Facebook is changing the way it calculates cost-per-click for advertisers, no longer using ‘likes’ and instead focusing on charging for clicks to websites and apps. The move is an attempt by the social network to moves past its roots as a place for brands to win popularity contests by garnering “likes” to one that puts […]
Facebook is changing the way it calculates cost-per-click for advertisers, no longer using ‘likes’ and instead focusing on charging for clicks to websites and apps.
The move is an attempt by the social network to moves past its roots as a place for brands to win popularity contests by garnering “likes” to one that puts business performance objectives first.
Before this new release, CPC was measured by any clicks on likes, shares, and comments included.
Facebook stated that they are updating CPC to only account what they call “link clicks”.
This includes clicks to visit another website, clicks on a call-to-action that results in going to another website, clicks to install an app, clicks on a Facebook canvas app, or clicks to view a video on another website.
This means advertisers who care about link clicks are likely to see a better return on the spending because “they’ll be paying for the most valuable outcome,” Facebook stated.
By eliminating likes, shares and comments, CPC will more than likely increase and will become more profitable for the advertiser. Some may think the click-through rate (CTR) will decrease but the CTR will no longer be included to affect the CPC.
David Zelniker, product manager for Kenshoo, commented on the news: “Facebook’s shift to separating off-site clicks from social clicks makes logical sense as they continue their move towards objective based ad buying.
“This change allows our clients, focused on performance marketing, to pay for the action they care about most: offsite link clicks – whether that be clicks to Shop Now, Install an App, Sign Up, or any other click that takes a consumer to an advertiser’s desired destination.”
Read the full blog announcement here
