Facebook CPM yields lower CTR than CPC

Demon

Demon

Banned
Jun 15, 2007
1,143
12
0
London, UK
www.aminology.com
Almost every single CPC ad I create on Facebook maintains a higher CTR than its CPM counterpart. And I'm not talking about a slight difference here. I've got one ad that has a 1.5% average ctr when run as cpc, yet the same ad as cpm yields an average of 0.3%. And I make sure I rack up a good amount of impressions so its statistically significant. I usually run ads first in cpc and then once I get a good ctr, I run it as cpm. I'm not sure if this is what's affecting it.

Anyone experiencing something similar?
 


What's so surprising? It's a well known fact...

Facebook HAS the data to predict which part of your target demo will respond well to the ad and basically all the CPC ads get first preference to that part of your demo.

Basically CPM ads get the bottom of the barrel inventory so horrendous CTR's are not surprising for CPM ads :D
 
You can get WAAAY more volume from CPM that's the difference. But yes the CTRs will always be different.

Think about frequency capping and what FB would be doing to maximize revenue with CPC vs CPM ads.

CPC can always bring you more total profit(amount of profit for the lifetime of ads/campgain) for any campaign IF you forget about the fact that people will steal your campaign in less then 24 hours in some cases. With that included sometimes the most total profit is taken by bombing the demo with CPM ads and sucking all the profit out you can in 3 day until the ROI is gone.
 
iliketurtles said:
What's so surprising? It's a well known fact...

Facebook HAS the data to predict which part of your target demo will respond well to the ad and basically all the CPC ads get first preference to that part of your demo.

Basically CPM ads get the bottom of the barrel inventory so horrendous CTR's are not surprising for CPM ads :D
Click to expand...

miketpowell said:
CPC can always bring you more total profit(amount of profit for the lifetime of ads/campgain) for any campaign IF you forget about the fact that people will steal your campaign in less then 24 hours in some cases. With that included sometimes the most total profit is taken by bombing the demo with CPM ads and sucking all the profit out you can in 3 day until the ROI is gone.
Click to expand...

These are two great points, cheers.
 
With CPM ads. Facebook will place your AD in the 3rd position A LOT more than when bidding CPC. 3rd position has quite a big difference in CTR compared to the 1st position.
 
interesting...thanks for pointing this out. it does make sense though...since facebook is trying to maximize revenue, they are going to use data they collect to serve CPC ads only to people who they think will click on it. with CPM bidding, it doesn't matter who they serve the ads to since they are getting paid either way.
 
mberman84 said:
interesting...thanks for pointing this out. it does make sense though...since facebook is trying to maximize revenue, they are going to use data they collect to serve CPC ads only to people who they think will click on it. with CPM bidding, it doesn't matter who they serve the ads to since they are getting paid either way.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

They will place your CPC ads in area's where they are most likely to be clicked, and your CPM ads in the worst areas since they are banking of impressions.
 
rileypool said:
I want proof from all you guys with your theories.
Click to expand...

During the summer, before Facebook decided to "encrypt" the ads, I had a bot built that would be hitting my campaign demographics from 15-20 different accounts @ 1-5 intervals simultaneously (Main function was scraping). I had my programmer make it so it can figure out what position the ad is, based on it's location.


I came up with that "theory" after running about 100k impressions. Number show that my CPM ad was in first position for about 3-5% of the impressions, it would be mostly 3rd, with like 20% in 2nd.
 
since the ads are placed in least likely place to be clicked by trigger happy folks, do you guys experience a higher conversion rate with CPM ads vs CPC? Cause that's what counts in the end (assuming your CTR isn't TOOO much lower).
 
Demon said:
Almost every single CPC ad I create on Facebook maintains a higher CTR than its CPM counterpart. And I'm not talking about a slight difference here. I've got one ad that has a 1.5% average ctr when run as cpc, yet the same ad as cpm yields an average of 0.3%. And I make sure I rack up a good amount of impressions so its statistically significant. I usually run ads first in cpc and then once I get a good ctr, I run it as cpm. I'm not sure if this is what's affecting it.

Anyone experiencing something similar?
Click to expand...

What did you bid?

I only bid CPM due to the volume but I did find that bidding high actually gives you cheaper clicks because the CTR is greater.

ex: If facebook tells you that the estimated bid is 0.27-32c go ahead and bid 40c.

Try it.
 
this is all FAIL. try creating 10 of the exact same CPC or CPM ads and running them all at once, you get a diff CTR on all them. hurrr durrr brah
 
^^^
lolseal1td7.jpg
 
Demon said:
It depends, I just had one ad today which I paused after 20k impressions because I know from experience it wont get better.

Here's what I've typically experienced (this is one of my ads):

CPC ad - 709 | 582,767 | 0.122%

Same ad as CPM - 122 | 493,431 | 0.025%
Click to expand...


This data is comprised if you did not pause one ad while testing the other
 
Angel of Wealth said:
This data is comprised if you did not pause one ad while testing the other
Click to expand...
I've done both. Same result.

eliquid said:
this is all FAIL. try creating 10 of the exact same CPC or CPM ads and running them all at once, you get a diff CTR on all them. hurrr durrr brah
Click to expand...

hurr durr yourself. Obviously theres going to be differences in ctr, but I'm talking about a 5 fold decrease here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom