Answers
Oct 16, 2018 - 08:23 AM
@charlieregus, the Lead Generation objective optimizes on leads collected. You can change the bid strategy between lowest cost with an optional cost cap or target cost which can help to stabilize the overall cost as you raise your budget. In general on Facebook you will be charged by the impressions, but that is pretty irrelevant because the optimization and measurement should be on whatever your actual objective is (leads, conversions, clicks, engagements, etc.)
In my experience it is best to leave the Optimization and Delivery settings on the default and focus your time and effort on adjusting targeting and creative in order to get your objective at the best cost. I don't care if my CPM is $25 if I'm getting leads at or below my target CPA.
And what good is a $2 CPM if nobody is following through and signing up? Similarly, I don't worry too much about the CPC if the users are taking the action I want after the click.
For example, I have a client that I do a lot of work for around signups for a program on their website. I've had ad sets that drove clicks as low as $0.07 CPC. That is a great value for a click, but the users that clicked through from that barely signed up at all so after spending a few hundred dollars we shut it off.
On the other hand another ad set targeting different users had a CPC of over $1, but the users who were clicking signed up at a much higher rate so the overall CPA was considerably lower than the set that drove clicks at just 7 cents.
My targeting for the second set was better, but the cost to reach those users (and therefore the cost for a click) was just much higher, probably because they are a more desirable set of people that a lot of advertisers are trying to reach. Facebook has built a powerful platform with options to optimize on your end objective so you don't have to pay as much attention to all the steps along the way.
Does that help at all or did I totally misunderstand what you were asking?
In my experience it is best to leave the Optimization and Delivery settings on the default and focus your time and effort on adjusting targeting and creative in order to get your objective at the best cost. I don't care if my CPM is $25 if I'm getting leads at or below my target CPA.
And what good is a $2 CPM if nobody is following through and signing up? Similarly, I don't worry too much about the CPC if the users are taking the action I want after the click.
For example, I have a client that I do a lot of work for around signups for a program on their website. I've had ad sets that drove clicks as low as $0.07 CPC. That is a great value for a click, but the users that clicked through from that barely signed up at all so after spending a few hundred dollars we shut it off.
On the other hand another ad set targeting different users had a CPC of over $1, but the users who were clicking signed up at a much higher rate so the overall CPA was considerably lower than the set that drove clicks at just 7 cents.
My targeting for the second set was better, but the cost to reach those users (and therefore the cost for a click) was just much higher, probably because they are a more desirable set of people that a lot of advertisers are trying to reach. Facebook has built a powerful platform with options to optimize on your end objective so you don't have to pay as much attention to all the steps along the way.
Does that help at all or did I totally misunderstand what you were asking?
Oct 16, 2018 - 10:22 AM
I would second what espelund has said.
Ultimately, whether you are paying on the click or the impression, Facebook is changing your CPC bid into a CPM bid by using the expected CTR. If you think about it, every ad is entering the same auction, so they need to be normalized somehow.
If you are trying to collect leads on Facebook, what is most important is your optimization tactics, not how you are paying. By optimizing to leads, Facebook is going to find you the most likely people to fill out your lead form. Their algorithm will find the people that are most likely to click and then submit, so in theory it's possible that you could pay more per click, but less per lead.
At the end of the day, you should measuring off your success off of the cost per lead and ultimately the cost per converted lead into a paying customer. When you upload these leads into whatever system you use, you should be labeling them with what facebook campaign drove the lead, so you can tie back the ultimate cost per acquisition.
Take this example:
Facebook Lead campaign 1:
If you wanted to port this success in to facebook, you could upload the eventual sales as "offline conversions", which would then allow Facebook to show a final CPA for each campaign that can be used to optimize. You can learn more about offline conversions here.
Ultimately, CPC or CPL are way too high funnel metrics to be worrying about on Facebook considering it has a algorithm that optimizes to down funnel events. Focus on driving customers at the lowest ultimate cost, as you could get a million clicks for $1 and still end up with no paying customers.
Ultimately, whether you are paying on the click or the impression, Facebook is changing your CPC bid into a CPM bid by using the expected CTR. If you think about it, every ad is entering the same auction, so they need to be normalized somehow.
If you are trying to collect leads on Facebook, what is most important is your optimization tactics, not how you are paying. By optimizing to leads, Facebook is going to find you the most likely people to fill out your lead form. Their algorithm will find the people that are most likely to click and then submit, so in theory it's possible that you could pay more per click, but less per lead.
At the end of the day, you should measuring off your success off of the cost per lead and ultimately the cost per converted lead into a paying customer. When you upload these leads into whatever system you use, you should be labeling them with what facebook campaign drove the lead, so you can tie back the ultimate cost per acquisition.
Take this example:
Facebook Lead campaign 1:
- CPC: $1
- CPM $8
- CPL: $11
- CPC: $2
- CPM: $5
- CPL: $10
If you wanted to port this success in to facebook, you could upload the eventual sales as "offline conversions", which would then allow Facebook to show a final CPA for each campaign that can be used to optimize. You can learn more about offline conversions here.
Ultimately, CPC or CPL are way too high funnel metrics to be worrying about on Facebook considering it has a algorithm that optimizes to down funnel events. Focus on driving customers at the lowest ultimate cost, as you could get a million clicks for $1 and still end up with no paying customers.
Add New Comment