Excluding “Likes” in the future: Facebook only bills clicks on links

Facebook is changing its cost structure. In future, advertisers will no longer pay for users’ social commitment, but only for real clicks. This is how the company accommodates its customers. Because: Likes and shares ultimately do not wash money into their coffers either.

So far, advertisers already pay when users “like” an ad, share or comment on it. That is about to change: The cost per click (CPC) currency now only includes so-called link clicks, as reported by Facebook in an official blog post.

In concrete terms, this means: the advertiser only pays if the user clicks on the ad. This includes links that lead to another website, so-called call-to-action clicks (“buy now” option), app installations or Facebook apps.

The change is intended to make campaigns more efficient and increase the return on investment (ROI). Ultimately, the following applies: Interaction in the form of likes and shares is a confirmation, but they do not flush any money into the coffers. This requires traffic and downloads. Nevertheless, according to Facebook, social indicators will remain relevant in the future: as an indicator of the quality of a campaign. This means that advertisers can optimize their campaigns even further using so-called engagement clicks.

Videos uploaded to Facebook will continue to be billed according to range, frequency or the cost-per-view model: Customers who want their videos to be viewed for at least ten seconds can now bid on a fixed price for this viewing time.