14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook has announced changes to its advertising system, which now takes into account and charges advertisers only when users click a link and go off Facebook, to the advertiser's URL.
CPC is a special term used in the advertising industry that means Cost-per-Click. In most advertising systems around the Internet, CPCs are interpreted as clicks on links inside the ad, which lead the user to another page.
This hasn't been the case for Facebook until now, which, because of the way it shows ads, as Facebook posts or pages, took into account other interactions, such as likes, shares, and comments.
Most of the times, these did not produce new visitors for the advertiser's homepage. However, the advertisers had to pay up regardless, even if the user simply posted a comment or liked the post without ever visiting the full website where they could be exposed to the entire offer of services or products.
The new CPC interpretation will allow advertisers to get higher returns for their cash
In a press release, Facebook has announced a change to its CPC system, which, for once, made advertisers happy, and could mean smaller costs for people who promote their products on Facebook.
"We’re updating CPC to only account for what we call 'link clicks,'" said Facebook, explaining that only clicks to visit other websites, clicks on "Shop Now" buttons, clicks on app installs, and clicks on Facebook canvas apps will be charged from now on.
The policy change will provide advertisers with better conversion results, helping them reduce costs, and it will also bring in new clients who couldn't afford Facebook's previous and sometimes inefficient advertising methods.
On the other hand, Facebook can also differentiate on-site interactions and off-site actions in its ads now, and we could see the company put higher rates for off-site CPCs in the future, while also introducing a new metric at a lower cost for on-site interactions.
The new CPC rate is live since yesterday, July 8, and can be used in parallel with the old CPC rate until October 7, when the latter will be discontinued for good.