21 of the Best CPM Ad Network Platforms
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Cost per advertising, particularly CPM – cost per thousand – is a game of optimizing your numbers. A lot of times, you’re going to want to experiment with different networks until you find one that meets your requirements. Some will be perfectly fine networks, but fail to support your niche. Others may let you down in terms of tools or support. Test out these networks; ideally, several of them will work for you, and you can integrate them on your sites.
First on the list is one of the older and more recognized names in CPM ads, Tribal Fusion, a division of Exponential Advertising. They might be considered a baseline from which other CPMs are measured. They do require a site to have a high level of regular viewership, though, making them unsuitable for new or small sites.
Based in the Netherlands, Banner Connect partners with several companies, including Appnexus and IBM. They do a lot more than just ads, though, so feel free to explore their platform and see what use you can get out of it. You never know where the next implementation may lead.
CPX has a number of ad divisions, including Realtime, AdReady, CCDRMedia, and Consumed Media. They all have different focuses, such as micro-ads and video advertising, in addition to the general CPXi CPM ads.
Seeing the power of deep targeting, Adtegrity has put a lot of effort into their bid systems, their retargeting, their lookalike audiences and their behavioral targeting. It’s really one of the better alternatives to using traditional Facebook ads, which are better used for CPC or conversion objectives than CPM.
Advertising.com
You would expect the owner of advertising dot com to be a business deep into advertising, and you would be right. They are one of the oldest and one of the best solutions for ads of all sorts, from both sides of the fence, both as publisher and as advertiser. Sites of all sizes in all niches are welcome somewhere in their system.
AdPepper
AdPepper is an interesting take on the theme. They’re an independent network, not part of a larger technology like AOL or another setup. They also serve a global and international audience, with their homepage even translated into both German and Spanish. An excellent option for those outside of the US.
Formerly Valueclick, Conversant is up there amongst giants. They are a very old network that has weathered the storms of negative publicity and the backlash against various advertising techniques in their long history. They’re still alive and thriving, so know they’re always ready to adapt to the next big thing. Plus, they work great for even small sites.
Clove Network
Smaller than many of the other networks on this list, Clove is nonetheless a powerful network with a wide range of ad formats available for use. They also have quite a bit in the way of optimizations to help sites implement their ads properly.
The biggest benefit of Infolinks is their smart ad technology, that applies ads in various ways determined to eliminate ad blindness. Too many people tune out or ignore ads; Infolinks has an innovative system to help eliminate that problem. If you find too few people are paying attention to your ads, try this network.
Axill
Axill is a fairly standard ad network with one notable benefit that is largely irrelevant to the vast majority of you, but a primary selling point for a few of you; bitcoins. That’s right, they deal both in accepting and paying out in bitcoins, if you’re the kind of person who keeps up with rapidly inflating virtually profitless digital currencies. Note: They don’t yet deal in Dogecoins, so you’ll have to look elsewhere for those.
Sovrn
5 of the Cheapest CPM Ad Networks for Driving Traffic CPM ads are a bit of an…
Primarily focused on the US to the exclusion of much of the rest of the world, Sovrn – formerly Lijit – has some of the best pay rates of any networks, despite being a smaller and more exclusive network. Just don’t rely too heavily on their analytics.
Yes, I know this post is primarily about CPM, but you can’t talk about ad networks without talking about Propeller. They’re a damn good network with surprisingly high payouts, more than double those of some other networks, and they’re always on time.
Pulse Point doesn’t have the slickest website, but don’t let that deceive you. The primary benefit of their ad network is the automation. They have programmatic and algorithmic buying and selling, so you can optimize your ads without ever having to look in detail into the sites you’re using.
The Matomy media group is a great ad platform that does display ads, but also works with mobile ads, video ads and social advertising in over a dozen different categories and a wide range of niches. You might not get in – their high level of support requires decent sites – but if you can, they’re pretty great.
Another one of the old giants, Burst Media has a lot of high-profile clients, including Paramount, Loreal, and Disney. They do more than just leverage display advertising; they reach out specifically to brand advocates, those people most interested in promoting your brand, and hook you up.
The most controversial entry on this list, Popcash doesn’t so much do page display advertising. Instead, they’re the ones primarily responsible for pop-under ads. Sure, it’s not entirely a modern technology, being replaced by exit intent pops, but they’re still surprisingly effective. Give them a try, if you don’t mind the possible hit to your reputation for using pop unders.
Specializing entirely on tech companies, tech sites and others in those niches, Technorati is a widespread provider of information, content marketing and display advertising. Fit their niche and they’re perfect; try to jump in with a cooking blog and you might not find much of use.
OperaMediaWorks (Formerly Admarvel)
Not to be confused with Marvel Comics, AdMarvel is a network that works with some major companies, including Verizon. They’re great for developers, they have some interesting dynamic optimization options and they give you a lot of control over the ads you display.
Formerly known as Casale, the rebranding is actually a very modern development. They’re still the same great old network, though, so if you’ve found success with them before, you’ll find it still.
Buzz City
Don’t be turned off by their 90s cartoon logo; Buzz City is a surprisingly great network specializing in mobile ads. More importantly, they’re primarily an international provider, with a huge number of ads served in India, Indonesia, and various African countries.
Rounding out this list is Vibrant, an advertiser with a lot of brand connection options that benefit both advertisers and publishers alike. Keep your ads consistent across multiple platforms and hook up with the people you need seeing your ads.
Written by James Parsons
Glad to be the first to comment on this great article! Thank you so much James for doing this.