Meta Ads averages $1.16 CPC and $8.19 CPM. TikTok Ads is bought on CPM only, averaging $9.45. Analysis for Ireland in 2026.
Ireland is a small but disproportionately strategic European ad market — CPMs run roughly 5% above US baselines, but the country's outsized role as the European HQ for Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and most major tech platforms makes it relevant beyond its population (~5.2M). Most platforms' EU-wide commercial decisions are made in Dublin, and EU GDPR enforcement against US tech companies routes through the Irish DPC (Data Protection Commission), which has been historically criticized as slow but is now more active. Domestic ad spend is dominated by retail, financial services, telecom, and a notably high concentration of B2B SaaS due to Dublin's tech employer base. English-language creative is standard; Irish (Gaeilge) creative is rarely used outside specific cultural campaigns.
Facebook and Instagram advertising - highly targetable social ads
Short-form video advertising on TikTok
The auction, the creative, the budget floor — the three things you actually need to know before picking a platform.
Meta (Facebook + Instagram) runs an auction across Feed, Stories, Reels, Marketplace, and Audience Network. You optimize for a conversion event; Meta's algorithm decides bid and placement. Effective CPM is $6–12, effective CPC $0.80–1.50 depending on optimization goal and vertical.
Feed: 1:1 (1080×1080), 4:5 portrait (1080×1350). Reels/Stories: 9:16 (1080×1920). Video 15–60s. Carousel supports 10 cards. Copy ~125 chars before the truncate. Creative fatigue is the #1 cost driver — refresh every 2–3 weeks.
The algorithm needs ~50 conversion events per week per ad set to exit learning phase. For a $30 CPA that's ~$1,500/week or $6K/month per campaign. Below that, performance is a lottery.
TikTok Ads runs on CPM ($8–12 typical, higher for premium placements like TopView). CPC is available but the platform's optimization heavily favors CPM-bid campaigns. Auction density is lower than Meta but growing quickly; creative quality dominates.
9:16 vertical video (1080×1920), 9-60s (best performance 15-30s), native-feeling — polished ads underperform UGC-style creative here by 2-3x. Sound-on is standard. Captions optional but boost completion.
$500/day ($15K/month) is the practical floor for the Traffic and Conversion objectives to exit learning phase in a reasonable window. Smaller budgets work for Awareness and Video View goals.