Every new Publisher wants to know what CPM rate they can expect with Gourmet Ads
From our perspective it’s very difficult for us to provide an estimate. The reason is simple, every site is different and this has a direct impact on the overall CPM rate. On average, when a site joins Gourmet Ads, they’ll have between 50 to 80 campaigns running simultaneously and all with different CPM rates, different targets, and different geo targeting.
Things to think about in regards to your overall CPM rate include but are not limited to:
How many ad sizes are you running?
Are you running just 1 ad size or all three? Sites running all our IAB ad units such as 728×90, 300×250, 160×600 and 300×600 will get the highest rates. Some advertisers will only book one ad size, if you’re not running that ad size our system automatically removes your site from the campaign.
Non-IAB Units
If you’re not open to running interstitials, over the page or floating ads, then you’re once again not getting the highest CPM possible. Some advertisers don’t want to run regular display units and instead prefer to run a more high-impact unit such as the ones mentioned for video assets.
Above-the-fold
Are you prepared to give us at least two spaces above the fold? Some advertisers only book above the fold and as such when we traffic the campaign, if your ad unit isn’t above the fold then you won’t be even included on the campaign. CPM rates are usually higher for above the fold positions. See a blog we wrote on Positioning your Ads.
Origin of site traffic
This is one of the biggest reasons why we see reduced CPM rates for a particular site. Gourmet Ads sells advertising directly in the USA, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. If a large percentage of your traffic (20% or more) originates from countries outside of this list you’ll see an overall reduction in the eCPM rates. Ways we can prevent the reduced CPM rate is to use an ad server and geo target your traffic for any of the countries to us. That way we’ll provide you only advertising for you in those countries.
Site performance
Does your site have a high click through? We find that recipe sites have much higher click rates and conversion rates than food blogs. As a result, our system will automatically adjust the allocation of performing ads to sites that perform. Ways that you can increase performance include placing ad units above the fold, around text, placing ad tags into page templates instead of just one or two pages. Also reducing the number of ads on a page can significantly help as well. We recommend a maximum of 3 ads per page.
Advertiser has not selected your site or food blog
Some advertisers ask us for a list of all the sites in the network, as they have strict guidelines for ordering advertising. These advertisers will look at every site in the network and determine the suitability for their campaign. For some campaigns we’ll only run on particular sites in the network and not across the entire network. Not being selected for a campaign can be attributed to the design of your site, content you’re developing and traffic volumes.
