Instagram ads are a great tool to promote your small business, but are they an expense you can afford? Find out all about the costs and the factors that affect them here.
The cost of Instagram ads varies, though the average you can expect to pay is around £0.50–£2 per click.
The cost can also increase depending on industry competitiveness, as more brands are competing on social media for engagement – in turn bumping up advertisement costs.
To limit the risk of under (or over) spending on advertising, we would recommend using a professional digital marketing agency to manage your social media marketing and Instagram advertising for you.
Getting support for your business is cheaper than you might think. But, if you would like to find out exactly how much hiring a digital marketing agency would cost you, simply fill out a few details using our free cost comparison tool. It is easy to use, and there are zero obligations on your part.
Or read on to learn more about how much Instagram ads cost in the UK.
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Breakdown of Instagram ad costs in the UK
Instagram ad costs can be broken up into two categories, which are entirely dependent on your bidding model. Bidding models are either cost per click (CPC) or cost per impression (CPM).
Companies will bid against each other in auctions for ads on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. The maximum amount of money a business is willing to pay for an ad will be determined by either ad clicks or the number of impressions. This is known as a ‘bidding model’.
The cost of ads on a CPC model
Cost per click refers to the price you pay per click on one of your ads. This model was traditionally used on Facebook, but is now more widely implemented on Instagram.
As stated earlier, cost per click ads differ in price depending on the industry your business operates in.
On average, a CPC ad will cost you around £0.80–£1.10 per click. But in more competitive industries, this can rise to up to £2.70 per click.
The cost of ads on a CPM model
CPM stands for cost per mille or cost per thousand impressions (CPT). It is the price you pay to Instagram every thousand impressions, which currently stands at an average of £7.94. It is a great benchmark to start with when you begin advertising on Instagram.
An impression is a digital marketing term that refers to when your ad is seen by a user on social media. The user does not need to click on the ad or engage with it (like/comment) in order to count as an impression.
Using a CPM model is incredibly handy when starting out your Instagram advertising campaign. This is because once you have an idea of the CPM, you can estimate the click-through rate.
The click-through rate represents the number of people who see your ad and take action, whether that be by clicking on it, ‘liking’ it, or commenting on it.
From analysing these figures, you can work out how much a CPC ad campaign could cost you, which is incredibly useful when planning future digital marketing campaigns.
Understanding bidding models and making sense of how they work isn’t the most beneficial way to spend your time. By hiring a digital marketing agency to help support your Instagram ad campaign strategy, you can be confident that a team of experts will ensure your brand will reach the right audience.
If you are looking to work with an agency, simply answer the question below to start the one-minute process of receiving free, no-obligation pricing information.
What factors affect Instagram ad costs?
- Competition – your competitors will be fighting to reach the same demographic as you. This can bump up the cost of ads because the amount a business is willing to bid for an advertisement will increase.
- Campaign objectives – every effective digital marketing strategy will come with objectives. The cost of your Instagram ads will depend on whether they’re targeting higher or lower up the audience funnel. For example, a brand awareness campaign objective will be much lower in cost than one focused on conversions.
- Audience size – if you are targeting a broader audience, costs will typically be lower because there is less competition for a specific group of people. However, the more targeted you want to make your ads – with a reduced age range or specific location, for example – the more competitive the ad space will become, and this will ramp up costs.
- Placement incentives – ads on Instagram Reels often deliver a significantly lower CPM than traditional ads on Instagram’s feed. This is mainly because Meta is still pushing short-form video to keep users on the Reels tab. Therefore, if you put more of your budget into this format, you can usually get more views for the same spend compared to static posts.
There are other factors that affect Instagram ad costs, including click-through rates and the longevity of your ad. This can all be difficult to grasp, which is why it can be really beneficial to work alongside a dedicated digital marketing agency.
Want to learn more? Check out our review of the top 8 digital marketing agencies in the UK.
How to set up an Instagram ad
Instagram ads are a form of paid social media – so unlike with organic social content, you’ll actually have to pay for your ad to appear in someone else’s feed.
There are a number of simple, quick ways you can set up an Instagram ad campaign, but first you need to ensure you have an Instagram business account.
A business account gives you access to ad functionality, as well as user insights and post analytics.
Once you have set this up, you can create an Instagram ad in the following ways.
Boosting a post
Once you’ve posted organically on Instagram, you’ll have the option to boost your post to reach more users. Simply navigate to your profile and select the post you want to promote, then tap the ‘boost post’ button on the bottom right.
You will be directed to a pop-up menu where you can set criteria like the demographics of your audience, how much you will pay for the advertisement, and how long you want your ad to appear. You can also add a link to the ad that takes users to your website.
You can then use Instagram analytics within the app to see how your post is performing.
In 2026, you don’t need a full design team just to get an ad live.
Instead, Meta’s built-in AI tools can automatically expand your product photos for Reels or come up with various headline ideas in seconds. It essentially cuts down the time and cost of creating content, while keeping your ads looking fresh and optimised for engagement.
Using Facebook Ads Manager
Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta, which is why users can create Instagram ads using Facebook Ads Manager.
To do this, simply log in to your Facebook business account, and navigate to the Ads Manager. From here, you can produce an Instagram ad from scratch by selecting the ‘Create Ad’ button, which will ask you to set the parameters of your campaign.
Choose your objectives, name your campaign and define your target audience before selecting your placements, which will be Instagram ads in the news feed.
Once you’ve completed the set up of your campaign, you can submit your ad for review.
“Don’t just rely on the pre-set targeting options available. These audiences are built on demographics, individual characteristics, or transient browsing habits which sound great but give little indication of who will actually buy your product – the ultimate outcome of your marketing efforts.
“Marketers using social media should instead rely on custom audiences compiled using consumer purchase behaviour data — allowing your business to reach the consumers most likely to make a purchase.
“It’s the distinction between targeting a vegan food ad at a person who searches for vegan keywords or fits a specific profile, and targeting the ad at someone who frequents vegan restaurants.”
Why Instagram advertising is worth the cost
- Advanced targeting – with around 38.55 million Instagram users in the UK, the ability to be prescriptive when creating ads is instrumental to a brand’s success. Being able to customise your target audience by changing options such as location, age, and even interests means you can reach the right audience.
- Higher engagement rates – despite engagement rates dropping across all social media platforms over the last two years, Instagram engagement is still considerably higher than other platforms, with an average rate of 0.48% per post. Compared to Facebook (0.15%) this is a strong percentage.
- Real-time campaign performance tracking – Instagram’s analytic features allow you to monitor the success of your ads. You can track how many people have viewed and clicked on an ad link, which gives you specific insight into your campaign’s performance and helps you plan for future marketing campaigns.
- AI as an operational lever: advanced features like Advantage+ Shopping test different headlines, images, and formats automatically in real time, so you don’t have to constantly change things yourself or pay someone else to do it. For a small business, that basically means your budget goes further and you’re not eating into your profit margins with extra staffing or agency costs.
- Automated performance loops: features like Advantage+ Creative automatically adjust your ad’s visuals and text to match what individual users respond to best. The constant rotation keeps your ROI resilient, even as consumer attention spans shorten.
- Closed-loop commerce: with the rising popularity of social commerce, utilising Instagram Shops with native checkout allows you to capture impulse buys instantly. Businesses that tag products in feed posts see an average increase of 37% in sales, as it meets consumer demand for an easy and mobile-first shopping experience.
Social media marketing agencies can help you smash your marketing campaign targets, and have a dedicated team of social media advertising professionals to support you every step of the way.
For more information visit our review of the best social media marketing agencies in the UK.
Instagram ad costs vs. Facebook ad costs
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Platform
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CPC Cost (Average)
|
CPM Cost (Average)
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Number of monthly active users (2026)
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
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|
|
|
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£0.50 – £2 per click |
£0.26-£0.50 per click |
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£5-£12 per thousand |
£8-£16 per thousand |
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3 billion |
3.07 billion |
To find out more about Facebook ad costs, visit our dedicated guide.
It’s important to compare the advertising costs of these social media platforms because they are the two biggest available. Despite the fact you can advertise on Instagram using Facebook’s Ad Manager, the costs do vary.
The average CPC cost is very similar, however the CPM is much higher on Facebook than it is on Instagram. So, actioning a CPM campaign on Instagram rather than Facebook could help keep marketing overheads down.
To market successfully on both platforms, and ensure you aren’t spending valuable time and money on dead-end campaigns, you should always research the latest digital marketing trends.
Next steps: should I get support setting up my Instagram ad strategy?
Instagram ads are a great way to promote your business, brand, and products, and can be an incredibly useful tool for even new merchants to use.
To recap on the average amount it would cost you to run an Instagram ad campaign:
- For CPC you will be paying round £0.50–£2 per click.
- For CPM you will be paying around £5-£12 per thousand impressions.
However, it does take considerable time and effort to run your own Instagram marketing campaign.
This is why we would highly recommend you hire an expert team of digital marketing professionals that will be able to do the hard work for you, so you can sit back, relax, and watch those conversions come flooding in…
To find out more about some of the best digital marketing agencies in the UK and to receive bespoke, personalised quotes for their services, simply fill out our free, easy-to-use comparison tool.
There are zero obligations on your part, and the form takes under a minute to complete.
