Direct media buys cheaper? Yeah right.

Because you have to negotiate with the website owner. If you know what you are doing you can get the ad space cheaper than the network gets it for. The initial price that the owner tells you is them getting greedy, you need to learn to negotiate the rates with them.

It really depends on the website, really if you are looking to make a deal direct with the website owner, IMO to find it cheaper you need to find a website that either has no advertising or little advertising

I agree with you Chris. That's why I didn't really understand why all the "gurus" said it's easy to get cheaper prices going direct.

And another myth is the one of the "unknowing website owner". In 2013 I don't think there is even ONE website that gets 40,000+ impression and the owner knows nothing about advertising.

try to target low traffic sites. like blogs or personal sites. you would not believe it but i got an ad space for a year for just 20$.

so in prospective of a year long i got good conversion rate. now if you find lots of these small sites then you can make a good profit.

People say it because it's true. You aren't negotiating and that's why you're getting quoted ridiculous amounts.

What are you saying to these site owners?

"Can I buy an ad spot?"

or

"I'd like to run a test on your remnant inventory for 7 days to see if the conversions are there, since it's impressions you wouldn't be using, I'd like to pay $1.50 cpm for this test. Can we do this?"

"Hi there,

I’d like to do a test buy as soon as possible. Hit me up if any ad space is available and we can negotiate the price then.

Thank you very much,

Adrian Costan"

This is the exact email I sent. And they would email me back .pdf* files with a lot of info on it and in a small corner those astrological prices. I figured I can't take them from $6 CPM to $1.50 CPM.

I agree try to get some test impressions, at a discount rate.

You have nothing to lose.

Right but you've got to make them KNOW that you're not a wet behind the ears newbie to this. Talk the media buy lingo and they'll know you're an experienced marketer. Then they will bend to your rates a bit better.

Receiving traffic direct from the website is MUCH better than buying traffic from self-serve platform like SiteScout because it's cheaper and the traffic quality is much higher.

You need to negotiate with websites owners to make good deals. I found that many owners give cheaper price compare to SiteScout. I said traffic quality is much higher because, today, many traffic sources prefer customers who have high budget and good traffic will be sent to these people first but if you get traffic directly from the website owners, you'll get real visitors who come to those sites.

Don't jump into direct media buying from sites until you know what you are doing with media buys in general. Constant rotation of creative, offers, etc etc. Also, you will have to learn how to use an adserver, or employ staff who do.

If you are confident enough in this, and are already making $50k+/month, then I'd say you're ready to jump into this.

So far as negotiating the following apply:

1) Rate sheet prices are bullshit. Ignore them. $12 CPM? This is for branding clients. Nobody, and I repeat NOBODY, pays the rate sheet price.

2) When negotiating, do not be afraid to BE AGRESSIVE.
"How the **** am I going to be able to look my own mother in the face with these prices???"

This sort of approach works.

3) Put your money where your mouth is:
"OK - I'll wire you $10,000 right away to get the ball rolling. We get this to work? Then we'll make next month's wire $100,000, and scale from that point."

4) 24 hour out clause, geo targetting, frequency cap, billing from your numbers etc etc . Always have these.

5) Work on a CPA basis, as opposed to CPM wherever possible.

6) You are not an affiliate, you are an advertising agency with clients who have unspent budget this inventory.
"We want to give you money!!! Let's make this happen!

Basically, by making direct site buys, you are starting a CPM ad network. Their business model will be to run affiliate offers, and to then re-broker the un-profitable inventory on a CPM basis, generally via an exchange.

Good luck!

Any questions, let me know

What do you do if there is no contact info on the website? Is there still a way to contact the website owner.

What do you do if there is no contact info on the website? Is there still a way to contact the website owner.

Check the following:

1) Privacy Policy / Terms and Condition. Is there a corporate company / phone number / email address here? If a corporate company is mentioned - check their website.

2) Linkedin - check the corporate site if one is found / check the individual site itself.

3) Check whois - this information can often be found there

If there are not contact details, you can leave a comment to a post on the site with your information. it works.