Anyone using Amazon CPM Ads?

Ryuzaki

Ryuzaki

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So I'm nearing the point on my main project where the blog could finally use some CPM ads. The problem is that I'm still not receiving enough traffic without leaks to reach their typical minimums. However, I've been cleared to use Amazon's CPM ads.

Things to Know:
  • Even if you set your eCPM minimum threshold to a penny, they don't have the ads to give you a 100% fill rate. I looked around and people are reporting about 33% fill rate.
  • You can use up to 3 ads!
  • People are claiming that it's not cannibalizing their Adsense... that's questionable.
I'm wondering if any of you high traffic guys have tried Amazon's CPM ads versus other CPM networks and checked out the impact it has on Adsense.

I read one guy saying the set his eCPM at $0.40 with three ads and was steadily clearingly $1.80-$2.00 per 1000 visits. If you figure it doesn't hurt Adsense (which doesn't do that well with leaks and shit traffic anyways), I could easily earn an extra $100-$200 per successful leak even at the 33% fill rate according to this guy.

Amazon also will handle passback ads so that if they can't fill the ad they will display something else. So you could toss in a lower paying CPM network or even an image you create to try to generate more pageviews, like an image link to a popular article.

You get the point. Anyone tried this yet? I'm curious and will likely give it a spin but I'm still trying to figure out what I'd do with the passback option.
 
I can confirm pretty much what your friend told you. I get very similar numbers.

It's not canibalizing my adsense but the bulk of those adsense earnings come from a couple key placements. Amazon often gets tertiary placement for me with media.net getting secondary.

I use an image with a headline built in for passback so the space doesn't go to waste.
 
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There's an idea... backfill with Media.net... hmm... I wouldn't mind backfilling with some other CPM network too. The point being that the blog is all about pageviews, so I'd like to capitalize on that.

You guys know of any other CPM network with 300 by whatever image ads that's you trust (versus native ads and other styles)?
 
Same here as what Calamari said, and the other guys you talked to.

I have one One Amazon ad pass back to Adsense, another pass back to a CPA ad and another to...nothing, haha. Been so busy haven't had to time to adjust the ads again. Should really get back on that. Shit, I'll do that tonight.

Other good CPM networks are Sovrn, Tecnorati, and Blogher. They can be strict about placements though. I know Sovrn doesn't like popups popunders and only allows 5 ad zones per page.

One I'm not sure about is Propeller. They only accept sites that get 10k+ uniques a day. I've thought about trying them, but again, haven't had time so don't know how good they are.
 
Reporting back... so far on Amazon I'm getting on average a 60% fill rate. I'm sticking mainly to the 300x250 ad size due to my design. Fortunately it happens to be one of the most common sizes as well, leading to my fill rate. That or Amazon has gotten more inventory in the recent years. Looking at about $1.80 CPM so far. My backfill is boosting the average to about $2 though.
 
Ryuzaki said:
Reporting back... so far on Amazon I'm getting on average a 60% fill rate. I'm sticking mainly to the 300x250 ad size due to my design. Fortunately it happens to be one of the most common sizes as well, leading to my fill rate. That or Amazon has gotten more inventory in the recent years. Looking at about $1.80 CPM so far. My backfill is boosting the average to about $2 though.
Click to expand...

What are you using to manage the waterfall and yield monetization of ad networks? Something like DFP small business can manage multiple ad tags. Been looking at tiller.com for content monetization.

Also do any of the ad networks or content networks themeselves (or perhaps a yield monetization platform that connects to them) show you revenue by utm source or some sort of sub id? I know Adsense ties into GA that way but how about with any of these other networks?
 
@schindyguy I'm just getting into this CPM method of monetizing with waterfalls. It's not something I'm experienced in because I've always been a low traffic, high value CPC guy.

This project doesn't have the consistent traffic to get accepted into enough worthwhile programs yet for me to worry about it at a high level yet. What I'm doing is letting Amazon passback to Media.net and letting Adsense exist in the prime positions. Amazon has built in passback and I'm not doing header bidding or anything complex yet, so I'm letting Amazon handle it all.

I've seen nothing in Amazon or Media.net that handles any sub ID's or UTM's. Media.net says that they show differing ads (contextual "link lists" versus image ads) depending on if the traffic came from a search engine or not. That's all I've encountered thus far, and you have no control over it.

Update:
Media.net is crap so far. My RPM's went from $2.00 to $0.00 on the same traffic. Every where on the net people are crying afoul of the same thing. A few beacons in the noise say that if you hang in there for a couple months your RPM's come back. Apparently Media.net is actively trying to test your traffic at this time with split tests and what not. I don't know that I'm interested in waiting 2 months, but at the same time I'm not getting accepted into any of the nicer networks yet.

Also, Amazon's fill rates fluctuate wildly as does their CPM's. They must still be struggling to have enough advertisers or they are denying crappy campaigns. I'm happy with them so far, I just don't have my own inventory on enough networks to not be wasting traffic yet.

Question:
Are you CPM guys finding that actual visibility matters or just the impression (ad load)? Are these networks measuring at the visibility level yet?
 
Media net sucks for me. Same exact thing. High CPMs then down to almost nothing in a week. I expected a drop but not that drastic. I removed it. If you ask them, they will customize the landing page to stay/look like your site which should increase CTR. I actually had them do it but haven't tested. Will do so later.

Amazon CPM fluctuates but even so the CPM is often better than what I get with Adsense. Don't know whether the visibility or impressions is more important, but my Amazon ads placed above or just below the fold get better CPMs than those near bottom of content.

I just found out that GumGum has CPM display ads. They just sent me the units. I haven't tested them so I don't know how they perform. Interestingly, they said there is no limit to how many units you can place per page.

Lastly, you can try signing up with Ezoic. I just resigned up. Through them you can place up to 5 adsense units per page PLUS you can still place Media.net other ads on the page. They have a service called "Mediation" that allows you to enter Adsense, Media.net, and others so they perform with ADX so should get better CPC's/CPM's. They even have Sovrn. They don't have Amazon yet though but you can still use that alongside the ads, just don't place into mediation.
 
I just removed media.net, my RPMs also went from $2 to 0 and have been like that for a week or 2 now.

Been hanging on with Ezoic and I'm beginning to like it as everything seems to be working.

I use Amazon cpm and backfill with an Adsense ad in my sidebar.
 
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