PubMatic AdPrice Index

The PubMatic AdPrice Index is a broad-based measure of ad network pricing information. It is based on anonymous data from over 3,500 publishers who work with PubMatic for ad network and layout optimization services.

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The June PubMatic AdPrice Index indicates that the sputtering economy is still having an affect on the overall monetization of online advertising, while certain verticals, especially social networks and gaming, had a significant upswing in ad pricing.

Web Site Ad Price Changes by Size

PubMatic's AdPrice Index reveals there was a 0.7 percent drop across all aggregated Web sites. Large Web sites (more than 100 million page views each month), however, fared much better than their medium and small counterparts with a 16 percent gain from the previous month.

Medium sized Web sites (between 1 million and 100 million page views per month) showed a less than 1 percent difference in pricing from April to May - they remain at an average 33 cent eCPM. Small Web sites (less than 1 million page views per month) showed a 12 percent drop from the previous month going from $1.29 to $1.13 average eCPM.

Key Findings

Web Site Ad Price Changes by Vertical

The biggest surprises this month came from the social network and gaming verticals. Social networks showed a very sizable 66 percent average eCPM increase going from 19 cents in April to 32 cents in May. While this is an increase from April, this is still not back to as high as the March average. Gaming also experienced a strong surge, with the vertical's average eCPM increasing 51 percent. In April, the gaming average eCPM was 66 cents and in May, the average eCPM was $1.00.

The entertainment vertical had a modest 11 percent drop, going from an average eCPM of 33 cents in April to 29 cents in May. While online news has one of the highest ad pricing of all verticals, they also experienced a similar drop of 13 percent during the same period, going from an average April eCPM of $1.30 to $1.10 in May.

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.

Methodology

The PubMatic AdPrice Index is a broad-based measure of ad network pricing information based on anonymous data from over 3,500 publishers who work with PubMatic for ad network and ad layout optimization services. Approximately 85 percent of these publishers are based in the US.

• The pricing data reflects the pricing of text and banner inventory sold to ad networks only, and does not include inventory sold directly to advertisers.
• The pricing data reflects net publisher monetization, not gross advertising spend or the money paid by the advertiser to an ad network.

The PubMatic AdPrice Index is prepared by leading independent statisticians and industry experts:

• Albert Madansky, Ph.D. is the H.G.B. Alexander Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and was the recipient of the 2005 American Statistical Association Founders Award.
• Michele Madansky, Ph.D. is a media and market research consultant and former VP of Global Market Research for Yahoo!