How Long Before CPM Dies?

[Rob_TID]

As more and more merchants become familiar with the concept of pay for performance (ie sales/leads) fewer and fewer are going to pay for CPM advertising except perhaps on very targeted sites for branding purposes.

So, how long do you think it will be before CPM dies as a serious money making option for small or poorly branded websites trying to generate revenue (I mean publishers)?

 

[$5 Submissions]

CPM will ALWAYS be around. It will just get cheaper and cheaper. It's main use being a) feeder traffic and b) test traffic.

 

[Jon]

I think high CPM rates will also always exist, just on a much smaller scale. Right now, the big spenders on CPM ads are doing it as a comparison of a cheaper outlet to TV or print ads. They've got these massive unlimited budgets and the ad networks and publishers make a killing off of these idiots because they figure, if enough people see it, then for the sake of the brand awareness, we've accomplished our mission. Little do they know is that they can be getting sales, clicks, and leads for about 3/4 of the price they are spending on CPM's.

Will ad networks tell them about it? Gradually. I think one or two big ad networks will slowly go into a small war with one another and seek out the bigger paying clients by showing them better conversions. They'll probably mix 10% of PPC, PPL and CPA in with a 90% CPM campaign, showing the client a magic higher conversion rate on their campaign, and taking them on for even more money. This will go on for a few years until finally one day, in a very very long time from now (in real years, not internet years) CPM may become a thing of the past, although I doubt it.

Movie studios want brand awareness on new films. Because you're not going to buy or reserve a ticket from a flashy ad that annoys you on a website. They are willing to shell out some major dollars to make sure you and your friends see it for the 2-4 weeks of promotions. After that, it's on to another movie, and the same deal goes with that. These guys have $50M+ budgets. CPM is going nowhere for now.

 

[Rob_TID]

But for the issue of brand awareness and branding there is a huge difference between CPM on a site like Yahoo Movies vs. my-high-pageview-splog.com

 

[Ferraristi]

For me it died when Valueclick took over Fastclick. I had been earning a couple hundred dollars per month with Fastclick for a few years. Anyway, when Valueclick took over, I got booted for a mild TOS violation, with no warning at all.

I haven't gone back to CPM since (unless you count Adsense)

 

[JP Sauve]

CPM will never die. All the biggest content based sites earn in CPM, and most don't have suitable models for CPA or CPC, and there will always be sponsors interested in advertising on these sites. People have been talking about the death of CPM since the dot com bubble burst, and it always survives.

I don't think any of the formats will die, but of CPC, CPA and CPM... I'd say CPC is most at risk, particularly with Google getting into CPA.

 

[pig2cat]

[not very related with topic]
cpm is what you get for 1000 impressions right?
how much should you get for that anyway?, i m running clicksor and i'm getting 2 cents per 1000 impressions:disgustwell, 1 cent for 550 this month), that a normal rate?arty-smiley-004:
[/not very related with topic]

 

[Ben]

I hope never... My CPM pairs well with my CPC.

Now if I could only get my CPAs going!!!

 

[CoRegisteer.com]

I dont think CPM will die either.

As long as there is CPA, there will be someone out there willing to arbitrage and get paid on CPA, while they would go and buy banner inventory on CPM.

Some websites dont want to take a chance with CPA and would prefer the security of CPM, even though there may be more money to be made on CPA. If you look half of the ads that these CPM networks serve, a lot of them are CPA ads readily available on CPA networks - such as Smiley Emoticon campaigns, or Joke toolbar. Having said that, I can see the prices of CPM banner inventory coming down.

 

[avantrosa]

As more and more merchants become familiar with the concept of pay for performance (ie sales/leads) fewer and fewer are going to pay for CPM advertising...

CPMs backbone is essentially pay per performance. Advertisers don't go and buy blind, they need to see results. This is exactly why a vast majority of CPM advertisers are direct marketers, and many of them do very well. Not only merchants, but affiliates too.

When media buying through an ad network you're going to be asked what you're willing to spend per acquisition. [FONT=&quot][/FONT]This number is how ad networks know which sites to keep the ad running on and which to omit. Why do you think you still see "Free Ipod" offers? They are direct marketers who are performance driven. If CPM advertising didn't work, they wouldn't have been running those ads for the past two years.

And yes, some advertisers may see higher margins through other avenues, but a profit is a profit. Unless your budget is limited and can be exhausted through something with higher margins, there's no reason why you shouldn't spread your marketing efforts out through different channels.

There are pro's and con's to each form of advertising, but I wouldn't personally ever go as fas as saying CPM will die.