Display ads got 45% cheaper. Meta's rose. Here's what to do.

Display ads bought through AdRoll cost 45% less per thousand impressions this summer than a year earlier, according to the company's quarterly report. Meanwhile, a beauty ecommerce agency says its Meta costs rose about 35% over the same months, so the real question is which channel your budget sits in.

What changed

AdRoll's State of Digital Advertising Report tracks average CPM, the cost of showing an ad one thousand times, across three display types. For July 1 to September 8, 2026, display prospecting CPMs (reaching people who haven't visited your site) fell 45.0% from the same period in 2025. Retargeting CPMs (reaching people who have) fell 29.1%. Account-based marketing CPMs (targeting named business accounts) rose 4.4%, the only one of the three to go up. PPC Land's summary of the report walks through the numbers.

These figures come from AdRoll's own customers, more than 20,000 online businesses according to the report's FAQ. The report gives percentage changes only, with no dollar CPMs, and it doesn't say whether prices fell because of fewer bids or more available impressions.

The Meta side comes from a different source. Pennock, a beauty and skincare ecommerce agency, published a blog post on September 2 with blended figures across its brands. It reports Meta CPM rising from $13.28 to $17.94 over July and August, a 35.1% increase. The post doesn't say how many brands are included, and it isn't a market study. Neither platform's coverage I have says anything about these numbers.

What it means for you

This matters most if you run display ads, especially on a platform like AdRoll, or if you spend a large share of your budget on Meta. If your ads are almost entirely Google Search, the display figures are background reading.

The report's data is US-focused by context, though it doesn't state a geography for the CPM figures. Cheaper CPMs also don't mean cheaper customers. AdRoll itself notes that "lower prices make reach easier to buy, but cautious consumers raise the bar."

The cost of doing nothing is mostly about timing. If Meta prices really are climbing toward Black Friday, a budget that stays fixed there buys fewer clicks each week. If display really is cheaper, sitting still means you miss the window the report describes, before seasonal competition pushes prices up.

What to do

1. Pull CPM for each active campaign for the last 90 days and the same window last year. In Meta Ads Manager, use Columns to add CPM. Most display platforms show it in campaign reporting.
2. Split your display campaigns into prospecting (new audiences) and retargeting (people who visited). Compare cost per conversion for each, not only CPM.
3. If your display conversion cost holds steady while CPM falls, test a modest budget increase before Black Friday. Set a review date after the holidays so you judge it on results, not on the price alone.
4. Check that people who already bought are excluded from your conversion-focused ads. AdRoll recommends suppressing those ads after a purchase. The report doesn't give a menu path, so look for audience exclusion settings in your campaign and check the platform's help pages.
5. If you run Meta, compare your own CPM with last year before you cut anything. One agency's blended book is a useful warning, not a verdict on your account.

If you don't run display at all, step 1 is the only one worth doing this week.