20 Highest Paying CPM Ad Networks
Earning money from a blog can be a challenge when you rely solely on PPC ads, since not every one of your website visitors will deign to click one of those ads. So if you want to take advantage of the fact that you have lots of people looking at your website pages, you can try CPM ads as well. CPM refer to “cost per thousand impressions”, and you get money every time an advertiser’s ad is displayed. They don’t have to be clicked at all.
The money you get depends a lot on your website’s content and the quality of your traffic. For example, traffic from countries such as the US and Canada generally pays more than traffic from some countries in Asia, South America, and Africa. It also depends greatly on the CPM Ad Network you partner with. In order to help you along in choosing the right one for you, here are the 20 highest-paying CPM Networks today. Each one has its own advantages and drawbacks, and it’s up to you to choose which one fits best with your website.
Tribal Fusion. There are a lot of great things to be said for this CPM ad network, and they have enjoyed a rather sterling reputation for years. They offer very high CPM rates starting from 20¢ to 80¢ (or even higher) and there’s only a $50 minimum payment. You get many different types and sizes of banner ads and pop under ads, and you can block some ads you don’t want. There’s also no exclusivity requirement.
There are downsides, however. As of yet they only pay by check, and the revenue sharing scheme gives you only 55%. The payment terms are NET 45, which means you get your check 45 days after the last day of the month which your website achieved more than fifty dollars in net revenue. Those are probably very tolerable problems, but the thing is that the requirements of Tribal Fusion to become a publisher are quite high. They only accept professional sites, and you should have at least 500 thousand unique visitors every month. That’s almost 17 thousand per day!
Casale Media. This one is another popular choice, as they offer average rates of 35¢ for banner ads and $2.50 for pop under ads. You can get paid for clicks as well. Just remember that your ultimate CPM rate will depend mostly on the traffic you generate, the quality of your site, and your niche. The people from Casale pay through check or PayPal, and the minimum payout is just $25. You can also filter out unwanted ads, there’s no exclusivity requirement, and you are only required to generate 50 thousand unique visitors a month.
Yet despite the comparatively low traffic requirement, they really prefer only well-established websites as publishers, which makes new sites and those that haven’t yet carved a niche for themselves virtually unable to get in. Your site should also be either in English or French.
Adversal Publisher Network. This network has served millions of publishers and advertisers for about ten years now, and they have garnered quite a great reputation. They have a minimum traffic requirement of 50,000 page views per month, and blogs and free hosted sites are also welcome as well. The other requirement for acceptance is that your site should offer quality content.
The network’s CPM rates are higher than what other more “accepting” networks offer, and no one has complained that they were paid late. They also offer superb customer support as well as a 100% fill rate. You get reports with detailed statistics and demographic notes, although they’re not updated in real time.
While its payment threshold is only $20, that’s actually quite deceptively high since a lot of websites only get less than a thousand page views per day. You also don’t even get the customary control over the ads on your site. If you want to block a particular advertiser, you’ll have to raise the issue through email or through customer support.
CPX Interactive. With CPX you can select to go CPM or with CPC. While other CPM networks only like to deal with traffic from the US, UK, and Canada, the average CPM rate for banner ads is anywhere between 15¢ and 30¢ for Asian and Indian traffic. The pop under ads go for $2. You can filter out ads you don’t want for your site, but the network does have a high quality advertiser base.
It’s not quite that easy to get approval to get in, however. There’s a site traffic requirement of at least 30 thousand unique visitors per day, and blogs and free hosted sites aren’t welcome. The revenue share is only 60% for you, and the fill rate is average at about 50 to 60 percent. The minimum payment threshold of $50 is also quite high.
PulsePoint. This isn’t a new CPM network, but PulsePoint just the new name of what used to be known as Contextweb and Adsdaq. They accept sites from all over the world and they don’t need you to meet any minimum traffic requirements.
You can set your own CPM ask price, and you get paid through check or PayPal. They offer quality advertisers and there are unique features too. However, the minimum payout is set at $50, which is quite high. The fill rate is also quite mediocre as it’s only about 30% on average.
Qadabra. Once known as AdsGadget, this CPM network also has a good rep. Getting into the network is a snap, as it’s almost automatic. There are no minimum traffic requirements, and even subdomains and websites on free host servers are accepted. They give a 100% fill rate, and there’s only a $1 (that’s a single dollar and not a typo) minimum payout. You can also place multiple banners on the same page, which allows you to earn a higher effective CPM. You also get statistical reports in real time.
Unfortunately the CPM rates usually range from between 2¢ to 5¢, although of late that has jumped to the 8¢ 12¢ range. They also have a net 45 payment scheme. You also can’t filter out particular advertisers.
Fidelity Media. This is both a CPM and CPC ad network and offers excellent customer support and a high fill rate of about 90%. The unsold inventory can still be used by providing your back-up ad tags from another network. The minimum payout is just $5, which was changed from the no minimum threshold in June 2013. You only need at least 30 thousand impressions for your site.
However, you must have quality content and a fourth of your traffic should come from the US, the UK, Canada, or Australia. Free hosted sites and those on subdomains are not accepted and you need to have a domain-specific e-mail address to register. The average CPM is at about 10¢, and the net 45 payment scheme is in place. There are only three sizes of banners available (you can forget about custom-sized ads) and the reports are only updated once or twice a day.
Lijit. For this CPM network, there are no minimum traffic requirements, and blogs are accepted as well. The average CPM rate is quite high as it ranges from 20¢ to $1.50 and the minimum payout is set at $25. The payment schedule is on a net 30 system. The reports are excellent, as you get a detailed statistical with demographic data along with an analytics report which gives you a lot of insight as to the behavior of your visitors.
However, to get in they will first manually review your site to make sure that you have quality content that’s original and unique. The fill rate is very low, though, at only an average of 20%, and you can only get paid through PayPal.
Technorati Media. It’s somewhat easy to get approval and you don’t need a lot of traffic to get in. Getting 10 thousand unique visitors for your site is fine. However, you should offer high quality consent on your site, and it has to be in English. You should also be on a top level domain.
Once you’re in, you’re with a big company with a large advertising base and ad inventory, and you get high quality ads for your site. The CPM rates are good enough with averages of about 30 to 40 cents, and the support network is terrific. The minimum payout requirement is $50, and you get paid either by check or through PayPal.
Perhaps the most glaring downside to this CPM ad network is the terribly slow payment scheme which operates on a net 60 system. In practical terms, if your account goes past $50 in the middle of January you only get your money by April. The ad installation process is also a bit complicated, and if you want to decline ads you’ll have to contact the people at Technorati Media directly.
Yahoo-Bing (Media.net). They offer CPM as well as CPC ads, and this union offers you a huge advertiser pool. You can even get some ads optimized for mobile devices. Getting in requires you to have a professional design, and you get paid through PayPal, check or by direct deposit. With Yahoo and Microsoft behind this network, you can rest easy that it’s not a scam at all.
You will get paid, but the problem is that it will take quite a while for you to get your money. The minimum payment requirement is $100, and the payment frequency operates on a net 45 system.
ValueClick. This ad network has been around since the late 1990s, and their long history is a tribute to the service they provide. They offer decent CPM rates averaging from 20¢ to 50¢, and their pop under ads can go for as high as $3. There are lots of ad types to choose from, and you get total control to approve or decline any ad you want at any time you wish. You get lots of high quality ads, and the support you get from the ad network is great. The minimum payment threshold is $25, you get pad through check or PayPal, and the payment frequency is net 20.
The thing is, getting approval isn’t quite as easy as you may have hoped. You have to generate three thousand page views a month and you have to own the domain your site is on. You can’t have mostly forums and you can’t have pages in a language that isn’t English. There are also a host of ad placement requirements as well.
AdCash. This is a favorite network of entertainment websites. If you want to join in, you should have a professional website without any kind of questionable content. The content has to be high quality and with lots of pages, and your users should be quite active.
Once you’re in, you get dynamic CPM pricing. That means you are assisted so that you only get to display the ads that would prove to be the most profitable for your site. You get paid through PayPal, Bank Wire, Skrill (Moneybookers), Affiliway, and WebMoney, and the payment frequency is net 30.
You also get reports in real time with lots of useful statistics. The assistance you receive from the AdCash support team is topnotch, especially when you get a dedicated account manager.
There’s only one glitch, though. The minimum payment threshold is set at a whopping €100.
CPMLeader. This is an ad network that accepts worldwide traffic, with fixed CPM rates for different countries. The approval process is virtually instantaneous, as long as you don’t have adult content and you’re not a BlogSpot website. For BlogSpot websites which actually do have high quality content instead of just a host of banners, you can just send an e-mail to admin@cpmleader.com and your site will be reviewed manually.
To get paid, you only need to meet the $5 minimum payment threshold, and the net 7 payment frequency means that you get paid every week. On the other hand, the CPM rates for Asian countries are quite low, and payment is only through PayPal.
Advertising.com. As part of AOL Advertising, this ad network has long been a respected name in the industry. They have a gigantic ad inventory and they serve ads in really big numbers—as in about 140 billion ad impressions per month. While they are mainly a PPC ad network, they also support CPM campaigns. The support is quite helpful and quick to respond, and the network’s website is chockfull of support pages and demos and videos. You also have full control to block any type of advertiser, or even filter out ads from an entire industry or a specific type of ad.
The CPM rates are good, and the minimum payment threshold is just $25. You can get paid through PayPal, wire transfer, or check, and the payment frequency is net 30.
For all these reasons, you really have to look for a long time to find a negative review of advertising.com. Everyone who gets in only has lots of nice things to say. That’s the catch however—getting in. you have to have a really professional site with half a million impressions a month in order to get in.
BurstMedia. This is another respected name in the online ads industry, as it has been in existence since 1995. They offer CPM as well as CPC, and the rates are pretty decent with a 50% revenue share. They have niche-specific custom channels for specifically targeted advertisement deals, which can add more profits for publisher sites.
When you contact their support service directly, the people there are quite helpful. Unfortunately, you’ll probably have to do that a lot since the official site isn’t really all that informative and the account management tools are far from the best.
What else is there to whine about? Well, there’s the $50 minimum payout and the net 45 payment frequency. There’s also the mandatory product placement from BurstMedia Video Suite as a requirement to join the program.
Creafi Online Media. Some publisher sites just don’t get enough respect, such as warez sites. Fortunately, there’s Creafi, which accepts warez sites with no problem. They’re also quite good with sports websites.
The ad network has a very high inventory fill, and you have control over your inventory. You have multiple ad formats to choose from, and the effective CPM is quite acceptable. The payment frequency is net 35.
However, you only get paid through PayPal, and that’s only when you get past the $100 minimum payout threshold.
AdStract. These are the guys formerly known as AffiliatePLY. If you don’t care much for banner ads and pop under ads and you like video ads instead, then AdStract is for you. That’s because video ads are all they offer. They offer CPM commission as well as CPC, CPA, and PPV payment models.
Many of the people who use AdStract report that they get fairly decent CPM rates. They also give high praise to the network’s dedicated account managers. When you get in, you’ll have to contact them somewhat on a regular basis, because the reporting tools don’t work in real time and their interface is very confusing.
Because AdStract specializes in video ads, you may be able to avail of a lot of interesting possibilities that may not be possible from other networks which also offer video ads along with banner ads. Those possibilities can bring in a lot of money too.
Ad Igniter. This is a CPM ad network that offers a lot of variety in ads: banners, videos, pop-under ads, in-text ads, and mobile ads. Their CPM rates are quite impressive too. The rates depend on the country the impressions are coming from, with most ranging from 3¢ to 50¢. French impressions are 50¢, Germany 75¢, UK and Canada 85¢ and US 87¢. The payment is by check or through PayPal.
Aside from the $50 minimum payment threshold and the long net 60 payment frequency, what’s annoying about the network is that their website isn’t really all that informative. You really have to contact them directly, because no FAQ section. These people have been in business since 2004 and they serve 360 million impressions a month; you’d think they’d know about serving information properly by now.
Adknowledge. This is a huge ad network, with 280 million clicks and 60 billion impressions each month. That’s one of the largest ad marketplaces in the world. They offer CPM as well as CPC and CPA payment models, but the rates will depend on the ad type. They also have this excellent feature that offers the most appropriate ads that generate the most interest according to their huge database of consumer behaviors. Payment is through PayPal, check, or wire transfer.
You get paid 30 days after the end of every calendar month, but you have to get past the huge $100 minimum payout.
AdOnion. Launched in 2008, this CPM and CPC network has grown so quickly that a couple of years ago the company had to upgrade their server for their ad serving platform. The boost meant faster speeds and greater storage space, and publishers and advertisers could now expect quicker load times for ad displays, faster access to reporting, and greater volume of traffic.
What’s great about AdOnion is that you can set your own price. You can also choose advertisers on your own, although you have to be approved first by the advertisers you choose. You can also block a specific ad campaign or advertiser should you want to. You also have the ability to provide a back-up tag of another ad network if the fill rate is insufficient. Finally, the net 15 payment term is a great relief.
However, that net 15 payment term may not mean much because of the $50 minimum threshold. That’s not easy to attain unless you have lots of traffic from tier-I countries. You also need great US and UK traffic if you want a high CPM rate, as the majority of the quality banner CPM campaigns are US-centric. On average, your CPM will fall between 2¢ to 7¢.
