with your SMB products on the SERP. This way, you’re on a level playing field and not paying for pricier clicks because you’re showing next to big brand products.
How to lower Facebook ads cost per click
Meta Ads are a whole different beast from Google because you can’t show up on a searcher’s command. So, you have to optimize to not only be able to show up while someone is scrolling through Meta apps (this includes Facebook, Instagram Messenger, and WhatsApp), but also to pull in the cheapest click possible.
While it’s not as cookie-cutter as choosing the cheapest keyword, Facebook’s ad platform does allow for interesting tweaks you can do to lower CPC:
A/B test your ad copy
One of the easiest ways to optimize for cheaper clicks on Facebook is to try tweaking your Facebook ad copy. You’d be surprised how two different ads within the same ad set can pull in two completely different average CPCs.
This is due to Facebook’s machine learning ranking your ad before it decides when, where, and how often to show it. If Facebook determines that your ad copy and images won’t drive actions, then you’ll end up paying more for that ad’s click.
To A/B test your Facebook ads, try swapping out images, switching out the CTA buttons, or changing the text to boost your Facebook ad’s CPC health.
Choose your campaign objective wisely
Choosing the wrong objective can be a costly Facebook advertising mistake.
Your Facebook campaign objective determines how your ad will be served. Similar to Google’s automated bidding strategies, certain objectives may result in a higher CPC as they prioritize other actions.
For example, a campaign objective optimized for conversions may choose to show at times when the CPC is higher because you’re more likely to convert. Your best bet is to try a campaign objective out that best aligns with your end goal, and if you’re unsure, then split your campaigns out to test two objectives simultaneously!
Try ad scheduling
Ad scheduling is a money-saving feature that you can apply to ad sets in your Facebook campaigns.
While this feature is only available if you have a lifetime budget set, you can leverage ad scheduling as a way to overall control your Facebook costs and even your CPC because you make the call on when your ads show.
So, if you notice that you’ve been pulling in irrelevant clicks that are driving up your CPC but not converting, you may want to think about what times your audience will value your ad the most. If you’re a breakfast bar and your Facebook ads are showing during dinner time or after hours, then you could be driving up your CPC on wasted clicks!
Customize placements
The average Instagram CPC is $0.40-2.00 across all campaign objectives, so Instagram-only Meta Ads campaigns can be another avenue to keeping your overall costs down.
See more Instagram advertising costs here.
If you’re running Instagram-only ads from Facebook’s platform, then you already know you can customize your placements. However, even within the Instagram placements, there are multiple ways you can show: on stories, feeds, and more. Be sure to select your Instagram placements that best fit with your ad type. You don’t want to waste your clicks from Stories if you only want your Instagram video ad to show on Instagram Reels, and so on.
Be selective with your targeting
With such a saturated platform, it’s vital to be picky about who your ad shows to on Meta. To save yourself from a high CPC, you may not want to cast a wide net. With so many audience options to choose from, don’t be afraid to dial it down by age, location, and interest when setting up your ad set.
Focus on engagement
After you set up your ad set for specific targeting and placements, focus on ad content that will drive engagement. When your ads drive actions like comments, likes, and shares, Instagram’s algorithm will rank you higher.
Not only that, but your ads will be more likely to drive conversions and growth because they’re capturing your audience’s attention. To start, try a media-rich video ad or use the copy of your ad to incentivize your audience to participate in the comments.|
Lower your cost per click on Google and Facebook
We covered a lot in this post about reducing ad costs, so to recap, it really just comes down to basics like your targeting, ad copy, and creative across platforms. There are other little tricks, like audience list exclusions or bidding strategy optimizations, that can also boost your CPC-lowering efforts. For more ways to maximize your search and social ad campaigns, see how our solutions can help!
To lower your CPC in Google Search ads:
- Choose your keywords wisely, and don’t just jump for the cheapest one!
- Improve your ads and landing pages to raise your Quality Score
- Try out the Search Partner Network
- Take advantage of lower CPCs on the Google Display Network
- Consider other automated Google Ads campaigns
- Leverage exclusions
- Use Smart Bidding
- A/B test your targeting
- Try Google Shopping ads if you can
- Enable Google Local Services Ads
- Build negative keyword lists
To lower your CPC in Facebook ads:
- A/B test your ad copy
- Choose your campaign objective wisely
- Try ad scheduling
- Customize placements
- Be selective with your targeting
- Focus on engagement
