Is the spend estimate accurate?

It is a range, not a bill. With a high confidence label it is typically within about 20 percent; low ranges, marked ≈, are an order of size.

Why does the same creator show reach for all ads but spend for 30 days?

Meta publishes reach for an ad's whole life, so reach covers every ad ever run. Spend covers the last 30 days of running ads, which is what you can act on.

What is a normal CPM for Facebook ads?

For EU direct-response ads we use €6 to €18 per thousand impressions, with competitive niches such as finance at the top and broad ones such as pets at the bottom. It is an assumption we state openly, not a measurement.

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How much do Facebook ads cost? How we estimate a creator's Meta ad spend

Meta never publishes what an advertiser pays. Here is how Whosprinting turns Meta's own reach figures into a spend range, with a worked example.

October 13, 2026Guide2 min read

Nobody outside Meta knows what an advertiser pays: Meta publishes no spend for commercial ads. What it does publish, for every ad shown in the EU, is reach, the number of accounts that saw it. Spend follows from reach, so that is where our estimate starts.

The formula

30-day reach = EU reach ÷ days run × min(days run, 30)
spend low  = 30-day reach × 1.5 × niche CPM low  ÷ 1,000
spend high = 30-day reach × 2.5 × niche CPM high ÷ 1,000

Frequency (1.5 to 2.5 impressions per person) and the CPM band (€6 to €18 per thousand impressions, set per niche) are public market assumptions for EU direct-response ads, not things we measure.

Reach turns into impressions through frequency, how many times each person saw the ad, and impressions turn into euros through the CPM, the price of a thousand impressions. Both are ranges, so the answer is a range too.

A worked example

Take a business coach's ad that has run for 60 days and reached 120,000 accounts in the EU. Business sits at €10 to €12 per thousand impressions in our band.

30-day reach: 120,000 ÷ 60 × 30 = 60,000 accounts.
Spend low: 60,000 × 1.5 × €10 ÷ 1,000 = €900.
Spend high: 60,000 × 2.5 × €12 ÷ 1,000 = €1,800.

So the ad likely cost between €900 and €1,800 over the last 30 days. A creator's spend is the sum of their running ads.

How sure we are

Every range carries a confidence label, which depends on how much we actually saw, not on how big the number is.

High, within about 20%: the ad is older than 14 days, publishes reach and its niche is known.
Medium, within about 40%: the ad is 7 to 14 days old, or its niche is not known yet, so the full €6 to €18 band applies.
Low, within about 70%: the ad is younger than 7 days or publishes no reach. Low ranges start with ≈.

What we can't know

Outside the EU, Meta publishes no reach at all, so for US and UK ads we estimate from comparable creators in the same niche and mark the figure ≈. And no formula sees a discount, an auction that ran hot one week, or a budget paused for a day. That is why we show a range and never one number.

Every formula, label and limit is on the methodology page. Hover any range in the app to see its label.

The formula

A worked example

How sure we are

What we can't know

Questions