Is CPM Email Marketing A Good Fit for Your Business?

Sarah Dysthe
If you’re new to the world of online advertising, CPM is cost per mille, or in plain English, cost per thousand (impressions or views). When most marketers hear the term CPM, they think of online display advertising (things like banner ads or pop-ups) that are often paid on a “per impression” basis.

Last week, we talked about how display ads are losing efficacy due to the increase of ad blocking software. Fortunately, business owners and advertisers have additional options for reaching new customers – and sticking with their trusted CPM payment structure. CPM email marketing is and effective and affordable alternative that is delivering impressive results.
Why Email CPMs Make Sense

Brands use email CPMs for the following reasons:

• To Reach New Customers – All marketing campaigns have a common goal: get more people interested in a given product or service. Email CPMs serve as a hook for getting potential customers interested. It’s a quick and effective way to get your message in front of a massive potential user base with a relatively small upfront investment.
• To Test Offers – If you’re about to launch a multi-million dollar ad campaign, it makes sense to test it first. Focus groups and internal assessments can help, but there’s nothing like releasing it into the wild to gauge customer response. A CPM buy with a million impressions will cost a few thousand dollars, but the analytics from that send will help you optimize your campaign – which could mean much more success on your massive campaign
• To Fit a Budget – At its heart, the CPM payment structure is about reaching more potential customers at minimal cost. CPM buys are also very easy to budget for because costs do not fluctuate as they can with pay-per-click, or CPA (cost-per-action) campaigns.

A Warning!

If you’re going to invest in CPM email sends, be sure the partner you choose charges per inbox delivery and not per send. Counting sent emails is worthless because it’s likely that a good percentage of them will end up undeliverable or get marked as spam and never seen. A strong email partner should be able to track inbox delivery percentages and charge only for those in their CPM buys.

Putting it All Together

Business owners have dozens of online marketing options. Email CPMs have grown in popularity due to lower advertising costs and the fact that they are not affected by ad blockers. If it’s an advertising method you are interested in exploring, Madrivo’s experts are happy to answer any questions you may have.