CPM Rates Vs. Traffic

The term "cost per mille" refers to a form of online advertising in which the payment rate is set to a specified amount for every thousand times an advertisement is viewed. For example, if an advertisement has a CPM rate of $10 and is viewed 1,250 times, the publisher displaying the advertisement receives $12.50.

CPM Ad Networks

• CPM ad networks typically deal with large publishers whose websites receive thousands of visits each month. Casale Media, CPX Interactive and Tribal Fusion are three networks that serve CPM ads. Casale Media requires a minimum of 50,000 unique monthly visitors, while Tribal Fusion requires a minimum of 500,000 unique monthly visitors. CPX Interactive requires a minimum of 10,000 monthly pageviews.

Increasing CPM Earnings

• Because CPM ad networks pay according to the number of people who see an advertisement, the primary way to increase your CPM earnings is to increase the amount of traffic your website receives. However, because a CPM ad network typically pays according to the number of unique individuals who view an advertisement in a given time frame, it is vital that your website generates many first-time visitors. Optimize the content of your website for maximum search engine visibility to encourage new visits.

• CPM Advertising Formats

  • Although many online advertising formats are optimized for standard text- and image-based websites, you can use a CPM ad network to monetize other types of content as well. CPM ads exist for mobile applications, streaming videos and Flash games, for example. CPM ad formats for standard websites include banner ads, pop-up ads and pop-under ads.

  Alternatives to CPM Advertising

  • Because many CPM ad networks are available only to large publishers, many smaller publishers seek alternative forms of advertising to monetize their content. The other two common forms of online advertising are "cost per click" and "cost per action." CPC ad networks such as Google AdSense pay the publisher each time a visitor clicks an advertisement, while CPA networks such as ShareASale and LinkShare pay the publisher each time a visitor clicks an advertisement and purchases a product.