Like any other industry marketing people have their own lingo, and one of their favorite terms to throw around is a CPM. So, just like the magician revealing the secrets of the trick, here it goes. A CPM IS….the “Cost Per 1000”, meaning it is the amount of money it will cost to show your ad/promo to 1000 people.Sorry maybe you were hoping for something a little more earth shattering.
Hopefully you’re not to underwhelmed, but a CPM is a powerful metric that can help your small business achieve tremendous efficiency with your marketing dollars. By calculating a CPM you can now compare the weighted cost of any type of marketing vehicle. Here’s a few examples….
Type of Business – Restaurant
Tuesday Night Beer Special
Goal: To drive more sales on Tuesday nights by offering certain beers at a discounted price
Budget: $0 (it’s a realistic example!)
Vehicle
TV Commercial – $35-$200 per CPM + Cost of Production & Minimum Buys
Radio Commercial – $25-$150 + Cost of Production & Minimum Buys
Social Media Advertising – $1.00 – $15.00 per CPM & Creation of Graphic
Social Media Posts – $0 per CPM – somebody just has to do it
Putting a sign on the Door – $0 per CPM – just make one and put it up
Email Blast – $0 Per CPM – probably a monthly service fee + creation of email
Two questions. Can you afford $2,000 – $5,000 to run your local beer special? (of course not) But ,can you run a campaign for your local beer special on social media for say $15 or $50….YES YOU CAN! And you’e be surprised how effective it can be when executed by someone who really knows how to do it right. The idea here is to get a marketing budget and start allocating money for every promotion anything else you want to tell your customers, big and small.
Hopefully you’re catching on that social media marketing is a great value for small businesses. And why is that you ask? Think about it, if you are creating campaigns based on CPM’s, then you are paying for every 1000 impressions. But, the beauty of social media is that users you interact with can SHARE your ad/promo thereby giving you FREE Impressions, and reducing the overall cost of your CPM! (It gets better) Then, when they follow your page the CPM to market to that user reduces again! It’s a perpetual state of marketing, impressions, and budget and it really, really works. Unfortunately though most small businesses are really missing out.
At my company our tagline is “Be relevant. Get Noticed.” and we mean it. We are the small business marketing agency that runs effective local marketing campaigns for every single product, promotion, event or opportunity you can think of – large or small. We help companies get butts in the seats and eyes on the product all the while building long term branding all for a fraction of what marketing and creative agencies charge. So get out there and get your brand, product or promotion relevant, and be that elephant that everyone is staring at from across the room.
