For businesses · 5 min read · Updated October 2026

What does 1,000 views cost a local business? Meta vs Google vs bus ads vs Lunar

What a local business really pays per 1,000 views on Meta, Google, buses and shelters, and on Lunar, from real campaigns and real rate cards.

The short answer

• Google Search: $182–$335 per 1,000 views. You are buying people already searching, who might click.
• Meta (Facebook and Instagram): $21–$90 per 1,000 views, about $31 blended. A feed placement for people you target.
• Google Performance Max: $9–$34 per 1,000 views. Google's mix of placements.
• Bus and shelter ads (Metro Vancouver): priced per panel, not per view, from $150 to $1,965 per unit every 4 weeks, plus print. A fixed spot on a route or corner you don't choose street by street.
• Lunar: about $0.10–$0.12 per 1,000 estimated impressions. Your sticker on neighbours' cars, driving the areas you pick.

Search and social ad figures are from campaigns we've run for local businesses over the last 90 days. Transit prices are from 2025–26 Metro Vancouver rate sheets. All dollar amounts in this article are Canadian dollars (CAD). Lunar's figure uses the industry estimate for a vehicle on the road, 70,000 impressions a day, the top of the 30,000–70,000 range published for wrapped vehicles.

What CPM is, and what it isn't

CPM is the cost of 1,000 views. It's the one number every channel can be put on, so it's how media buyers compare a Facebook ad with a billboard. It doesn't measure clicks or sales.

Meta and Google win on clicks, and they should: you pay them for a person tapping through. Lunar doesn't compete there. A sticker on a car is like a billboard or a bus ad. You're buying presence in the streets your customers drive, again and again, at a price no digital channel comes near.

Meta and Google: what local businesses actually pay

Over the last 90 days, across campaigns we run for local service businesses:

• Meta: $21 to $90 per 1,000 impressions, about $31 across all of it. The smaller the audience you target, the more each thousand costs.
• Google Search: $182 to $335 per 1,000. Search is priced for intent: you're paying to be at the top when someone types your service, and most of the cost is the click.
• Google Performance Max: $9 to $34 per 1,000, because Google mixes cheaper display and video placements in.

Buses and shelters: priced per panel

Transit and street-level ads in Metro Vancouver are sold per unit, for 4 weeks at a time, with printing and installation charged separately:

• Bench: from $150 per 4 weeks
• Transit shelter: $990 per 4 weeks, plus $155 print
• A poster on one bus: $750 (King) to $1,965 (Kong with headliner) per 4 weeks
• Bus interior cards: $44 each per 4 weeks, 50-card minimum
• A wrapped SkyTrain car: $9,100 per 4 weeks

Two buses with a King poster are $1,500 every 4 weeks before printing. The bus goes where its route goes.

Lunar: $500 a month, and the cars go where your customers are

• Half Moon: $500 a month for 2 cars. Full Moon: $1,500 a month for 7.
• The sticker design is made for you and included. There's no print fee and no setup fee.
• A $50 deposit when you start matching counts toward your plan, or is refunded if no driver is matched in 7 days.
• After that, a car is only billed once its sticker is verified on it.
• You set the areas on a map; drivers whose everyday driving covers them carry your sticker.
• Estimated reach is about 4.2 million impressions a month on Half Moon and 14.7 million on Full Moon. That's roughly $0.12 and $0.10 per 1,000 estimated impressions.

And it goes back into the neighbourhood

Lunar gives 3% of what it keeps from each business to a local nonprofit the business picks. It also gives 3% of what each driver earns, from its own share, to the driver's local cause. Your invoice never changes, and neither does a driver's pay. The money stays in the community your ads run in.

When to use which

• Someone is searching right now: Google Search.
• You want to target a specific audience online: Meta.
• You want the same neighbourhoods to see your name every day, for less than a single bus poster: Lunar.

For the channel-by-channel comparison, see car advertising vs digital ads and car advertising vs billboards. Plans and prices are on the pricing page.