Understanding What You Are Paying for And What You Are Getting
When paying for marketing, you need to ensure that you clearly understand how you are being billed and what you are actually being charged for. Digital marketing platforms often use creative language when selling to businesses. The intent of this article is to help you understand what you are paying for, using an example of potentially misleading wording.
One provider indicates that they will ‘promote you to 10,000 people in your area looking for a business like yours’. Some people believe that this represents a ‘click’, but in digital marketing terms this is clearly an ‘impression’. This means your ad is potentially seen by a consumer, on a computer or mobile screen, and is similar to how traditional broadcast advertising works. A radio or television ad would use the same language. It is a potential view. There is no engagement component (a click). Engagement language would be more, then specific, such as ‘bring 10,000 people to your business’.
What is more significant is the cost being charged for these ‘promotions’ (impressions) for digital advertising – $100 – $200 CPM (cost per 1000 impressions). Comparing to other digital (D) and non-digital (ND) methods,
(ND) Direct Mail $20-$50 CPM
(ND) Newspapers/Magazines $10-$40 CPM
(ND) Television $10-20 CPM
(D) Text Messaging $30-$50 CPM
(D) Online Search $2-$5 CPM
(D) Banner Ads $1.50-$3.00 CPM
(D) Review Sites $100-$150 CPM
(D) dealsnapt $0.25-$2.00 CPM*
*ESTIMATE – SNAPTOWN PROVIDES UNLIMITED IMPRESSIONS AND CLICKS TO SUBSCRIBERS. THE ESTIMATE IS BASED ON ACTUAL RESULTS ACROSS THE CUSTOMER BASE BASED ON WHAT THEY PAID.
In the above example, the example provider is 50+ times more expensive than the same measure on most other digital mediums. In addition, it is over 2 times more expensive than the non-digital, traditional marketing methods!! When exposed, the question is evident – ‘Why would anyone want to pay 2-50x more than other proven methods?’
Side note – SMS Messaging (texting) programs are by far the most expensive digital method of advertising by a factor of 10 over search and mobile platforms.
Are all impressions created equal?
The short answer is ‘no’. The long answer is that the different methods use different approaches based on their ability to track results. Using the methods above,
(ND) Direct Mail | Addresses delivered to. No Guarantee of receipt or opening |
(ND) Newspapers/Magazines | Circulation. No guarantee of delivery, receipt or view |
(ND) Television | Statistics. Prior statistics of viewing statistics |
(D) Text Messaging | Texts received |
(D) Online Search | Presence on the page (whether visible or not) |
(D) Banner Ads | Presence on the page (whether visible or not) |
(D) Review Sites | Presence on the page (whether visible or not) |
(D) dealsnapt | Presence on the mobile device |