Facebook Ads Cost Per Purchase Benchmarks in South Africa

Introduction

South Africa’s cost per purchase story in 2024–2025 reads as a market of extremes: long stretches of below-market efficiency punctuated by two dramatic spikes that pull the average sharply upward. Across the same months, the global benchmark stayed tight and steady. The result is a profile that’s more volatile than typical Facebook Ads benchmarks, with South Africa oscillating from near-zero costs to record highs within a quarter.

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

• Starting from a very elevated December 2024, South Africa’s median cost per purchase (CPP) printed 305.77 before collapsing to 29.08 in January 2025 (−91%). From there, CPP stabilized in Q1–Q2 terms—49.19 in February (+69% MoM) and 61.33 in March (+25%)—then reset to 4.89 in May, 23.02 in June, and a near-zero trough of 0.12 in July. August lifted to 14.05 before an extraordinary September spike to 671.05.
• Over the nine observed months, South Africa averaged 128.7 versus a 51.8 global average for those same months. Yet the median month in South Africa was 29.1—underscoring how two outliers (December and September) distort the mean. Excluding those two months, South Africa’s average settles at 26.0, about half the global level.
• Highs and lows: the high was 671.05 (September), the low 0.12 (July)—a range of roughly 671 points. The global range across these months was much tighter (~48–55).
• Volatility stood out. The average absolute month-to-month move in South Africa was about 146 points, versus roughly 1.9 for the global benchmark—orders of magnitude more choppy.

Seasonal and monthly dynamics

• December 2024 aligned with typical Q4 pressures: CPP was notably elevated.
• Q1 2025 resembled a normalization: January through March clustered between the high 20s and low 60s.
• Mid-year softened dramatically—May (4.89) through July (0.12) was the lowest run-rate of the period, with August lifting but still subdued (14.05).
• The rhythm broke in late Q3 with a singular September surge to 671.05, reversing the mid-year softness.

South Africa vs. Global

• Against the global benchmark, South Africa flipped direction multiple times.
• December 2024 ran +493% above global (305.77 vs. 51.50).
• January was 45% below; February, 10% below; March, 16% above.
• May was 91% below; June 54% below; July 99.8% below; August 73% below.
• September closed +1,204% above global (671.05 vs. 51.44).
• The narrowest gap appeared in February (South Africa ~10% below global), while the widest occurred in September.
• Directionally, the global trend remained stable with a slight softening into late 2025, whereas South Africa traced a whipsaw: an early plunge from December to January, a Q1–Q2 plateau, a mid-year trough, then an outsized September spike.

Closing

Understanding Facebook Ads cost-per-purchase benchmarks for all industries in South Africa highlights a market with atypical volatility: median months ran below the global average, but two spikes reshaped the year’s arithmetic. This country-specific ad costs view helps situate South Africa’s CPP within global Facebook Ads benchmarks and clarifies how its 2024–2025 trend diverged from the steadier global pattern.