October 2024 was a big month, as it marked the beginning of what’s expected to be the quarter with the highest ad spend ever. In fact, the advertising spend in the United States is expected to reach a record-breaking $397 billion in Q4 2024. With great spending, comes (hopefully) great return on investment - but how did Facebook ads perform in October 2024?
In our benchmarks report, we’ll review common ad performance metrics for Facebook ads across brands using Triple Whale to monitor and maximize their performance. This analysis includes 11,400 ad accounts and compares the period of October 1st to 31st, 2024 to September 1st to September 30th, 2024. The metrics presented in the Facebook statistics also include Instagram ads together.
READ MORE | A Guide to Ecommerce Metrics
Additionally, we’ll break down the industry-specific trends, with data from the following industries:
When we compare the performance for Facebook Ads metrics in October 2024 with performance in September 2024, a few things stand out:
Campaigns that drive visitors (and potential customers) to a website or landing page are a common advertising strategy for many brands. Here, we present the average benchmarks for cost per click (CPC) for 12 industries tracking their advertising effectiveness with Triple Whale for October 2024, and the amount these values differed from September 2024:
In October 2024, CPC increased in seven industries, with Electronics seeing the largest rise (+20.97%) at $0.75, likely due to higher competition as more advertisers vie for limited ad space on Facebook.
Books and Fashion Accessories saw no CPC change, indicating stability, while Fashion Accessories also has the lowest CPC overall, possibly due to lower keyword demand.
Art, Clothing, and Food & Beverage experienced CPC decreases. Despite this, Food & Beverage still held the highest CPC at $0.93, reflecting its overall competitiveness.
The cost per mille (CPM) for Facebook Ads was up almost universally across industries, with only Food & Beverage (-4.69%) and Health & Beauty (-2.89%) spending less on impressions in October 2024. In a month where competition for ad space was higher than usual (thanks to the election), this jump in CPM falls in line with what we expected.
Since click-through rate (CTR) is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown, higher competition is expected to result in lower CTR values across industries. For October 2024, most industries in our dataset had higher CTR than in September 2024. This might be due to better targeting, tailored calls to action on the ads, or better ad optimization.
The biggest month-over-month change for an industry was in Art, where a +17.16% increase drove CTR to 1.98%.
The highest CTR was in Toys & Hobbies at 2.09%, a +6.09% increase from September 2024. As holiday shopping ramps up, we’d expect that Toys & Hobbies will continue to have higher than normal click-through rates with customers searching for the hottest new toys for the season.
Similar to CPC, the lowest CTR in October 2024 was Fashion Accessories at 1.36%, a drop of -0.73% from September 2024.
While traffic campaigns are focused on clicks, a conversion-driven campaign strategy must drive actual sales. Depending on the type of industry, you will push for specific conversion rate benchmarks to secure the necessary amount of conversions to pad the bottom line.
When investigating the conversion rates across industries, the majority (nine out of 12) had higher conversion rates in October 2024 than in September 2024. A higher conversion rate indicates these industries are advertising to the correct audience, with more ad clicks resulting in purchases.
The highest conversion rate overall for the month of October belongs to Baby (2.75%), a highly competitive industry with good conversion rates, even though the rate was -4.18% lower than September 2024.
Similar to Baby, Food & Beverage experienced a drop (-6.44%) in conversion rate month over month.
Toys & Hobbies had no change in its conversion rate in October 2024 compared to September 2024.
CPA on Facebook represents the cost Facebook charges for promoting content to a specific audience through link clicks, page visits, sign-ups, or app installations. A high CPA means the campaign is not successful, whereas a lower CPA means you’re in the right territory.
As advertising costs rise heading into Q4, we wouldn’t be surprised if CPA were higher month over month, however most industries experienced a drop in CPA in October compared to September 2024. The only industries with an increase in CPA from September 2024 were Baby (+11.48%), Electronics (+11.12%), Pet Supplies (+0.11%), and Toys & Hobbies (+2.01%).
The highest increase in CPA was in the Baby industry, with a +11.48% increase month over month. The Pet Supplies industry had the highest CPA of all industries at $52.88, and this industry is spending a lot of money to acquire customers.
A lower CPA might indicate more efficient marketing campaigns, and the Art Industry had both the lowest CPA ($21.66) and a decrease of -16.08% month over month.
Encouraging customers to spend more in a single order can have a positive impact on the overall revenue of a brand’s business, so increasing AOV should be the goal for any industry.
Most industries experienced a drop in AOV in October compared to September 2024. This could be due to a number of factors, including discounts that can bring the average order value down (but, in turn, promote more overall orders) or lack of cross-selling promotions.
The industry with the biggest drop in AOV was Art, decreasing -14.62% to $68.81.
The industries that had an increase in AOV in October 2024 compared to the month prior include Baby (+6.29%), Food & Beverage (+3.93%), and Pet Supplies (+1.82%). These industries are primarily consumables, so it tracks that these industries would be able to drive AOV higher by cross-promoting other products that might suit the needs of that customer.
An industry with high AOV is Home & Garden ($133.74), which remained the highest AOV industry despite a drop (-8.30%) from September 2024.
The return on ad spend helps brands understand the efficiency of their marketing efforts. A higher value indicates better-quality ads. Most industries experienced a drop in ROAS in October compared to September 2024.
The industry with the biggest drop in ROAS was Electronics, with a drop of -12.61% to 2.01. On the other hand, the largest increase in ROAS belonged to Food & Beverage, with an increase of +14.49% to 1.58. Clothing owns the highest ROAS across industries at 3.37.
With insights from over 11,000 advertisers across twelve different industries, these benchmarks can provide a peek into how Facebook ads performed in October 2024 to prepare for the months ahead. As we get deeper into the holiday season, competition for ad space will continue to ramp up. These benchmarks can provide a crucial reference for brands to optimize their Facebook ad strategies, to ensure they maximize returns during this peak spending period.
If you’re a brand looking for a way to make an unpredictable BFCM a little more predictable, check out our BFCM Resource Hub to access articles, checklists, tools, and customized Triple Whale dashboards to access real-time insights to make quick, confident decisions about your marketing efforts.
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