A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

Cost per thousand 

(CPM)

Cost per 1,000 ad 

impressions for a banner 

advert.

Table 9.1

Variation in cost per click in campaigns, January 2008 different categories 

for US paid search

Category

CPC ($)

All finance

2.70

Credit

2.95

Mortgage

2.61

Auto finance

1.68

Travel

0.65

Automotive

0.57

Retail

0.36

Dating

0.40

Source: Efficient Frontier.

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Chapter 9  Customer relationship management

Beware of the fake clicks!

Whenever the principle of PPC marketing is described to marketers, very soon a light bulb 

comes on and they ask, ‘So we can click on competitors and bankrupt them?’ Well, actually 

no. The PPC ad networks detect multiple clicks from the same computer (IP address) and 

say they filter them out. However, there are techniques to mimic multiple clicks from differ-

ent locations such as software tools to fake clicks and even services where you can pay a team 

of people across the world to click on these links. It is estimated that in competitive markets 

one in five of the clicks may be fake. While fake clicks can be monitored for and refunds 

obtained if proved, ultimately this could destroy PPC advertising.

In Mini case study 5.2 we saw how Arena Flowers defines KPIs to control its marketing 

spend. In Mini case study 9.2 Arena provides insights into its communications strategy and 

in particular the role of search engine and social marketing.

selectable  third-  party sites, but they need to decide how to use these to deliver different 

messages.