How Publishers Can Increase CPM Rates? TOP-9 Non-Tricky Tricks (2024)

Among other metrics, the CPM rate has always been paramount. Although Adsterra recommends paying primary attention to revenue from ads, CPM is also critical for health-checking your traffic performance.

Earlier, we broke down key reasons for a decrease in the cost-per-mille rate, and now it’s time to focus on how you can increase CPM.

Today, you will get a cheat sheet to check with each time you want to ensure your website performs well. This quick guide will make it easier to check the main steps you need to take to move towards increased ad earnings.

If you need to take a deeper look at what may affect your rates badly, read this definitive guide, or make sure you placed all ads correctly.

Ways to increase CPM publishers can check right now

1. Advertising codes update

What to check

• After moving from HTTP to HTTPs, you need to update all codes;
• As soon as you apply the anti-AdBlock solution from Adsterra, you update all codes;
• You don’t place the same code twice (or on several pages) – each time you apply for a unique code.

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2. Ad density

What to check

• You don’t place too many similar ads on one page.
• You wisely combine ad formats to increase CPM rates:
  • Push ads (Social Bar) + Native Banner;
  • Popunder + Social Bar;
  • Social Bar + Direct Link;
  • Native Banner + VAST;
  • Popunder + Native Banners.

3. Ad networks’ scripts

What to check

• You place scripts according to the ad networks’ rules.
• Your page speed is OK after adding a script, especially the Core Web Vitals.
• Test different ad networks in turns, not oversaturating your website.

4. Best-matching ad formats

What to check

• Ad formats are not aggressive, and they don’t cause the earlier web session ending.
• Ads mix naturally in your website content.
• Ad formats don’t harm your website layout.
• If you have loads of iOS users, you turn to the least intrusive formats like Native Banners or In-Page Push.

5. Ads diversity

What to check

• You refresh and relocate ad formats at times to prevent the “banner blindness” effect.
• You’ve already tried brand new formats like Social Bar in-page push ads.
• You operate Native Banners and Direct Links along with Popunders.

6. Bounce rates

What to check

• Users stay on the website; they don’t churn after 1-10 seconds.
• visitors don’t leave the website before ads are loaded (see or the How Adsterra Counts Ad Impressions guide.)
• Your overall bounce rates are not higher than 70%.
• Your website does not show sudden spikes in bounce rate.
• You don’t have pages with 90-100% bounces.
• You don’t provoke navigation bounces (when you mislead users by clickbait button names and headings.)

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7. User session duration

What to check

• Users stay on your web pages for a long time.
• Users navigate between pages.
• Engagement rate is high: users read more than one page per visit, they read over 50% of the page content, they click to enlarge images, etc.

8. User experience

What to check

• You avoid placing ads near the navigation elements.
• Essential information is not replaced or overlapped by ads.
• You don’t use desktop formats of banners (e.g., non-responsive 728×90 px) on a mobile website version.
• You prefer Popunders, not Pop-ups, as the latter ones are more intrusive.
• Interstitial ads (full-screen ads that appear while users navigate pages) are easy to close.

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9. Click-through rates (CTR) with on-click ads

What to check

• Users click on ads naturally, not only watch them (always check your CTRs with Adsterra Statistics for Publishers).
• You don’t incent users to click on ads (incentive traffic is banned).
• You are not using other shady techniques to multiply clicks (like placing an ad link instead of the navigation bar).

Please note
It’s absolutely OK when you see zero CTRs with Popunder and Direct Link ad formats, as they don’t count clicks.

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A brief summary to the “increase CPM” issue

With this simple cheat sheet on how to increase CPM, you can evaluate the most vital metrics and plan a set of actions to reach even better results.

Each time you ask yourself, “how do I increase CPM rates from an ad network,” please take into account that rates depend not only on your activities, but also on advertisers’ goals. Advertisers decide on how much they are willing to pay for this or that type of traffic. Their demands hinge on quarterly buying cycles, seasons, conversions, available budgets, etc. You will need to pay attention to seasonality and core events for your GEOs, as well.

CPM rates don’t freeze; for some websites, they can change within one day. For instance, if you own a movie site or a sports streaming site, you will increase CPM during major events or a movie premiere but experience a decrease after the event is over. Discover how to monetize movies websites in our article.

Feel free to reach out to your caring Adsterra managers and grow your earnings from ads safely!