15 Highest Paying CPM Ad Networks for Publishers 2020

CPM (Cost Per Mille or Cost Per Thousand) is a term used by marketers to denote the cost of thousand advisement impressions per webpage. CPM Ad Networks are a sure shot way to monetize a blog or a website. In this article, we will discuss the 15 highest paying CPM Ad Networks for Publishers 2020.

The question is how can CPM Ad Networks help you to earn from your blog or website? When the reader of your website or blog gets the “impression” of ads, you will earn money. It is not necessary for them to click on the advertisement in order to be counted as an “impression”. CPM Ad Networks pay a pre-decided sum per CPM.

Why do Bloggers need to register with an Ad Network?

The ad networks fill the gap between the advertisers and the bloggers or website owners. They are the technical and commercial intermediary between these two. Why do you need this intermediary?

It is imperative for the advertisers to employ ad networks because was it not for these ad networks, they will have to deal with every small and big blogger and negotiate with them. This will take a vast amount of resources including financial as well as human. It is easier to employ an ad network and deal with just the company.

On the other hand, the website owners and the bloggers also need ad networks for monetizing their efforts. Ad networks also handle the financial side of advertising. So they are needed to manage the transactions and the payments to the bloggers.

There is a trend to launch advertising campaigns for new products or to re-launch a product. These advertisement campaigns are put into motion by the ad networks by releasing a bundle of advertisements or specific messages that deliver a similar result. These messages are put out in the market through a number of media including online media. They are managed and monitored by the ad networks as well. Hence, ad networks are indispensable in this era.

15 Highest Paying CPM Ad Networks for Publishers 2020

 Ad NetworksMinimum Payout 

1Media.net$100 Visit Ad Network

2RevenueHits$20 Visit Ad Network

3PropellerAds$100 Visit Ad Network

4Infolinks$50 Visit Ad Network

5BuySellAds$20 Visit Ad Network

6Criteo$50 Visit Ad Network

7Exponential$50 Visit Ad Network

8RevContent$50 Visit Ad Network

9AdCash$100 Visit Ad Network

10Hilltop Ads$50 Visit Ad Network

Are you a blogger and wondering how to monetize your blog in the best way possible? Then you should definitely read this article to know about the best ad networks used by publishers in 2020.

1. Media.net

Media.net is one of the leading ad networks having its reach throughout the globe. They manage ads of high quality to more than 500,000 websites. On the other hand, their products and platforms are licensed by some of the largest publishers. Other ad networks and ad agencies also use their platform to get a stunning response. The revenue of Media.net from contextual advertisements is the second largest in the world.

Media.net has platforms for providing contextual ads, Display ads, native ads, and video ads. Media.net believes in maintain total transparency with all its demand partners and publishers.

The pros and cons of Media.net are as follows:

Pros

• Media.net was first owned by Yahoo! And Bing Advertisement. Although it is not as of now, it still is in collaboration with both these companies. The publishers make a better profit from the relevant traffic as Media.net provides better quality demand.
• Media.net is the second-highest revenue earner as far as contextual ads are concerned. Under contextual ads, although the publishers’ revenue is high, minimum user information is transferred in the process of ad delivery. The latest technology of Media.net ensures that only relevant contextual ads are shown to the users.
• Display to Search ad format or D2S is a format that works on the CPC model and was first introduced by Media.net. When the user clicks on something he is interested in, the advertisers get a clear picture of the intentions of the user. It also helps them to target those users in a more cultivated way.

Cons

• The payment is only made in US Dollars. The publishers outside the US have to pay for the conversion charge additionally.
• Media.net is an invitation-based ad network and it mandates you to have the majority of traffic from the top tier countries namely the US, the UK, Canada, etc.

2. RevenueHits

RevenueHits is a top-performing ad network for publishers. With offices in Israel and New York, RevenueHits serves more than 20,000 publishers. The publishers are offered easy and simple registration, competitive rates, on-time payments, in-house complaint teams, 24/7 monitoring, and advanced technological tool for Adblock traffic monetization using pops and banners.

RevenueHits boasts to offer 100% fill rates in all geographical areas. The ads that are displayed by RevenueHits are only clean ads that mean no ads containing adult content, hacking, gambling, or any other types of offensive ads. The types of ads include a banner, popunder, page push, floating banner, etc.

Pros

• RevenueHits not only offer CPM but also CPA (Cost Per Action). Hence the publishers will get paid not only when the users get an “impression” but also when a user takes an “action” that includes buying something, registering themselves for a newsletter, filling out a survey, etc.
• RevenueHits has more than 5000 in-house advertisers who can buy publishers’ traffic without commission. This allows them to earn more in commissions.
• It is a self-serve platform and publishers have the right to add or remove the ad units. The account manager at RevenueHits might help them but the final control remains with the publishers.

Cons

• The publishers cannot have real-time reports for their ads only the reports from the previous day can be viewed.
• RevenueHits does not support video ads or innovative ads.

3. PropellerAds

PropellerAds have experience in the industry since 2011 and have 150,000 publishers to date. They claim to offer the best CPM rates to the publishers. They have employed an AI system to boost productivity. They offer fraud prevention for the higher security of the publishers.

PropellerAds also gives real-time, in-depth reports to monitor the success of the publishers. They have free education center and product resources to help the publishers.

Pros

• PropellerAds supports English as well as Non-English content to reach a global customer base.
• PropellerAds offers as low as a $5 minimum payment threshold with a weekly payout with a wide range of payment options.
• They offer OnClick PopUnder ads that go full screen once the user clicks on it. This format helps the publishers to earn more revenue and helps the advertisers by knowing their interests.

Cons

• Header bidding, which is one of the important monetization methods for publishers, is not offered by PropellerAds.
• If your website is not of high quality, your CPM will be low.

4. Infolinks

Infolinks is one of the popular companies among both publishers and advertisers. They provide the income to more than 100,000 direct website publishers and paying them nearly $100 million in commissions.

The algorithm owned by Infolinks has been gathering data for the last 10 years and it is used to create smart, customizable, and intent-driven ads to generate maximum income.

They provide various types of products including user-initiated expanding ad, search and display ads right above the fold, ads to be displayed on widescreen, relevant ads within the text, etc.

Pros

• It is compatible with AdSense. It works in perfect harmony with AdSense to generate high revenue.
• Protects the privacy of the users by using contextual ads that do not require the cookie data of the users.
• Infolinks does not have minimum traffic requirement. Also, the approval time is short giving small publishers a good chance to monetize their site.

Cons

• Infolinks makes it difficult for publishers to earn more if their traffic is in non-tier 1 counties or the developing nations.
• Publishers using InFold format of advertising need to be warned as these kinds of sticky ads can be intrusive to the users and the publishers will have their reputation at stake.

5. BuySellAds

BuySellAds provides a wide range of services that include native ads, content ads, podcast ads, display ads, Email ads, and Event Advertisement. They offer sponsorship ads for publishers with more traffic by giving them access to relevant advertisers.

They also provide header bidding management where they place the site of the publisher up for bidding among more than 10 advertisers to get the highest returns. BuySellAds also scale the affiliate and eCommerce program of the publishers to maximize the results.

Pros

• No website or blog with questionable or objectionable content is approved by BuySellAds to maintain the decency.
• They also provide Tweet ads and RSS ads which are added recently.
• More affordable than many of its competitors.

Cons

• Blogpost Blogs are not accepted by BuySellAds.
• They do not provide content in any other language except English.

6. Criteo

Criteo a French company in the business of ad networking and retargeting for the last 10 years. They offer unparalleled customer support and affordable pricing. The algorithms employed by Criterio are very intelligent. It retargets the reader who has seen the ad once. Clients like Fiat, Macy’s, Sephora, Xbox, Costco, Pepsi, P&G, Soft Surroundings, etc. use Criteo.

The products offered by Criteo are Dynamic Retargeting, Mobile App Advertising, Retail media for brands as well as retailers, audience match, customer acquisition, and many more.

Pros

• The initial installation of Criterio takes much time and effort. However, this allows the flow of information to be carried to the company that helps to optimize the campaign better.
• Criteo tests the advertisement continuously and rotates the creativity and products to give the best possible results.
• Criteo has access to one of the leading domain to target the readers on Facebook. With its large number of active users, Facebook helps in generating more revenue.

Cons

• Criteo does not provide direct access to control your account. This makes it impersonal and difficult to use for small publishers.
• Criteo lacks transparency.

7. Exponential (Tribal Fusion)

With more than 700 million users worldwide, Exponential is one of the biggest ad networks. Established in California, USA Exponential has offices in 22 countries for focusing on local advertisers and agencies. It is technologically advanced to perform better for the advertising campaign.

The interest and intent of the users are calculated at the page-level that is deeper than the site-level. They have advertisers in every industry including but not limited to telecommunication, automotive, retail, travel and tourism, clothing & fashion, entertainment, education, etc.

Pros

• No inappropriate content including adult content, use of tobacco, alcohol or illegal substances, violence, profanity, racism, etc. is ever published.
• They provide 50,000+ topics to model, target, and optimize the audience.
• It claims to have the largest footprints and proprietary data with ad-formats designed to drive engagement and action by the user.

Cons

• The site must attract 500,000 unique visitors per month to be accepted by Exponential. So there is no place for small publishers.
• The payouts are made every 45 days which is longer than most ad networks.

8. RevContent

RevContent is the home for companies like Yahoo!, History Channel, Examiner, Criteol, Nasdaq, USA Today Sports, etc. RevContent offers publishers $5+ CPM along with 40% higher CPMs. They do not depend on cookies to drive up the performance. Direct relationship with the demand market cuts down the middleman commission and publishers are aptly paid. It helps the publishers to generate consistent revenue.

RevContent gives the publishers fully customizable widgets to create ads that are in harmony with the site.

Pros

• RevContent connects well with social media sites.
• It offers more than 100 billion recommendations every month to improve the engagement of the users through high-quality native advertisements.
• The transparency offered by Revcontent is higher than its competitors.

Cons

• 90% of the content is rejected by RevContent. The criterion to be accepted as a publisher is 100,000 views daily but in reality, only publishers with 2-3 million viewers are accepted.
• Some of the users feel that the ads by RevContent are intrusive.

9. AdCash

AdCash prides itself on being an ad network that provides a profitable, simple, and enjoyable experience to everyone. AdCash provides anti-AdBlock technology to bypass the AdBlock and earn higher revenue. It also provides live statistics to the publishers so that they can know how they are performing anytime. It gives worldwide coverage and multiple ad formats to the publishers.

It serves in 196 countries to 10k+ active ad campaigns and 10 billion ad requests per day. The publisher gets to choose from a wide range of payment methods and timeframes.

Pros

• Dedicated account management to assist the publishers to unlock exclusive features in accordance with their needs and to maximize the returns.
• Supports many languages websites for wider coverage.
• Real-time reports

Cons

• Higher payouts to US locales than any other publishers.
• They do not upgrade their technology often hence there are many issues that are not fixed.

10. Hilltop Ads

With its headquarters in Greater London, Hilltop Ads has become one of the leading ad networks with impressions of 12 billion every month. Some of the features of Hilltop ads are worth mentioning including ad rotation of eCPM in real-time, referrals program, anti AdBlock solution, etc. They do not have any restrictions to be a publisher for Hilltop ads. Any new website or blog post can register as a publisher.

They make payments every 7 days with a minimum payout of $50. It is easy to register and sign in as a publisher on Hilltop ads.

Pros

• Mobile and desktop friendly popups and pop-under ads, direct links, native ads, display banners, in-video ads, etc. are some of the services provided by Hilltop ads.
• The control panel provided by Hilltop ads is intuitive and user friendly.
• Real-time stats about the revenue and other factors are given to the publishers.
• Great customer support is offered to all the people associated to help them use all the features.

Cons

• The mainstream traffic volume is not as much as some of the older ad networks.
• They also offer fewer ad formats than most of their competitors.

11. AdRecover

AdRecover was established in 2014 with an aim to use automated A/B testing to optimize publisher side ad layouts. AdRecover has helped more than 300 publishers in more than 50 countries increase their CTRs, CPMs, and hence the revenue without making a compromise with what the users see. They give options like header bidding, innovative ad formats, and AdBlock recovery for pushing up the revenue.

AdRecover is a Google Certified Publishing Partner. The integration is quick and simple that can be done in just 15 minutes. The account manager from AdRecover can also help a publisher to initiate the proceedings.

Pros

• The click-through rates are higher
• No polymorphic codes or ad frauds are used
• A publisher cab get an acceptance in 5 minutes

Cons

• Slow customer support
• Payment is done Net-45 through PayPal or Bank transfer only

12. BidVertiser

BidVertiser is a platform that has more than 78k network websites under its domain. It serves in-house technology for ad serving and real-time optimization. The high-tech fraud detection guarantees zero failures. A malware-free ecosystem is the result of constant scanning and efforts.

BitVertiser offers services like native ads, push notifications, direct navigation, pop-under ads, XML, and more. With the minimum payment of $10, via PayPal, Bitcoin, or check, BidViser is a great tool for small publishers too.

Pros

• Segmentation is introduced to know the traffic flow.
• The dashboard provided by BidVertiser allows the publisher to handle the management easily
• Very low cost per click

Cons

• Fits small advertisers and publishers
• The automatic optimization does not work smoothly

13. Adbuff

Adbuffs is an Indian ad network Company that serves in 12 countries. Services like Adbuffs Launchpad, Adbuffs Growth Accelerator, Adbuffs Creative Suite, etc. are provided to help with the overall growth of the company. Although Adbuffs is relatively new in the market, it is already creating a buzz.

They provide a dedicated account manager for the publisher to help them improve their eCPM. The support system for publishers has earned 97% satisfaction for speed and accuracy.

Pros

• The minimum traffic requirement is as low as 2000 unique views per day.
• No offensive or illegal content is allowed
• The real-time dashboard gives the publishers instant access to the statistics.

Cons

• Pop-up advertisements are not allowed.
• Blogs on free sites like Blogpost and Weebly are not accepted

14. ClickAdu

With daily impressions of 2 billion and a conversion of 3.3 million, ClickAdu is home to more than 2000 publishers and 15000+ active campaigns. It offers a user-friendly self-serve platform with high-tech optimization. It also protects publishers from potential frauds and bot attacks.

It offers a choice of multiple payment methods to the publishers. They provide services like pop-under, instant text message, push notification, video ads, skim, and more.

Pros

• They offer referral programs to the publishers to earn extra income
• Automated payouts
• ClickAdu is fast and user-friendly

Cons

• The dashboard does not provide extensive information
• It is still new in the market hence it lacks the sophistication of the older ad networks.

15. Adsterra

Adsterra has managed more than 50k successful ad campaigns since its inception in 2013. Adsterra claims of giving some of the highest CPM rates in the industry. With Net15, they offer payments by various mediums to the publishers. They support various ad types namely web push, native ads, social bar, banners, video, etc.

Adsterra gives the publishers worldwide coverage and plenty of funding resources. The SSP is also easy to use and the support system is available if you face any problems.

Pros

• Gives the publishers great targeting options
• They can also run offers with traffic that is not mainstream
• Gives you a wide range of choice of ad formats

Cons

• With too many payment methods, publishers might sometimes require documentary confirmation.
• They do not provide demographic targeting.

FAQs About CPM Ad Networks

How Much Does a CPM Ad Network Pay For 1000 Impressions?

For every 1000 impressions, every ad network pays a different sum. However, it is somewhere between $1 to $10 on average.

How Cost Per Mille (CPM) Is Calculated?

The CPM is calculated on the basis of the number of impressions received by the viewer of the website or the blog. It does not matter whether the viewer has clicked on the ad or not if the impression of the ad is on the screen of his mobile or PC, it will be calculated. The ad networks pay the website owner a pre-decided sum per 1000 impressions on their website.

What is The Difference between CPM, CPC & CTR in Ad Networks?

CPM means Cost Per Mille that is the cost per 1000 impressions.

CPC means Cost per Click which means the actual amount per click received by the publisher.

CTR is short for Click Through Rate which means the number of clicks received on the ads for the number of impressions.

What Are the Recommended CPM Ad Networks For Low Traffic Sites?

For low traffic sites, ad networks such as Propeller ads, Hilltop Ads, Coinzilla, MGID, etc.

Final Conclusion

If you have a blog or website, the best way to monetize them is to register yourself with an ad network. You can select an ad network in accordance with the niche of your website or blog and on the number of views your websites get.

The ad networks have criteria on which they will base the acceptance of the publishers. It also has some rules regarding the payouts. To earn the maximum amount for your efforts you should consider all these criteria before finalizing an ad network.

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