help an intern whos in over her head!

[arozas]

So I had a meeting with my boss after researching/collecting data for about a week on what diff. sites offer as far as advertising rates. What I need to do now is caclulate some kind of click through rate so I can compare them more objectively. I'm moving the numbers around but my
mathatmatical logic skills are not very extensive. Is there a way to calculate a click through rate using the amount of page views and the price per 1000 impressions--cpm?

Also--seperate question--what is the differnce between contacting the websites themselves for ad rates and dealing with them directly vs. using services like adbrite?

[hannamyluv]

Is there a way to calculate a click through rate using the amount of page views and the price per 1000 impressions--cpm?

Not really, as such. CTR will be based on the relavancy and placement of the ad. What you want to figure (I think from reading your post) is your minimum acceptable CTR. You would figure this by doing an ROI calculation. Once you have that, you can use that number to negotiate with the sites.

what is the differnce between contacting the websites themselves for ad rates and dealing with them directly vs. using services like adbrite?

It comes down to price vs ease of use, really. Contacting the websites directly may be cheaper as there is no middle man to pay, but it's more of a hassle and some sites won't deal with your outside of a third party. Third parties are far easier to deal with, but you pay for it though their added cost.