CPM vs CPC for High Performance Site

Should we offer CPM or CPC ads to advertisers?

[bkmed]

Our average eCPM this month is $100 with an average Ctr of 11% (based on Report data showing by page). Traffic however is not very strong with 50k to 60k unique (we are working on it).

We are controlled by the big G on everything we do and want to transition to direct advertisers reducing the Adsense program down as an overall percentage of revenue. We are seasonal and eCPM's drop to $50 or $60 average around 6 months out of the year. We are looking at companies like Marchex and Adify to build our network of direct advertisers. Marchex doesn't offer CPM tracking and Adify is limited on its bidding platform.

A few questions:

1. Should we build a pure CMP revenue model, CPC model or combination of the two?
2. How can we offer advertisers the ability to login to our site, place ads and bid against other advertisers? Is there a product that offers the ability to manage this for both CPM and CPC advertisers?
3. Any advice, experience or feedback in transitioning away from Google to direct advertisers?

FYI – My first post. Sorry in advance if I asked too many questions.

[MichaelBluejay]

I'm sorry no one replied to this before now. Not sure I can because the thread is so old, but I'll give it a shot...

1. I don't really think it matters whether you go CPM, CPC, affiliate, or direct/monthly, as long as you're getting the ROI you expect. Me, I do a combination of CPC, affiliate, and direct/monthly because there are some advantages to diversity. I also start out with CPC (Adsense). When advertisers come calling I offer to substitute their ads for my Adsense blocks (at a higher price I'm getting from Adsense, of course). I also have affiliate ads where it matches the content, and especially where it's helpful link to some resource in the editorial and an affiliate link actually serves the reader.

2. I'm not sure whether there are off-the-shelf products, but it's not too hard for a programmer to write one. I wrote one myself for a friend whose adspace I sold, which was a primary reason I increased his revenue by 7x in 18 months. (My system isn't a generic one-size-fits-all solution for other sites, though, so mine isn't available to you, but if you're getting $100 CPM on 60k visitors/mo., you can afford to hire a programmer.)

(3) See #1. Prominently place an "Advertise on this site" link at the top and bottom of every page, and then on the landing page clearly spell out what spots are available and for how much. If you have good content and traffic, the advertisers will come calling, you won't have to go seek them out.

[bkmed]

Thanks for the reply and your helpful response. I don't know much about hiring programmers. Any idea on where I could find someone to contract on something like this? We are based in Nashville, but someone could work from home on this.

[signor_john]

Have you tried Webmaster World's Advertising Sales and Affiliate Programs forum? It isn't as active as this forum is, but it probably has more members who have experience with other forms of advertising.

[webmasterworld.com...]

[bkmed]

Thanks.. I'll check it out.

[MichaelBluejay]

Try typing "hire programmer" into Google.