What this guide covers
Each platform section covers how ads are bought, the available formats, targeting options and approximate 2026 prices.
CPM is the cost per 1,000 impressions. For CCS, the more useful measures are cost per lead and cost per booked restoration or care plan. Those depend on the offer, the location settings and how leads are tracked.
CCS has two main consumer audiences: families near the cemetery in the Puget Sound region, and relatives who live out of state. The first group is reached with local location targeting. The second lives outside the service area, so it is reached with wider location settings combined with customer lists, lookalikes or interest signals.
YouTube
How to buy
YouTube ads are bought through Google Ads, the same account used for search ads. The video is uploaded to a YouTube channel (it can be unlisted) and then selected in a Video or Demand Gen campaign.
There is no minimum spend. Campaign goals include leads, website traffic, awareness and reach.
Ad formats
| Format | Length | Billing | Approx. 2026 price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skippable in-stream | Any. Skip button appears at 5 seconds | Per view (30 seconds watched, or a click) | $0.02–$0.12 / view |
| Non-skippable in-stream | 15 seconds (up to 30 on TV screens) | Per 1,000 impressions | $6–$15 CPM |
| Bumper | 6 seconds | Per 1,000 impressions | $4–$10 CPM |
| Shorts | Vertical, under 60 seconds | Per 1,000 impressions or per action | $2–$8 CPM |
| Demand Gen | Any. Runs in-feed, Shorts, Discover, Gmail | Per click or per conversion | $0.50–$3.50 / click |
With skippable in-stream ads, viewers who skip before 30 seconds and do not click are not billed.
Targeting options
Countries, cities, ZIP codes, or a radius around an address, such as a cemetery.
Age bands (18–24 through 65+), gender, parental status, and household income tiers (top 10%, 11–20%, and so on; US only).
Segments for people going through events such as moving or retiring.
People Google identifies as actively researching a category.
Audiences built from search terms (for example "headstone cleaning near me" or "grave care services Seattle") or website URLs. Google reaches people who searched those terms.
Uploaded customer lists, website visitors, and people who have watched your videos.
Specific channels, videos, topics or keywords where the ad runs.
How to buy
Instagram ads are bought in Meta Ads Manager, which uses the same account and billing as Facebook. Posts can also be boosted from the Instagram app, but boosting offers fewer targeting and placement controls than Ads Manager.
The minimum is about $1 a day per ad set. Tests for local service businesses commonly run $15 to $30 a day.
Instagram and Facebook share one ad auction. By default a campaign runs on both, and placements can be turned off individually.
Placements
| Placement | Format | Description | Approx. 2026 price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reels | Vertical 9:16, up to 90 seconds | Full screen, between Reels | $4–$9 CPM |
| Stories | Vertical 9:16, 15 second cards | Full screen, tap through | $5–$10 CPM |
| Feed | Square or 4:5 | In the main scroll | $7–$12 CPM |
| Explore | Square or 4:5 | Discovery tab | $6–$11 CPM |
Reels CPMs typically run 20 to 40 percent below Feed when the creative is vertical. Instagram clicks average roughly $0.40 to $1.80. Cost per lead for service industries is commonly $40 to $190.
Billing
Advertisers choose an objective and Meta bids toward it. Lead campaigns can use an instant form or phone calls. Video Views campaigns with ThruPlay bidding charge when a viewer watches 15 seconds (or the whole video if shorter), typically $0.15 to $0.40 per ThruPlay.
Targeting options
2025–2026 changes. Meta removed detailed-targeting exclusions in 2025 and removed dozens of interest categories in January 2026.
With Advantage+ Audience, which is now the default, interest and demographic inputs are treated as suggestions. Location and minimum age remain fixed limits.
Country, state, city, ZIP code, or a pin with a radius.
Age 18 to 65+. All genders, or men or women only.
Interests and behaviors. Treated as suggestions on most objectives.
Customer lists, website visitors, video viewers (for example 50 percent watched), and page or profile engagers. Custom Audiences are now the only way to exclude people.
People similar to a source audience such as a customer list, limited to a chosen location. A lookalike built from past CCS customers can be set to the whole US to reach out-of-state relatives.
How to buy
Facebook uses the same Ads Manager, account and auction as Instagram. The buying details in Part 2 apply here.
Facebook's audience is older on average than Instagram's. Adults 45 and over, the age range most likely to be responsible for a parent's or grandparent's grave, are well represented.
Placements
| Placement | Format | Description | Approx. 2026 price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed | Square or 4:5 | Main news feed | $8–$15 CPM |
| Reels | Vertical 9:16 | Full screen short video | $5–$10 CPM |
| Stories | Vertical 9:16 | Full screen, tap through | $6–$11 CPM |
| In-stream video | 16:9 or square | Mid-roll inside longer videos | $5–$12 CPM |
| Marketplace | Square | Alongside Marketplace listings | $6–$12 CPM |
The median Meta CPM across industries is about $11 to $12. Clicks for local services typically cost $1 to $3. Lead form leads for home and local services typically cost $30 to $150.
Targeting options
The same options and limits as Instagram: location, age, gender, Custom Audiences, lookalikes, and detailed targeting as suggestions.
Lead ads open a form inside Facebook that is pre-filled from the user's profile. The advertiser receives the name, phone number and email without the user visiting a website.
Forms can include custom questions, such as the cemetery name and the name on the headstone. Leads can be downloaded from Ads Manager or sent to a CRM.
Special Ad Categories. Ads about housing, credit, employment, or social issues must use a Special Ad Category. This removes age and gender targeting and sets a minimum 15 mile location radius. Headstone cleaning and grave care ads are not in these categories.
TikTok
How to buy
TikTok ads are bought in TikTok Ads Manager, which has its own account, billing and pixel. The in-app "Promote" feature boosts individual posts with limited targeting.
In January 2026 a US joint venture with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX as lead investors took over TikTok's US operations. Existing ad accounts continued to run. Additional review of targeting and ad content is expected under the new structure.
Minimums are $50 a day per campaign and $20 a day per ad group. Benchmark sources suggest $300 to $500 of total spend before evaluating a test.
Ad formats
| Format | Length | Billing | Approx. 2026 price |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-Feed ads | Vertical 9:16, 5 to 60 seconds | Per 1,000 impressions, per click, or per 6 second view | $4–$13 CPM |
| Spark Ads | Promotes an existing post from your account, or a customer's post with permission | Same as In-Feed | ~$10 CPM |
| Lead Generation | In-Feed ad with an instant form inside TikTok | Optimized per lead | Varies widely |
| TopView / TopFeed | First ad shown when the app opens | Reserved buy through a TikTok sales rep | Large budgets |
Spark Ads keep the original post's account name, likes and comments. Benchmarks show Spark Ads with about twice the click-through rate of standard In-Feed ads and about 28 percent lower cost per result. Clicks generally cost $0.50 to $1.50.
Targeting options
Country, state, metro area, city, or ZIP code in the US.
Age brackets 18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, and 55+.
US only, based on ZIP code income tiers.
Interest categories, and behaviors such as watching, liking or commenting on videos in a category.
Customer lists, website visitors, video viewers and lead form submitters.
People similar to a source audience.
Smart+ campaigns automate targeting, bidding and placement. Manual campaigns keep more control over location and audience settings.
TikTok's US user base is younger on average than Facebook's or YouTube's. Content that resembles regular TikTok posts, such as phone-shot vertical video, generally performs better there than produced TV-style spots. Before-and-after cleaning footage is a common format on the platform.
Video specs for 15–30 second ads
- Vertical 9:16 works on Reels, Stories, Shorts and TikTok. Square or 4:5 works in feeds. 16:9 works for YouTube in-stream.
- One vertical master can be cropped to 1:1 and 16:9 if the subject stays centered.
- Skippable YouTube ads show a skip button at 5 seconds, so key information, such as the before-and-after, is usually placed in that window.
- Many viewers watch with the sound off on Meta and TikTok feeds. Burned-in captions keep the message readable.
- Showing the business name, service area and phone number or website on screen supports recall and response.
- A separate tracking phone number per platform allows calls to be attributed to the correct channel.
Calculating what a lead is worth
A lead's value is the average job value multiplied by the share of leads that book. Comparing that figure to each platform's cost per lead shows which channels cover their cost. Care plan renewals add value beyond the first year and are not included in this example.
In this example, a platform delivering leads at $60 returns more than it costs, and one delivering leads at $150 does not.
A typical starting test
One platform, one 15 to 30 second vertical video, one tracking phone number, and one location setting. At $25 a day for 21 days, total spend is about $525.