Many of you out there have either heard of or know about CPC (cost-per-click). It represents the base price for targeted keywords within a Google Adwords aka PPC (pay-per-click) campaign. Now, what about CPF or CPE? Ever hear of these? What would these abbreviations means to you? Well, if you’re like many companies out there wondering what your ROI is for social media then these two abbreviations represent the “I” portion of ROI. Both of these abbreviations are created by Twitter and concern their professional advertising service.
The first one I want to address is CPF or cost-per-follower. This is the rate designated by Twitter Advertising for their promoted accounts. This basically means that if you use Twitter to fulfill your advertising needs via their social network then you will need to buck up an estimated $2.50 to $4.00 per follower. Simple enough.
The second abbreviation, CPE, represents cost-per-engagement. For many of you that may not know, engagement refers to retweets, clicks, favorites and “@Replies”. Twitter estimates that you would pay between $.75 and $2.50 per engagement. Also, quite simple enough – straightforward pricing.
So, what do we have here? We have a very large company offering social media advertising for promoting your brand, but at a quantifiable cost for a qualitative service. Outside of their per-follower and per-engagement pricing, what else is there? Twitter requires that every business who uses their advertising services invest at least $15,000 over the course of 3 months. Woah! Hit the breaks. You’re probably thinking, this guy is telling me that I need to throw $15,000 at Twitter for advertising? Not at all.
The interesting component of all of this is ROI. We’ve covered the costs as stated by Twitter if you were to decided to use them. Now, what do you get in return? Vastly improved brand awareness, conversation and participation in regards to your firm’s products and/or services would be the three columns that form the base of Twitter’s case for such advertising. But, no quantifiable data. Just because you spend a certain amount of money at this moment will not mean that you will see any return on it in “X” number of days, months or possibly years. However, let’s rewind the clock 4 years.
In 2007, there was this same kind of conversation across the internet about how social media is already being used by all of your potential customers and that businesses need to enter the fray and get involved. Four years and almost 2 months later, we are still seeing the same trending conversation. Despite many businesses getting involved in Twitter and Facebook, there are still too many that are afraid. These firms view social media as a virtual for-profit charity. Here’s your money Twitter; get me some tweets, and that’s it.
All-in-all, social media is not that basic. In fact, I wrote an article last week emphasizing the importance of customer service and how interaction keeps firms in business single-handedly. If social media is not viewed as the primary form of internet advertising by now, it will be. Customer interaction is something that businesses constantly strive for because they want people to know that “I am here” and “I care about your needs and really want to meet them!”
Whether you decide to promote your business through Twitter, a professional online marketing strategies firm or not at all, remember that social media outlets like Twitter are here, they’re staying and that online visibility will continue to outweigh your actual existence on 1234 South St.
