Every digital advertising campaign in Indonesia must choose how to buy media: CPM (cost per thousand impressions), CPC (cost per click), or hybrid models. The choice has significant implications for campaign performance and how risk is distributed.
CPM Buying: When to Use It
**CPM (Cost Per Mille)** — you pay for every 1,000 impressions regardless of clicks.
Use CPM when your primary objective is brand awareness or reach. You're paying for eyeballs, not actions.
CPM buying makes sense for:
- TV, OOH, and digital display awareness campaigns
- Video pre-roll with brand recall goals
- Retargeting campaigns where frequency is important
- Situations where click-through is not a valid measurement of success
Indonesian CPM benchmarks:
- Premium Indonesian news portals: IDR 15,000-50,000
- Programmatic open exchange: IDR 3,000-15,000
- Social media (Meta, TikTok): IDR 10,000-40,000
CPC Buying: When to Use It
**CPC (Cost Per Click)** — you pay only when someone clicks your ad.
Use CPC when you need trackable traffic to a landing page or when conversion at the click level is the goal.
CPC buying makes sense for:
- Google Search Ads
- Social media traffic campaigns
- Content discovery networks
- Affiliate and performance marketing
Indonesian CPC benchmarks:
- Google Search: IDR 1,000-50,000 (category dependent)
- Facebook/Instagram Traffic: IDR 500-5,000
- LinkedIn: IDR 8,000-30,000
The Effective CPM Calculation
Always compare campaigns on eCPM (effective cost per thousand) regardless of buying model. Convert CPC to eCPM using your actual CTR:
eCPM = CPC × CTR × 1,000
This allows true cross-channel comparison of media efficiency.
