Are Facebook ads worth it?

The short answer

They work. Making them pay is the skill.

Facebook ads really do make people buy. The best tests prove it. But making sales and making money aren’t the same thing, and the gap comes down to your sums and how the ads are run.

As a rule of thumb, they’re worth running if three things are true:

• A new customer brings in about £150 or more in profit before ad costs, or about £185 with an agency charging 20%, like us.
• Someone answers enquiries quickly.
• You’ll judge them on your own sales, not on Meta’s dashboard.

That figure comes from sums we’ll show you, and you can change every number in them.

By Ross Thompson, ZERO FAFF, Durham. Checked and updated November 2026.

A word before we start

Running ads is what we do

We’re experts at running ads and making them actually work for the businesses paying for them. So we’ve got an interest in your answer, and you should know that up front.

It’s also why we’ve written the book this way. Ads done properly start with the evidence and the sums, so we’ll show you both, including the bits that don’t help us. We tell you where each figure comes from, and there’s a list at the back. We say when something is only our experience, and when nobody really knows.

If your sums don’t work yet, we’ll say so, and show you what would change that.

Contents

What’s in the book

1. Do Facebook ads actually work?4
2. Is anyone still on Facebook?6
3. What do they really cost?8
4. Will they pay for you?11
5. What it looks like when it works14
6. Who do they suit?16
7. What makes them work in 202620
8. How do you know they worked?23
9. Rules and risks25
10. Do it yourself, or get experts in?27
11. Good questions, straight answers29

Chapter one

Do Facebook ads actually work?

Yes, on average. In the biggest test we found, more than 200,000 US advertisers had ads switched off for some people for a week, so the sales could be compared. Each $1 of ads brought in about $3.31 of revenue.

That sounds great until you remember that revenue isn’t profit. If you keep 30p of every £1 you sell, you need £3.33 back just to break even. So that average is roughly break-even on the first sale.

Advertisers below the middle for past spending got about $1.50 per $1. At that same margin, you’d get 45p back for every £1 spent, before any repeat business.

So the real question isn’t whether Facebook ads work. It’s whether yours are set up to pay.

Chapter one, continued

Why no average can answer this for you

A second study of more than 70,000 advertisers worldwide looked at what it cost to win a customer they wouldn’t have won otherwise. The middle figure was $38.16. But it ran from $5.86 to $241.95, even leaving out the extremes: a 40-fold gap. Some of that is what people sell. In our experience, plenty of the rest is how the ads are run: the offer, the ad itself and the follow-up.

So when Meta says each £1 of its ads generates £3.82 in UK revenue, it may be a fair average. It’s not a forecast for your business.

Chapter two

Is anyone still on Facebook?

Yes. Ofcom found that 93% of UK adults online, about 45.9 million people, used Facebook or Messenger in May 2025, for over 40 minutes a day. Instagram, which runs on the same advertising system, reached 78%.

Have young people left? Not really. Ofcom found 85% of 18 to 34-year-olds with smartphones still use the Facebook app. They just spend less time there: 31 minutes a day, against 50 for 35 to 54s. Over-55s make up 36% of the audience, and they barely touch Instagram.

So the people are there. That doesn’t tell you they’ll buy from you, which is the part that counts.

Try it

The shop window and the shop counter

Google is the counter. Someone walks up and asks for what you sell.

Facebook is the window. People are walking past, thinking about something else. A good display stops them, and they realise they want it.

So if people already search for what you sell, try search first. If they wouldn’t think to look, Facebook has a real job to do. That’s our rule of thumb. We couldn’t find a proper small-business test of one against the other, and being searched for doesn’t guarantee Google ads are making you extra sales either.

Pick a business and see where we’d start.

Chapter three

What do Facebook ads cost in the UK?

You set the budget, and what you get for it moves around. The only regular UK monthly figures we could trace come from Superads, a tool reporting on its own customers, so treat them as a rough guide.

Other UK guides quote anything from about 40p a click up to £1.35, often with no source. So don’t plan around any of these. Plan around your own sums, and test them.

Chapter three, continued

The bit Ads Manager won’t show you

Meta’s 2% fee. Since July 2026, Meta has added 2% to ads shown to people in the UK. It goes on top of your budget and appears on your invoice, but not in your Ads Manager figures. So your real cost per lead is a little higher than the one on screen.

VAT. If you’re VAT registered, you’ll normally have no VAT to pay in cash on Meta ads. If you’re not, watch this one. The government has proposed that from April 2027, non-registered firms would pay UK VAT on them. That’s not law yet, but it would turn £1,000 of ads into £1,224. Ad spend can also count towards your VAT threshold. Your accountant is the person to ask.

Chapter three, continued

The rest of the bill

Making the ads. Your own time, or someone else’s. We’ve seen seller guides quote from about £150 for a simple video, but we couldn’t find reliable figures.

Running them. Your time, or a fee. Published UK prices we found run from about £145 to well over £1,000 a month, usually on top of your ad spend. Ours is 20% of your ad spend, plus an initial set-up fee based on the size of the campaign.

Your follow-up. Someone has to answer every enquiry. It’s often the biggest cost, and the one nobody counts.

How small can you start? Meta doesn’t publish a pound minimum that we could find. At typical costs, £300 a month buys about 250 clicks or 8 leads. That’ll show whether anyone cares about your offer. It can’t prove it pays. Don’t expect more from it yet.

Chapter four

Will they pay for you?

Here’s the sum most guides skip. Say you spend £500 a month, plus Meta’s £10 fee, and one in four enquiries becomes a customer. On your own, that’s £510. With an agency charging 20%, like us, it’s another £100, so £610.

That’s where our £150 and £185 come from. If only one in ten becomes a customer, multiply those by two and a half. These are our sums, before VAT, any set-up fee and making the ads, and they assume the ads caused every sale.

Try it

Put your own numbers in

That’s 3 customers at £184 each. You keep £250 from each one, so it’s close.

These are your numbers, not a promise. Repeat business only counts if your records show it.

The calculator, continued

What the numbers are telling you

• Well ahead

  There’s room for things to go wrong, so this is worth doing properly.

• Close

  Don’t start by spending more. This is where how the ads are run really counts: a better offer, a sharper ad, a quicker reply or a bigger first sale. That’s the work we do every week.

• Well short

  Ads are unlikely to pay on those numbers, however good they are. Try the same sum with what a customer’s worth over a few years, if your records back that up. If it still doesn’t work, your money’s better spent elsewhere for now, whether that’s your website, your Google listing or asking for reviews. We can help with those too.

Chapter five

What it looks like when it works

What The Booth hires out photo booths and magic mirrors for weddings, parties and events in Mansfield. They wanted more enquiries from people planning events nearby.

We made video ads for Facebook and Instagram, shown to people within 35km of Mansfield. Each one had a short form built in, so nobody had to leave the app. It asked for the event type, date and venue, so Jason had what was needed to follow up.

Chapter five, continued

The numbers, April to August 2026

• 270+enquiries recorded
• £3.45average cost per enquiry
• 121,777times the ads were seen
• 1,433link clicks

Enquiries come from the client’s own lead tracker, and the other figures are as reported by Meta.

What’s behind those numbers. That’s far cheaper than a typical UK lead, and yours may well cost several times more. Photo booths look great on video, people plan these events months ahead, and an enquiry is not yet a booking. What carries over to any business is how it was done: a clear offer, ads made for the feed, the right questions on the form and every enquiry tracked.

Read the full story of What The Booth

Chapter six

Who do they suit?

Most of the proper evidence comes from online sellers. For everyone else this is our judgement, so we’ve said how sure we are.

Chapter six, continued

What owners say

Independent evidence on UK owners is thin, so treat this as stories, not data.

On UK Business Forums, older threads show a wedding venue and hospitality businesses doing well, while an HR software firm gave up after six months with nothing to show for it. One owner found free Marketplace posts worked when paid ads didn’t. On a smaller budget, one recent poster described stretches with no leads at all as a real threat to the business.

That’s the part averages hide. On a small budget, a bad fortnight can feel like a bad year.

Try it

Six quick questions

Your result

• Good bet

  You’ve got a lot of what these ads need. A small, well-made test should tell you plenty.

• Worth a test

  There’s a good case, with one or two things to get right first. Keep the first campaign small and simple.

• Fix one thing first

  It’s usually the sums, the reply speed or the counting. Sort that and your money will go a lot further. We can help with that too.

• Start somewhere else

  Google or LinkedIn looks like a better first step, and Facebook can follow later.

This is our judgement rather than a promise. Want a straight answer for your business? Let’s have a chat.

Chapter seven

What makes them work in 2026?

Facebook ads have changed. For sales and leads, Meta now picks most of the audience itself. Location and minimum age stay firm, while things like interests are mostly treated as suggestions. So your message does a lot of the work of finding the right people.

Check these three settings

• “Reach more people likely to respond”. Pick a town and this may show your ads beyond it. If you only cover that town, you may want it off.
• Automatic creative changes. Some can alter your wording and pictures. Check what’s switched on.
• Too tight an area. Meta suggests merging small areas, because small audiences tire of your ad quickly.

Chapter seven, continued

What we do, and how sure we are

Choose the result you want. Meta looks for people likely to do what you pay for. Ask for cheap clicks and you’ll get cheap clicks.

Be patient with small budgets. Meta says its system settles at about 50 results a week. At a typical lead cost that’s about £1,900 a week, so most small accounts will say “Learning limited”. Meta says that isn’t a penalty.

Show something real. You, your van, the finished job and a clear offer. That’s our experience. We couldn’t find sound evidence that video always beats photos.

Change the ad when it tires. Meta’s sign is your cost per result doubling.

Chapter seven, continued

Forms, chats or a web page?

A form inside the ad usually gets cheaper leads. Whether they’re worse leads is still argued about, as one test found no difference and another found landing pages far better. Add a question or two to put off time-wasters, then check against your own sales.

A web page can give you more room to persuade. If it’s slow or confusing, you pay for the click and lose the customer.

A WhatsApp chat suits you if you’re good at chatting. Count those conversations yourself, as Meta’s figures can be limited.

Whichever you pick, answer quickly. Older research, partly from a sales software company, suggests the first few minutes matter a lot. Nobody has properly proved how much, but leads clearly go cold, and plenty of businesses never call back at all.

Chapter eight

How do you know they really worked?

This is the part nearly every guide leaves out. Your dashboard counts sales it can link to an ad, and some of those people would have bought anyway.

In one study of 663 tests, ads really lifted purchases by about 5 to 6%, while the best analysis without a proper test estimated 24%. In another test of over 2,000 campaigns, click-based reports overstated results by 1.33 times on average, and 2 times in travel. Tests by firms that sell testing sometimes find the opposite, with Meta under-counting.

So there’s no safe percentage to knock off. Across campaigns, reported figures explained only about a fifth of the differences in real results. And since March 2026, Meta counts clicks differently, so don’t compare this year with last.

Try it

A test a small business can actually run

1. Work out your break-even with the calculator.
2. Count sales from your own records, like invoices and bookings.
3. Switch ads on and off in blocks of at least four weeks, a few times over.
4. Split by town if you cover separate ones.
5. Ask every new enquiry how they found you. It’s not perfect, but it helps.

So a small test can spot a big difference, not a small one. Seeing no change only rules out a big effect.

Chapter nine

Rules worth knowing

The Meta Pixel. If you track website visitors for advertising, UK rules mean asking first, with a proper cookie banner. Yes, that means some data goes missing.

Following up. Marketing emails and texts to individuals, including sole traders, need consent or a clear opt-out route. Keep your form wording clear.

Your claims. Facebook ads must follow the same UK ad rules as any other. Back up what you say, be upfront about the full price and don’t fake reviews. Regulators can act directly on fake reviews and hidden charges.

Some sectors have extra rules, including finance, alcohol, health claims and less healthy food. Check before you plan around them.

This is a guide, not legal advice.

Chapter nine, continued

Protect your account

Businesses do get locked out of their accounts, sometimes wrongly. Tens of thousands of people have complained, and nobody publishes a reliable figure for how often it happens. It’s worth an hour to protect yourself.

• Own your Business Portfolio in your company’s name
• Have two trusted admins
• Use an authenticator app, not texts
• Set a spending limit
• Remove old admins
• Keep your customer list and a website outside Meta
• Never pay a “fixer” or call a “Meta support” number you’ve found online

0 of 7 done.

Our advice rather than a Meta guarantee.

Chapter ten

Do it yourself, or get experts in?

Here’s the sum an agency rarely shows you. At £500 a month, our 20% takes your bill from £510 to £610. So it pays for itself if it wins you about one more customer for every five you’d have got on your own, and that’s the same at £2,000 a month. The set-up fee has to be earned back on top.

Winning that extra customer is the job: better ads, weekly tuning and every lead tracked. And because our fee rises with your spend, judge us on your sales, not on how much goes through the account.

Chapter ten, continued

Seven questions to ask anyone running your ads

1. Will the ad account be in my name?
2. Is your fee separate from my ad spend?
3. What would you need to deliver to cover your fee?
4. Will you report on my sales, or just Meta’s figures?
5. Who makes the ads, and is that included?
6. How often will you change things, and will you tell me why?
7. Am I tied into a long contract?

0 of 7 asked.

Good questions, straight answers

What people ask us

The final chapter

What happens next

Getting a straight answer for your business takes three steps, and the first one is just a chat.

1. A quick chat

   Tell us what you sell, who buys it and what a customer’s worth. We’ll run the sums with you. No hard sell, no faff.

2. A plan and a clear price

   Where we’d start, what we’d spend and what would count as a win. Our fee is 20% of your ad spend, plus an initial set-up fee based on the size of the campaign, agreed before we start. If Google or your website should come first, we’ll say so and help with that instead.

3. We run it, you see it

   We make the ads and tune them every week. Each month you get a plain-English report on what you spent, what came in and what each customer cost.

The small print

Where the numbers came from

• Ofcom, Online Nation 2025
• Tadelis and others, 2023: US, one week, Meta-employed authors
• Wernerfelt and others, 2025: worldwide, mostly online sellers
• Gordon, Moakler and Zettelmeyer, “Close Enough?”: US, Meta data
• Attribution study, 2,226 tests, Meta data
• Haus: sells testing, large brands
• Superads: tool vendor, its own customers
• Meta Business Help Centre
• HMRC, policy paper, 28 October 2026
• ICO, ASA and CMA
• UK Business Forums: owners’ stories, mostly 2018 to 2019

All checked November 2026.