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“How much does it cost to advertise online?”

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This, along with “Is there an industry average click-through rate?”, is one of the most frequently asked questions of advertisers.

Do you want to know how much it costs to advertise on a specific site? If so, contact the site and ask for their rate card or media kit. Understand, however, that generally speaking a rate card is a starting point for rate negotiations. It is what the site or property would ideally like to see advertisers pay. Because there are more sites competing for ad dollars than there are advertisers, always ask “Is that the best rate you can give me?” The worst they can do is to say yes, in which case you can either go elsewhere or you can pay the rate they are asking.

A site or property’s rates are understandably far more negotiable and flexible under one or more of the following conditions:

• It’s near the end of the month, quarter or year and the sales reps need to hit their quotas
• You’re spending or will to spend more than $50,000 with any single property
• You’re willing to commit to a multi-month or long-term ad placement with the site
• The site has excess ad inventory, as indicated by their running affiliate ads, barters or house ads

A site or property is less likely to be willing to agree to lower rates if one or more of the following are true:

• The site is being represented by an agency or rep firm
• The site is sold out of ad inventory for the next 30-60 days
• You as an advertiser are seeking to do the minimum dollar size “test buy”

All of the above said, most rates online are expressed in terms of CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) or CPC (Cost Per Click). Low rates are generally had for untargeted advertising placements to a general consumer audience and generally range between $0.25 CPM to $2.00 CPM. Rates increase based on any number of factors, including the demand and affluence of the target audience and other factors. “Selectors” may be added to most campaigns, indicating that ads are to be shown at a specific time of day period or only to users from a specific country of origin. These and other selectors normally command higher rates.

There is no such thing as an “average rate” for advertising online.

There is what you are willing to pay and what you are not willing to pay as an advertiser to reach the audience you need to reach and to generate the results you need to generate. If, as an advertiser, you’re seeking to compare what it “might” cost you to advertise online, you can get a very general idea by taking the rate cards of a small handful of sites that reach your target audience and averaging the rates.

However, keep in mind the above-listed factors (size of the buy, negotiated rates, targeting, etc.) that all affect what you will ultimately pay. It is completely irrelevant for you to compare what a competitor company is paying ratewise for advertising unless you know the dollar size of their commitment to advertisers. Your competition may be spending $50,000/month with some properties, in which case they are likely to be able to obtain a far lower rate than you would if you invest just $5,000 on a test placement. Focus on your business. Be the leader, don’t follow the leader. They may have no idea where they are going.

Hope this helps!