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How much do Facebook ads cost in the UK?

Last updated 21 September 2026

Most answers to this are written by agencies for companies spending thousands a month. This one is for a shop, a salon or a takeaway thinking about £5 a day. Facebook and Instagram ads are sold together by Meta at the same prices, so everything here covers both.

How the pricing works

Every time someone opens Facebook or Instagram, Meta holds an auction among the advertisers who want to reach that person. You don't bid by hand. You give Meta a budget and a goal, and it bids for you, trying to get as many results as it can for the money. So the cost isn't set by Meta. It's set by how many other businesses want the same people at the same moment, and by how good your ad is.

That's why nobody can quote you a price, and why two shops on the same street can pay different amounts for the same audience.

Typical UK costs in 2026

These ranges are drawn from figures UK agencies have published for 2026, and they're wide because the agencies' clients differ. Finance and legal firms sit at the top. A takeaway advertising to its own postcode sits near the bottom, because few others are bidding for "people within three miles of this high street". The only figures that really count are your own, and a week of ads will give you them.

What £5 a day actually buys

Take a middling price of £8 per 1,000 views and 60p a tap. A week at £5 a day is £35:

That's arithmetic, not a promise. But it shows the scale: for the price of a small advert in a local paper, a few thousand people who live nearby see your offer on their phone. If a customer is worth £15 to you and five of them come in, the week paid for itself.

One thing particular to local businesses: your audience is small. There might be 20,000 people within a few miles. At £5 a day you reach a good share of them within a fortnight, and after that the same people see the same ad again and again. When results drop, change the ad before you raise the budget.

What makes it cheaper or dearer

• The ad itself. The biggest lever you have. Meta gives cheaper delivery to ads that people stop for and tap, and charges more for ones they scroll past or hide.
• Time of year. November and December are the dearest weeks, when every retailer is advertising. January is cheap.
• Who you're after. Narrow, in-demand audiences cost more. A plain local radius is about as cheap as targeting gets.
• The goal you pick. Asking for views is cheap. Asking for website purchases is dear, because Meta goes looking for the people most likely to buy, and so does everyone else.
• Where it runs. Reels and Stories are usually cheaper per view than the feed, if you have a full-screen vertical ad to put there. The ad sizes guide covers the shapes.

The costs on top

• VAT at 20%. Meta adds it to UK ad spend unless you've put a VAT number on the ad account. £35 of ads is a £42 charge on your card.
• Apple's 30% fee. It applies when you pay for a boost inside the Facebook or Instagram app on an iPhone. Do it from a web browser, at facebook.com or instagram.com, and it doesn't.
• Making the ad. A designer charges £30 to £100 for a single image, which can be more than the advertising. It doesn't need to cost anything: see the end of this page.
• An agency, if you use one. Typically £300 a month and up, on top of the ad spend. At £5 a day you don't need one.

Is there a minimum spend?

Barely. Meta's minimum is around £1 a day for most kinds of ad, and a little more for some goals. The practical minimum is higher, because Meta needs some data to work out who responds. A sensible first test is £5 a day for a week. Less than that and you won't learn much either way.

Do Instagram ads cost more than Facebook ads?

They're bought in the same auction with the same budget, and by default Meta moves your money to wherever results are cheapest that day. Instagram has tended to cost a little more per tap and Facebook a little less, with an older audience. Unless you know your customers are on only one of them, leave both switched on and let it sort itself out.

A first month for a small shop

1. Week 1: one offer, one ad, £5 a day, people within a few miles. Boosting a post is enough.
2. Week 2: same budget, a different picture and headline. Compare taps and, better, customers who mention it.
3. Weeks 3 and 4: keep the winner running and test one new ad against it each week.

That's about £140, and at the end you'll know your own cost per customer, which is worth more than any benchmark on this page.