I recently woke up to check my Amazon Associates earnings as usual and was surprise to find that I had a new tab and banner in associates central introducing me to Amazon CPM Ads, I was very pleasantly surprised as while I had heard about the program I did not think much of it or getting in but to my surprise I got in. Now while I was not expecting much of this program as you might know Adsense tend to pay way better than any other advertising network I was really surprised after testing it for four (4) days that its actually not to be frowned upon and I am very impressed with the program and there rates which can and will most likely rival Adsense as an alternative means of motioning your website.
With all that said I find that there is very little information right now out on the program except for a few forums and some blog posts. I wish to now use this article as a go to resource to help those who might want to know more about the program with questions and answers and if I missed anything you can ask in the comments.
Amazon CPM Ads Questions and Answers
How to you Qualify or get into Amazon CPM Ads program?
As of right now the program is in a test fase and Amazon is only accepting members by invitation. I don’t know if its related but I had a record Amazon Associates month when I got invited. There is also no harm in going and contacting Amazon through Associates central and asking. In the future I think you will be able to apply directly.
How does Amazon CPM ads pay?
CPM means cost per thousand or the cost an advertiser is willing to pay for a thousand impressions of an Ad, also if you are wondering why there is no meaning for the “M” in CPM it’s because the M represents the roman numeral for 1000 thus CPM means Cost per thousand. The long story short is that Amazon CPM ADS will pay you for impressions of its ads on your website or ever time a visitor loads a page with an AD causing an impression.
How do I check My earnings in Amazon CPM Ads?
Go to Amazon Associates central and you will see Amazon CPM Ads on the upper menu bar to the right, from the drop down you will see home where all your stats are.
Now while I read that the Earnings will be separate and maybe payed differently from Amazon Associates earnings I have noticed that each days total gets Added to your Amazon Associates earnings, simply go to a days Associates earnings page and look all the way at the bottom and you will see the CPM total for that day. So I assume they will pay it out like they do with Associates earning but it’s yet to be seen if it will be a separate payment as of yet.
How high should you set your Target CPM?
For everyone this is different as no two websites are equal but I suggest that you do as Amazon suggests. Or experiment and start from a low point such as $0.01 and then increase it from there, I personally usually start at $1.00 but the Good thing is that Amazon will in most cases match or find bids that are higher so there is no worry.At the end of the day you want a CPM that will also give a great fill rate or Fill% being about 30-50% for most users.
What does this Fill% mean?
Lets say that your daily traffic is 1000 visitors and you have one Amazon CPM AD banner up and you are getting a 50% Fill rate or percentage, what this means is that of those 1000 visitors only 500 or 50% of them is seeing the ADS for a day.
How does Fill% affect Earnings?
If as you saw above you are getting $2 dollar for every 1000 impressions with 500 impressions from a 50% Fill% of 1000 visitors you would make only $1 dollar for that day.Also don’t confuse impressions with Ad requests.
Why is Fill% so low?
My guess is because the AD network is new and they are still building there advertiser base. Most users report a fill rate around 30% or so, some even claim 50%. The highest that I have seen is 60% and in my experience its websites that are heavily focused on products that have a higher fill rate as Amazon usually have a matching AD or use one of their ADS to match the product.
How to Earn more with Amazon CPM Ads?
The trick to this is to get more traffic which will result in more impressions and more earnings. You could also try improving fill rate but that’s not all under your control but the best you can do is set your CPM at the correct rate to get a nice influx of Ads.
Why you should not set your CPM too high or too low?
Believe it or not it’s not a Good idea to set your CPM too high as this will reduce fill rates thus balancing out itself and if it’s too low you will get better fill rate but earnings will suffer. The trick is to find the sweet spot which is usually somewhere around a dollar.
Does More AD units mean more earnings?
The short Answer is yes, but be careful not to over do it as Amazon only allows 3 Ads per page. With three Ads it will rack up more impressions thus helping you to earn more.
What are the best Ad units?
The best AD units are the Smaller of the set such as the 300 x 250 which has great fill% followed by the 728 x 90 and so on. I usually stick with the smaller.
Can I use Amazon CPM Ads with Adsense?
So far both play well together and All users who have been using both are having no policy violation issues so far Adsense only asks that the third party Ads do not look the same as theirs and that you don’t over do it by crowding your pages with the Ads.
Whats the best place to put the CPM Ads?
I find that they work well in sidebars at prominent spots, you don’t have to go for above the fold placement if you don’t want to.
I don’t have a Passback Ad, what can I do?
You can use Amazons regular banners as a Passback Ad code or just make your own banner ads.You should always find a good Ad to use as Passback as when an AD request is not filled by Amazon that AD can be shown allowing you to earn when Amazon AD request is not filled and in most cases depending on your fill% that’s a good chunk of the time and earning potential.
What are the benefits of CPM Ads over regular CPC Ads?
With CPM Ads you can better guarantee earnings for a given month or period as with a certain traffic level you are almost guaranteed a consistent income which is good.
How Amazon CPM Ads compares to Google Adsense?
Amazon CPM ads are just as good as Google especially if you have descent traffic and considering most people have a relatively OK to good fill rate imagine if it was matching all ads 100% of the time. So so far so good with this program.
Can you have CPM Ads and regular affiliate links on the same page and how does that work?
Yes you can use affiliate links in an article and have the CPM ads display on the same page. If the user click on a link in the article and buy something you will get a commission and of course if he/she was shown an Ad you will also get the impression. If the user clicks on the CPM ad banner and buys something you will not receive a commission in such a case though.
Will Amazon CPM replace Amazon Associates?
This one is something most associates are wondering and others are speculating on. I basically think seeing that both program do totally different things for Amazon and publishers in the way they work I highly doubt that Amazon will replace one program with the other, Amazon Associates has been around for years and its one of the things that has helped Amazon become so great, so I don’t see why they would get rid of the program.
What Type of Ads tend to Show up and are they Targeted?
The Ads that are usually displayed are all very high quality from Amazon and third party advertisers. The targeting is done it seems based on the content of your webpage, Amazon users browsing history from Amazon and finally the products you are linking to on page. The Ads do very well also on product oriented articles and websites in terms of fill rate.
I hope I was able to answer the most common questions that most users who want to know about Amazons new advertising program will have, if I missed anything please feel free to ask in the comments and I will be sure to address your question.
Does it say anything about your website have to be like couple months old before putting on ads?
No Wumrah there is no requirements in terms of the age of your website, the only main concern is that they don’t want the Ads displayed on websites directed at kids or young children.
So how do I go about getting an invitation?
You First need to Join Amazon Associates which is another program from which you can Earn Money using your Website or Blog and then its seems that they select those who they choose or those that are making consistent sales a part of the program, as for the future I do not know if they will change the requirements and allow any one to join. Let me know if you would like additional information on how to join Amazon Associates and start using their program to earn money.
Ok kool will do but I don’t think it’s a wise choice to put amazon affiliate on my website yet because I’m not getting much traffic. I think I need to improve on my traffic first before doing that.
Very good point Wayne you hit the nail on the head with that one, its always smart to hold off on Affiliate promotions until your website is established, I will still do the article as its been in my to do list of articles for a while.
I know that article will be a good one…I applied for the affiliate last year but they took it back because I didn’t get any sales. So that is the reason why I am going to wait.
Thank you, smart idea on deciding to wait.
Is this really OK with Adsense? I have invitation as well but I really wanted to make sure. I asked adsense support but they did not give direct answer while amazon says there is no conflict.
Well as you say they gave you a vague answer, then look at the Adsense Policy in terms of third party Ads, the Amazon CPM ads look different and are easily distinguishable from the Adsense ones in my opinion and on that grounds they are not violating the terms of service policy. But bear in mind that this program is directly in competition with Google Adsense and they might want to hold judgment in case they want to crack down on it later so now its still a matter of what Google wants in the end and up to you and what you want to do while they remain in the grey area.
I cant give you a clear cut 100% answer on these grounds as they are normally grey areas for a reason if you got my drift from the explanation. Do an assessment and if its not worth it then do not do it to be safe the choice is yours.
I recently got invited to the CPM Ads program, probably because I’ve had my associates account for about a year now and have had a few sales. I’ve probably only made about a hundred dollars with the program but it’s now been about 2 days since I started using the CPM Ads and I’ve already earned .30 cents. That’s okay but I imagine it will get better. I set my CPM to $2 so maybe that’s too high? I don’t know but I know it’s actually working. I get quite a bit of traffic but my fill rate is at 25%. I think this could turn into something big for Amazon but I don’t imagine they will just let anyone join in the future. I imagine it will probably be one of those things where you will have to have an associates acct first and be getting a certain amount of clicks or impressions on your ads before they consider you for it. I think it’s pretty neat though. Good article though bro. Thanks man
Are CPM rates per ad unit? If I have 3 ad unites with minimum $1 CPM rate will I be pain $3 per 1000 impressions? (Both Amazon and Google Adsense?)
Speaking directly to Amazon CPM as both programs are different, you wont necessarily get $3 for 1000 views but only when ads are shown.This means that while you may have 1000 page views only say 25% of those views adds were filled.So you have to look at the fill rate as only those users see ads.
Adsense does offer limited CPM ads as you do only earn small amounts from impressions overall.
I recently signed up for amazon, I will definitely request to join their CPM program.