Posted on: June 5, 2018 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Online advertising can be a minefield to navigate for a small business owner who isn’t completely versed in the technical jargon and effectiveness of what each type of marketing does. If you don’t know your CPMs from your PPCs, then how can you be expected to choose the online advertising strategy that is right for you?

Because you do need one. More and more of our lives are being conducted online now and that means that getting yourself seen on people’s computer, tablet or smartphone screens is becoming ever more vital when it comes to making your business a success.

If you want to start benefiting from online advertising but don’t know where to start, then here is our guide for beginners.

Cost per thousand marketing

With CPMs, you pay a flat rate for every 1,000 impressions that your advert makes. Say for example that the average price for CPMs was $2.80, then if your advert made 10,000 impressions during its campaign, you would pay $28. It’s important to note that impressions cover not only clicks but also the number of people the advertisement has been suitably displayed to in order to create an impression on them.

CPMs are a relatively inexpensive and they allow you to stick to a strict budget as if you know you can afford to spend $50 on a campaign, you can pull the plug after 20,000 impressions.

The downside to CPMs is that they normally take the form of banner display ads and how many of us actually click any of those? It’s even less than you think – display ads average clickthrough rate is just 0.06% across all devices.

Pay per click marketing

PPC is the easiest online advertising model to understand as it does exactly what it says on the tin. With PPC, you only pay for every click that your ad receives. It means you don’t pay if nobody sees your ad and you don’t pay if people see your ad but ignore it – you only pay if someone clicks on it.

Prices for PPC vary and are worked out by a complex algorithm based around the keywords you use and how many other adverts are trying to get seen using the same words. There is less risk of overspending with PPCs than CPMs and you are only paying when your advertisement has actually done the job it was set up to, although PPCs can be open to fraud should an advertiser have friends and family clicking on your link in order to generate money for them.

You can avoid this with a Click Fraud Detection Service, although that won’t stop the accidental clicks that usually come via mobile devices from people with no interest at all in your produce or services – they just have fat thumbs and fingers.

Cost per acquisition and Revshare

CPAs and Revshare advertising are far less common due to the fact they are worth far less to those hosting adverts. With a CPA, you only pay per actual lead that is generated while Revshare involves sharing a portion of the profits made to the website who is referring you.

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