Online Advertising Trends: The PubMatic AdPrice Index - July 2008

The online advertising market price index for July 2008, which is being released today by Pubmatic, shows that while online pricing has not dropped significantly, it is definitely not as high as it was a few months ago. Just like the present US economy, the online advertising price index appears to be "in a holding pattern".

As a matter of fact, there are no major changes or significant trends that this third price index from Pubmatic carries into the main picture. Ads cost less, small sites can command higher prices than large ones, and specific content niches like Entertainment, Gaming and Technology keep showing positive trends.

The data utilized to pull together these statistics is collected on an ongoing basis by Pubmatic, an ad network optimization service that automates and optimizes ad inventory decision-making for professional Web publishers while providing an industry-wide measure of online ad network pricing for online publishers.

 

 

PubMatic AdPrice Index - July 2008

Online Ad Prices Remain Stagnant for Third Month Straight
Online Ad Optimizer PubMatic Issues July Ad Pricing Index that Mirrors Economy's Holding Pattern

Key Findings

On average, Web site monetization decreased by less than one percent from $0.37 in May to $.036 in June.
*(Pricing data reflects net publisher monetization via ad networks and excludes ad networks' share of ad spends as well as inventory sold directly by publishers to ad agencies or advertisers).

By size, small size Web sites had the largest drop to $0.81 in June, down from $1.13 in May.

By vertical, News and Gaming had significant drops, sliding $0.62 and $0.20, respectively.

Entertainment showed the only increase jumping $0.11 from $0.29 in May to $0.40 in June.

The latest data from the AdPrice Index shows that overall online ad pricing made a less than one percent change, moving from $0.37 to $0.36, but there were a few surprises.

Web Site Ad Price Changes by Size

Small size Web sites (less than1 million page views per month) in June dropped a significant $0.32 from May, landing at an average eCPM of $0.81, down from $1.13.

Medium Web sites (1 million to 100 million page views per month), however, made a moderate $0.13 jump from $0.33 in May to $0.46 in June.

Large Web sites (100 million+ page views per moth) also rose, but only slightly, moving from May's $0.21 to June's $0.23.

Web Site Ad Price Changes by Vertical

The July PubMatic AdPrice Index findings also revealed that only one vertical category out of five showed any improvement in their overall eCPM - Entertainment climbed to $0.40 in June from May's $0.29.

The biggest drop in the verticals, by far, was News; it went from $1.10 in May, to less than half of that, or $0.48 in June.

Gaming, which was at $1.00 from the month of May went down in June to $0.80.

Social Networks, the lowest performing category already, went down another $0.05, going from $0.32 in May to $0.27 in June.

The Technology vertical had little movement, but it was still down; in May its average eCPM was $0.65 compared to June's $0.63.

 

Segment Definitions

Small Web site segment: Less than 1 million page views per month.

Medium Web site segment: Between 1 million and 100 million page views per month.

Large Web site segment: Over 100 million page views per month.

Aggregate Index: Data for All Web sites is computed using a weighting of 65 percent large Web sites, 20 percent Medium Web sites, and 15 percent Small Web sites based on an estimate of overall traffic in the online publishing market.

* Note: The pricing data reflects net publisher monetization via ad networks and excludes ad networks' share of ad spends as well as inventory sold directly by publishers to ad agencies or advertisers.

The PubMatic AdPrice Index has been prepared by:

Albert Madansky, Ph.D., H.G.B. Alexander Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and recipient of the 2005 American Statistical Association Founders Award

Michele Madansky, Ph.D., media and market research consultant, former VP of Global Market Research for Yahoo!

You can also subscribe to the monthly updates of the PubMatic AdPrice Index by going to www.adpriceindex.com and registering your email address.