You might think… I’ll have high revenue if the ad network offers me high CPM. And there is a good point in it. But it is also a big stretch. Normal, typical or good CPM rates are not enough metrics to predict your potential earnings with surgeon-like precision. You need to look into other metrics and ad network capabilities.
It’s good to know the ins and outs when questioning: what is a good CPM? It doesn’t have to be complex for display ads in advertising either.
In this article, we dig deeper until it’s all clear to decide on good cost-per-mille and web ads.
Understanding the CPM metric
There are a few pricing models for web ads in digital marketing strategies. The most common and widely spread is CPM. It’s an essential metric for publishers and advertisers to understand and take it on board.
CPM means literary cost per mille, originating from the Latin word “mille,” which means a thousand. At first glance, the definition might be confusing.
However, all it means is that you are paid neither per click (CPC, cost-per-click) nor per action done by your audience (CPA, cost-per-action). You are paid per thousand ad impressions (views) the ad gets on your web page. Alternatively, it can score the number of sessions an advert was loaded on a website.
In their turn, advertisers pay the advertising network a certain amount per 1,000 impressions their ads get.
Expert tip
If your cost-per-mille rate is $4.85, it means that every time you deliver 1,000 views for the ad, you get such an amount on your balance.
Now, we’ll focus on calculating typical or good CPM. Don’t worry. You can always get a hand from your network to do it.
How to calculate CPM?
All the money invested in the ad campaign are summed up and divided by the number of impressions. Lastly, it’s multiplied by a mille (1,000). CPM will also depend on your traffic geo and ad formats you plan to place on your web page.
What is a good CPM? Exploring industry benchmarks
The good rate for CPM is comparative and relational. That means, it depends on a few factors. Among them are (but not limited to) ad platforms, specific audience targeting, seasonality, etc.
According to Semrush, the average industry benchmark fluctuates between $2 and $10.
For advertisers, low CPM is not always good, if, at the end of the day, they fail to meet the advertisement campaign objectives. On the other side, higher than normal CPM for publishers is favorable, but there is also an aspect of stable CPM and ad fill rate that are critical metrics for publishers. And we’ll come back to it in a minute.
One more factor is ad formats that you can change and influence your cost-per-click level rate, choosing what best suits your objectives. For example:
Display Ads
Banners typically earn revenue through CPM. The range varies from $2 to $10 per 1,000 impressions and $5-$20 with Native Ads.
Video Ads
Sites featuring video ads often receive higher CPMs than standard banner-only web pages, ranging from $10 to $25.
Social Media Advertising
Social networks like Facebook and Twitter monetize through CPM-based models as well. Advertisers are billed according to how often their content appears in users’ feeds.
Publishers join Adsterra for 3 top reasons: best ad feed, easy payouts, and good support. And they stay with Adsterra for high CPM rates and Partner Care Approach. You can join Adsterra right now by following the easy tips below.
SIGN UP AS A PUBLISHER
Step 1. Register as a Publisher
Step 2. Fill in:
- Your Name and a Valid email
- Type in Login and Password
- Enter your Messenger account
- Highlight the preferable Payout method
Step 3. Tap SIGN UP
Check your email to find verification link by Adsterra.
Step 4. After you click CONFIRM E-MAIL in email letter from Adsterra, your account is set up. The sign-in page will open.
ADD A WEBSITE
Step 1. Log in as a Publisher
Step 2. Find Websites. Tap ADD WEBSITE
Step 3. A new pop-up window will open. In this pop-up window, fill out the fields:
- Your website URL in the format example.com.
- Choose the category that describes your website best. For example, Anime or iGaming.
- Choose Ad Unit you want to set up for your site.
- Omit campaigns that you don’t want.
- Tap Add.
NOTE: If you don’t have a website, you can start earning easily with Smartlink (Direct Link). Read our guide for kick-off monetization with no extra effort or investment.
Factors that influence CPM rates
There are a few factors out there that can influence what your good or typical CPM may look like. Basically, it all comes to traffic quality, relevance, and the competition for ad views at a given moment. Still, you can increase your gains by learning the basic rules of the fair game.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it, and you are well-equipped to win. So let’s look into it closer:
1. Users’ geo
The most straightforward factor you can rely on is GEO of targeted audience and CPM rate. So, what is good CPM all about? The very simple approach would be: the CPM rate value is higher in Northern America and the EU.
However, we suggest looking deeper than Tier 1. The iGaming vertical and Tier 3 countries are sure to bring more than good cost per mille rates for web ads, Popunder, and Smartlink (Direct Link) Ads for mobile, desktop, and social traffic type:
MW (Malawi)
➤ Android. CPM $ 9.2 🔥
MZ (Mozambique)
➤ Android. CPM $7.1 🔥
2. Audience specifics
While directing traffic to online ads, also consider your niche audience’s income level, specific demographics, gender, age, occupation, and other demographic features. Say, you target the higher-income target audience, then you can expect their normal cost per mille to be higher rather than lower CPM.
3. Web ad space
The ad space where your engaging ads really shine is also a factor that makes the CPM good. The rule of thumb is the more visible your ads are, the higher your CPM is. It’s usually content-rich, middle-page ads and banners placed just below the fold.
4. Right ad format pick
Videos attract more attention from users and result in higher CPM. At the same time, it’s seldom when users watch a video while engrossed in content reading. Plus, it takes more effort to make a video for advertisers, always looking to optimize their ad spend and return on ad spend (ROAS).
A lower but good, stable CPM for a static or display banner is also a good choice.
5. Ad size choice
The ad needs to be on the page, but it also needs to be noticed, right? If the ad is smallish and has not much potential to attract attention, cost per click can be of less value.
6. Ads quantity on the website
It’s worth paying attention to keeping the number of ad creatives on the page moderate. It helps provide the smoothest user experience (UX) and preserve your CPM well enough.
7. Season, date, or coming events
Seasonal and other time-and-experiences-bound activities can influence web traffic volatility and cost-per-click rates. Typical CPM will be traditionally higher for Sports calendar events, Sales Fridays or Cyber Mondays, holidays, and national traditions. The lower seasonality, like January, might be less profitable and yielding.
8. Competition and market demand
It is not usually obvious how many competing advertisers want to opt in for your ad placement, it is clear that the more your audience type makes up for the current demand, the more CPM value you can enjoy.
9. Device type
Keep in mind that the mobile traffic is globally prevailing these days, still desktop traffic is not going anywhere, especially with Tier-one-country households and the B2B space.
On desktops, you get higher resolution for ad content, ad copy visibility, and more interactivity and engagement. Think desktop, however, think mobile first.
10. Ad relevance
This is the factor you should not worry about. With Adsterra, users see online ads that automatically match the niche and audience specifics. The advertising network with best CPMs will display relevant ads for you at all times.
11. Page load speed and website capabilities
Your website speed and the inconsistent UX on the web page or landing page are other indirect factors that can contribute to lower CPMs.
12. Show time and daily capping
You don’t want your website visitors to sigh, thinking “could they show me their ad at least once a day”? That’s why advertisers can control it through the advertiser’s account when and how often they show ads to your audience.
It happens by default for our publishers but it’s really good to know that Adsterra has it under control and there is optimal timing for users to see ads and so they would be happy about it.
Consequently, you preserve the good engagement and relevance metrics to be reflected in good CPM rate.
Tips to improve your CPM rates
After highlighting factors that influence CPM value, it’s time to move on to what can be done to turn your cost per mille to better rates. There are quite a few practices for digital advertising inventory.
It’s likely that you have a few websites to diversify your passive income. If so, then it’s a fantastic opportunity to test.
How? Here it is:
- analyze CPM for all your web pages,
- process them by filters, traffic specifics, ad placement, geos, week, and month,
- and look at similar sites with the gap in revenue.
Now let’s go through what you can do today to improve your CPM:
1. Check website parameters
Insert your site url into the empty field to analyze through PageSpeed Insights.
2. Be consistent how many ads you display
At first glance, the more ad units you place on your website, the more revenue you earn. But no matter how attractive the thought is, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your viewers. Well-dosed, well-fitted display banners are more likely to appeal to your visitors and bring profit rather than clutter.
It’s a good move to use a mixture of ad formats first and single out a proper fit for your page and your target audience. You can use a Popunder, Smartlink (Direct Link), and Social Bar or its subunits, like Interstitial, Icon Widget, In-Page Push, etc.
3.Choose formats with 30X higher CTRs (click through rates)
You can prefer ad formats like Direct Link and Social Bar that bypass ad blockers by default. They interact with users in non-intrusive, entertaining way, and back up your monetization the best way.
4.A/B tests and user behavior check
You can’t beat A/B testing when it comes to desktop vs mobile and iOS or Android-oriented traffic. With mobile-type devices, you are likely to get good and better CPM rates among iPhone users as a more invested type of the device. You can also test out the new advanced ad formats and combos vs traditional ones.
5.Check ad blockers
Before you even come to dissecting: what is your good CPM value, it is worth checking if you have Anti-AdBlock feature integrated to your website.
Advanced ad networks, that adopt new technologies for quality and effective monetization for publishers and creators, can offer you detecting and countering of ad blockers for your websites. It can boost your revenue by up to 30%. You can find such a feature in your Adsterra publisher’s account.
6. Consider mobile devices first
No matter that mobile users prevail in most niches in digital marketing, it’s not that easy to meet their expectations. With a shorter attention span, they will hardly tolerate disorganized content. Neither do they stand being bombarded with intrusive ads.
7. Study and play with more traffic types
Diversifying traffic types might be a good idea to accelerate your cost per click. You can always try to concentrate on one geo location, at the same time you can experiment with sources like mainstream or non-mainstream, social networks, etc.
8. Drive traffic from more than one geos
This one is as obvious as it gets. Experiment with Tier 1, 2, 3 for your website or blog. As you probably know, Tier 1 (US, UK, CA, AU, etc.) are the most profit-generating users by statistics. Therefore, advertisers usually bid higher and the CPM-based rates increase.
In this case, be corresponding to tweak your content and ad copy, covered topics, and other related aspects to embrace more than one geo. Get more insights by jumping to our in-depth guide on Tier 1-3 countries and affiliate marketing.
That said, traffic from other countries like Indonesian (ID), and Indian (IN), South African (ZA), and Vietnamese (VN) shows great potential in CPMs comparable to ad impressions on Tier 1. While traffic from LATAM regularly shows great spikes. Kenyan and Nigerian traffic is very promising from PIN Submits to App, VPNs, and Sweepstakes.
9. Invest time in researching your audience
It seems like an ABC tip, however, being in sync with your niche audience gives you more possibilities to customize advertising options. Understanding CPM and your audience, you can be more precise in tuning settings in your publisher’s account and drive higher cost per click.
10. Partner with ad networks
If you are not yet partnering with an advertising network, it’s about time to reap the benefits of such collaboration. Instead of looking for an individual advertisers, pitching them your traffic to suit their marketing strategies, and hope for the stable CPM, you can get access to 15K+ advertisers from, say, Adsterra, and enjoy 100% fill rate and regular payouts.
11 . Attract new audience and increase site traffic
More genuine traffic means more ad impressions, which optimizes CPM. Here, you can get creative and use other social media platforms, advertising channels like email marketing, or well-planned SEO approach for search engines.
Final Thoughts
We’ve explored the good part of what a CPM is for publishers. Now, with the tips and hacks mentioned, you do not need to choose your ad network or another advertising platform flying blind. Follow the general recommendation and be consistent.
Most importantly, don’t rush: pick a strategy to foresee outcomes, apply, measure the result, rinse, and repeat. While continuously monitoring and gathering data, you’re able to make informed decisions.
What is a good CPM to have? FAQ
It is really important for publishers to look deeper into how the CPM metric is built and changes as it influences their payouts.
There are a few factors to consider when evaluating a good cost per 1,000 impressions. But the general amount is between $2 and $10, depending on the ad platform, industry, target audience, etc.
Your typical or normal metric for CPM is the cost per 1,000 views you get on average for your niche, industry, and viewers. Also, pay attention to how stable your CPM is with the ad platform and if you can enjoy the 100% fill rate.
eCPM is a critical metric in digital advertising. It shows earnings from ad impressions, clicks, or conversions. Basically, it considers all ad revenues and divides them between the total number of impressions.
It stand for an unfixed number in digital advertising and it depend on the traffic performance and conversion rate, estimating how effectively your traffic works.
It’s handy to work with ad networks that provides you with this metric in your stat data. While eCPM is revenue-focused, that is why it is very practical for publishers and webmasters.
