Facebook ad costs fall 14% while engagement improves across most industries in 2026

WordStream by LocaliQ analyzed nearly 1,800 Facebook ad campaigns across industries and found that average cost per click fell to $0.60 for traffic campaigns (down 14.29% YoY) and $1.80 for lead campaigns (down 6.25% YoY), while click-through rates rose 12.87% and 4.25% respectively. Real Estate, Restaurants, and Industrial sectors saw the largest CPC drops on traffic campaigns, though Shopping and Sports & Recreation bucked the trend with increases. Lead costs remained largely flat at $27.39 average CPL, varying significantly by industry from $12.30 in Career & Employment to $61.56 for Dentists. WordStream attributed the improvements to Meta's enhanced bidding and campaign optimization, suggesting advertisers can now achieve both cheaper clicks and stronger performance without sacrificing budget efficiency.