Facebook gives you total control over how much you spend on your ad campaign by allowing you to set a daily or lifetime budget. When your ads or sponsored stories are run, you can decide to pay either by clicks or impressions. Which is best for your business?
Questions to Ask Yourself…
- Who am I trying to target with my ads? How expensive is it to target those people?
- What is my budget? How much can I afford to experiment with different ad campaigns?
- Do I want to generate buzz and brand recognition, or prompt users to take action immediately?
- Is my logo, brand, and message identifiable and memorable enough to generate demand even if viewers don’t click on my ad?
- Will my ad generate high-quality clicks from people likely to take further action? Will these clicks help my bottom line?
With these questions in mind, the following information should help you decide which payment method is best for your business:
Pay When People See Your Ad: Pay-Per-Mille (PPM)
With PPM, or pay-per-mille, you pay when people see your ad. After you create your add in the Campaign, Pricing and Schedule field, the optimized bidding default option will create a CPM bid. Your Facebook ad is like a billboard, but optimized only to be shown to users most likely to have interest in your company.
How Does PPM Work?
These impressions are counted by the thousand, and you pay according to your “CPM,” or the cost per 1000 impressions. Your Facebook ads manager gives you real-time updates on your charges regardless of your compensation method. PPM compensation works best when you do not necessarily want people to take action right away; you simply wish to generate more demand and brand awareness. Visual advertising is essential here: make sure your image and message can really stick.
If you have a local business or a product that can be purchased in a brick-and-mortar establishment, PPM might be a great idea. Perhaps you are advertising your hair salon to Facebook users from Wilmington, Delaware and use a photo of your company’s logo and a woman with great hair on your ad. Luckily, Facebook can’t yet analyze your photos for split ends, so the ads will reach many people who might not need a haircut this week. However, Facebook has the powerful ability of associating your ads with a social platform- a month after seeing your ad, 1000 Wilmington residents might now need a haircut, see your salon and associate your name and logo with something familiar, like a suggestion from a friend, rather than a risky new salon.
