3 - CPM: Ways to Lower it

Q4 2026 WORKSHOP - DAY 2

Ways to Lower Your CPM

1. Understanding why CPM goes up
2. Basic actions to keep CPM low
3. Advanced actions to keep CPM low

Understanding why CPM goes up

1. Supply and Demand
   More advertisers, same number of users
2. Supply and Demand II
   More total ad spend, same number of users
3. Saturated Audiences
   Usually, the higher the frequency the higher the CPM,
   Scaling during BFCM is not:
   
   Reach 1,000 and Frequency 1.5
   Reach 10,000 and Frequency 1.5
   BUT
   Reach 10,000 and Frequency 2.2
   Reach 100,000 and Frequency 3
   
4. External things to Black Friday
   4.1 The user gives Meta negative feedback about your ads
   Dislike, negative comments
   Reporting an ad, “not interested”
   Very low Hook Rate
   They click and don’t load the page
   They click, load the page but quickly bounce
   
   4.2 Meta doesn’t see you as an amazing client
   Payment failures, payment delays
   Turning off the ads for 1-2 weeks
   Accumulating rejected ads
   Risky ads: too personal, attacking, controversial topics, …  
   

Basic actions to keep CPM low

1. Creative and Ad Spend Diversification
   When creative became the targeting, our reach became limited almost immediately.
   
   Example: I sell skincare to women aged 30–50 in Spain
   

• Women aged 30–50 in Spain: 7M (TAM)
• Women aged 30–50 on Facebook/Instagram: 5M
• Women aged 30–50 on Facebook/Instagram who are likely to purchase: 2M
  
• Hydration — images, before-and-after: 250k
• Hydration — short-form videos: 250k
• Hydration — long-form videos: 250k
• Wrinkles — images, before-and-after: 250k
• Wrinkles — short-form videos: 250k
• Wrinkles — long-form videos: 250k
• Dark circles — images, before-and-after: 250k
• Dark circles — short-form videos: 250k
• Dark circles — long-form videos: 250k

These numbers are very approximate.
The point is that to reach different audiences, I need to diversify my angles, concepts, and formats → and make sure each one gets a minimum level of spend.

2. Avoid ad sets overlapping
NO:
Ad set 1: Image before/after
Ad set 2: Image before/after, orange background
Ad set 3: Image before/after, discount
Ad set 4: Image before/after, product shows up

Also avoid scaling horizontal without changing the bid.

If you move from ABO to CBO, the CBO must have something diff.

3. Ad Format: 4:5 (or square) for feed, 9:16 stories
(Videos can be 9:16 directly)
This way we avoid Meta penalizing us with high CPM due to showing square images on stories, worse user experience.

4. Obviously having high CTR and high hook rate will improve the CPM

Advanced actions to keep CPM low

1. Manual Ad Engagement
   Only in your winning ads → Share the fb and ig URL with team members or friends, and get to 10 comments ASAP.
   The brand replies to those 10 comments and you have a total of 20 comments.
   
   → You avoid negative comments
   → You get more positive comments
   
   Review top spenders every 3 days.
   
2. Manual Overbidding
   Logic: the higher I bid, the more auctions I participate in, and the more people I reach, because I’m winning more auctions.
   → Lower CPM
   

Case 1: Sept/Oct 2025 → CPM lowered from $32 to $17

Case 2:

Case 3:


Case 4:

Case 5:

Case 6: 2026 → 9 months, CPM $22 to $13

Case 7: During BFCM 2025 → Lowering CPM €23 to €18

For this same case, if I check Black Friday campaigns only:

3. Not using the word “Black Friday” in your ad creatives
   

Conclusion:

The Perfect Black Friday Campaign:

1. CBO
2. 5-10 ad sets, some TOF others BOF, with minimum spend per ad set
3. Creative diversification + ad spend diversification
4. >50 accumulated purchases
5. Engagement in the ads
6. Overbidding cost cap or bid cap
7. (Not mentioning Black Friday, in some cases)
8. Discount