After all, without a good marketing scheme, your business cannot grow and develop – but if you are new to marketing, then you will likely end up confused with some of the key words and abbreviations.
One term that is a constant source of confusion is ‘CPM’.
When researching marketing or looking at email-marketing services, you will often see this abbreviation dropped in the middle of sentences with no explanation.
So, what is CPM and how can it help you grow your new business?
Here we are going to explain CPM in marketing so you can understand what it means and how it can benefit you and your new business!
What Is ‘CPM’?
CPM is an abbreviation often used in marketing, specifically advertising.
It is the abbreviation used for a certain option for paid advertising, where the customer or company pays a set price for every one thousand impressions their paid advertisement receives.
So, CPM stands for ‘cost per mille’ with ‘mille’ being another word for ‘thousand’.
So, when you are searching for ways to advertise your business, you will often find advertising companies offering their services as ‘CPM’ so you only pay a set amount after every 1,000 impressions your ad makes.
Whether your ad reaches this amount in a day, week or month, you will only be paying a certain amount depending on the success of your advertisement.
Basically, the more successful your advertisement is, the more often you pay to the advertising service provider.
What Is An Impression In Marketing?
If you are not sure what an impression is in marketing either, then don’t worry – it’s super easy to understand.
An impression is the term used to refer to someone who sees your advertisement, whether it’s on social media or on another marketing platform.
So, by opting for a CPM advertising option, you are ensuring that your advert will appear on websites and viewed by those who visit the website.
For example, a website like Facebook will offer companies a CPM advertising option that will charge them after every 1,000 Facebook users see the advertisement on their Facebook feed.
Every time a Facebook user sees the advertisement, this counts as an ‘impression’ and goes towards the advert’s impression count.
Impressions count even if the audience does not interact with the advert.
So, they could glance at it and keep scrolling without clicking on any links to take them to your business’s website, and you will still have to pay your advertising provider for this.
If you only want to pay for the adverts that actually interact with your audience, then there are other advertising options available for you.
CPA, CPC, And CPM
CPM (cost per mille) is not the only advertising option open to you – there are others if you want to opt for them but they generally do cost more.
However, they are more likely to ensure success as the provider will only charge you whenever your target audience actually interacts with your ad.
For example, two other very popular advertising methods include CPC or CPA.
CPC stands for ‘cost per click’ so with this advertising option, you will only be charged every time an audience member clicks on the ad – generally to learn more about your business and to follow the link to its website.
CPA is a bit more general. It stands for ‘cost per acquisition’ and works by charging the campaigner (that’s you and your small business) every time a customer interacts with your ad in a particular way, completing a certain action.
In some forms this can be clicking on the link, or it could be answering a question or watching a full video – it depends on what type of advertisement you are using.
Some companies prefer to go with these kinds of methods instead because they are more likely to be a success and only charge you for successful advertising that actually interacts with your audience. However, these options are generally more expensive.
The Advantages Of CPM Advertising
As a small, new business, CPM advertising will be the option that is most recommended to you.
This is because, as we mentioned earlier, CPM advertising is generally more affordable than the other options available and as a result, it’s a great method to use to start out advertising your business.
Once your business has grown and become more successful, you can move onto more advanced advertising methods but there are still plenty of great reasons why CPM advertising is the first step in marketing your business.
Not only is it affordable, it helps establish your business online quickly and easily.
You can use this method to create awareness around your campaigns and start to make a familiar brand of your business.
Over time, you will be able to refine your CPM marketing to hit the places where you have had the most success.
By engaging with your audience, you can soon find out how they found out about your business and find platforms similar to where your adverts are turning spectators into customers.
CPM marketing is all about targeting the right people so casting your net wide in the early stages will help you find your niche and where you are most likely to find likely customers.
Whether it’s on social media platforms, through Google, or on themed blogs – CPM marketing will help you establish an audience and a brand through very affordable means.
Conclusion
So, CPM is a type of advertising option that is often used by small and new businesses with more tight advertising budgets.
It only charges the company a set price every 1,000 impressions (that’s times it is seen by an individual customer) and is a great way to start finding out the best areas to advertise to help your business grow quickly!
Hi, my name is Justin Shaw, I started my career with a Masters in Computer Science but found writing to be my forte'.
I'm now the Principal Tech writer for GshiftLabs.com as well as a few other well known publications. I help make the complex world of Tech-Jargon easy to understand.
