Is Displaying RateBrain Ads Worth It? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

Friends,

I am contemplating displaying RateBrain (ratebrain.com) advertisements on my blog. It's really a box where you input mortgage terms and it spits out various current (real time) offers in the market.  

Pay is $2.25 per 1k CPM – which sounds low initially.  Anyone have experience working with them?  How are they to work with?  How accurately is their CPM tracking mechanism?  Is the $2.25 they are offering reasonable in your experience?

Thanks in advance

Sandy,

Any idea who owns this service and what the usual offers are like? $2.25CPM was customized for me, so I am curious

good to hear some reassurance.  any idea who owns this service? where is it based?

The Single Saver said:

$2.25 sounds pretty good to me… much better than I get through Adbrite.  I went to their website to check things out but couldn't find how you sign-up.  If I could figure this out I would see what they would offer for my site so at least you can have a basis to see if the $2.25 is an average figure or not.

Email them here info@ratebrain.com

I will await your response

I am curious to know about their history, who are they, who owns them and how are people doing with their ad widget?

Most importantly, when I asked them how they track the visits / CPM, I heard nothing back, which makes me wonder about the accuracy of the tracking/analytics software and whether I  have any way to validate their numebrs from my end.  Seems more hassle than beneficial?

Just saw this Sunil.  I don't know who owns them and I don't do business with them.  if you find some information let me know.

Sunil from The Extra Money Blog said:

Will do Sandy.  The Single Saver is onboard with us in conducting further due diligence.  Hopefully we can get some answers soon.

Update on my conversation:  They have their own tracking system.  They implement a code in the iframe URL of the widget they provide you.  I use Google Analytics and my challenge is how do I verify their numbers are accurate?

Does anyone on Yakezie outbound have conversion/impression tracking experience that measures / can measure this variable? It's easy for incoming hits/impressions, but how does one gauge outgoing?

UPDATE on RateBrain – They emailed me back and asked for my monthly page views.  I responded and now am waiting.  I'll update if I hear back.

The Single Saver said:

Sunil from The Extra Money Blog said:

Will do Sandy.  The Single Saver is onboard with us in conducting further due diligence.  Hopefully we can get some answers soon.

Update on my conversation:  They have their own tracking system.  They implement a code in the iframe URL of the widget they provide you.  I use Google Analytics and my challenge is how do I verify their numbers are accurate?

Does anyone on Yakezie outbound have conversion/impression tracking experience that measures / can measure this variable? It's easy for incoming hits/impressions, but how does one gauge outgoing?

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If they are paying CPM, then I would assume it would be based on your stats and it would be similar to how sites like Adbrite do it.  From what I have found with Adbrite, their figures are pretty comparable to my Google figures.  I don't know how it works, but so far, at least with Adbrite, it does seem accurate.  (With Adbrite I have CPC and CPM – though I would like to replace these ads with private ads once my blog gets more established.)
 

UPDATE on RateBrain – They emailed me back and asked for my monthly page views.  I responded and now am waiting.  I'll update if I hear back.

Also, how do you verify what you are getting paid for CPC using your analytics code?  Where on Google Analytics does it show you how many clicks a particular ad/widget is receiving on your website?

For pageviews, I am assuming you are simply looking at the pageview count on the page the ad/widget is on and verifying payment that way? 

Sunil from The Extra Money Blog said:

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SS – any idea of their ownership?
 

Also, how do you verify what you are getting paid for CPC using your analytics code?  Where on Google Analytics does it show you how many clicks a particular ad/widget is receiving on your website?

For pageviews, I am assuming you are simply looking at the pageview count on the page the ad/widget is on and verifying payment that way? 

No clue who owns them… but I am on the hunt!  They have their identity hidden with GoDaddy through 'Domains by Proxy.' 

As for CPC, I really have no way to verify this (that I know of).  I just have to be trusting here.

For CPM I can compare the pageviews in Google Analytics or even on my blogger dashboard and they always are comparable to Adbrite's pageview counts.  Hopefully RateBrain.com has some sort of dashboard you can access so you can compare at make sure the numbers are comparable (they may not be exact, but if they are more than 5% off I would say you have a problem). 

JT_McGee said:

Sunil from The Extra Money Blog said:

JT_McGee said:

Going with the subject line, no, I don't think displaying RateBrain ads are worth it.  $2.25 CPM for a site that skews younger, female, and more likely college educated? http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/…..nline.com#  Pfft, that demographic is marketing gold. 

 

I'd push them for more money.

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That was quite witty JT – and made me laugh a bit too.  I completely agree with your rationale.  I do have a feeling these demographic stats are skewed/inaccurate.  Some time back I too was curious after seeing what Alexa had to say about my site, I then did some analysis of my subscribers, folks that comment on the blog, etc and wasn't able to draw any parallels.

 

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Maybe I'm just a bit jaded; I honestly don't know what the numbers are for CPMs/CPC in the personal finance space, though I'd imagine it varies wildly with credit cards, debt consultation, and other garbage being in the high teens while "coupons" etc are in the low single digits.  I know with a lot of niches in which I involve myself that sales are rare, but they generate annual revenues of $1500+.  That means serious adspend can be applied without breaking the bank.  That idea equally to credit cards, loans, and debt consultancy, I would think.  Even RateBrain's CD market has to be pretty profitable.
 

I'm sure there are some "small sample" errors in the Alexa calculus, but given that they want advertising on an entreprenuerial/finance blog, I still think that $2.25 is way too low.  At the very minimum, readers are perhaps better educated, and higher-income than your general visitor.

OT: I think I'm pratically documenting a "why an advertiser should never contact JT's company for online advertising" story online. :P