

Ask YC: Would like to start CPM/Banner advertising for my startup. Best ad network to use? - shafqat

Have already contacted Federated Media, but no response yet. We get over 200K pageviews a month at the moment (just launched), so it should grow.<p>Are there ad networks who we can start working with at this stage? Of course, Google Adsense is our fall back.
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KLAW
Federated won't touch you unless you have 1m US uniques. And the nature of
your site is such that I don't think Adsense will do it for you.

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shafqat
I've seen sites listed on FM that have far less than 1M uniques. Given that we
get thousands of uniques a day, it seems like we've graduated from Adsense,
but not enough for FM? Dilemma...

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KLAW
I tried FM (my site has 800k-1.2m page impressions / month; mainly US traffic)
and they said 'come back when you get 1m US uniques. But you're right - they
have sites that are definitely smaller.

Where does your traffic come from? How many page impressions per user?

Also worth keeping in mind that FM takes a 50% cut.

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noodle
tribal fusion, valueclick, and burst media are ones to consider trying, but
they all also require applications.

they have traffic requirments, too, but they're more reasonable than FM, down
in the 2000 uniques or 100k pageviews range.

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shafqat
OK, we're well above that so will give those a try. Cheers!

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KLAW
All of those networks will pay low CPMs though, that's the issue. It is blind
network stuff, by and large. Low = less than $1 CPM per ad unit.

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shafqat
If its really $1CPM, we're better off sticking to Google Adsense where we can
get higher than $1 eCPM.

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KLAW
It's $1CPM at best. The range is sort of 40c - 70c, from memory. They talk big
but it's just distressed inventory, nothing targeted.

