Which ad company?

I'm looking for some advice from those of you out there that have high traffic sites.

I'm starting to look for an ad company for a site that I manage - http://onlytoys.com - redesign almost finished so it will change dramatically. :) Site gets about 350K-400K pageviews/month and growing fast. Normally I wouldn't even consider ads for a retail site (as we prefer to make our money by actually selling merchandise) but my boss has agreed to commit every penny we make on the ads to marketing. I figure it's better to let the potential customers go (as in when they click on a banner) and spend the revenue trying to get customers that really want to buy instead.

Burst is definately out. I use them for my sites and their rates are pitiful now. If I wasn't in a 3-year exclusive with them I'd be gone already. :( Is Flycast still the best choice for a site this size? Are there better options? I'm looking for a CPM deal. Not in the least bit interested in CPC.

Suggestions?

Hi ron,

Try *BIG* ad companies like:

http://www.sonarnetwork.com
http://www.doubleclick.com
http://www.clickagents.com
http://www.advertising.com
http://www.burstnet.com
http://www.engage.com
http://www.adflight.com
http://www.cj.com
http://www.clicktrade.com
http://www.clickxchange.com
http://www.starads.com
http://www.dimeclicks.com
http://www.clearbluemedia.com
http://www.amazingmedia.com
http://www.focusin.com
http://www.datais.com

POPUP CPM:
http://www.popupmoney.com
http://www.popupttraffic.com

GET PAID FOR SEARCHES

http://www.searchtraffic.com
http://www.searchbucks.com
http://www.adsearches.com

If you need anymore just tell me.


[Edited by Gcites on 11-09-2000 at 03:17 AM]

Opps i didint read your post rightfully sorry about listing extra ones.

Thanks for the list but I already know a TON of ad companies (including most if not all of those). I was really looking for some actual experience from those that run fairly large sites. Anyone?

Originally posted by Gcites

http://www.focusin.com
http://www.datais.com


Just thought I'd point out that Datais became FocusIN and that FocusIN don't pay. On the old forum I had a post called the 'FocusIN Conspiracy', it's still valid to this day. They are yet to respond to any of my e-mails or the many reply posts after their post on the old forums.

I strongly reccomend you steer clear of this company.

Flycast (now engage media) is a good company but your must maintain a good Click through ratio to earn any money, you make about 1.10cpm.

Well flycast ads take alot time to load and therefore you will loose alot of impressions. Adflight is rather good, 1$CPM but you will loose little impressions. My #1 suggestion is clearbluemedia, the first days you wont get much money because they wont give much CPM ads to new sites, but after a few days they will start selling your whole adspace as CPM and you will receive about 1.5-2.5$ CPM, and with clearbluemedia you will get all impressions tracked.

A small fact is that clear blue media has cut all their cpm rates and cpc rates, they now sell 0.50cpm-1.50cpm and about 0.12c to 0.20c CPC : ) Also engage ads load fast for my account you should check with your account manager or update your souce code for your banners becuase they changed it a few weeks ago.

Well it can be true that flycast has begun to serve ads a lot quicker, because it was about 2 months since i used them.

FocusIN pays me every month and on time. Why does everyone else seem to have problems?

the problem is that focusIN about 2-3 weeks ago cut half their member base for no reason other then, we cannot provide you with ads, so their very unreliable.

Sphosting you use contentzone? can i have your refer url? do you think they will allow free hosts?

Also, flycast is the one who has been adding a popup ad (just what you wanted right?) to their rotation. I'm not sure if you can kill that specifi ad somehow, but if you choose them Ron, you should look into it.

Heh...that's what stopped me from calling Flycast in the first place CN. :p There's just no way in hell I'd put ads like that on a retail site. If that's the direction they're moving, I'm not interested.

Still looking.......

I've tried them all, but I always end up going back to ClearBlueMedia. Tracks all impressions properly, always pays, doesn't screw you over for having low CTR. Very reputable company. I'm sticking with them.

Just checked them out and they look pretty decent. It's between Flycast (assuming they can assure me NO BLOODY POPUPS), AdFlight and ClearBlueMedia at this point. I guess it just depends on who has the best deal now. Hmmmm.........

Hey Ron,
I would approach AdFlight with caution. If you don't keep your 468x60 CTR over 0.20% they will TERMINATE your account. I was with them for 6 months and was getting paid every month but the moment my CTR fell to 0.18% they terminated my account. Even though I put their banner at the top of my pages they weren't getting any clicks. To put it mildy, the ads displayed flat out sucked. They are supposed to be "targeted ads" but I was seeing ads that were not in any way related to the gaming ones I should have been getting. Bottom line is these guys pay plenty but all it takes is a single month of low CTR and you will get shafted.

The good news is that I have an inside contact with AdFlight that owes me a favor since I helped them shut down a cheating account and saved them about $4000 (not mentioning any names of course....*cough*thecoolhost*cough*). :p Not saying that will exempt us from the CTR but it should help getting us in at least.

Engage (Flycast) shot me down since our site is not in a desirable category right now. That doesn't hurt my feelings so much. Looks like it's down to AdFlight and ClearBlueMedia.

Thanks for the tips.

Of course i don't disagree with what mrpaul is saying, but it is known that ads for gaming sites are scarce, and gaming sites receive an incredibly low clickthrough rate...