CPM versus PPC Advertising – Which One Works for You

Publisher: Earl Williams
The Affiliate Mini Mall

Creating a search engine advertising campaign can boost your business. When you’re creating your campaign you’re going to have many decisions to make. One of those decisions is whether to choose CPM or PPC. If you’re new to search engine advertising, this can be a confusing choice. Let’s clear up some of the mystery and help you make the best decision for your ad goals.

What Are CPM and PPC?

CPM stands for Cost Per Thousand Impressions. That means for every thousand people who see your ad, you’ll pay an agreed-upon fee. An ‘impression’ is an instance of your ad appearing on a website.

PPC stands for Pay Per Click. This means that each time someone clicks on your advertisement you’ll pay an agreed-upon fee.

The Differences between PPC and CPM

In many cases you’ll likely find that CPM is much more cost effective than PPC. With a PPC ad you may pay a dollar each time someone clicks on your ad. Ten clicks means ten dollars out of your pocket. However, with CPM your ad may only cost you a dollar for a thousand impressions. So on a very basic level the ad is much less expensive if you choose CPM over PPC.

However, the click-through rate for a CPM ad may be much lower than a PPC ad. It depends largely on the goals for your ad. You can receive great awareness and exposure with a CPM ad.

CPM enables you to practically set it and forget it. If you have a PPC ad, you’re going to want to pay close attention to your budget and your ad’s performance. It’s also difficult to measure the success of a CPM advertisement. With PPC each click and/or conversion is relevant data you can analyze.

Finally, PPC makes you susceptible to click fraud. CPM doesn’t; since you don’t pay for each click it doesn’t matter how many times a fraudster clicks on your ad.

If you can afford it, consider trying both options to see which generates better results for you. Create a goal for your ad and establish systems to measure success. Make sure to use identical advertisements for both campaigns so you eliminate other variables. At the end of a specific period of time, examine the results. Take a look not only at your website traffic, sales, clicks and conversions but also at your return on investment.

If your budget is tight, consider starting with CPM. It’s low risk. If you are launching a new product or service and want to really drive traffic, then consider PPC. Watch your budget, your clicks and your conversions. It’s easy for a PPC campaign to get out of hand. To your success!


About the Publisher: Earl Williams is a real entrepreneur who is making money with his online marketing business using some of the largest Affiliate programs on the Internet. He uses the affiliate programs to setup Affiliateminimall.com where you can fine discount shopping along with great coupon deals. To learn more visit: www.shoptamm.com