What’s a fair Cost Per Click, CPC?

What’s a fair Cost Per Click, CPC? What’s a reasonable amount of money to spend for each click to your website? We don’t really know what the true value is of a Bing, Facebook, Google, Linked In, and Twitter ad click. There are clicks on some platforms from bots rather then people and there is some manipulation by all of these platforms to generate more clicks because that drives them more revenue. But what about you? How does it drive money to you? Mathematically we are guessing with an unknown plus or minus. So let’s throw all that aside and look at it a different way. If you spend money on these platforms and they generate clicks to your landing page and that leads to business that’s worth more than your ad budget then that’s a good ad spend.

By now you probably know that you can target by quite a few criteria including career level, experience, company name, industry, and the list goes on. But if you can do it, so can your competitor. When they buy a similar campaign then the CPC goes up as demand goes up. It costs money to get in front of a specialized target and the more people that know this the more expensive it can get. That’s why the messaging and the process must be clearly and fully laid out.

On a recent campaign we spent almost $250/day to gain no more than 14 clicks a day. That CPC is almost $18. To some people that’s exorbitant. But that $18 click came from C-level career leaders in a specialized industry we think :). The message we put in front of them motivated them to click. Most good sales people would take a potential client or a new networking connection to lunch or for coffee or a drink for $20.  It seems like a reasonable investment to generate business. But in fact spending that $20 online may be even more effective in closing business than taking people out in person. Social media networking works effectively when you use it properly because of the number of relationships you can build online and the speed with which you can build them.

So let’s get back to the messaging and the process. To be effective you need to spend more than the $18. You also have to invest in creative as part of an overall process that will lead the business to you. Here’s how:

  1. Generate compelling original video or motion graphic content that effectively tells your story
  2. Have the video launch after the viewer submits an email address
  3. Allow them to opt out of the video and visit website directly
  4. Link to a website page with relative content
  5. Effectively define your competitive advantage or special offer over a similar product or service
  6. Have a pop up launch and request email address with a discount code or free gift
  7. Provide LIVE CHAT feature for prospects to as a question of a bot or a live operator
  8. Track all conversions
  9. Adjust as necessary
  10. Divide ad spend by total number of collected prospects to determine ROI

If you want to reach a C Level pro in your industry and then pitch them electronically your message must:

  1. Get in front of them (spend the money)
  2. Resonate with them and
  3. Compel them to submit their email address and request a webinar or consultation

I would spend $18 CPC for a chance that this process might happen. You should too.

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