7 Bidding Options for Advertisers

Paid advertising is one of the ways for site owners to drive traffic and get good conversion. Most of the advertising programs work based on pay per click (PPC) logic. Yet, advertising programs like AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, etc. offer variety of bidding options to cater advertiser’s specific needs. Advertiser needs to understand each of the bidding option and select the one which suits the advertising requirements. If one bidding option does not satisfy your requirement, you also have an option to create multiple ads and use different  bidding options for different ads. This article explains various bidding options available for advertisers.

7 Bidding Options for Advertisers

Here is the list of bidding options available for advertisers in various advertising programs like AdWords.

1. Cost Per Click Bidding (CPC)

This is a typical and easy option for an advertiser in which you need to pay a fixed amount for every click. CPC and PPC (Pay-Per-Click) are identical terminologies used whereas CPC is for advertisers and PPC is for publishers. The difference is that advertisers need to pay for a click and publishers will earn money for a click.

Programs like AdWords provides two options to set your CPC bid – manually set your bid limit or allow AdWords to automatically set your maximum bid based on your daily budget limit.

2. Cost Per Phone Call Bidding (CPP)

CPP bidding option is suitable for the advertisers interested to pay more to receive direct phone calls from the customers. Generally cost per phone call bidding option is automatically combined with CPC bidding options. Here is how CPP bidding works:

• You need to add a call extension with call forwarding number when setting up CPP bidding.
• This forwarding number will appear on your ads.
• The customers see your advertisement and call the forwarding number.
• It auto forwards the callers directly to your regular business number.
• The forwarding number also records the call in your advertising account.
• In most cases, the minimum bid for a CPP ad is around $1.

3. Cost Per Acquisition Bidding (CPA)

Instead of cost per click, you can choose to pay per conversion. For example, in Google AdWords, you can specify target cost per acquisition (CPA). Then the smart bidding strategy will help you to automatically get the maximum conversion for the target CPA. A maximum CPA bid is the amount you are ready to pay for a conversion, such as a download, purchase or sign up.

4. Enhanced Cost Per Click Bidding (ECPC)

The enhanced cost per click will automatically raise the actual cost per click value when the pattern shows that the click will result in a conversion. This enhanced cost per click (ECPC) will help you get more value from your ad budget.

For example, you sell kid items on your site, and you have set your max CPC for $1 and you have ECPC bidding turned on in your Google AdWords account. If AdWords system feels an auction likely to lead someone to buy items on your site, it will automatically set your bid as $1.30 for that auction (that is, 30% more on your max CPC bid).

5. Cost Per View Bidding (CPV)

Cost per view bidding is applicable for video ads. When you create a ad campaign for your video then select cost per view (CPV) bidding for your ad. Traditional video ad programs charge you for impressions, with CPV you pay only when a viewer watches your video.

6. Cost Per Thousand Impressions Bidding (CPM)

Under CPM bidding, you need to pay a fixed amount for a thousand impressions of your ads whether they are clicked or not. This is very effective when you selectively choose a website with millions of page views.

7. Cost Per Thousand Viewable Impressions (vCPM)

This bidding method is similar to the CPM. But here the objective is not to get click, rather the advertisement will show the complete details. For example, when you host an event the vCPM ad an show date, venue and all other event details. This means the users seeing the ad will get the complete details without clicking and going to your website.