Creating a CPM based ad network - some questions for you!

[TacoCat]

Some while ago I was talking about the lack of monetizing opportunities here in my country, because all of the ad networks are CPC based and they pay shit. The only possibility that is left is Adsense. At one point @CCarter mentioned why don't I create my own ad network.

The idea kinda stuck to me and never left me.

Now, when I'm starting to close in on selling my current website, creating an ad network probably will be the next business that I will work on.

The idea is to work on CPM based network.

Now I'm looking for any info that is coming from the inside as I've never seen an CPM based network from neither side, nor publishers, nor advertisers.

Maybe I could talk with someone with some experience in this area?

What are some great things inside the networks that you use, both from publishers and advertisers sides? What are some pitfalls that some of the networks have? What are you not satisfied with and what you couldn't live without in the CPM networks?

 

[CCarter]

The First Ascension!

Welcome to Boss level. What you are doing it taking a huge leap into outerspace mang. MFA is all good (not really, most SEOs show up with 5 page websites with no images and wordpress twentytwelve themes looking like dogshit and can't figure out why they can't rank against serious juggernauts) - But running your own ad network or doing anything at this scale of thinking means you are creating real wealth for yourself for a lot longer term than some flimsy adsense site.

There are going to be some dark nights and even darker thoughts, but there will also be crazy moments that will rocket you into the next dimension with this idea. I'm grinning ear to ear for you cause this is a great chess move.

I'm not going to congratulate you cause you haven't actually done anything yet. When people start giving others congratz for work not done it creates a sense of accomplishment that's undeserving then causes that person to get lazy and not actually do the project cause they felt it's "already done" cause of the praise. It's some weird human psychological shit.

The important thing is you're on the right path now.

 

[TacoCat]

I appreciate the pat on the back(?) @CCarter, it would be really awesome if you could drop some....

....as well

 

[built]

Buy a lamborghini
tell everyone how you made bank with this new CPM network
???
profit

But seriously, good luck man. Hope it goes well

 

[Sutra]

Interesting idea. As someone who prefers CPM over CPC here are few things to note...

Do you want an entry level network or a premium network? If you're going for premium you'll need to make sure you don't allow shitty advertisers in that promote malware looking ads, auto redirects, etc.

Also, from the interactions I've had with the bigger CPM networks, if you plan to go premium, you'll need rules on the type of content that's allowed on the publisher sites, and how many ad zones.

There's also different types of CPM. Display ads, in-image, popunders, anchor ads, etc.

As a Publisher, I hate when I'm not able to set the pricing/exclusions on my own. Having to email the account manager to do that stuff is annoying.

Oh another thing, hah. On your website make it clear what you do. I hate the fucking networks that try to be cute and use fancy terms or artsy designs. Gotta sit there and decode what it is they are actually offering. Erodes my trust in their ability to deliver.

You got a lot to think about. But I imagine that if you do it right you could be livin large and in charge.

 

[Ryuzaki]

The first issue I think you'll encounter, which is essentially what this thread represents, is having not used CPM ads yourself. I'd find someone who's willing to let you log into their accounts just so you can peek around and get a grasp on things.

But once you get rolling, it seems the first challenge is going to be having inventory. I was thinking at first... you could start with one vertical and then slowly roll out to the next so at least you're serving each publisher and advertiser with high quality opportunities. Otherwise you'll have to accept the extremely low quality stuff that Trankuility is talking about, like half a penny clicks on virus removers and crap like that.

I think a way to bypass that in the beginning would be to backfill your entire inventory with someone elses and take almost zero profit on those impressions at first. You'd want to play this extremely carefully so you don't end up with double and triple brokered ads. Trying to take a profit on this would be dumb, in my opinion, but it would allow you to serve your customers for the time being. Otherwise you end up like the flood of CPA networks from 5 years back that ended up robbing all their publishers out of necessity.

Also, it's going to be critical to allow people to set a price floor on the CPM they want, which will be a way of blocking out crappy ads. Also, categorizing and blocking out industries so people can leave an absolute bottom end price floor to keep a high fill rate if they want. But for those that won't want to, you'll need to be able to allow the user to pass the request back to Adsense or someone else if you can't fill it.

 

[TacoCat]

Interesting idea. As someone who prefers CPM over CPC here are few things to note...

Do you want an entry level network or a premium network? If you're going for premium you'll need to make sure you don't allow shitty advertisers in that promote malware looking ads, auto redirects, etc.

Also, from the interactions I've had with the bigger CPM networks, if you plan to go premium, you'll need rules on the type of content that's allowed on the publisher sites, and how many ad zones.

There's also different types of CPM. Display ads, in-image, popunders, anchor ads, etc.

As a Publisher, I hate when I'm not able to set the pricing/exclusions on my own. Having to email the account manager to do that stuff is annoying.

Oh another thing, hah. On your website make it clear what you do. I hate the fucking networks that try to be cute and use fancy terms or artsy designs. Gotta sit there and decode what it is they are actually offering. Erodes my trust in their ability to deliver.

You got a lot to think about. But I imagine that if you do it right you could be livin large and in charge.

@Trankuility I'm definitely going with an entry level network as the market isn't so big and being in the MFA site business I now know a lot of the owners and stats for the main players in the market. (Except for the corporate websites). And they are mostly +100k sessions per month.

What do you think is the best option to prevent the shitty looking ads? (Except for saying specifics on what is allowed and what is not in the Terms.). To have someone check all the ads manually or have some kind of script if that is even possible.

I know that on what is allowed and what is not will be something similar to Adsense, no gambling, guns or +18 content.

I will be mostly focusing on display ads. As I’m convinced that popunders are really hated by most people and I haven’t seen any anchor ads or in-image ads in the market as well. (although that could be an opportunity).

What do you mean by setting pricing/exclusions? Pricing on what and exclusions on what?

I got a fucking whale on my table, gotta eat it peace by peace. Research first.

The first issue I think you'll encounter, which is essentially what this thread represents, is having not used CPM ads yourself. I'd find someone who's willing to let you log into their accounts just so you can peek around and get a grasp on things.

But once you get rolling, it seems the first challenge is going to be having inventory. I was thinking at first... you could start with one vertical and then slowly roll out to the next so at least you're serving each publisher and advertiser with high quality opportunities. Otherwise you'll have to accept the extremely low quality stuff that Trankuility is talking about, like half a penny clicks on virus removers and crap like that.

I think a way to bypass that in the beginning would be to backfill your entire inventory with someone elses and take almost zero profit on those impressions at first. You'd want to play this extremely carefully so you don't end up with double and triple brokered ads. Trying to take a profit on this would be dumb, in my opinion, but it would allow you to serve your customers for the time being. Otherwise you end up like the flood of CPA networks from 5 years back that ended up robbing all their publishers out of necessity.

Also, it's going to be critical to allow people to set a price floor on the CPM they want, which will be a way of blocking out crappy ads. Also, categorizing and blocking out industries so people can leave an absolute bottom end price floor to keep a high fill rate if they want. But for those that won't want to, you'll need to be able to allow the user to pass the request back to Adsense or someone else if you can't fill it.

Well then, lets start spamming BuSo members and threatening their lives so they allow me to see their accounts. (Disclaimer: JK). Anyways If that will be possible then it must be a BuSo member, because as I stated there are no CPM ad networks and I don’t know anyone personally that uses CPM, so if anyone is feeling kind… let me know.

Do by vertical you mean industries? Like sports, then take business, then entertainment etc.

And could you clarify what you mean by backfilling the entire inventory with someone elses?

What does the term “price floor” mean in CPM?


Talking about pricing…

How does it work with CPM networks? On what is it based? How does it changes? For example, I was thinking about setting that the publishers get a set amount of money for 1k views, depending on what niche they are in. Lets say if your’re in entertainment you get 1euro per 1k page views, if your in business, you get 3 euros per 1k page views etc.

And then on the advertisers end let them get into a bidding war on who wants to get the most exposure and setting the minimal amount for the bid and let it go up.

Also I feel that the local ad networks right now are ripping publishers and advertisers off because they are fucking expensive. For example a CPC for advertiser costs 25 cents, but the publisher only gets 10. That means they keep more than 60%. What should be the ratio? Keep the Adsense standart of 60/40?

Also I was thinking on what could be the best way for getting advertisers, I was thinking that I could work together with Marketing companies, because I know for a fact that most companies go to them to manage their ads. I could offer the marketing companies and affiliate deal. They get 10% from the volume of money that they provide ( could be more, could be less, just a number at this point)

Then the money would be split:

60% – Publisher

10% – Companies

30% - Me

They would be interested on working with me and everyone would be happy.

Or is this a shitty way of approaching this? And maybe there is a better one.

 

[Sutra]

@TacoCat

By "exclusions" I meant blocking certain categories, which you mentioned also.

By "pricing" I meant the price floor, which Ryu mentioned. With CPM ads, some networks allow the publisher to set how much they want to earn. The publisher can enter any number they want, but the high the number the less likely it will get filled with an ad. Thus the "Fill rate" will be low. Most malware looking ads will appear if a Publisher sets the price floor below .45. So I prefer networks that allow access to the price floor.

You mentioned you don't want popunder because people hate them. Before you decide on that you should do some research. As a network, your market is not the end user. Your market is the publisher so you need to find out what THEY prefer. My hunch is that they will want access to popunders. Popunders/popups/interstitials etc, offer high CPM, which is attractive to new publishers because they A) don't know better and B) Don't have much traffic so the high CPM is music to their ears.

I think you'll get a large amount of users who have been banned from Adsense. So they will be looking for something that makes as much, or more. But when you're a new publisher using CPM you don't have the traffic to get anywhere near the levels of pay that Adsense offers. So to keep those customers you'll need to offer something that gets high CPMs, which are the exact types of ads that most people hate.