I am new to all this cpm and cpc advertising. And I have a question. If I have a cpm banner on my website that is below the page and you can only see it if you scroll all the way down, will I still be paid CPM if the user is on my website but never scrolls down? For CPM ads does the user have to actually "see" the ad?
Yeah. Every time users/viewers open a page that shows your banner even if the banner position is in the bottom of the site. That's the downside of the CPM system. If you just get the bottom position then your chance of getting clicked surely decrease a lot. There are users/viewers who scroll down to the bottom, but it still not interesting position to put banner at the bottom of the page. If you insist to put banner in the bottom of the page, then just put it in the website that have maximum impressions. Success for you.
what if a cpm ad only pays per thousand views and it deosn't matter about clicks. So even if they never see this cpm ad, i still get paid?
Yeah, you still get paid by the advertiser who put that banner at the bottom of your site. But for the long term business and relationship, you need to make your website so compelling that every visitor would like to scroll down to the bottom, so the advertiser get their banner exposed. Business is about fair, right? If the advertiser willing to pay you to put their banner in your site, then of course you must provide the advertiser with viewers. Success for you.
Although alot of CPM programs will give you a lower eCPM if the banner is not towards the top of the page.
DeadPhish is right. The ad networks seem to know the if the position is above or below the fold. I did some tests and the banners above the fold earned over three times the below the fold banners earned.
There is simple rule for publishers from most of the advertisement networks, they ask you to put advertisement code where people might actually see them. If banner is below fold, there's hardly any chances that anyone may see it and hence there will be high probability that anyone might click it. Advertising networks keep eye on clicks any ad may generate from those banners. If your clicks are none or very less, they might visit your site to check what's the problem. And if they found problem is not in ad copy and it is in placement of add, they might ban you and can also with hold your earned money and may rudely respond to you request. Here's simple rule never break rules.
most cpm network have eCPM that means your cpm rate depends on the clicks you get on the banner so placing banner below the fold will result in low ctr rate so low ecpm