Setting ad prices?

 > Well, here's one I wrote a couple of years ago, but I believe the content
 > is still valid:
 >
 > Advertising On Your Site: When, How And How Much?
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.internalysis.com/nwart4.htm</font" target="_blank">http://www.internalysis.com/nwart4.htm</font</a>>

Thanks - very helpful with some good pointers!

I had some more pointed questions though...for example, about cost per
thousand pricing. Do people literally set a price for a thousand ad
impressions and let the advertiser decide how many thousand he/she wants? Or
are accounts generally custom-made so that CPM is different from advertiser
to advertiser?

Thanks again.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Setting ad prices? 

"Erik" <nospam RemoveThis @nospam.com> wrote in
news:K_%3c.11230$t16.6529135@newssvr28.news.prodigy.com:

  >> Well, here's one I wrote a couple of years ago, but I believe the
  >> content is still valid:
  >>
  >> Advertising On Your Site: When, How And How Much?
<font color=green>  >> <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.internalysis.com/nwart4.htm</font" target="_blank">http://www.internalysis.com/nwart4.htm</font</a>>
 >
 > Thanks - very helpful with some good pointers!
 >
 > I had some more pointed questions though...for example, about cost per
 > thousand pricing. Do people literally set a price for a thousand ad
 > impressions and let the advertiser decide how many thousand he/she
 > wants? Or are accounts generally custom-made so that CPM is different
 > from advertiser to advertiser?

I think it really depends on your traffic, your demographics and your
site content. I'll use one of my sites as an example: CanadianISP.com
generates between 5000-6000 page views a day. While this might not seem
like a lot when compared to, say, cnn.com, our traffic is *highly*
targeted: It is *only* traffic looking to switch ISPs, or compare their
current ISP pricing with what else is out there on the market. This is a
really powerful bit of information, since it not only narrows down the
type of visitors we've got, but also highly focuses the types of content
in ads that would be relevant to the visitors.

That's the first half of the pricing information: The second half is our
demographic for advertisers: Mostly ISPs and hardware resellers. Given
that we know these two groups tend to have lower advertising budgets, we
keep our ad prices on the lower side - better to have multiple small
pieces of revenue than zero pieces of large revenue

For CanadianISP, we simply price based on time on the site and which
search results are being viewed: X dollars per city per day viewed, for
some services and X dollars per city per month viewed. This way we don't
have to track impressions (although we do for the sake of effectiveness
reporting) and the customer has a concrete plan on when their ads are
going to run. It also reduces the possibility of a nefarious individual
simply reloading their ads multiple times to 'wear out' their impressions
count.

When you get into broader-interest sites, the value per impression, per
day or per week lowers, simply because you cannot guarantee the focus per
customer, so prices should be adjusted accordingly.

Personally, I've always liked time-based ad campaigns versus impression-
based ones - it makes the accounting a lot easier and, I think, gives
more value to the advertiser.



--
Marc Bissonnette
CGI / Database / Web Management Tools: <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.internalysis.com" target="_blank">http://www.internalysis.com</a>
Something To Sell? Looking To Buy? <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.whitewaterclassifieds.ca" target="_blank">http://www.whitewaterclassifieds.ca</a>
Looking for a new ISP? <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.canadianisp.com" target="_blank">http://www.canadianisp.com</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Setting ad prices? 

 > I think it really depends on your traffic, your demographics and your
 > site content. I'll use one of my sites as an example: CanadianISP.com
 > generates between 5000-6000 page views a day. While this might not seem
 > like a lot when compared to, say, cnn.com, our traffic is *highly*
 > targeted: It is *only* traffic looking to switch ISPs, or compare their
 > current ISP pricing with what else is out there on the market. This is a
 > really powerful bit of information, since it not only narrows down the
 > type of visitors we've got, but also highly focuses the types of content
 > in ads that would be relevant to the visitors.
 >
 > That's the first half of the pricing information: The second half is our
 > demographic for advertisers: Mostly ISPs and hardware resellers. Given
 > that we know these two groups tend to have lower advertising budgets, we
 > keep our ad prices on the lower side - better to have multiple small
 > pieces of revenue than zero pieces of large revenue
 >
 > For CanadianISP, we simply price based on time on the site and which
 > search results are being viewed: X dollars per city per day viewed, for
 > some services and X dollars per city per month viewed. This way we don't
 > have to track impressions (although we do for the sake of effectiveness
 > reporting) and the customer has a concrete plan on when their ads are
 > going to run. It also reduces the possibility of a nefarious individual
 > simply reloading their ads multiple times to 'wear out' their impressions
 > count.
 >
 > When you get into broader-interest sites, the value per impression, per
 > day or per week lowers, simply because you cannot guarantee the focus per
 > customer, so prices should be adjusted accordingly.
 >
 > Personally, I've always liked time-based ad campaigns versus impression-
 > based ones - it makes the accounting a lot easier and, I think, gives
 > more value to the advertiser.

More very useful info...thanks!

The site I'm putting ads on generates 35,000-40,000 page views per day. The
audience is much more diverse and probably wouldn't be as tuned in to the
ads as visitors to the site you referenced. Without knowing what other sites
do exactly I was just going to start with some low (by my estimation anyway)
pricing and gauge interest.

And that's why I wondered about CPM pricing. What you said makes sense and
gives me a little something to chew on, but right now while I consider all
possibilities I just was wondering if I had the basic premise of CPM
advertising understood. I understand you don't use it, and that makes sense
based on what you said about your traffic and visitors, but do you know of
the firms taht sell CPM advertising if that's how they do it (set a price
for 1,000 impressions and let the advertiser decide how many thousand
impressions they want)?

Thanks again for the info - with as little as I know about ads every bit
helps.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Setting ad prices?