impressions or clicks.....

[greenoak]

i still dont get this....im pretty sure on our facebook ads we have recieved about the same number of clicks when we go for impressions as when we go for clicks.....
if thats true why wouldnt we go just for impressions??

i kind of like impressions just becasue it puts our name out there , like when you drive by a sign ....maybe you will remember it later,,,im local not about buying on line...
im confused...we just chose clicks for a new ad becasue one of our best ads was clicks..... and we are basically just copying that one.... but in general impressions have given us just as many clicks....???
im not learning very fast on this...we dont run the ads very often....

[Steve B]

Sorry ann - I don't understand your comments/questions above. What do you mean by "go for impressions"? Where is there a choice to choose clicks for your new ad? Any additional detail might help me.

[Spider]

It seems to me, Ann, you are misunderstanding the terminology (or perhaps I am!) When you 'choose' impressions, you are choosing to pay for impressions, and when you 'choose' clicks, you choose to pay for clicks. The ad itself will show to those people you have designated - women, 20-40, living in Indiana, whatever. That has noting to do with the choice of payment.

Now that the ad is showing, you will be charged $5 per click OR 10 cents per impression (or whatever the rates are), depending on which you chose. But the ad is seen by the same people, either way.

Isn't that how it works?

[Harold Mansfield]

If your intention is for people to take some kind of action...sign up, read something, see additional details etc, then you want to pay for Clicks. Actual action from people that are interested.

Your money goes further with impressions because it is generally a lower amount, but impressions don't mean that anyone is paying attention, is interested, or has clicked through to see more. It just means that the ad appeared on the page.

Which is better depends the media. Branding (impressions) may be a good option with extremely targeted traffic, eg: An antique specific website or community.

For general traffic where you ad is selectively displayed to people who may have an interest in your product or service, I'd go with paying for clicks to better insure that your money is being spent on people who are definitely interested in seeing more.

[Spider]

I would expect Dan to pop in here and say that neither impressions nor clicks are important - the only thing that matters is conversions. And I would have to agree with him.

Example -

If the rate for impressions is 10¢ per impression, the cost of 1,000 impressions is $100. It doesn't matter how many clicks you get, the cost is still $100.

If the rate for clicks is $10 per click, the cost of 10 clicks is $100. It doesn't matter how many impressions it takes to get them, the cost is still $100.

However, neither of these indicate the number of sales you will get and the number of sales is more important. Even more than this, the number of sales is not as important as the total amount of the sales for the amount spent.

Assuming that the objective of an ad is to get sales, the "best" ad will be the one that sells the most in total dollars on the least amount of cost. IOW - the highest ROI - return on investment.

Thus, one must analyze what has happened with your ads in the past. If your previous ads of this type cost you $200 and from that expenditure you got 2,300 impressions, from which you got 29 clicks, from which you made 15 sales that produced $5,700 in income - then ....

the value of each impression was $2.48
the value of each click was $196.55, and
the value of each conversion (sale) was $380

Had you paid by impressions, at the rate mentioned above, you would have paid $230.00

Had you paid by clicks, at the rate mentioned above, you would have paid $290.00

Therefore, the ROI would likely be better when paying by impressions -- for the same type of ad to the same market.

Did I do my sums right?!

[Harold Mansfield]

I would expect Dan to pop in here and say that neither impressions nor clicks are important - the only thing that matters is conversions. And I would have to agree with him.

Example -

If the rate for impressions is 10¢ per impression, the cost of 1,000 impressions is $100. It doesn't matter how many clicks you get, the cost is still $100.

If the rate for clicks is $10 per click, the cost of 10 clicks is $100. It doesn't matter how many impressions it takes to get them, the cost is still $100.

However, neither of these indicate the number of sales you will get and the number of sales is more important. Even more than this, the number of sales is not as important as the total amount of the sales for the amount spent.

Assuming that the objective of an ad is to get sales, the "best" ad will be the one that sells the most in total dollars on the least amount of cost. IOW - the highest ROI - return on investment.

Thus, one must analyze what has happened with your ads in the past. If your previous ads of this type cost you $200 and from that expenditure you got 2,300 impressions, from which you got 29 clicks, from which you made 15 sales that produced $5,700 in income - then ....

the value of each impression was $2.48
the value of each click was $196.55, and
the value of each conversion (sale) was $380

Had you paid by impressions, at the rate mentioned above, you would have paid $230.00

Had you paid by clicks, at the rate mentioned above, you would have paid $290.00

Therefore, the ROI would likely be better when paying by impressions -- for the same type of ad to the same market.

Did I do my sums right?!

Pretty much.

And that's the rub when determining which to go with. You may get a better return on either depending on the ad itself and where it is placed.
An add with a high response or click through rate may do better with impressions..for the money. If 1 out of 5 people are clicking through, and most of those lead to sales or at the very least contact, then paying for impressions would be really economical.

A well designed and well written ad on a highly targeted site may do well paying for impressions because it could generate a high click through ratio.
Ford Motors would probably do well with a banner ad on a popular Ford Car forum, but would probably do better with PPC on just a high traffic website or landing page such as the Yahoo home page.

But then again Ford will do well with the branding aspect and be able to blanket the web with cheap impression ads because they are already well known.

I often wonder if Netflix is paying per impression or per click because their ads are nauseatingly everywhere. and they all seem to be pop ups on busy sites.

[greenoak]

thanks for the discussion.... i appreciate it..i will be rereading ...
.steve, we seem to have topick between paying per impression or per click.... how do you do it?
.... like i said i get about as many clicks when i pay for imporessions instead of clicks... so arent i getting the same number of clicks either way? plus lots of impressions too? altho with clicks i guess i would be getting tonsw of impressions , who didnt click....
we dont do this often enough for me to learn it very well....

[Steve B]

I just pay for the clicks. I never really gave it much thought - and I don't think there was a choice when I started. I think it used to even be called "pay per click" so I must have missed the fact that I could pay for impressions instead.

It's consistently been a positive ROI - which is more than I can say for any other advertising I do.

[greenoak]

thats where i want to be!!!
sounds good...