✌️ What we learned from $471M in ad spend

Metricooler,

You're probably managing one or more brands on social media: you plan the content, publish it, and check the metrics to see how the month is going. With organic, you learn by testing, publishing, seeing what works, and adjusting. The only cost is time.

Buuut, with social ads, things are different.

Maybe you've never run a campaign because you didn't have the time, because the ads manager feels intimidating, or you just never got around to it. Or maybe you launch a campaign every now and then with a modest budget. Whatever your case, testing alone doesn't cut it here, because every attempt costs money.

That's why we put together the 2026 Social Ads Study. We analyzed 628,969 campaigns worth $471 million, from the brands that invest the most and, therefore, have learned the most, paying for it along the way. The idea is for you to see how they do it, so you can get the most out of your money before you spend it.

And, as a marketing tool, it works with the same logic as organic content. First, people see you. Then, they get interested. And finally, they decide to act.

We've organized the study's data around the 3 stages of the funnel, so throughout this journey you always know what to expect, what your goals should be, which campaigns will get you there, and how much the adventure is going to cost.

What we're after: Being recognizable to your audience and showing up in their feeds as often as possible. In other words, making your brand stand out among all the rest.

Campaigns to get you there: On Meta, choose Awareness. On TikTok, choose Reach.

How much it costs: It depends (sorry). If you want to reach as many people as possible at the lowest cost, TikTok is the better choice. Its CPM (cost per thousand impressions) is 22% lower than Meta's. In other words, the accounts we analyzed for this study pay $0.48 on Meta for every thousand ad impressions, while on TikTok they pay $0.38 for the same thing.

What we're after: Getting people interested in your brand and wanting to know more. That can show up as a like, a comment, or a visit to your website, among other things.

Campaigns to get you there: On Meta, that's Traffic and Engagement. On TikTok, it's Traffic and Video Views.

How much it costs: With Traffic campaigns, TikTok gets almost 8 times more clicks than the same campaign on Meta, at less than half the cost per click. The brands we analyzed pay a CPC (cost per click) of $0.07 on Meta and $0.03 on TikTok.

With Engagement campaigns, though, things flip. Spending less total budget per campaign, Meta reaches similar engagement levels to TikTok and gets far more interactions per dollar invested: 10.8 on Meta vs 8.2 on TikTok.

What we're after: Getting your audience to take action, or in other words, to do exactly what we want them to do: fill out a form, download a resource, make a purchase, and so on. Turning spectators into customers.

Campaigns to get you there: On Meta, that's Leads, Sales, or App Promotion. On TikTok, all of the above plus Website Conversions.

How much it costs: With Lead campaigns, the brands we analyzed pay $2.69 per lead on TikTok, less than half what it costs on Meta (where it's $6). And the price isn't the only advantage: with a similar spend per campaign, TikTok also generates twice as many leads as Meta.

On average, the brands in the study got back $4.57 for every dollar they invested in Sales campaigns on Meta. That's just one part of the funnel and one platform, so it's not a promise of what you'll earn, but it does give you a sense of the potential: a dollar in ads can come back multiplied.

That said, this return has been trending down (it was $5.48 in 2025), a sign that margins are tightening and that knowing where your money performs best before you spend it matters more every day. The study breaks it down, piece by piece.