Facebook ads are still the newest addition to the go-to marketing channels for most companies. We still will frequently be told “Oh, our audience isn’t on Facebook” when speaking with prospective clients looking to hire an agency here at Credo.
The reality is that EVERYONE (and their mother, literally) is on Facebook and it is an incredibly powerful channel for advertising and business. When they began slashing organic reach in 2014, advertising became even more important to reaching your audience on Facebook.
The important takeaways from this section are:
Let’s get into the numbers.
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For this 2019 survey, we had 127 firms respond that they do Facebook advertising for clients.
We found that on average, firms reporting that they run Facebook ads for clients charge $137.50 per hour for their work.
Here is their breakdown of reported hourly rate ranges:
And the raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count | FB ads firms worldwide |
Under $50 | 11 | 8.66% |
$51-$100 | 29 | 22.83% |
$101-$150 | 39 | 30.71% |
$151-$200 | 29 | 22.83% |
$201-$300 | 17 | 13.39% |
$301-$500 | 1 | 0.79% |
$501+ | 0 | 0.00% |
The important callouts here are:
Here are the average hourly rates for US-based Facebook ads firms (all company sizes including solo consultants):
Here is the raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count | FB ads US all sizes |
Under $50 | 3 | 3.90% |
$51-$100 | 8 | 10.39% |
$101-$150 | 29 | 37.66% |
$151-$200 | 22 | 28.57% |
$201-$300 | 13 | 16.88% |
$301-$500 | 1 | 1.30% |
$501+ | 0 | 0.00% |
Here you can see that the percentage charging between $100-$200 per hour is even more than worldwide at 66.23% of all our respondents!
From this, we can see that most of the lower-charging firms in our dataset are not US-based.
Here are the project minimums as reported by the 127 Facebook ads respondents in our dataset:
The raw data:
FB ads firms worldwide single project minimum | ||
Row Labels | Count of Single project minimum | FB ads firms worldwide single project minimum |
Under $1,000 | 28 | 22.05% |
$1,000-$1,999 | 31 | 24.41% |
$2,000-$2,999 | 23 | 18.11% |
$3,000-$3,999 | 10 | 7.87% |
$4,000-$4,999 | 4 | 3.15% |
$5,000+ | 25 | 19.69% |
Do not accept one-time projects | 2 | 1.57% |
No minimum | 4 | 3.15% |
Here are the monthly retainer minimums worldwide as reported by the 127 Facebook ads respondents in our dataset:
The raw data:
FB ads firms worldwide monthly retainer minimum | ||
Row Labels | Count of Monthly minimum budget | FB ads firms worldwide monthly retainer minimum |
Under $1,000 | 36 | 28.35% |
$1000-1,999 | 26 | 20.47% |
$2000-2,999 | 25 | 19.69% |
$3000-3,999 | 15 | 11.81% |
$4000-4,999 | 4 | 3.15% |
$5,000+ | 14 | 11.02% |
No minimum | 7 | 5.51% |
Here the rates for the Facebook ads agencies (2+ full time employees) within our dataset.
Here are the worldwide Facebook ads agency average hourly rates for our dataset. There were 96 respondents in this bucket:
Here is the raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count | FB ads agencies worldwide |
Under $50 | 7 | 7.29% |
$51-$100 | 17 | 17.71% |
$101-$150 | 32 | 33.33% |
$151-$200 | 25 | 26.04% |
$201-$300 | 13 | 13.54% |
$301-$500 | 1 | 1.04% |
$501+ | 0 | 0.00% |
The interesting numbers for us are:
Here are the worldwide Facebook ads agencies single project minimums according to the 96 respondents in our dataset:
The raw data:
Worldwide FB ads agencies minimum project | ||
Row Labels | Count of Single project minimum | Worldwide FB ads agencies minimum project |
Under $1,000 | 18 | 18.75% |
$1,000-$1,999 | 21 | 21.88% |
$2,000-$2,999 | 18 | 18.75% |
$3,000-$3,999 | 8 | 8.33% |
$4,000-$4,999 | 3 | 3.13% |
$5,000+ | 22 | 22.92% |
Do not accept one-time projects | 2 | 2.08% |
No minimum | 4 | 4.17% |
Here are the worldwide Facebook ads agencies monthly retainer minimums according to the 96 respondents in our dataset:
The raw data:
Worldwide FB ads agencies monthly minimum retainer | ||
Row Labels | Count of Monthly minimum budget | Worldwide FB ads agencies monthly minimum retainer |
Under $1,000 | 24 | 25.00% |
$1000-1,999 | 18 | 18.75% |
$2000-2,999 | 20 | 20.83% |
$3000-3,999 | 13 | 13.54% |
$4000-4,999 | 4 | 4.17% |
$5,000+ | 12 | 12.50% |
No minimum | 5 | 5.21% |
Here are the hourly rate numbers for the 58 US-based Facebook ads agencies in our dataset:
And the raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count | FB ads US and agencies |
Under $50 | 2 | 3.28% |
$51-$100 | 3 | 4.92% |
$101-$150 | 24 | 39.34% |
$151-$200 | 19 | 31.15% |
$201-$300 | 11 | 18.03% |
$301-$500 | 1 | 1.64% |
$501+ | 0 | 0.00% |
The interesting callouts are:
Here the rates for the Facebook ads consultants (only 1 full time employee, may work with outside freelancers) within our dataset.
Here are the numbers for the Facebook ads consultant from within our dataset, of which there were 31. The raw data is important to pay attention to below the chart:
The raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count | FB ads consultants worldwide |
Under $50 | 4 | 12.90% |
$51-$100 | 12 | 38.71% |
$101-$150 | 7 | 22.58% |
$151-$200 | 4 | 12.90% |
$201-$300 | 4 | 12.90% |
$301-$500 | 0 | 0.00% |
$501+ | 0 | 0.00% |
Here are the single project minimums for the 31 Facebook ads consultants from within our dataset:
The raw data:
Worldwide FB ads consultants minimum project | ||
Row Labels | Count of Single project minimum | Worldwide FB ads consultants minimum project |
Under $1,000 | 10 | 32.26% |
$1,000-$1,999 | 10 | 32.26% |
$2,000-$2,999 | 5 | 16.13% |
$3,000-$3,999 | 2 | 6.45% |
$4,000-$4,999 | 1 | 3.23% |
$5,000+ | 3 | 9.68% |
Here are the monthly retainer minimums for the 31 Facebook ads consultants from within our dataset:
The raw data:
Worldwide FB ads consultants monthly minimum retainer | ||
Row Labels | Count of Monthly minimum budget | Worldwide FB ads consultants monthly minimum retainer |
Under $1,000 | 12 | 38.71% |
$1000-1,999 | 8 | 25.81% |
$2000-2,999 | 5 | 16.13% |
$3000-3,999 | 2 | 6.45% |
$5,000+ | 2 | 6.45% |
No minimum | 2 | 6.45% |
Here are the average hourly rates as reported by the US-based Facebook ads solo consultants from our dataset, of which there were 16:
The raw data:
Hourly Rate | Count | FB ads US and solo consultants |
Under $50 | 1 | 6.25% |
$51-$100 | 5 | 31.25% |
$101-$150 | 5 | 31.25% |
$151-$200 | 3 | 18.75% |
$201-$300 | 2 | 12.50% |
$301-$500 | 0 | 0.00% |
$501+ | 0 | 0.00% |
From this data it looks like US based solo Facebook ads consultants charge less per hour for their work than Facebook ads agencies. We don’t quite have enough consultants to say that for sure though.
That would not surprise us a lot though as it would be similar to how the SEO world evolved – agencies got more expensive then consultants specialized and raised their rates as they had the years of experience.
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