Google AdSense vs. Ad Networks (CPM Ads)
When we decided to make advertising one of our revenue sources, I always knew we couldn’t stick with AdSense forever. While it was great at targeting ads based off of content, the payout simply seemed a lot lower than joining ad networks and selling ad spots directly to advertisers - but is that still the case?
When I left the agency world, advertising CPMs still hovered between $3-$11 depending on who you are trying to target and who you’re working with. However, with social networks effectively destroying CPM’s for ads (many times at sub-dollar CPM’s), is it actually a better deal to be running AdSense instead?
Right now, my AdSense dashboard is telling me I have an effective CPM (eCPM) of close to $4 based on impressions and click-throughs. If I joined an ad network that sold auto ads at $4.50 and then only take a 50% or 60% split of that, my eCPM would only be around $2.25.
Am I missing something here?
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Wei on May 22nd 2008 in Business Development
kevin gao responded on 27 May 2008 at 7:27 pm #
i’d venture to say that adsense has also gotten a lot better at contextual analysis and auction prices have increased…but that’s interesting, didn’t realize the prices would be so close