What Happened to CPM? Any Networks that Pay Well, Fill?

What happened to being able to make money off CPM networks?

I've been running CPM network ads since 2002, and while the ad rates have always been variable, I've never seen them in as poor a place as they have been for the past six months.

The rates and/or fill rates are very disappointing.

ValueClick still fills pretty well for 300x250s and leaderboards, but the rates are pretty mediocre ($0.40-$0.60 CPM). It, for some reason, cannot fill well on 300x600s at all, and it literally offers nothing in layer (low-quality ads at $.30 CPM), interstitial (same) or pop-under (low-quality ads at $1.70CPM).

Burst Media doesn't fill well at all (usually 50% on display). It does offer legit, brand name advertisers, but the rates are still pretty terrible - I usually net only $.40CPM on 300x250s, 300x600s or leaderboards when you account for the low fill rate.

I tried Adversal recently - freaking $.13 CPM on 300x600 and $.06 on 300x250. And the ads were pretty egregious - sound, flashing images, etc.

And non-Google CPCs aren't much better; on my second page load testing Adclickmedia, I got a Malware warning.

When I was making my most money, I was getting $1CPM+ on display ads from networks like Burst and Casale (with great fill rates) and $4CPM+ on the intrusive ads from ValueClick.

Are there any that still pay and fill at a great rate? I'm seeing some people talking about "great CPMs" like ".30 on display" and that's just shocking to me. I take my content very seriously, and I'm looking for high-quality ads that pay a fair $1CPM+ for display and $3+ for pop-unders and layers.

(Just to note - the site I'm managing does solid traffic with about 80% coming from the US. Very high-quality audience)

 

I think the problem is that they pay in response to coversions and conversions are low because most of ads are old and well known to the audience... and of course the ads are mostly not interesting at all...

 

That is a fair point that might explain why some of the existing networks have fallen by the wayside. Though, with Burst, I still get some high-profile targeted campaigns (they just don't end up running as often as the low-priced car and bank ads, for some reason, so the eCPM stays low) so I assume there is nothing horribly damning in my file.

It should not, however, explain why new networks are promoting run of network ads at such low prices. I see people here promoting their OWN networks advertising like $.10-.30 CPM for highly-intrusive, low-quality display ads.

 

Well, I think that it's all depends on traffic, Geos, quality of the website (in general), in your case you can try networks like: Fidelity Media, Edomz, Adkarma etc. It's whole bunch of networks on this forum. Check their terms, send message to support.

 

Most of the media traffic goes with CPL/CPA this days..

 

I agree. It's much harder to find a working cpm networks nowadays

 

I've been looking around lately at a couple of advertising networks, and I've grown a little disenchanted that a dime is considered "good CPM". I'm used to rates that a bit higher (over $1) than that.

 

Have you tried CPMFun? Payout is high, 100$... but the cpm rate is very high, especially in US and Indian traffic...
http://www.cpmfun.com/38770.html

 

What do you consider to be high CPM rate?

 

I completely agree with your point. It is really difficult to find a good cpm network these days.

 

Tried out a new one this week, and their CPM is approximately a dime. That's a bit disappointing.

 

As I mentioned, CPM networks are pretty much dead :/

I don't even allow CPM ads through AdSense because they're very low even there.

CPA/CPL took over long time ago, CPC still some how alive.

I will suggest to use an ad-network that can provide with all type of methods combined, CPA/CPL/CPC/CPM/etc

 

Any recommendations on ad networks to try? I've done Tribal Fusion, Adsense and Adversal thus far.

 

AdSense (CPC) TribalFusion (CPM) are on top of their category

 

I'm learning that about Tribal Fusion because it seems like their CPM blows everyone out of the water. I could use suggestion for backup ad networks, though, if you got some.

 

Conversion is important even in CPM networks. The problem is that many websites has fake traffic from bots or preview and they don't know about it because stats don't show it as fake. Then they think network pay low but in fact they can't pay good because of low quality traffic.

 

How does one turn low quality into high quality traffic?

 

Well, in my opinion it's important to make some filters when you participate in ad network. If you have little exprience networks can make filters for you. It's easy to figure out which traffic is fake and which is real.

 

I hope I don't sound too ignorant or inexperienced here, but what is "fake traffic"?

 

What are a few examples of some filters? That doesn't make sense to me at all. CPM is not conversion based. As a matter of fact most CPM campaigns aren't conversion based because CPM isn't a Conversion supported Price Model. There are networks that optimize to meet CPA/CPL goals but that just effects which campaigns are running on a given site.

The real problem is people send traffic from geo's which monetarily do not perform well. India, China, etc. Then the networks perpetuate the issue by not providing factual responses and saying something like the following:

btw - most sites don't have fake traffic and "dont know about it". Mosts sites which DO have "fake" traffic, DO know about it, and ACT like they don't. Big difference.

I'd like a confirmation of "fake traffic" too, the term is tossed around a lot here.