Economic downturn cuts cost per click

Australian web publishers could be in for a tough time if the US economic slowdown makes its way here, a new study reported by Marketing Charts suggests.

According to the PubMatic AdPrice Index, web publishers in the US have seen the cost per click they are able to charge advertisers drop considerably since the economy there ground to a halt.

The average cost per thousand impressions charged by web publishers in the US fell to US38c in April, a 23% drop on the average US49c charge in May.

Interestingly, however, the downturn appears to be affecting large websites more heavily than smaller ones. In April websites with more than 100 million page views per month saw their effective cost per thousand impressions (or eCPMs) drop by 52% to US18c.

By contrast, websites in the medium range saw their eCPM stay virtually level on US33c, while small operations with less than one million page views per month increased their average eCPM from $US1.18 to $US1.29.