Currently, Facebook is changing the way it charges advertisers in the coming weeks with its brand new way to measure cost-per-click (CPC).
In the past, Facebook measures CPC as any click taken within an ad unit, including a like, comment, share, click to a website and more. With the update, however, Facebook will measure “link clicks,” which is defined as clicks related to certain ad objectives. For example, link clicks include clicks to visit another website, call-to-action (CTA) clicks that go to another website, clicks to install an app, clicks to Facebook canvas apps, or clicks to view a video on another website.
According to Facebook, the update is intended to help advertisers better understand how their ads perform against their objective. Facebook also says that the update may impact some campaign reporting metrics related to clicks.
“Once this change goes into effect, advertisers who care about link clicks are likely to see better return on advertising spend, since they’ll be paying for only the most valuable outcome. Separating link clicks from engagement clicks (including likes and comments) means your budget will be spent more efficiently no matter if you bid for clicks or engagement. By excluding likes, shares and comments, CPC may increase but will also become more valuable as it counts only the clicks you want. Similarly, it may look like your click-through rate (CTR) has decreased; again, this is because the CTR will no longer factor in the additional clicks.”
Facebook will share more information later about the updated CPC’s implementation for ads bought through a Facebook interface like Ads Manager or Power Editor. Advertisers who purchase through a Facebook Marketing Provider, however, should speak with their marketing partner to understand when the new API with the updated CPC will be implemented. That said, those who buy through the API can begin buying ads with the updated CPC today in v2.4 of the ads API. After October 7, only the updated CPC will be available.