Facebook Ads Cost Per Lead Benchmarks in Italy

Introduction

Cost per lead in Italy traced a dramatic arc over the past 12 months: elevated and above-market through late 2024, then a steep slide into mid-2025 before stabilizing at far lower levels than the global benchmark. The year opened expensive, peaked in December, and then reset—bottoming in July—creating one of the widest spreads versus global costs in the period.

This analysis is based on $3B worth of advertising data from our dataset, which provides strong directional benchmarks. This analysis explores ad performance trends for all industries in Italy compared to the global benchmark.

The story in the data

For all industries in Italy, median cost per lead (CPL) started at 54.97 in November 2024, climbed to a high of 59.14 in December, then eased to 42.11 in January and 45.84 in February. The downtrend continued into spring—41.66 in March and 35.47 in April—before a decisive reset: 21.29 in May, 17.18 in June, and a low of 9.33 in July. A brief rebound appeared in August (27.06), followed by 12.16 in September and 13.65 in October.

Across the full window, Italy’s CPL averaged 31.7, ranging from the 59.14 December peak to the 9.33 July trough. From the November starting point to October’s close, CPL fell 75%. The largest month-to-month drop came from December to January (−17.0), while the sharpest lift occurred from July to August (+17.7). Month-to-month volatility averaged 8.7 points, notably choppier than the global benchmark’s 3.2 points.

By comparison, the global CPL averaged 40.9 and followed a more measured curve: softening into early 2025, then generally rising from March through September, peaking at 48.21 before easing to 44.88 in October.

Seasonal and monthly dynamics

The late-2024 period in Italy was unmistakably expensive, with November–December setting the highest CPLs of the year. Early 2025 stayed elevated relative to global norms before decisively downshifting in Q2. The summer months brought the softest costs—July marked the year’s low—followed by a tentative lift in August and a return to lower levels in September and October. Globally, costs tended to firm through mid-to-late Q3, a pattern consistent with intensifying competition later in the year, before a modest pullback in October.

Country vs. Global

Italy’s CPL profile flipped relative to the market: above-market in late 2024 and early Q1, then materially below-market from spring onward. November through March ran higher than global by 14–49% (December was the widest premium). By April, the gap narrowed—Italy was 8% below global—before widening meaningfully: May through October ran 39–78% below the global benchmark, with July marking the widest discount.

On averages, Italy’s 31.7 trailed the global 40.9 by roughly 23%. Trend-wise, the global line rose modestly across the year (+8% from November to October), while Italy’s trended sharply lower (−75%), and with greater month-to-month variability.

Closing

Understanding Facebook Ads benchmarks for cost per lead across all industries in Italy highlights a year of high early costs, a mid-year reset, and a persistent discount to global country-specific ad costs through Q3–Q4. While this review centers on CPL, it complements broader CPC trends, CPM analysis, and CTR performance benchmarks that shape industry ad performance in Italy versus the global market.