# Cost per useful contact, not reach > Compare six media options for Klasna's September restart by cost per useful contact instead of views and cost per thousand, and see the cheapest reach drop to last place. - Course: [Marketing Strategy: Who to Win and How](https://productovi.com/courses/marketing-strategy.md) - Module: What do we say, where, and with what budget? - Lesson 22/32, ~27 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/marketing-strategy/cost-per-useful-contact ## The biggest reach **Alex Tutor:** You're still on Klasna's marketing team, and the restart campaign needs media. Uliana's team has priced six options for next September, and the freelancer Ostap already has a favourite. **Uliana:** Option A, the teen study creator: 600,000 views for 54,000. Ostap says nothing else comes close on cost per thousand views. **Dataset (CSV):** [Media options for the September 2027 restart](https://productovi.com/datasets/marketing-strategy/cost-per-useful-contact/klasna-media-options-2027.csv) Quotes collected in October 2026. The audience to reach is parents of children aged 10–17. Audience shares come from each seller's aggregate report (no personal data). Views are not unique people. Money in UAH. - `option_id`: Option letter - `option`: teen_study_creator, parenting_creator, social_ads_adults, video_preroll_broad, parents_community_newsletter, school_parent_chats - `tool_type`: paid_creator, paid_ads or partner - `cost_uah`: Price quoted - `views`: Expected views - `target_audience_pct`: Share of views from parents of children aged 10–17, % - `under_18_pct`: Share of views from people under 18, % - `audience_source`: Where the shares come from: creator_report, platform_estimate, subscriber_survey, school_parent_count **Alex Tutor:** Check his number first. Cost per thousand views, CPM, is cost divided by views, times a thousand. > **Exercise:** What is the cost per thousand views (CPM) of **option A**, the teen study creator? In UAH. ## Who is behind the views **Sofia:** But only 5% of A's views are parents, and 72% are under 18. **Alex Tutor:** That's the question CPM never asks: who are the views? A useful contact is a view by someone you need to reach, here a parent of a 10–17-year-old. Useful contacts are views times the target share. Then divide the cost by them. > **Exercise:** What is the cost per useful contact of **option A**? In UAH, to two decimals. **Sofia:** B looked expensive on CPM: 350 per thousand views. But 45% of its viewers are parents. **Alex Tutor:** Expensive views, cheap parents. That is the whole trick: price the people you need, not the screen time. **Alex Tutor:** Check option B yourself. > **Exercise:** Option B, a parenting creator, costs 42,000 UAH for 120,000 views, and 45% of its viewers are parents of 10–17-year-olds. What is its cost per useful contact? In UAH, to two decimals. **Uliana:** Do the same for all six. I suspect the order changes. > **Exercise:** Order the six options by **cost per useful contact**, cheapest first. ## Price is not the only problem **Sofia:** So A is just expensive per parent? **Alex Tutor:** Worse. 72% of its 600,000 views come from under-18s: about 432,000. A sponsored video in a teen study channel is built for teens. Klasna doesn't aim advertising at children, so A is out whatever its price. **Alex Tutor:** How many of A's views are children's? > **Exercise:** Option A has 600,000 views, and 72% of them come from viewers under 18. How many views is that? **Uliana:** Ostap's answer: teens will nag their parents, so it works anyway. **Alex Tutor:** That is precisely advertising aimed at children: using the child to pressure the parent. The teen's voice belongs in the trial lesson, where they decide whether it suits them, not in an ad. **Uliana:** And D has 20% under 18 too. **Alex Tutor:** Ask the seller whether minors can be excluded, and don't buy until they can. Then check where every share comes from. A creator's own report and a platform estimate are claims: ask for the aggregate statistics, not a promise. A school's parent count is the most solid. **Alex Tutor:** And views aren't people. One parent may see a newsletter twice. Cost per useful contact compares options at the same step; it isn't a cost per family. > **Exercise:** Which statements about these six options are right? Select all that apply. ## A step, not a sale **Uliana:** F, the school chats, is fifth on cost per useful contact. Should we drop it? **Alex Tutor:** Not so fast. A contact through a school arrives with a teacher's trust. In April, 43% of partnership enquiries bought a first package, against 12.5% from paid social. Compare options at the same step by cost per useful contact, then judge partners by what follows. **Alex Tutor:** So what happens to option F? > **Exercise:** Option F, the school parent chats, is fifth of six on cost per useful contact (1.41 UAH). In April, 43% of enquiries from school partnerships bought a first package, against 12.5% from paid social. What should Klasna do with F? **Sofia:** Then the paid part of the mix is B, C and E, and F runs as a small test. > **Exercise:** If Klasna buys **B, C and E** together, what is the blended cost per useful contact? In UAH, to two decimals. **Hanna:** And what will 154,000 useful contacts return? **Alex Tutor:** Not known yet: contacts aren't families. Next lesson links them to families through the rates from the CRM, and that's where the budget comes from. **Uliana:** Ostap will push back. Write him a note he can't argue with. > **Exercise:** Write Ostap 2–4 sentences on why Klasna won't buy **option A** for the restart, with the numbers from the file and the rule that applies. > **Key ideas** > > - CPM tells you how cheap attention is, not whose attention it is. > - Cost per useful contact = cost / (views × share of the audience you need). Here it reversed the order: the teen creator went from cheapest CPM (90) to dearest useful contact (1.80). > - Check where audience shares come from: ask for aggregate statistics, and remember views aren't people. > - An audience mostly under 18 is out whatever the price: no advertising aimed at children. > - Cost per useful contact compares options at one step; partners such as schools are judged by what follows (in April, 43% of their enquiries bought). **Alex Tutor:** Next lesson turns this into a budget: start from the families you need and work back to the money. - Previous lesson: [Goals by step, tools by goal](https://productovi.com/courses/marketing-strategy/goals-by-step-tools-by-goal.md) - Next lesson: [A budget from the goal backwards](https://productovi.com/courses/marketing-strategy/a-budget-from-the-goal-backwards.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.