Astronomy Net Advertising

Effective immediately, most commercial advertising on Astronomy Net is handled through Google Ads.

Click on the "Advertise on this site" link on any of those Google ads to find out more.

The only exception to this are folks interested in CPM advertising in our reserve top of page section shown in this picture of one of our pages...

Reserve Ads are, well, reserved for links with astronomy information we think important, Astronomy event notices, a select few commercial outfits we have a special relationahip with, etc. The Google Ad Network provides our general commercial advertising capability. However, commercial space is available for this reserve spot.

The raw statistics of the Reserve Section ads show an average of 70,897 ads are shown each month with an average of 445 clicks resulting in a CTR of 0.63%; Some of the ads have a much higher CTR. The Google advertising statistics reveal the Astronomy Net effective CPM range from $2 to $15 depending on web site page.

Based on this we will make the Reserve Section available to Astronomy Related advertisers for $15/CPM on a first come first served basis.

Contact the web master for details.

There is no CPC advertising available for the reserve section as Google handles the valuation of this far better than we ever could. If you want CPC read below and sign up with Google AdWords.

If you have not tried Advertising with Google's Network you should. For us Web Site operators, Google AdSense has entirly replaced other forms of Ad Content providers including LinkShare, Commission Junction, and direct sales of ads.

Quite simply, Google AdSense generates about 10-50 times more revenue for Web Site owners making it the only choice for us.

It did not take long for Astronomy Net to abandon selling of ads impressions directly to customers. Google does all the work for us.

If you would like to target ads to our site, Google does support that with the something called "Site Targeting" with more information available at:

• https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=18265

You might notice Google has lowered the minimum cost per thousand of Site Targeting to 25 cents. That may be great for some sites, but do not expect your targeted ads to ever show up on Astronomy Net as these ads must compete with the "Keyword Targeting" ads. Keyword ads regularly pull in over $2 to $15 in equiv. cost per thousand (eCPM). If you wish to target ads for Astronomy Net ensure your bid price is at least $4/CPM or Google will never show them. 25 cents CPM or even $1, $2 or $3 per thousand advertisers need not waste their time.

During one month Astronomy Net showed 120,000 Google Keyword Directed Ad Units. During this same month, Google showed 39 Site Directed ads. Thirty-nine out of one hundred twenty thousand... :o Typical CPM rates for these hopeless ads ranged from 27 cents to $4.92 CPM with most around $1 CPM.

The point of this story is simple. If you wish to target your ads on Astronomy Net we are glad to have you; Please sign up for a Google Adwords account and try to bid over what the Keyword Ads regularly bring in. At any moment only Google knows what an ad for a particular page on Astronomy Net is worth. If you want placement on the better pages, you will need a high price to win.

If I were you, I would consider using Google's Keyword Ads program so you will show up on many web sites with content matched well to your ads.

Go ahead and advertise with Google. Everybody else is.