As a for (gadget) profit entity, we’re often on the lookout for new methods of delivering relevant yet minimally intrusive advertising. And, one effective tool has been Amazon Associates. As Amazon sells just about everything, we can hopefully maintain a certain level of editorial neutrality by spiking the occasional post or tweet with an affiliate link to whatever product we happen to be discussing (and only endorse products worthy of endorsement).
Well, beyond Amazon sales, select Associates have been granted early access to a whole new program of banner advertising – beyond Amazon inventory and paid per impression, versus a sales commission.
Amazon CPM Ads feature display ads from Amazon and other high-quality advertisers. Ads are tailored to the user using Amazon’s personalization technology. You will be paid for each ad impression you serve, and you can specify a target CPM minimum. If we can’t meet your CPM target, your ad request will be “passed back” to your specified ad network.
If we can’t meet your CPM target, your ad request will be “passed back” to your specified ad network. You get:
- A guaranteed amount for every ad impression
- Attractive ads from Amazon and other brand-name advertisers
- Easy set-up and management
- Ads matched to your users based on Amazon’s personalization technology
- A program designed to work with your existing ad network or ad server
Ad units are offered in four sizes (728×90, 300×250, 300×600, 160×600) and I took the 728×90 leaderboard for a spin yesterday. In a couple hours of testing, Amazon didn’t appear to honor my target CPM ($2) and I had a few periodic rendering issues where my logo didn’t show or ad font settings were inherited by other areas of a page, like our Comments section. I assume these issues will eventually be sorted. But implementation and accessibility is dead simple. And, unlike Google Adsense which is primarily pay-per-click, Amazon CPM Ads are impression-based – an approach that hasn’t always been readily available to smaller sites.
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So the way Amazon affiliate links work, if you click one and purchase anything during a given number of hours, we'll see a % commission. The way Google Ads generally work, for each click on the banner we are paid. Whereas impression-based advertising, payment is based on how many times a webpage is loaded and CPM refers to cost per thousand views - so for a $2 CPM, I'd expect $2 for every 1000 page views. Of course, not all page impressions will meet certain geographical restrictions and the like. But that's the basics. ("High quality" presumably means no animated gifs, weight loss bs, gambling, and the like.)
The best advertising rates are seen via deals worked directly, but that requires a lot of effort, the sort of traffic we don't have, or a willingness to sell out - so we generally work with intermediary ad networks like this, as it requires limited energy and once again maintains editorial independence since we have no idea what's going to show.
In other "business of blogging" news, it appears Reuters wants to take stories without compensation, without contract, without ethics, unless the target site specifically declines in a given number of days. Wonder if I can use that in reverse?
http://www.medianama.com/2014/08/223-thomson-reuters-well-take-your-articles-if-you-dont-tell-us-not-to/
Do you have a sign up page for publishers to apply? I've been looking for a better ad network. We're on media.net right now and it's pretty weak.
There was no specific sign up area, it just appeared within my Amazon Associates a day or so ago. So you'd sign up for that, if not already registered. I pulled the unit down for now, but frequently flip networks/units looking for the right mix.