To be truly effective in performance marketing it’s important to have a good grasp of three key metrics; eCPM, eCPC and eCPA. No matter how the media is purchased it can ultimately be analysed using any of these metrics:
eCPM: Effective Cost per Thousand Ad Impressions
eCPC: Effective Cost Per Click
eCPA: Effective Cost Per Acquisition (Action)
Most publishers use eCPM to measure the value of a performance display ad, and generally the campaigns with the highest eCPM will gain access to the most quality inventory. For non-priority rate campaigns TPN uses an eCPM auction to rank ads and only delivers impressions to the campaigns with the highest eCPM.
Most publishers use eCPC to measure the value of email ads and text links where impressions are not as measurable or relevant. eCPC is also a very popular metric in the affiliate marketing industry where the inventory tends to be 2nd or 3rd tier, and where the value of an impression is less than the premium display carried by ad networks like TPN.
Most experienced performance marketers use eCPA as the ultimate measure of campaign effectiveness, and this allows them to assess the value of each channel independent of the buy method. Although it should be noted that quality of placement and volume of transactions should also be taken into account for each channel.
To help you estimate your current or future campaign performance in terms of these three metrics we have created a spreadsheet that calculates eCPM, eCPC and eCPA estimates based on the parameters entered. It also estimates the number of impressions and clicks required and the likely number of conversions.
It should be noted that the spreadsheet also supports “hybrid” buys where more than one payment metric is used. For example (CPM + CPA)
Download: TPN eCPM eCPC eCPA Estimator v1
eCPM, eCPC & eCPA Estimator
