Wise Startup Blog

Facebook just updated their Advertising system with the goal of pushing out their CPM advertisers. Typically the way to make money on any advertising campaign is to setup a campaign as CPC, get a really good CTR, and an even lower CPM rate, and then move your campaign to CPM to save yourself money.

Facebook just changed all of that. Now, Facebook is saying if you setup a really good campaign that’s getting a high CTR, and Facebook users like, and then you try to convert that campaign into a CPM campaign (to save your company money), you are going to get less clicks.

Facebook claims that anyone doing a CPM spend WANTS to get impressions. Well, this may be true if you’re running a 728×90 or 300×250 ad, but Facebook ads are frickin tiny! They are only 110×78 and the majority of ads people run are using stock photos.

This is a big blow to all of the smaller advertisers on Facebook, and I’m personally pissed about it because it’s going to screw over all my campaigns, and as a result, I’m going to definitely spend less on Facebook.

Here is their full email:

Upcoming system change:
As you know, we continuously work to make our ads system more accurate in order to further improve the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. Among other ongoing improvements, we are refining our ads delivery system to better reflect the goals of our advertisers. This change will take place over the next few weeks and, assuming current bids remain unchanged, will mean that:
CPC advertisers (advertisers who have chosen to bid “cost-per-click”) may receive more clicks.
CPM advertisers (advertisers who have chosen to bid “cost per thousand impressions”) will continue to receive impressions but may receive less clicks.
Do I need to do anything?
As a CPM advertiser, you are indicating to our system that it’s more important that your ad is seen by your audience rather than clicked i.e. you have chosen to pay for impressions, not clicks. If your main objective is to increase awareness of your business with an ad impression, there is no need for action. However, if your most important objective is to drive clicks on your ads, you should change your bids from CPM to CPC.

How do I check my CTR*?
To monitor your CTR (on either CPM or CPC campaigns), go to your Ads Manager and choose the CTR graph to see CTR over time.
*Click-through-rate (CTR) is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of views of your ads (impressions).

How do I run CPC ads?
The following steps will help you convert your existing CPM ads into CPC ads:
Go to your Ads Manager .
Click on the campaigns that include CPM ads.
Click on the ad you’d like to change. (Note: if you are not sure if your ad is CPM or CPC, you can check this by looking in the “Type” column.)
Click on the “Create a Similar Ad” button on the right side of the page.
Scroll down to Step 3 and click on the CPC button and adjust your bid according to the maximum cost per click you would be willing to pay. Your total spend will continue to be limited by the maximum daily budget you set at the campaign level.
Click on the “Place Order” button.
Go to your Ads Manager and pause the CPM ads you converted.
Even though your new ad is essentially a duplication of your old one, it will need to be reviewed again.
We welcome any feedback you might have to help us make our advertising products as effective and useful as possible.

Thank you,
The Facebook Ads Team