Is it better to pay per click or per impression on Facebook Advertising?

Dependent of your goals: -ecommerce, direct response: CPC -brand, relevance, presence: CPM

Test with CPM, run wi...

My suggestion is to consider using CPM for the initial phase of a campaign to ensure that various ad versions get equal weighting. Then once you have enough impressions to be confident on the elements' performance, to consider switching to CPC. We've found that Facebook's algorithms for picking which creatives to show converge to an estimated eCPM very quickly, and so even running the same ads some will take off and some will not. Running at a CPM means you will get more even delivery of your various versions. You should always be able to get more volume bidding directly on a CPM (than running an equivalent eCPM CPC ad) because the ad system (in this case Facebook) has to predict how many people are going to click on your ads to figure the effective CPM (eCPM) and so has to build in a margin of error around that estimate. FB is rightfully working to optimize it's yield and so would also take into account the size of your budget and how many users might visit the site over the course of a day etc. presumably. Disclosure: Our company has built a multivariate ad creation/testing system integrated with Facebook, which is in beta right now (http://www.xa.net/facebook) with some clients.

Depends on your definition of 'value.' To receive better overall control, measurement and scale; Bid on a CPC. Facebook's Algorithm intentionally gives Ads that are placed with a CPC bid, an ad placement that is more likely to be clicked on.  This has been published: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-cpm-advertisers-will-soon-receive-less-clicks-2010-04 --- (Anecdotally, this means it has a better placement i.e. above the fold) CPM bidding no longer 'games' the system so a lot of these answers are now irrelevant. By paying CPM, you are inheriting more risk in your advertising spend.  If you could pay on a per-sale basis, then you wouldn't pay per click.  So if you can pay per click, why would you pay per impression? If you are advertising to increase your registrations or purchases, just because the CPC or CPM is "cheaper" does not necessarily mean it's more or less valuable to your company. A $.10 and a $.50 click could actually be of equal value. If you want an answer that's really going to help you achieve your Facebook Advertising goals, you need to speak with an expert and give them a full understanding of what "success" means to you.

Contrary to a couple answers here, CPC and CPM are not cheaper or more expensive than one another on their own.  They are simply two different models for paying for ads. It completely depends on CTR%, which is going to be based on the ad creative/copy, targeting, and user interest in what you're advertising. If you create an ad that gets a high click-through-rate (CTR) per 1,000 impressions the CPM model may be cheaper even if clicks are your goal.  If you get a crappy CTR than the CPM model is going to cost you more to get the same number of clicks and you should consider bidding based on CPC instead. So to answer your question... test both and go with the one that gives you the best results.  That's been both CPM and CPC in my experience, it all varies.

It all depends on the type of campaign you are running although there is no clear answer to what works best, as each campaign has its own benefits. You can always use optimized CPM, which Facebook can actually run for you. By using oCPM Facebook is calling bidding prices automatically for you, thus allowing an even distribution of your ad in terms of time of day and budget spread during your campaign's life span. I recently came across a really great platform to help Facebook advertisers optimize their ads, you should check them out, you may find them helpful. http://www.adquant.com

It all depends on what your goal is 1) Is it direct response? 2) Is it brand advertising? (i.e. maximum awareness) 3) Is it to promote your page? At peak, I was spending about $200k/mo, in combination of Adwords, LinkedIn, and Facebook (breakdown being about 60%, 10%, 30%). And from every client (down to my own campaigns), we have ALMOST ALWAYS been optimizing per click (b/c why pay for something you can't measure?). And if you're wondering, what's the most cost effective way to buy traffic (i.e. to your own site, app, etc.), there are some considerations you should be aware of: http://www.freshsupercool.com/facebooks-ads-cpm-optimized-cpm-cpc/ Even for awareness, I wouldn't buy CPM ads b/c they tend to get displayed in the bottom / not-so-visible parts of FB. Instead, buy CPC ads to a page post or directly to the page itself.

I agree with Mike. As they are different bidding models, they should be used for campaigns with different objectives... For example, if you would like to raise the awareness of your page/brand/product ("show your ad to as many people as possible as many times as possible"), it would probably make more sense to use CPM bidding. If you want to get more engagement, you  should optimize by CPC. You can learn a bit more about recommended bidding options worldwide here: https://www.catvertiser.com/blog/recommended-cpa-cpc-and-cpm-bids/

You need to analyze your situation before going for CPC or CPM on your Facebook page. CPC denotes Cost Per Click and CPM is Cost Per 1000 Impressions. · If you have a proper sales funnel, which denotes the probability of conversion of potential customers to real customers is high, you can opt for CPC. But if you do not have any specified sales funnel, you have to target more people at one go. In this case, CPM, will work better. · If you are sure about the conversion but not about your ad, go for CPC. But if you are sure about your ad and not about your sales, go for CPM.· If you want to target a particular demographic, as you are planning to target regional campaigns, CPM will prove to be a better option. A clear conception of how CPC and CPM work is essential before choosing the right form of advertising for your business in Facebook.Suppose you bid for Rs. 20 per click in CPC and set a budget of Rs. 20,000. You are guaranteed to get 1000 clicks. Now suppose you bid for Rs. 50 per CPM and set a budget of Rs. 20,000. Here are guaranteed to get 400 impressions. These impressions are more targeted as respect to 1000 clicks of CPC. Facebook is one of the famous social media platforms, where people love to leave their footprints. Here, users browse through the page within seconds, so you have fraction of seconds to grab the attention of the viewers. In this case, your ad should be really attractive and good so that it grips the viewers’ attention and they are convinced to click on your ad. So, CPM works better in case of Facebook.The smartest move to choose the best PPC campaign for your business is by relying on the renowned http://www.techmagnate.com/social-media-advertising.html. They will help you to choose CPC or CPM as per your requirements on different platforms.