Facebook has revised the charging structure for its adverts, with brands and agencies who buy on a cost per click (CPC) basis now only charged when users click on links to their website or app.

The changes remove smaller charges that were paid for user likes, shares or comments on the post, all of which typically indicated user engagement, but for advertisers who only care about link clicks, the change is certainly good news.

The adjustment will mean that CPC will likely increase in Facebooks auction system, but return on investment should also be higher, with more conversions as advertisers only pay for users who are truly interested into their products or services.

Advertisers interested in engagement such as likes and shares will still be able to choose to bid for these, but these outcomes wont be tracked in CPC, and will be chosen with other optimisation options.

Marketers are likely to be initially upset at the rise in CPC, but Facebook are likely betting that the long-term benefits of the change will win out, and advertisers will prefer the cleaner definition of how Facebook costs their messaging.

“Over the last few years, Facebooks ad offerings have become increasingly tailored to helping advertisers meet specific business objectives,” said a Facebook spokesperson in a blog post explaining the changes. “This update is part of that effort: its designed to provide measurement thats more closely aligned with how advertisers are bidding so they can better optimise their campaigns against their stated goals.”