Whether it's improper encryption of passwords, collecting emails without consent, or kicking around the idea of selling user data to third parties, Facebook continues to make headlines for questionable behavior, but it isn't keeping users off the platform.

Read on to see what we found in Q1 2019, after we analyzed over 4.1 billion impressions and nearly 54 million clicks across Facebook News Feed, Audience Network, and Messenger to surface median CPC, CPM, and CTR for each channel.

Be sure to read the Q1 2019 PPC Benchmark Report for additional ad performance trends. And, check out our Benchmark Report page for the latest reports by quarter.

Facebook News Feed CPC, CPM, & CTR for Q1 2019 at-a-glance

In Q1 2019, we analyzed nearly 4 billion ad impressions and over 51 million clicks for Facebook News Feed ads.

• Median CPC was $0.63
• Median CPM was $8.40
• Median CTR was 1.33%

Facebook News Feed CPC continues ↑

In Q1, we found that median CPC continued to chart up, but only by 6 cents, ending Q1 at the most expensive it’s been all year. It’s median Q1 price charted 15 cents higher Y/Y.

Q1 2019 Facebook News Feed ad performance data from 3.9B Impressions, 51MM Clicks

Facebook News Feed CPM ↓ 25% Y/Y

AdStage calculations revealed median CPM jumped slightly – 15 cents – from last quarter and is down $2.80 compared to the same time last year.

Q1 2019 Facebook News Feed ad performance data from 3.9B Impressions, 51MM Clicks

Facebook News Feed CTR down 43.6% Y/Y

Median CTR for Facebook News Feed ads slipped slightly in Q1, and is down significantly Y/Y by 1.03%.

Q1 2019 Facebook News Feed ad performance data from 3.9B Impressions, 51MM Clicks

Facebook Audience Network CPC, CPM, & CTA for Q1 2019 at-a-glance

In Q1 2019, we calculated over 152 million ad impressions and over 1.5 million clicks for ads in Facebook’s Audience Network.

• Median CPC was $0.72
• Median CPM was $7.00
• Median CTR was 0.99%

Facebook Audience Network CPC ↑ 278.7% Y/Y

For Q1, we found median CPC is up significantly Q/Q and Y/Y. Since last quarter, median CPC jumped $0.30 and is charting $0.53 higher than the same time last year.

Q1 2019 Facebook Audience Network ad performance data from 152MM Impressions, 1.5MM Clicks

Facebook Audience Network CPM continues upward climb

According to our calculations, median CPM continued its upward climb, ending the first part of the year $0.68 more expensive than last quarter, and way up Y/Y – costing marketers on average $4.59 more than the same time last year.

Q1 2019 Facebook Audience Network ad performance data from 152MM Impressions, 1.5MM Clicks

Facebook Audience Network CTR ↓ by 29.3% Q/Q

Median CTR for ads in Facebook’s Audience Network dropped 0.41% since last quarter, and is down 0.33% compared to the same time last year.

Facebook Messenger CPC, CPM, & CTA for Q1 2019 at-a-glance

In Q1 2019, we analyzed nearly 86 million ad impressions and over 665,000 clicks for ads in Facebook Messenger.

• Median CPC was $0.82
• Median CPM was $6.30
• Median CTR was 0.78%

Facebook Messenger CPC ↑ by 34% Q/Q

In Q1 2019, we found that median CPC rose 21 cents since last quarter, but is still down 27 cents from where it charted the same time last year.

Q1 2019 Facebook Messenger ad performance data from 86MM Impressions, 665K Click s

Facebook Messenger CPM increases by 58% Q/Q

For ads on Facebook Messenger, we found that median CPM jumped $2.33 from last quarter and is 39 cents more expensive than the same time last year.

Facebook Messenger CTR ↑ slightly

Median CTR for ads on Facebook Messenger jumped 0.11% from last quarter and is up 0.24% Y/Y.

Q1 2019 Facebook Messenger ad performance data from 86MM Impressions, 665K Clicks

Facebook ad trends Q1 2019

3 new metrics replace Relevance Score. Instead of the mysterious and confusing relevance score, Facebook now offers three metrics that will help marketers better identify how to revise under-performing ads:

• Quality ranking
• Engagement rate ranking
• Conversion rate ranking

We wrote about how to opitmize your campaign based on these new rankings .

Video advertising program Showcase. Facebook also announced a bundle of three existing products under the name Showcase. Together, In-Stream Reserve, In-Stream Reserve Categories, and Sponsorships provide a new “premium” video advertising program. This move is designed to help advertisers reach a desirable audience — 18 to 34-year-olds, which Facebook says make up 43% of U.S. viewers watching In-Stream Reserve videos.

Budgets going to campaign level. To help marketers spend their advertising dollars more effectively, Facebook announced in Q1 that it is moving budgets to the campaign level starting in September. Under this new strategy, you can set one campaign budget for all ad sets and Facebook will automatically and continuously distribute that budget to the top performing ad sets.

Redesigned Ads Manager interface. If you haven’t gotten a peek yet, expect drop downs where navigation tabs used to be. Though that may seem strange on Facebook, digital media analysts guess Facebook is moving toward an interface that feels more like other platforms, so marketers can move more seamlessly between their accounts.

More transparency for users targeted by Custom Audience. On the consumer side, Facebook will now show users the advertisers who used their contact information for Custom Audience targeting. Since the end of February, Facebook says the “Why am I seeing this?” info boxes available from ads using Custom Audience targeting may show:

1. The name of the business that uploaded the customer file with the user’s information included
2. Any Custom Audience sharing between businesses such as the agency, Facebook Marketing Partner (FMP) or other partner.
3. The type of information such as email address or phone number uploaded in the Custom Audience file and matched to the user.

While this move doesn’t change anything for marketers, you should be aware should customers reach out to you with questions about how you’re using their data.

Download the entire report for all the stats on CPM, CPC, and CTR benchmarks for Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Ads, Google Display Network, YouTube, and Bing Ads.