Everything might get translated back into CPMs just to make the site's sales rep's manager happy, but it's all the same in the end. I've found that using this argument on reps makes them much more amenable to allowing CPC and CPA deals. They know that if they become more attuned to the real metrics I'm using to evaluate sites, they stand a better chance of finagling the right placements for me at their site. If they brush me off with a load of impressions, I'm not likely to come back for more. Buyers need be careful about CPC deals, however, since the click proves to be such a poor metric of campaign performance.
Clicks are useful to buyers only when qualified users sit behind the clicks.
The CPC deals must be constrained by targeting and a creative message to ensure some sort of audience quality. CPA deals do not suffer from this liability, as the actions tend to factor in audience-qualification factors. Next week, we will finish off the performance data series with the fifth part of the trilogy. Tig Tillinghast hails from the ad industry, having run some of the industry's largest interactive divisions. He is currently writing an online media textbook to be finished in the fall.