FBX CPM breakdown, according to Turn.
Unkel's claims are backed up by data released today by Turn, one of a limited group of Facebook
partners with access to FBX inventory. The average cost per
thousand impressions (CPM) on FBX, according to Turn, is a mere $
0.45. Not only that, a whopping 22.5% of ads bought on FBX are
purchased at a price between a $ 0.10 and $ 0.20 CPM, according to
Turn. Display ads, by comparison, bring in $1.28 per thousand on
Turn's platform.
The data was released as part of Turn's Global Digital Audience
Report. The company collected the data by analyzing the
billions of FBX impressions it claims to see daily. Turn has access
to information about these impressions through its partnership with
Facebook. The information is necessary for the real time bidding
aspect of the buys to work appropriately.
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Facebook, when reached for comment, did not offer one. But the
low CPMs might not necessarily mean FBX is not succeeding. Online
ad buyers are focused more on performance than views, according to
the IAB, with 65% percent of media buys purchased on a performance
basis. That said, while buyers are now purchasing FBX inventory at
low CPMs, many might be backing the numbers into performance plans
and could be quite happy with their investments.
"Advertisers will pay for value and predicted performance,
whether it's inventory that's purchased through direct buys or via
RTB," a source at another FBX partner told Ad Age in an email.
"Their primary goal is reaching their right audience, which we're
able to do at scale on FBX."
Still, Facebook seems unwilling to tolerate the status quo.
Yesterday, the company announced a competitor to FBX, a feature
called "website and mobile app Custom Audiences," which
will allow marketers to place code on their websites and apps to
retarget their visitors on Facebook without relying on partners
such as Turn, AdRoll and Triggit which currently have access to FBX.
Notably, Facebook will offer those using this latest feature access
to mobile inventory not available on FBX.
"We anticipate that marketers will use FBX and website and
mobile app Custom Audiences in different ways,"
wrote Facebook in a blog post announcing the new functionality.
Of course, not having to share revenues with third parties has to
be on Facebook's mind, even though the blog post calls the two
"complementary." With ads selling at $ 0.45 per thousand, there's
simply not much pie to be divvied out.