CPM and CPC are two sides of the same general advertising coin. They’re both payment schemes relating to how you spend your money and what you get out of it. CPC is the cost per click. You pay for clicks; ads shown to people who don’t click are free. CPM is the cost per mille, per thousand. The thousands refer to impressions. Showing your ad to someone costs you money, regardless of whether or not they click. So which method is better? Just based on that description, it sounds like CPC is the clear winner. A click is much more valuable than an impression, after all.
1. CPC (cost-per-click) CPC payment model means that a publisher gets paid each time a user clicks on the ad. How much a click will cost depends on how valuable your ad inventory is to advertisers and how much they’re willing to bid. 2. CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) In a CPM model, advertisers set their bids for each 1000 ad impressions. For publishers, CPM represents the revenue generated from these 1000 ad impressions. Thus, the CPM model implies that a publisher will earn revenue each time an ad is served and viewed by a user. __________________________________________________________________ Which one is better? CPC is the default payment model in Google AdSense. Other monetization programs might have CPM as the default payment model. Important to remember, CPC pays per click, hence you should look at the click-through rate (CTR). Now, if your CTR is over 1% and doesn’t fluctuate, the CPC strategy will deliver the best results. However, even if your CTR is low, but your audience is valuable, CPC might still outperform the CPM model. Why? Because in the CPM model, the clicks (which is ultimately the main goal for advertisers) aren’t guaranteed. Therefore, the value of each ad impression is more obscure. And so to be safe, advertisers are willing to bid with higher prices where the clicks are guaranteed (CPC) even if the CTR is low because they’ll only pay for clicks and those clicks will come from a valuable audience. On the other hand, it makes more sense for them to bid as low as possible where the clicks are unknown (CPM) to reach the average target CPC. However, CPM model is more fair for publishers. Hence, advanced monetization solutions like header bidding (which is where we specialize) are designed to maximize the value of each ad impression and sell it for the highest possible price.
It depends on how well your impressions convert into clicks The higher the conversion rate the cheaper you are paying (relatively)
If you are prepared to pay for clicks and want a direct reaction (sales, sign-ups, etc.), go with CPC. Select CPM if you desire predictable expenses per impression and brand visibility as a top priority.
Yep, if you just to raise brand awareness/loyalty, pick CPM, if you're into specific conversions, CPC is more easy and optimal to track.