Cross-channel compare
LinkedIn vs Facebook CPM
By Oliver Wakefield-Smith · updated July 2026
Benchmarks reviewed July 2026 · next review October 2026
The short answer
On raw rates it is not close: LinkedIn's aggregated average runs $33.80 (TheB2BHouse) against Facebook's $13.48 (Gupta Media), both July 2026, a 2.5x gap. Per thousand people who match a tight B2B target, the ranking routinely inverts, and the inversion is arithmetic you can check, not a sales pitch.
Raw: the same $2,000 on each
$2,000 buys about 148,368 Facebook impressions or 59,172 LinkedIn impressions at the cited averages. If your buyer is everyone (consumer product, broad service), the comparison ends here and Facebook wins on volume.
Qualified: the reframe that flips it
cost per 1,000 qualified = CPM ÷ audience-match rate
LinkedIn, title-targeted: $33.80 ÷ 0.75 assumed match = $45.07
Facebook, interest-proxied: $13.48 ÷ 0.10 assumed match = $134.80
Match rates are explicit assumptions for the worked model, chosen to illustrate the mechanism. Substitute your own estimates; the crossover point is what to find.
Under those stated assumptions the expensive channel is 3.0x cheaper per qualified thousand. The mechanism is targeting substance: LinkedIn sells first-party job title, seniority and company; Facebook approximates B2B intent through interest proxies. The honest caveat runs both directions, since a generous Facebook lookalike can close the gap, and a sloppy LinkedIn audience can waste the premium.
Which objectives justify the premium
- Justified: named-account coverage, niche-title reach, high-ACV pipelines where one deal repays a year of media.
- Rarely justified: broad brand reach, retargeting warm traffic (the qualification already happened), anything a $13 impression does equally well.
Depth: LinkedIn CPM · Facebook CPM · verdict logic at what is a good CPM · full table at /rates.