If you are not sure if your ad performance in a certain time, here are a few information may help you understand the CPM trends during the year.
CPMs drop at the beginning of the quarter.
Brands tend to spend the least at the beginning of a new quarter, and more towards the end of the quarter. Since the budget is reset quarterly or annually, you will see the CPM and fill rate drop when the quarter starts.
- Q1 Ad Revenue Slump.
- Summer Slump.
CPMs increase at the end of quarter.
Typically, any budgets would need to be used before the end of that fiscal year. Thus, we see brands spend huge at the end of year and June.
CPMs and fill rates skyrocket around annual holidays.
Brands advertise more when people have reasons to spend money. This is why we can always count on Quarter 2 and 4 to be the highest earning quarters.
- Mother’s day
- Father’s day
- Thanksgiving
- Black Friday
- Christmas
Here are some resources to help you confirm the performance from peers.
Mediavine
Mediavine created a nice infographic based on the ad performance in their network during 2018, 2019 and 2021.
Source: Mediavine
Ezoic Ad Revenue Index
Ezoic generate a chart showing relative online ad rates by day with an index of 100 being the highest date in recorded history. You can visit the link below to adjust and view the performance:
https://adrevenueindex.ezoic.com/
