When it comes to online advertising, there are multiple metrics that will reveal how a campaign is going. Understandably, one of the primary statistics that people like to focus on is the cost-per-click to make sure they are getting value for money, but is this the right way of looking at it?

We’re going to take a look at the different statistics available and outline whether the focus on CPC is misguided or not.

If you’d like help with your digital marketing campaign, our team’s experience can help to make sure you get maximum return on your investment.

Cost-Per-Click – Everything It’s Cracked Up to Be?

When you think about cost-per-click (CPC), getting it as low as possible seems to make sense – right? After all, if you have a CPC of say £0.50 on a £10 budget, that’s 20 visitors to your website. If you can reduce this to £0.05, then you’ll have 200 visitors. 

However, you need to think about the quality of each of these visitors. If you create a flashy enough advertisement with eye-catching copy then you’re going to attract clicks, which isn’t a bad thing, but it only really matters if these leads are converting into sales.

Let’s say 25% of the £0.50 clicks turn into a £30 sale. That means for every £2 you spend, you’re generating £30. Now let’s say only 1% of the more impressive-sounding £0.05 leads generate £30 – you’ll have to spend £5 to see the same return. Suddenly, that number doesn’t look so impressive.

This doesn’t just go for sales, though. In traffic-generating brand-building campaigns, you might assume that more equals better, but not necessarily. If you are spending £0.03 on a click where the visitor stays for a grand total of 15 seconds, is that really better value than £0.20 for someone who stays for 2-3 minutes?

CPC is far from irrelevant, but it’s not the be-all and end-all either.

So What Does Matter?

It makes more sense to think of CPC as just one of many statistics that might rank higher or lower depending on exactly what you want to achieve. 

Conversion Rates

Whether you are trying to make a sale, have someone give you their information, sign up to your newsletter, or any other online activities, tracking conversion rates is absolutely invaluable. 

Even if you have a cost-per-click that is almost free, if the audience isn’t doing what you need from them, you’re still throwing money away. If you have a CPC that seems quite expensive but has an amazing conversion rate, it’s money well spent.

Frequency

Frequency is a stat which shows how often you’re showing an ad to the same user. If you haven’t secured a conversion in the first 3-4 chances, you probably aren’t going to clinch the deal in the tenth. Users get bored and eventually even annoyed.

If you’re spending a significant amount of money on a campaign, meaning hundreds of pounds a month, make sure your frequency remains reasonable is important. If it gets too high, it’s time to freshen up and diversify your ads.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is an important statistic which can help to show the relevance of your business to the people you are reaching. It essentially measures how quickly a user stays on your website after they visit. 

Now high bounce rate doesn’t necessarily mean that your adverts are poor quality or reaching the wrong people. It might mean that your website is just poor, slow to load, or not optimised properly for all devices (a free digital audit can help to make sure this isn’t the case).

However, if we assume that you have a great website which loads smoothly with no glitches, then a bounce rate of just a few seconds suggests you aren’t reaching the right people and it might be time to shake up your target audience. 

Need Some Help?

Social media marketing can be very confusing, and statistics that should make things clearer can often muddy the waters if you don’t know what you’re looking for! CPC is important, but reducing it is often a secondary objective in a lot of cases, since there’s no point in reducing the cost of an advertisement that simply isn’t working.

At Strive Digital, we tailor our digital marketing campaigns depending on your specific budget and objective. From finding specialised staff to work for the NHS in remote locations to helping venues repeatedly sell out their venue week after week, we know how to meet your target and what statistics matter most.

Want to find out more? Let’s have a chat – get in touch today.