PubMatic, the new ‘meta ad server’ that sits between the publisher and the ad networks, have issued several reports that have been featured on in MediaPost about the trend in CPM pricing for small, medium and large publishers that sell their ad inventory to ad networks. I highlight that point, because they are using statistics for a very specific part of the market, namely those publishers who are selling remnant inventory in bulk and for the purposes of redistribution. Unfortunately, that market would, to me, be characterized as sites that have already pushed CPMs through the floor in recent years, namely sites that are not “brand-safe.”
Burst sees a much brighter future for publishers. Since the beginning of 2008, we have elevated the stature of our high quality vertical sites by packaging them into brand-safe networks organized by audiences such as Moms, Baby Boomers and Environmentalists. As a result, our average prices have followed suit, to the benefit of those publishers who want to share in the revenue that we can get on their behalf. We have seen prices increase over 50% since last year, and have campaigns running on these hand-selected networks well above $5 CPMs – not your average ad network. So while PubMatic points to a downward trend in prices, we are actually working with advertisers and publishers to move the price up.
The difference between Burst and the average ad network is testimony to a fracture that has begun to divide the two segments of ad networks – large blind distribution vehicles vs. targeted, transparent, high composition audiences. Although we at Burst pride ourselves on the latter, we like the prospects of both, participate in both, and see publishers benefiting from both as a result.
