Google Adsense vs Alternative Options
Unfortunately for me Google’s Adsense did not generate any significant revenue while I used it. Here are the results of about one week’s use:
On the other hand, these are my results while using Direct Media Exchange‘s CPX Interactive as a publisher:
For whatever reason, my site performed quite poorly with Adsense and I made ~250% more profit while using CPX Interactive. Adsense’s ad targeting performed significantly worse than CPX Interactive’s . However, at the current time I am only using CPX Interactive for their eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions), but I will try out their CPC more extensively in the coming week(s) to gauge their performance with respect to that.
Direct Media Exchange’s setup for choosing advertisers is also preferable to Adsense. You are able to apply to an assortment of advertiser:
- Adtegrity
- Banner Connect Network
- CPX Interactive
- Oridian
- Remix Media (Direct Media Exchange) – Recently closed on 1/31/2010
- Vizi Direct
- Xtend Media
Once accepted by these advertiser, you can choose which one(s) you wish to use. In addition, it is important to decide which will be more beneficial with regards to CPM vs. CPC campaigns. After testing out each of the advertisers that accepted me for 2 days (1 day CPM and 1 day CPC campaigns) , I decided to use CPX Interactive as they provided the best revenue for both CPC and CPM.
Finding an company that fits your needs can be tricky. You must ask yourself a few questions? Do you want a to run CPM or CPC ads? What options do I have for advertisers (This is highly dependent upon page view per month)? What will be the most profitable in the short run and more importantly the long run? How many ads do I put on each page? To answer most of these questions, you will simply have to do some research and testing to see what works best for you.