Meta does not charge a fixed price per lead. You set a budget and pay through an auction, typically per thousand impressions (CPM). In two travel accounts we manage, lifetime CPM was ₹31.42 and ₹33.92; what that buys per enquiry depends on destination, season, creative and the result you optimise for.
How does Meta charge for Facebook and Instagram ads?
Meta sells ad space in an auction. You choose a budget (daily or lifetime), an objective (for example leads, messages or purchases) and an audience; Meta shows your ad to people it expects to respond and charges you based on how much competing advertisers bid for the same people and how relevant your ad is. Most campaigns are billed on impressions, expressed as CPM, the cost per 1,000 impressions. You can also see CPC (cost per click) and cost per result, which is spend divided by the results the campaign was built to get.
What does it cost in practice?
There is no honest universal number, but real accounts show the shape. Travel Junction’s lifetime Meta view shows 40,63,640 impressions for ₹1,27,681.54, a CPM of ₹31.42. Safarnama with Anu shows a CPM of ₹33.92 on 17,20,157 impressions. At those CPMs, what you pay per enquiry depends on how many people who see the ad take the next step: in Travel Junction’s account the cost per WhatsApp conversation ran from ₹4.58 to ₹54.48 across campaigns. Our data note has the full breakdown.
What makes Meta ads cost more or less?
- Audience and competition. Popular audiences (young urban buyers, festive seasons) cost more because more advertisers bid for them.
- Season. Costs rise around festivals and sale periods.
- Creative. An ad that earns clicks gets cheaper delivery. In one account two ads for the same trip differed by roughly five times in cost per chat.
- Objective and result. A chat is cheaper than a lead; a lead is cheaper than a purchase.
- Landing experience. A slow page or a long form loses people you have already paid for.
- Your offer. A clear price, a clear benefit and a time limit that is true lift response.
How much budget do you need?
Start from what a customer is worth, not from what feels affordable. If a sale earns you ₹2,000 after costs and one in ten enquiries becomes a sale, you can pay up to about ₹200 per enquiry before you lose money. Give a campaign enough budget to produce at least a few dozen results in a week; below that the data is too thin to learn from. Our break-even calculator does this arithmetic.
What about the agency’s fee?
An agency’s management fee is separate from the ad budget you pay Meta. Make sure any quote states both. Ours is fixed per month, plus GST, with ad spend paid by you directly to Meta; see our packages and how agency pricing works.
How do you stop wasting ad spend?
- Make sure tracking counts each lead once and counts the right event.
- Run one campaign per offer or destination so you can see what works.
- Test creative in batches and retire losers.
- Answer leads fast; a cheap lead you call two days later is a wasted lead.
- Review results weekly and move budget to winners.
Key takeaways
- Meta charges through an auction, usually per 1,000 impressions (CPM).
- The price per enquiry depends on creative, season, audience and objective far more than on a platform rate card.
- Budget backwards from what a customer is worth.
- Ask any agency to state its fee and your ad budget separately.