Scope: This is a quick analysis of selected accounts that we manage, not all accounts or the whole market.

Analysis period: 90 days of analysis. Year-on-year comparisons use the same 90-day period in the previous year. Conversions use a 7-day click basis unless labelled 1-day view. Purchase value is Meta-attributed, not GA4 or accounting revenue.

The story in one paragraph

Ninety days of Meta spend tells two stories at once. The first is the story every advertiser wants to hear: millions of people reached, clicks bought for cents, sales at four and five times the spend, clients growing sales, leads and conversations year on year. The second story is the discipline behind the first one: every figure checked by Seria before it was believed, click results kept apart from view results, creative scored before it was scaled, and accounts audited 15 times each in the quarter. This series tells both stories, because the discipline is what makes the success worth believing.

The short answer

This is a quick analysis of selected accounts that we manage.

In 90 days of analysis, the selected Meta accounts we manage and check through Seria for Meta delivered around 62 million impressions and around 1.5 million link clicks. The blended link click-through rate was 2.42 percent. On the accounts that return purchase value, ROAS was 4.94x and 5.08x. Those are the averages across the selected accounts. The ranges underneath them matter more: link CTR ran from 0.18 percent to 4.41 percent depending on the account, and the cost of a click varied widely, because what a click is worth depends on what the campaign was built to do.

Why averages hide the real story

A single average cost per click tells you almost nothing, because Meta accounts do very different jobs.

The accounts in this data set include high-volume retail traffic campaigns, sales campaigns, engagement campaigns and campaigns aimed at a small professional audience. Retail traffic campaigns bought clicks for cents. A small professional audience cost many times more per click, because a few thousand of the right people are worth more than millions of casual scrollers. Both can be correct. The benchmark question is never "what should a click cost", it is "what should a click cost for this objective, this audience and this offer".

That is why we publish ranges, not just averages.

The numbers, 90 days of Meta spend

• Accounts analysed: 6 selected active accounts
• Impressions: around 62 million
• Reach: around 13.5 million, totalled across the accounts
• Link clicks: around 1.5 million
• Blended link CTR: 2.42 percent
• Leads, 7-day click: 2,450
• Purchases, 7-day click: 1,300
• Messaging conversations started, 7-day click: 2,390
• Return on ad spend on the accounts that return purchase value: 4.94x and 5.08x
• Ads scored for creative by Seria: 298
• Seria audits per account in the period: 15

Leads, purchases and conversations are separate event types. They are not a count of unique customers, and we do not add them up into one big result number.

What moved year on year

Against the same 90-day period in the previous year, the data shows what steady optimisation does to traffic efficiency:

• One large account lifted link CTR from 1.75 percent to 2.14 percent, up 22 percent, across around 645,000 link clicks
• A client grew link clicks by 66 percent on 30 percent more spend, cutting cost per click by 22 percent
• A client more than doubled link CTR, from 0.71 percent to 1.46 percent, and cut cost per click by 29 percent, on less spend than the year before
• A client improved ROAS from 4.75x to 5.08x and cut cost per purchase by 17 percent

Not everything improved, and this blog series says so where it matters. Two accounts saw their Seria scores fall over the period. Benchmarks are a starting point for questions, not a trophy cabinet.

What we did well, client by client

The averages above are the backdrop. These are the results we are proudest of in this period, a client at a time, no names:

• A client grew its messaging conversations by 725 percent year on year, from 4 to around 33, and cut the cost per conversation by 84 percent at the same time. Its link clicks grew 66 percent on 30 percent more spend.
• A client grew the sales inside its traffic campaigns by 40 percent year on year, grew its traffic leads by 17 percent, and grew its Instagram purchases by 16 percent.
• A client improved its return on ad spend by 7 percent, to 5.08x, and cut its cost per purchase by 17 percent, on less spend than the year before.
• A client more than doubled its link click-through rate, up 106 percent, grew clicks by 16 percent and cut its cost per click by 29 percent, on 18 percent less spend.
• A brand new client account delivered around 73,000 link clicks in its first period, at the lowest cost per click of any account analysed, while its Seria score climbed from 32 to 52.
• Across the accounts that track purchase value, spend returned 4.94x and 5.08x in attributed purchase value.

Every one of those wins is stated on click-based figures, checked by Seria before they were published. That is what makes them worth publishing: they survive scrutiny.

How to use these benchmarks in your own account

First, split your account by objective before you compare anything. Traffic, sales, engagement and awareness campaigns each have their own fair numbers.

Second, compare your link CTR before your cost per click. A rising CTR with a steady budget usually means the creative and the audience fit better, and cheaper clicks follow.

Third, check your conversions on a click basis before you celebrate them. In this same data set, view-attributed purchases outnumbered click-attributed purchases, and that story is covered in its own blog in this series.

Fourth, get your data checked independently of the platform selling you the ads. Seria Analytics checks our Meta and Google data before we act on it, which is why the figures in this series are the corrected figures, not the raw platform totals.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good cost per click on Meta in South Africa?

It varied enormously in this 90 day data set. High-volume retail traffic bought clicks for cents, while a small, valuable professional audience cost many times more per click, and can still be worth every cent. There is no single right price for a click; there is only the right price for your objective and your audience.

What is a good link CTR on Meta ads?

The blended figure here was 2.42 percent. The best account reached 4.41 percent and the weakest was 0.18 percent. Compare your CTR against your own objective and history first, then against ranges like these.

What ROAS should Meta ads deliver?

On the accounts here that return purchase value, ROAS was 4.94x and 5.08x for the period. ROAS depends on your margins, so treat any benchmark as context, not a promise.

Are these figures verified?

They are live Meta figures checked against Seria for Meta records, on a 7-day click basis, with purchase aliases counted once. Purchase value is Meta-attributed. It is not verified against GA4 or accounting records, and we say so wherever we publish it.

Talk to Wassp

Want to know where your Meta account sits against real South African data like this? Talk to WASSP about Paid Media and Seria Analytics. Email wasspsolutions@wassp.co.za or call +27 11 450 4634. 5 Riley Rd, Bedfordview, Gauteng.

Related services: Paid Media, Seria Analytics.