Wednesday, February 20, 2008

What Is CPM-Based Web Advertising?

What Is CPM-Based Web Advertising?

Although cost-per-click, or CPC, advertising is enjoying great popularity, CPM (cost per thousand impressions) advertising is still an effective way of reaching potential customers on the Web. Instead of paying per click, in a CPM campaign you purchase a set amount of impressions. An impression is a single instance of an ad appearing on a Web site.

CPM-based advertising can be a cost-effective alternative to CPC deals.

To illustrate this point, let's compare the overall expense of two similar campaigns.

In CPC-based advertising, you pay for each click your ad receives. Let us say that you are spending $1 for each click; 10 clicks costs you $10.

In a CPM-based campaign, you may pay $3 for 1,000 impressions. If your ad receives a click-through ratio of just 1 percent, you're paying $3 for the same 10 clicks.

Current results have shown that text-based CPM ads often receive more attention that traditional banner ads. In fact, the average view time for a text based ad averaged 7 seconds, while a graphical ad only averaged 1.6 seconds. Text CPM ads are starting to become more popular and may be a viable alternative to CPC-based advertising.

CPM-based advertising may be more suited for your company if your desired keywords are very popular and expensive. Instead of paying $5 for a single click, you could but 1,000 ad impressions. This can add up over time.

Although click-through ratios for CPM-based advertising are low, click-throughs aren't everything. Even an unclicked (but viewed) ad can play an important role in promoting your company. A well-designed ad will catch a viewer?s eye and may promote brand recognition, even if the viewer doesn't click.