What is My CPC? (Part II)

In our last post, we discussed what it meant to purchase advertising using the CPC (cost per click) method.   CPC is a payment option that reduces your risk by letting you only pay for ads that bring visitors to your web site.  It's also a dynamic form of pricing that let's the market set pricing based on demand.

As you experiment with CPC (also called PPC for "pay per click") advertising in LookSmart's AdCenter you'll see that term come up on a number of different screens.  In this blog post, we'll discuss what each of these different uses of CPC mean to you.

Max CPC

Regardless of where you see the term Max CPC it always means, "the maximum amount in dollars and cents that I am willing to pay for a single click on my ad".  You can specify a Max CPC in different places, which we describe below.

Campaign Max CPC (Figure 1)

When you set up ads with LookSmart, you group your ads and keywords into Campaigns.  You assign a Campaign Max CPC to your campaign.  This is really the default Max CPC that LookSmart will use for your keywords unless you give those keywords their own individual prices.

When you're looking at your keyword pricing in the targeting view, as in Figure 3, the keywords whose Max CPC price is listed in gray are using the Campaign Max CPC.  The keywords listed in black have their own individual Max CPC pricing set.

Figure 1

Keyword Max CPC (Figure 2)

When a visitor to one of LookSmart's network of search sites performs a keyword search, your ad will be displayed if your keyword matches the one the visitor used.  If that visitor clicks on your ad and visits your web site, you will be charged no more than the Max CPC you set for that keyword.  If you did not set a Max CPC for that keyword, you will be charged no more than the Campaign Max CPC you chose for the campaign your ad is a member of.

Figure 2

Keyword Min CPC (Figure 3)

You may bid any Max CPC (as low as $0.01) you wish for any keyword, but some keywords will have a Keyword Min CPC.  For certain keywords, LookSmart has decided that it may not display ads whose Max CPC bid is below this minimum price.  As you can see in Figure 2, that price appears below your Max CPC in red to indicate that you have bid lower than the suggested price.

Figure 3

Contextual Max CPC (Figure 4)

If you choose to display your ads on LookSmart's network of content sites, you may also choose a Max CPC specifically for those sites.

Figure 4

Average CPC (Figure 5)

Your Max CPC bids specify the largest dollar amount you will be charged for each visitor who clicked on one of your ads.  But, on average, you may pay less than your Max CPC if the going rate for those clicks is below your bid.  Online reports will show your Average CPC, showing you, on average, how much you actually paid for each click.

Figure 5

That concludes our survey of CPC pricing terminology in the LookSmart AdCenter.  As always, if you have any questions or would like to learn more about LookSmart's services, contact us by e-mail or phone.

Allen Hammock
Product Marketing Manager
allen.hammock@looksmart.net