Changing Your Mindset from CPC to CPM

When I first began Internet marketing in 2006, I learned to always bid CPC (cost per click) and try to get the lowest cost for clicks as possible. Based on the keywords and the traffic expected around a certain topic, your cost per click can either be very high or very low. The main goal, of course, is to pay as little money as possible without jeopardizing results while doing so.

I’ve been paying CPC on Google AdWords and Facebook Ads for a very long time, but haven’t been getting the results I’ve been looking for. Sure, the ads are getting clicked, but if a conversion isn’t made, I’ve just spent $0.90 to $1.50 on someone browsing my landing page and then clicking away from it. This is where CPM (cost per one-thousand impressions) comes in.

The Benefits of CPM

There is one major benefit to bidding CPM vs. CPC: Cheap traffic. With CPM, you only pay for every one thousand impressions that your ad receives, not the clicks. Generally speaking, the cost is much lower than CPC, and as your CTR (click-through ratio) increases, you can decrease the amount you pay. Earlier this week I ran a campaign on Facebook and started off by paying a $0.24 CPM, but was later able to lower than to just $0.08 over the course of a few hours when my CTR increased. The result was about 30 conversions on a particular offer I had just started running. Previously, I had run the same ad and bid CPC. That ended in only 5 conversions, and ate up my entire ad budget.

The lesson here is that some Internet marketers swear that CPM does not work. The real story is that is definitely does if you do it properly. To reinforce this thought, three of my affiliate managers at various ad networks have all recommend CPM bidding to me within the last few months.

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