Facebook Ads Cost Per Lead Benchmarks in South Africa

Introduction

Across all industries in South Africa, cost per lead behaved like a pendulum: long stretches of ultra-low costs punctuated by dramatic surges. Against the steadier global benchmark, South Africa’s CPL swung from sub-1 in late 2024 to triple-digit spikes in early 2025 before settling back to single digits mid-year. Volatility defined the story more than direction, with January, February, and June standing out as exceptional outliers.

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 South Africa compared to the global benchmark.

The story in the data

• The period opens at 0.91 in November 2024 and closes at 3.75 in July 2025—up 313% overall, but still far below the mid-year peaks.
• The high was 238.04 in January 2025, followed by 103.56 in February and 91.15 in June. The low was 0.91 in November.
• Average CPL in South Africa over the nine reported months was 50.01, higher than the global average of 39.15 for the same window—an uplift of roughly 28%, largely driven by the three spikes.
• Outside those surges, CPL clustered near 4.00: March–May averaged 3.92, and July was 3.75.
• Volatility was extreme: average month-to-month absolute movement was 80.84 points, versus 3.29 for the global series—about 25 times more volatile.

Key movements:

• A modest +3% lift from November (0.91) to December (0.94) was followed by a January surge to 238.04 (+25,300% vs. December).
• February retraced to 103.56 (−56% month over month), and March fell a further −96% to 4.33, stabilizing through April (3.96) and May (3.48).
• June spiked again to 91.15 (+2,500% from May) before July reset to 3.75 (−96% vs. June).

Seasonal and monthly dynamics

Seasonality in the global benchmark shows a Q1 trough (March at 33.27) followed by a measured build into Q2 and Q3. South Africa diverged: late Q4 2024 was exceptionally inexpensive (sub-1), January–February 2025 flipped into a cost surge, spring settled into a calm low-cost stretch (March–May), and June briefly reignited costs before a July cooling. The rhythm alternated between bargain months and isolated peaks, rather than tracking a smooth seasonal curve.

Country vs. Global

Relative to global Facebook Ads benchmarks for CPL:

• South Africa was far below global levels in November and December (−98% vs. market), and again across March–May (−87% to −92%) and July (−91%).
• It moved above market in three months: January (+566%), February (+157%), and June (+123%).
• Across the period, South Africa posted six below-market months and three above-market months. The closest alignment to the global benchmark was March (87% below), while the widest gap appeared in January (566% above).
• While the global trend rose gently from November to July (+4%), South Africa’s path was choppy—ending higher than it began but defined by episodic spikes rather than a steady climb.

Closing

For performance marketers tracking Facebook Ads benchmarks, the cost-per-lead landscape across all industries in South Africa combined unusually low baseline months with a handful of outsized spikes, creating a profile far more volatile than the global benchmark. Understanding cost per lead trends for all industries in South Africa helps contextualize country-specific ad costs and compare industry ad performance to global patterns.