A look at how the first two Meta campaigns of the season are performing — the Belonging traffic push and the TOF awareness sweep — against Meta industry benchmarks for sports, entertainment, and awareness advertising.
Together, these two flights spent under $2,000 on Meta and reached nearly 300,000 unique fans across the Triangle region with sharply LGBTQ+-targeted creative.
Both campaigns are running more efficiently than Meta industry averages for their respective objectives — and a big share of that efficiency is coming from The Gaygency's proprietary LGBTQ+ audience data.
Industry averages below are drawn from publicly reported Meta-advertising benchmarks (WordStream 2024–25 Facebook benchmarks, Hootsuite Social Advertising Benchmark Report, Hubspot 2024 CTR/CPC studies). Sports & entertainment ranges are used where applicable; awareness benchmarks are used for the TOF awareness objective. Treat as directional, not exact — benchmarks shift quarter to quarter.
| Metric | Meta all-industry avg | Sports / entertainment | Awareness objective | What "good" looks like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CTR (all clicks) | ~0.90% | 1.3% – 1.6% | 0.2% – 0.4% | Above the avg for the objective you're running |
| Link CTR | ~0.80% | ~1.0% | 0.1% – 0.2% | Above category average |
| CPC (link) | ~$1.72 | $0.55 – $0.85 | $1.50 – $3.00 | Below benchmark = more clicks per dollar |
| CPM | ~$14.40 | $7 – $10 | $5 – $9 | Below benchmark = cheaper reach |
| Engagement rate | ~0.5% – 1.0% | ~1.0% – 1.5% | ~0.2% | > 1% is generally strong |
| Frequency | 1.5 – 3.0 | 1.5 – 3.0 | 1.5 – 2.5 | Stay under ~3 to avoid fatigue |
1,702 engagements on 118,804 impressions — comfortably above the Meta sports/entertainment band (~1.0–1.5%) and roughly ~1.6× the cross-industry baseline. Reach efficiency is exceptional: $10.34 per 1,000 unique fans reached, with audience frequency held at a healthy 1.5 (no over-serving fatigue).
Why the CPM is $6.73 (53% below the Meta cross-industry average): we're not bidding into the crowded broad sports audience — we're targeting a tightly-defined LGBTQ+ Raleigh–Durham audience built from The Gaygency's proprietary community data. Less auction competition + higher relevance from native-community creative = cheaper impressions on a more responsive audience.
Spend (bars) and CTR (line) over the first 5 days.
Where impressions performed hardest.
| Ad | Spend | Reach | Link clicks | CTR | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crowd + Flag | $116.76 | 14,729 | 352 | 1.95% | Top CTR |
| Mascot + Fan | $599.23 | 64,465 | 1,471 | 1.68% | Scale driver |
| Performer | $83.72 | 10,266 | 165 | 1.28% | Solid baseline |
All three creatives clear the Meta benchmark. Crowd + Flag punches above its weight on CTR; Mascot + Fan is doing the volume lifting at scale.
Read: the "One Crest, Every Color" message is resonating most with older women in the Triangle — the families and longtime soccer community we want filling the stands.
| Placement | Spend | Impressions | Clicks | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Stories | $15.55 | 1,091 | 27 | 2.47% |
| Facebook Feed | $154.03 | 30,426 | 589 | 1.94% |
| Facebook Reels | $132.96 | 20,633 | 349 | 1.69% |
| Instagram Reels | $375.56 | 51,304 | 796 | 1.55% |
| Instagram Stories | $104.76 | 13,067 | 202 | 1.55% |
| Instagram Feed | $15.50 | 1,880 | 24 | 1.28% |
Every meaningful placement is above the cross-industry CTR average. Instagram Reels is doing the heaviest spend lifting (~47%) and still beating the benchmark by 70%+.
TOF delivered an enormous reach footprint at extraordinarily low cost. $2.71 CPM is less than a fifth of the cross-industry Meta average and well below the $5–9 sports/entertainment awareness range. Awareness-objective CTR sits inside the expected 0.2–0.4% band, with frequency held healthy at 1.98 (no fatigue), and 2,756 video plays signal that the creative pulled viewers in even at the very top of the funnel.
Why the CPM is $2.71 (81% below the Meta cross-industry average and well under the sports/entertainment awareness band): a top-of-funnel awareness flight on a broad sports-fan audience would normally land in the $7–10 CPM range because every team, league and entertainment advertiser is bidding for the same eyeballs. By targeting The Gaygency's proprietary LGBTQ+ Triangle-region audience instead, we avoid that auction pile-up entirely — we're reaching highly relevant future fans that very few advertisers are actively bidding on, which is exactly why the CPM lands this low.
Spend (bars) and reach in thousands (line) across the 4-day burst.
Where awareness dollars went.
Read: TOF accomplished a true top-of-funnel sweep — broad introduction to a wide LGBTQ+ audience in the Triangle, which Belonging now retargets and converts.
| Placement | Spend | Impressions | Clicks | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Feed | $471.05 | 157,605 | 635 | 0.40% |
| Facebook Reels | $259.19 | 101,422 | 86 | 0.08% |
| Facebook Reels Overlay | $185.24 | 105,824 | 209 | 0.20% |
| Instagram Stories | $75.88 | 18,459 | 42 | 0.23% |
| Instagram Feed | $83.51 | 20,099 | 40 | 0.20% |
| Instagram Reels | $67.45 | 17,682 | 56 | 0.32% |
| Instream Video | $43.42 | 16,586 | 34 | 0.20% |
Facebook Feed is the standout — 0.40% CTR is at the high end of awareness benchmarks. Reels delivered massive impression volume at a very low CPM but, as expected for a top-of-funnel video format, with lower click intent.
Different objectives, different success metrics — but a clear handoff between top-of-funnel awareness and mid-funnel traffic conversion.
| Metric | Belonging (Traffic) | TOF (Awareness) | Industry avg (objective-matched) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spend | $799.71 | $1,188.26 | — |
| Fans reached | 77,370 | 221,895 | — |
| Impressions | 118,804 | 438,498 | — |
| CTR (all) | 1.67% ▲ | 0.25% in-band | Traffic ~0.9% · Awareness 0.2–0.4% |
| Link CTR | 1.33% ▲ | 0.14% in-band | Traffic ~0.8% · Awareness 0.1–0.2% |
| CPC (link) | $0.40 ▼ | $1.08 ▼ | Traffic ~$1.72 · Awareness $1.50–$3.00 |
| CPM | $6.73 ▼ | $2.71 ▼ | All-industry ~$14.40 · Awareness $5–$9 |
| Engagement rate | 1.43% ▲ | ~0.20% in-band | Traffic ~1.0% · Awareness ~0.2% |
| Frequency | 1.54 healthy | 1.98 healthy | Target < 3.0 |
Every number below comes directly from the Meta API, and every comparison is against publicly reported Meta benchmark averages for the matching objective.