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If you have a website up and running and have started getting inflows of reader’s traffic, you would be thinking of ways to monetise it? Right!
That’s where various online advertising metrics for your website comes into picture.
These are the most popular metrics for online paid campaigns that advertisers and publishers generally work with.
CPM:
Stands for Cost per mille or simply Cost per 1000 Impressions!
You get paid every time when your ad crosses thousand display appearances on a single web page irrespective of whether the user has clicked or not.
This is one of the basic methods to start experimenting with your ad revenue strategy in the initial growing phase of your blog.
But we will discuss later whether CPM ad networks for publishers (website owners) really generate good revenue or not.
Nevertheless, CPM ad networks for advertisers (companies) are the most cost effective strategy to build their online presence.
Here how it works:
CPM ads revenue = CPM units (Total number of impressions/1000) * CPM rate the advertiser fixes.
CPC:
Stands for Cost per click!
Unlike CPM, this is totally based on user’s performance metric. You get paid only when a user clicks on a particular ad displayed in your website or blog.
Here how it works:
CPC ads revenue = CPC rate * Number of clicks
CPA:
Stands for Cost per action!
Here, you get paid every time a user who visits your blog performs an action with the ads displayed.
It could be purchasing the product, signing up for the free trial, entering email id, subscribing to a newsletter, submitting a form, etc.
Here how it works:
CPA ads revenue = Pre-defined % commission or pay on the action of the Ad.
Hope you got some overview on how these online advertising metrics work for your blog or website.
Let’s dive in detail on the each of the top paying CPM advertising networks out there and how much revenue you can generate.
What are CPM ads?
CPM ads are popular online advertising monetization platform through which bloggers and website owners earn money out of it.
CPM advertising networks don’t bother whether a user clicks on the ads or performs some action out of the click.
All it matters to them are the 1000 mark impression the ad reaches on a displayed website page.
Once, 1000 mark impression has happened, the website owners are paid the pre set cost unit attached to it.
Remember, the advertisers change their CPM rates as per traffic surge, so making money through top CPM ad networks depends on ‘n’ number of factors.
How much you can earn from CPM ad networks?
It depends entirely on how much the CPM ad advertiser has set the price for a particular ad campaign.
If the CPM rate is $1, then the publisher (blog owner) gets $1 from the ad advertiser for every 1000 impressions.
So more the impressions from your visitors, the more you earn from a CPM advertising network.
Let’s calculate an earning scenario: (assuming the revenue share is 100%)
If you get 10000 monthly visits from your website and $2 is the CPM rate, your earnings from a single banner will be 10000 visits /1000 impressions *2 CPM rate = $20 monthly.
Note: Every advertiser of a CPM advertising network has their own set of rates, revenue share and specific rules in accepting websites.
So let’s drill down to some of the best CPM ad networks and how you should approach these ad networks to see some good bucks.
Best CPM advertising network for 2018
Propeller Ads
If you are just starting your website, chances are the Google Adsense approval is going to take a while.
You should consider signing up with Propeller ads as they are lenient with the new comers.
Make sure you read their terms and conditions before signing up for their CPM advertising network for publishers.
About:
Propeller ads is an U.K based CPM advertising network that provides fair eCPM ad rates to begin with.
They are very easy to get start with too and they accept all websites (except adult, malware or contents that violate their T&C) irrespective of how much traffic your blog receives.
It has the maximum CPM rates for the entertainment niche and also if you have quality traffic from U.S, U.K, Australia.
Most importantly, you can run your propeller ads parallel with any other advertising platform including Adsense.
Note: The CPM rates can get very lower (less than 1$) if you do not generate website traffic from top tier countries like U.K, U.S, Canada, Australia, etc.
How much they pay?
PropellerAds CPM rates depend mainly on the type of ad campaign you chose, your website niche and where your organic traffic is coming from.
The CPM rates are on the higher side for pop up ads (which are mostly annoying as a reader), mobile and gaming ads.
If you are driving traffic from Tier 1 countries, the CPM can be speculated over $2 on an average.
For Tier 2 countries, the CPM rates can fall between $1 to $2 and for Tier 3 countries like Indian traffic, the rates are only in cents.
Also, entertainment and gaming niche websites see the highest conversion rates on Propeller ads.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum payout limit is $25 if you want to withdraw through PayPal and Payoneer.
Otherwise it is $100 for direct wire transfers.
Payment Mode:
They have several payment gateways to receive payments such as
- PayPal
- Bank Wire
- Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard
- Payoneer Global Bank Transfer
- ePayments
- EPESE
- Webmoney
Once you select your payment mode, the payments are processed automatically and paid after 30 days of approval.
Media.net
Media.net is a popular online advertising network powered by Yahoo and Bing and especially famous for their worldwide contextual ad business.
Also, it is considered as one of the best CPM ad network with high quality and high paying ads.
But they accept publishers with English websites and more than 90% of traffic should come from U.S.
Once approved, you even get a personalized ad manager to help optimize your ad placement and earning.
Note: You can use both Google Adsense and Media.net CPM ad network together
How much they pay?
Since the quality of ads are high, rate of conversion of your ads are high too.
Also, they have mostly high paying advertisers with them, hence the payout (CPM rates) are comparatively higher than other networks.
Min Withdrawal amount:
Like any premium high CPM ad network, the minimum payout threshold is $100.
Payment Mode:
The two payment options available with Media.net are PayPal and Wire Transfer for transferring your earnings.
Sign up with Media.net (Bonus: Sign up to get 10% more revenue)
RevenueHits
Unlike other CPM advertising networks, RevenueHits is a 100% CPA platform that focuses on the traffic brought by publishers and provides ads accordingly.
Similar to PropellerAds, they don’t have any criterion to join their network and is very easy to sign up.
There are no pre traffic requirements and allows publishers from every geo location in the world.
If for some reasons you are finding a tough time getting approved from Adsense or media.net, try signing with RevenueHits.
How much they pay?
Though you see some good money with the RevenueHits CPA platform, the eCPM rates are pretty industry basic.
For a typical tier 1 countries traffic, the eCPM rates are more than $1 (mainly for Pop ads and interstitial ads) and traffic derived from other countries are mostly in cents.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum withdrawal amount is $20 for PayPal and Payoneer users and $500 for wire transfers.
They pay their publishers after a withhold period of 30 days.
Payment Mode:
The payment modes you can choose are
- PayPal
- Payoneer
- Wire Transfer
Infolinks
Infolinks is a one of its kind advertising network that doesn’t require advertisement space to place ads.
Instead, they provide unique ad products such as infold, in-text , inscreen , intag , inframe , and inarticle ads based on the keywords.
Note: They are very popular for their in-text ads for a long time.
Make sure you don’t overdo with the ads in your content as it may disturb the overall reading experience of the user. (It matters the most!)
They are easy to join and have no strict prerequisites as such to get the approval.
Also, you can use Infolinks in conjunction with other CPM ad networks.
How much they pay?
Like usual, if your traffic is not coming U.S and U.K and other western countries, the CPM rates are going to be on the lower side. To be honest only in cents!
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum withheld threshold is $50 for PayPal, Payoneer and eCheck transfers and $500 for wire transfers.
Payment Mode:
The different payment modes available with Infolinks are:
- PayPal
- Payoneer
- Wire Transfer
- eCheck
The Net is 45 days which is too long considering the CPM rates and withdrawal amount.
Adsterra
Adsterra accepts traffic from a web page, appstore, and playmarket and windows store application irrespective of what language you use in your website.
They don’t entertain email campaigns, PTC, artificial traffic, pornographic content, etc else the account would be terminated.
Unlike PropellerAds, they do have some criteria to approve your website.
The site should be live and running and have original written contents, the alexa rank not more than 1 million and the website page should not be stuffed with banners (15+) and pops up ads (5+).
Signing up with Adsterra is pretty much basic. Register, add your domain, integrate the code into your site choose your ad campaign and you are in.
About:
Based in Scotland, Adsterra is a typical CPM advertising network that works with more than 190 countries and provides display banners, pop-under ads, interstitials, direct links and video banners.
You can use Adsterra ads along with Google Adsense or other high CPM ad network, but the pop ads and redirects ads from Adsterra may interfere and you may get penalised too.
So choose your ad campaigns wisely with Adsterra and see what works best for your blog.
Note: They allow traffic from adult sites, make sure it doesn’t affect your users reading experience and search engine may downgrade your site ranking.
How much they pay?
Just like PropellerAds, the CPM rates are lower (mostly less than a dollar) if you drive organic traffic from tier-2 and tier-3 countries.
However for some niche websites (social sites, gaming, music, entertainment, etc) which drives visitors from Tier -1 countries receive better CPM rates.
Min Withdrawal amount:
Sadly, the minimum withdrawal amount is $100. Since the CPM rates are quite low, if you have a website with growing traffic, it may take even months to get the $100 mark.
But it may not be the case if your website traffic is seeing a good surge!
The payments are released every two weeks once which is good.
Payment Mode:
The various payment modes available at Adsterra are:
- Bitcoin
- Wire Transfer
- Paxum
- PayPal
- WebMoney
They follow a NET 15 day hold policy, meaning you receive your earnings after 15 days of hold period.
HillTopAds
HillTopAds is a U.K based CPM advertising network,accept publishers from all GEO locations (global) and have best eCPM rates in the industry for the pop ads.
It allows websites from an array of niche categories like Entertainment, eCommerce, dating, finance, movies, social, mp3, etc.
They are one of the top paying CPM advertising network (mostly for Pop-under ads) and the only criteria to get accepted is that your website should have minimum 5000 visitors per day.
How much they pay?
The eCPM rates of their Pop-under ads are the highest in the industry at over $3 and even goes to $5 if your bring traffic from U.S and U.K.
Note: Since Google Adsense is not compatible with pop- up and pop-under ads, you should make a choice between HillTops or Google Adsense.
Look at your niche and see which top paying CPM advertising network works best for you.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum payment threshold is $50 with no transaction fee costs during payouts.
Payment Mode:
The payment is released every week (NET 7 days) and they have a handful of payment options to choose from:
- Bitcoin
- ePayments
- Paxum
- ePayService
- Wire Transfer
- Webmoney
Google Adsense
Google Adsense needs no introduction to praise its popularity among bloggers.
It is one of the largest and widely used online advertising platform to monetise a blog.
How much they pay?
Though it penalize you badly if you don’t comply with their standards, it has a pretty good CPM rates compared to most of its counterparts.
Almost all Google Adsense performs well, so for a niche website, a high performing keyword based ad will fetch you around $1 to $3 CPM rates.
If you have a content focused website rather than generic website, you can earn a decent income out of Adsense.
Note: CPM rates with Adsense can be in cents too if your site traffic is from tier 3 countries or if the CTR is low.
But still sign up with Adsense as it the most popular CPM advertising networks for publishers till date.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum payment threshold limit is $100 and it takes net 30 days to release the payment earning.
Payment Mode:
Google Adsense has many payment options for its publishers.
- Checks
- Electronic Fund Transfer
- EFT via Single Euro Payments Area
- Wire Transfer
- Western Union Quick Cash
ClickAdu
If placing a pop under ads suit your blog nicely, then please check out ClickAdu ads.
It is the best CPM advertising network when it comes to pop-under ads.
Note: ClickAdu cannot be used along with Google Adsense. Both cater to different set of website audience. However, PropellerAds, HilltopAds, Infolinks type of CPM advertising networks can be used along with ClickAdu to maximise your earnings.
If you have a website that’s not so content oriented, feel free to sign up with ClickAdu.
How much they pay?
Since most of the pop- under ads have high click through rates, the CPM rates gets high.
As per their website info, some of their geo targeted CPM ads start at $3 and reach up to $14 per 1000 page views.
Again, it all boils down to your website traffic numbers.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum payout stands at an impressive $10.
Payment Mode:
They have multiple payment methods
- Crypto-wallets
- ePayments (excluding some Tier 3 countries)
- Epese
- PayPal
- Webmoney
- Wire transfer
Conversant Media:
Conversant Media is a good CPM advertising network to start with if you are a new blogger.
They accept publishers who have English only Websites but the good part is they are lenient with their traffic requirements (min 3000 monthly visitors).
Note: They can be used along with Google Adsense and Media.net.
How much they pay?
Since it been in the advertising business for a long time, they have a good cap of premium advertisers.
So, the eCPM rates are industry standard.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum threshold limit is $25 but the payment withhold period is little longer at 60 days.
Payment Mode:
The payment options available with them:
- Checks
- Direct Deposit
- PayPal
Exponential (Formerly Tribal Fusion)
If you have a high quality site with predominant U.S traffic, definitely try your luck with Exponential.
Exponential CPM ad networks are only reserved for the established bloggers as their minimum requirement to sign up are 5 lakh unique visitors every month.
It is one of the top paying CPM advertising networks till date.
Also, if you have some viral websites that see huge traffic or looking for a good Adsense alternative in terms of pay, Exponential can be a good choice!
How much they pay?
They are a huge advertising network with more than 200 million visitors every month.
With such huge customer base and premium quality ads, one can expect CPM rates of Exponential to be best in class.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum payout limit is $50 with Net 45 days processing time.
Payment Mode:
PayPal and bank check are the only two payment options available at Exponential.
RhythmOne
RhythmOne works solely on the CPM revenue model and it is one of the oldest running CPM advertising networks in the world.
However, they have a lot of stringent criteria’s for new publishers.
The website must have 25000 page impressions every month, 5000 unique visitors per month, English content website with a consistent fresh and updated content to name a few.
If you are an established blogger, you can keep your options open for RhythmOne.
How much they pay?
Higher CPM rates with 100% fill rates as most of their ads are of premium quality and publishers have full control over the ads.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum threshold limit is $50 but the net is 60 days.
Payment Mode:
They have three payment models to choose fro
- PayPal
- Bank check
- Wire transfer
Exoclick
Exoclick is one of the largest CPM advertising networks (especially the adult industry) with around 5 billion daily ad impressions.
They are easy to get approved as there are no minimum traffic requirements for publishers to fulfil.
Note: Since they work with adult ads, just make sure your website is in accordance with such niche
How much they pay?
Since it is a premium advertising network in the entertainment and adult niche, the CPM rates are above $2 if you drive traffic from U.S, U.K, Canada and Australia.
But their CPM rates are very low ( in cents) if you drive traffic from Asian Countries.
Min Withdrawal amount & Payment Mode:
The best part is their weekly payment options.
However the withdrawal amount varies: $20 for PayPal, Paxum and Payoneer, $200 for Webmoney and $500 for direct wire transfers.
BuysellAds
BuysellAds are not your typical CPM advertising network.
Rather it is a marketplace where you can directly place high quality display ads and sponsored tweet ads on your website and make good income out of it.
In order to get approval, your website should have more than 1 lakh impressions per month with English the only language of your website.
Also, they showcase their CPM ad rates in advance (I love this feature) and you can decide your ad campaigns accordingly.
How much they pay?
Since it is a premium CPM ad network, you can make a higher margin of more than $2 for 1000 impressions.
Once your blog starts getting large amount of visitors, you should sign up for direct advertisements from BuysellAds.
Also, you can use both Adsense and BuysellAds parallel without any issues.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum payment threshold is $20 for PayPal, $50 for cheques and $500 for wire transfers and follows a net 30 days.
Payment Mode:
The following are the payment mode available to choose
- PayPal
- Cheque
- Wire Transfer
Criteo
If you have a website in the retail segment like shopping, travel, ecommerce, etc you should consider signing up for Criteo.
Based in France, it is basically an ad-retargeting network model and is one of the few top paying CPM advertising network for publishers.
How much they pay?
Since it is target based and provides high quality ads, the ROI turns out be excellent resulting in higher CPM rates.
If you can drive traffic from U.S and Europe especially, your CPM rates can go up to $5 per 1000 ad impressions.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum payout limit is $150 however and takes 30 days to process the payments.
Payment Mode:
Criteo has various payment options to choose from:
- PayPal
- ACH
- Bank Transfers
- Cheques
Chitika:
Chitika is a U.S based CPM ad network that is well known for its display ads (banners) network category.
Chitika banner ads are either displayed through images, audio and videos forms and fits in well with mobile advertising too.
Even if you are a new blogger and has just started seeing traffic, Chitika will approve you!
You can consider signing up with Chitika atleast in the initial stages of your blogging career until you get the approval from other top CPM ad networks.
Note: You can use Chitika display ads along with Adsense Ads.
How much they pay?
The CPM rates of Chitika range between 3 cents to $3 per 1000 ad impressions. A higher CPM depends on your content quality and whether you drive traffic numbers from U.S.
Min Withdrawal amount:
Chitika has lower payment threshold limit at $10 and follows a net 30 days withheld period.
Payment Mode:
The three main modes of Payment are:
- PayPal
- Direct Bank transfer
- Wire Transfer
UberCPM
Based in Canada, UberCPM is a new player in the CPM advertising networks and specializes only in banner advertising.
How much they pay?
The CPM rates are lowest in the industry I guess with the average CPM rates extremely low (below 10 cents) irrespective from where you bring traffic.
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum withheld limit is $10 and the payments are processed after 30 days.
Payment Mode:
The payment mode is via PayPal, Payoneer and Bank Wire transfer.
Adbuff
Adbuff is a Canada based top CPM ad networks and accepts publishers with an English only website that drives traffic primarily from U.S, Canada, Australia and U.K.
They provide the highest ROI to website owners (90% share) with mostly clean ads and can be a good Adsense alternative option if you are looking for one.
The Pros is the Con here. They require 2000 minimum unique visitors daily to be accepted in the first place.
Just like Google Adsense, no pop- ups are allowed in your website.
How much they pay?
Their CPM rates are usually high and sometimes very close to what Google Adsense offers.
Adbuff even offers a $25 sign up bonus for new publishers (that’s impressive).
Min Withdrawal amount:
The minimum payment limit is $100 for PayPal and Payoneer and $500 for direct wire transfers. Also, the payment withheld time is 45 days.
Payment Mode:
You can withdraw payments either through PayPal, Payoneer or wire transfer. Not much payment option though.
Update: Currently, Adbuff is not accepting any new Sign up.But keep your options open.
Takeaway
To put it upright, to see good money from any CPM advertising network, it all drains to one important factor: high volume of quality traffic.
That is the only way you can optimise the earnings from these CPM advertising networks.
Please input your experience with CPM ad networks and how they have fared with your blog and websites.
Happy Blogging!
