With all the discussion about CPMs, which is the only acronym that doesn’t have an alternate porno definition, I figured I’d do what VCs, Media Conglomerates and the Financial/Tech press are to busy to do … research.
To be more specific, a few google searches – oh, and at least three clicks. I s’pose I also added a hair of thought and common sense, but I don’t want to set the bar too high.
CPM predictions have been all over the place for the Internet. With some networking sites claiming up to $35 CPM and others will need at least $700 CPM to make sense, the fact remains that in practice inventory isn’t selling – even at less than $1.00 CPM.
So what will it level out at? What is a realistic prediction? As close as I can figure, putting a banner on MySpace, Facebook, LinkdIn, etc. is the closest equivalent to buying a billboard on a highway. I mean, none of these sites are making any content, the sites themselves are not the reason for people seeing the advertising, rather they are just providing the infrastructure for people to use to do something unrelated to advertising – sorta like a highway – get it.
So what does a billboard cost? It varies by market but in the major metro-areas it’s between $0.75 and $3.00 CPM.
That’s what Display ads on Social Networking websites are worth. I promise. You can stop guessing. Billboards have been around for a very long time, and they’re still selling – that means they work. They work at $0.75 – $3.00 CPM.