IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orisre/v23y2012i3-part-1p804-822.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pricing Models for Online Advertising: CPM vs. CPC

Author

Listed:
  • Kursad Asdemir

    (Faculty of Business and Economics, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates)

  • Nanda Kumar

    (School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75083)

  • Varghese S. Jacob

    (School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75083)

Abstract

Online advertising has transformed the advertising industry with its measurability and accountability. Online software and services supported by online advertising is becoming a reality as evidenced by the success of Google and its initiatives. Therefore, the choice of a pricing model for advertising becomes a critical issue for these firms. We present a formal model of pricing models in online advertising using the principal--agent framework to study the two most popular pricing models: input-based cost per thousand impressions (CPM) and performance-based cost per click-through (CPC). We identify four important factors that affect the preference of CPM to the CPC model, and vice versa. In particular, we highlight the interplay between uncertainty in the decision environment, value of advertising, cost of mistargeting advertisements, and alignment of incentives. These factors shed light on the preferred online-advertising pricing model for publishers and advertisers under different market conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Kursad Asdemir & Nanda Kumar & Varghese S. Jacob, 2012. "Pricing Models for Online Advertising: CPM vs. CPC," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(3-part-1), pages 804-822, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:23:y:2012:i:3-part-1:p:804-822
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.1110.0391
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.1110.0391
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/isre.1110.0391?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric T. G. Wang & Terry Barron & Abraham Seidmann, 1997. "Contracting Structures for Custom Software Development: The Impacts of Informational Rents and Uncertainty on Internal Development and Outsourcing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(12), pages 1726-1744, December.
    2. Gene M. Grossman & Carl Shapiro, 1984. "Informative Advertising with Differentiated Products," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 51(1), pages 63-81.
    3. Aghion, Philippe & Tirole, Jean, 1997. "Formal and Real Authority in Organizations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(1), pages 1-29, February.
    4. Canice Prendergast, 1999. "The Provision of Incentives in Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 7-63, March.
    5. Rajiv Lal, 1986. "Technical Note—Delegating Pricing Responsibility to the Salesforce," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 159-168.
    6. Ananth V. Iyer & Leroy B. Schwarz & Stefanos A. Zenios, 2005. "A Principal-Agent Model for Product Specification and Production," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(1), pages 106-119, January.
    7. repec:ner:ucllon:http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/17678/ is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Patrali Chatterjee & Donna L. Hoffman & Thomas P. Novak, 2003. "Modeling the Clickstream: Implications for Web-Based Advertising Efforts," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 520-541, May.
    9. Brian Kahin & Hal R. Varian (ed.), 2000. "Internet Publishing and Beyond: The Economics of Digital Information and Intellectual Property," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262611597, December.
    10. Melumad, Nd & Reichelstein, S, 1987. "Centralization Versus Delegation And The Value Of Communication," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25, pages 1-21.
    11. Kumar, Subodha & Jacob, Varghese S. & Sriskandarajah, Chelliah, 2006. "Scheduling advertisements on a web page to maximize revenue," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 173(3), pages 1067-1089, September.
    12. Robert D. Austin, 2001. "The Effects of Time Pressure on Quality in Software Development: An Agency Model," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 12(2), pages 195-207, June.
    13. Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 1.
    14. Gerard R. Butters, 1977. "Equilibrium Distributions of Sales and Advertising Prices," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(3), pages 465-491.
    15. Bagwell, Kyle, 2007. "The Economic Analysis of Advertising," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 28, pages 1701-1844, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiwoong Shin & Woochoel Shin, 2023. "A Theory of Irrelevant Advertising: An Agency-Induced Targeting Inefficiency," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(8), pages 4481-4497, August.
    2. Sameer Mehta & Milind Dawande & Ganesh Janakiraman & Vijay Mookerjee, 2020. "Sustaining a Good Impression: Mechanisms for Selling Partitioned Impressions at Ad Exchanges," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 126-147, March.
    3. Jan Krämer & Daniel Schnurr & Michael Wohlfarth, 2019. "Winners, Losers, and Facebook: The Role of Social Logins in the Online Advertising Ecosystem," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(4), pages 1678-1699, April.
    4. Subodha Kumar & Xiaowei Mei & Liangfei Qiu & Lai Wei, 2020. "Watching Ads for Free Mobile Data: A Game-Theoretic Analysis of Sponsored Data with Reward Task," Working Papers 20-08, NET Institute.
    5. Xiaowei Mei & Hsing Kenneth Cheng & Subhajyoti Bandyopadhyay & Liangfei Qiu & Lai Wei, 2022. "Sponsored Data: Smarter Data Pricing with Incomplete Information," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(1), pages 362-382, March.
    6. Tunuguntla, Vaishnavi & Basu, Preetam & Rakshit, Krishanu & Ghosh, Debabrata, 2019. "Sponsored search advertising and dynamic pricing for perishable products under inventory-linked customer willingness to pay," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(1), pages 119-132.
    7. Hana Choi & Carl F. Mela & Santiago R. Balseiro & Adam Leary, 2020. "Online Display Advertising Markets: A Literature Review and Future Directions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 556-575, June.
    8. Xingyue Zhang & Yuliang Yao, 2020. "How Much is Too Much? The Effect of Offline Call Intensity on Online Purchase of Digital Services," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(3), pages 509-525, March.
    9. Cinzia Battistella & Gianluca Murgia & Fabio Nonino, 2021. "Free-driven web-based business models," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 445-486, June.
    10. Karthik Kannan & Rajib L. Saha & Warut Khern-am-nuai, 2022. "Identifying Perverse Incentives in Buyer Profiling on Online Trading Platforms," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(2), pages 464-475, June.
    11. Mariusz Duka & Marek Sikora & Artur Strzelecki, 2023. "From Web Catalogs to Google: A Retrospective Study of Web Search Engines Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-16, April.
    12. Hildebrandt, Christian & Arnold, René, 2018. "Marktbeobachtung in der digitalen Wirtschaft – Ein Modell zur Analyse von Online-Plattformen," WIK Discussion Papers 427, WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH.
    13. Dengpan Liu & Subodha Kumar & Vijay S. Mookerjee, 2020. "Flexible and Committed Advertising Contracts in Electronic Retailing," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 323-339, June.
    14. Ma, Tai-Yu & Rasulkhani, Saeid & Chow, Joseph Y.J. & Klein, Sylvain, 2019. "A dynamic ridesharing dispatch and idle vehicle repositioning strategy with integrated transit transfers," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 417-442.
    15. Abhijeet Ghoshal & Radha Mookerjee & Zhen Sun, 2023. "Serving two masters? Optimizing mobile ad contracts with heterogeneous advertisers," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(2), pages 618-636, February.
    16. Yu (Jeffrey) Hu & Jiwoong Shin & Zhulei Tang, 2016. "Incentive Problems in Performance-Based Online Advertising Pricing: Cost per Click vs. Cost per Action," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(7), pages 2022-2038, July.
    17. Thomas W. Frick & Rodrigo Belo & Rahul Telang, 2023. "Incentive Misalignments in Programmatic Advertising: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1665-1686, March.
    18. Duan, Yongrui & Liu, Peng & Feng, Yixuan, 2022. "Pricing strategies of two-sided platforms considering privacy concerns," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    19. Magdalena Iordache Platis & Cosmin Olteanu & Anca Luiza Hotoi, 2022. "Evolution of the Online Sales of Sustainable Products in the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-16, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon P. Anderson & André de Palma, 2012. "Competition for attention in the Information (overload) Age," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 43(1), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Salvatore Piccolo & Piero Tedeschi & Giovanni Ursino, 2018. "Deceptive Advertising with Rational Buyers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1291-1310, March.
    3. Simon P. Anderson & Régis Renault, 2013. "The Advertising Mix for a Search Good," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 69-83, April.
    4. Pedro Gomis‐Porqueras & Benoit Julien & Chengsi Wang, 2017. "Strategic Advertising And Directed Search," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 58(3), pages 783-806, August.
    5. Lint Barrage & Eric Chyn & Justine Hastings, 2020. "Advertising and Environmental Stewardship: Evidence from the BP Oil Spill," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 33-61, February.
    6. Simon P. Anderson & André de Palma, 2013. "Shouting to Be Heard in Advertising," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(7), pages 1545-1556, July.
    7. Dina Mayzlin & Jiwoong Shin, 2011. "Uninformative Advertising as an Invitation to Search," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 666-685, July.
    8. Yang, Yupin & Lu, Qiang (Steven) & Tang, Guanting & Pei, Jian, 2015. "The Impact of Market Competition on Search Advertising," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 46-55.
    9. Dokyun Lee & Kartik Hosanagar & Harikesh S. Nair, 2018. "Advertising Content and Consumer Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from Facebook," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(11), pages 5105-5131, November.
    10. Randall Lewis & Dan Nguyen, 2015. "Display advertising’s competitive spillovers to consumer search," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 93-115, June.
    11. Laurent Cavenaile & Pau Roldan-Blanco, 2021. "Advertising, Innovation, and Economic Growth," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 251-303, July.
    12. Haoyan Sun & Ming Fan & Yong Tan, 2020. "An Empirical Analysis of Seller Advertising Strategies in an Online Marketplace," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 37-56, March.
    13. Justine Hastings & Ali Hortaçsu & Chad Syverson, 2017. "Sales Force and Competition in Financial Product Markets: The Case of Mexico's Social Security Privatization," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85(6), pages 1723-1761, November.
    14. Guofang Huang & Matthew Shum & Wei Tan, 2019. "Is pharmaceutical detailing informative? Evidence from contraindicated drug prescriptions," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 135-160, June.
    15. Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu, 2017. "Optimal Timing of Advertising with Demand Spillovers," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 43-60, March.
    16. Justin P. Johnson & David P. Myatt, 2006. "On the Simple Economics of Advertising, Marketing, and Product Design," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 756-784, June.
    17. Levent Çelik, 2008. "Monopoly Provision of Tune-ins," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp362, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    18. Hartmut Egger & Josef Falkinger, 2016. "Limited Consumer Attention in International Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 1096-1128, November.
    19. Esteves, Rosa-Branca & Resende, Joana, 2019. "Personalized pricing and advertising: Who are the winners?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 239-282.
    20. Anderson, Simon P. & Gabszewicz, Jean J., 2006. "The Media and Advertising: A Tale of Two-Sided Markets," Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, in: V.A. Ginsburgh & D. Throsby (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 18, pages 567-614, Elsevier.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:23:y:2012:i:3-part-1:p:804-822. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.