RE: Is CPA vs. CPM the issue?

From: Janet Attard <attard_at_businessknowhow.com>
Date: Wed 20 Jun 2001 14:01:16 -0500

PHIL TANNY <info_at_subscription-service.com> WROTE:

> Perhaps we could take part of this conversation off of
> the mechanics of CPM vs. CPA and address the
> underlying issue which, in my impo, is that none of
> us trust the other. Each of us prefers whatever
> accounting system will get us over our trust obstacles.

While there is some issues with trust and
accountability, I do not think that is the main
issue on CPM vs CPA or CPC. The main issue, IMHO, is
the CPM if partly a branding type of ad, and businesses
want the branding, but don't want to pay for it.

> The point of this long story is that personality, the main
> tool of the CPM sellers I've encountered, is a highly
> overvalued technique in a B2B marketplace. If you have
> it, use it of course. But you get lazy and allow
> yourself to rely on it at your peril.

> Hard information, professionally presented and ruthlessly
> cleaned of buzz word laden hype, that proves by facts that
> you know your business and can be trusted, is the future of
> the CPM and CPA markets, to the degree that either of them
> have a future.

> Perhaps it's presentation, not pricing schemes, that
> lies at the center of this discussion?

I'm not quite sure here whether you are saying the
advertisers aren't doing a good job, or the publishers
aren't. The publisher has one thing to sell-space. While
they might want to refer to the sponsors, there's also the
issue of drawing the line between editorial content and
advertising.

The real issue from the publisher's standpoint is that CPA
and CPC don't pay enough to support publications. Even online
publications. If usage of magazine and newspaper ads were
all trackable the way online ads are, how many would expect
to be paid only when a sale was made or someone walked into
a store? They don't even sell by "impression" really,
because what's sold is the total readership, not the
readership per page, which is really what CPM is. What
would magazine or newspaper ads cost if someone could
count the number of people who actually saw the page that
had their ad on it? (How many magazines do you ditch
unread? How many do you look at every single page? But
they all charge you for their total readership.)

Ditto on Direct Mail which everyone compares the web
to (and it is really a combination of traditional and
direct mail media.) You don't pay the post office IF you
make a sale or if someone gets your mail and walks into
your store as a result. You pay them per piece for that
you mail (probably the closest analogy to page view.)
Online publishers ARE delivering your ads to your
audience. Why should we pay only if there is a sale or
someone "opens" (clicks through) your ad?

We use CPA and CPC in very rare instances on
 www.Businessknowhow.com . Most just aren't worth the
time to set up.

What will work? I wish - like everyone - I had the
answer. Our web site has been growing by leaps and
bounds this year and I expect it to grow even more with
our impending departure from the proprietary AOL service.
We'll be selling CPM ads, of course, but what we'd
prefer to find - what I think would work a lot better
all the way around -for us and for the advertisers - are
site-wide and content-specific sponsorships -
preferably sponsors who want to work with sites and
give them enough supporting materials to be able to
promote them effectively.

Janet Attard, author
- The Home Office and Small Business Answer Book
Start, Grow and Manage Your Business
With help from award-winning BusinessKnowHow.com(sm)
http://www.businessknowhow.com
attard_at_businessknowhow.com



Received on Wed Jun 20 2001 - 14:01:16 CDT