- Mediavine
How to Create Content Advertisers Will Pay More For
4 min read
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If your goal is higher CPMs, steadier demand, and stronger long-term revenue, here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Advertisers are not paying more for more content; they’re paying more for better environments, better audiences, and better experiences.
That shift is already happening. Quietly. Algorithmically. And at scale.
At MVCon, Mediavine CRO Amanda Martin and Butler/Till CSO Scott Ensign broke down what advertisers want from publishers and how to build content and experiences advertisers actually want to buy.
1. Start With the Experience, Not the Monetization
Advertisers evaluate your site before they care about your content.
Not manually, but through quality signals.
They look at things like:
- How many ads load at once
- How intrusive those ads feel
- Whether your page loads cleanly or crushes CPU
- How aggressively ads refresh
- Whether the experience feels usable on mobile
If the experience is poor, the content doesn’t matter. You will be underbid or filtered out.
Action:
Open your site on your phone and use it like a real reader. Scroll. Tap. Read.
If it feels slow, cluttered, or frustrating, advertisers already see that in the data.
2. Fewer Ads. Better Pages. Higher Value.
There is a category of publishers that isn’t MFA but still loses money.
It’s called cheap reach.
Cheap reach means advertisers can technically buy your inventory, but they expect poor efficiency. So they bid low, and they assume they need volume to get results.
Premium inventory works the opposite way.
- Fewer impressions
- Stronger engagement
- Higher bids
Advertisers are willing to pay more when they trust the environment.
Action:
Stop optimizing for pageviews at all costs. Optimize for pages people actually finish reading and want to come back to.
That’s where demand is moving.
3. Build Audience Loyalty, Not Just Traffic
Advertisers don’t buy websites; they buy access to audiences, especially audiences they recognize.
That includes:
- Return visitors
- Newsletter subscribers
- Logged-in users
- Consistent readers
Known audiences get higher bids. Period. In some verticals, advertisers will pay significant premiums for the right audience because precision beats scale.
Action:
Put real effort into:
- Community touchpoints
- Repeatable content formats
- Vertical depth instead of broad coverage
Loyalty compounds revenue.
4. Your History Matters More Than One Bad Day
Advertisers evaluate performance over time at the domain level.
They track:
- Viewability
- Engagement
- Blocking rates
- Page performance
- Historical consistency
One aggressive layout change or bad experiment can hurt demand longer than you think. The inverse is also true.
Clean experiences build momentum.
Action:
Think long-term. Don’t chase short-term RPM spikes that degrade experience. You are training the market how to value your site.
5. Ad Experience Is Brand Strategy
Advertisers care about brand outcomes, not just brand safety.
They want their ads to appear in environments that make their brand feel smarter, calmer, and more trustworthy.
Your site is part of that story.
When advertisers buy your inventory, they’re renting the trust you’ve built with your audience.
That trust is the asset.
Action:
Treat your site like a product, not just a container for ads. Every decision should answer one question: Does this make my audience trust me more or less?
6. Pay Attention to How Advertisers Think
You don’t need to live in ad tech or become an ad ops expert. But you do need awareness of how the buy side thinks.
Advertiser priorities shape:
- Demand
- Pricing
- Which sites win long-term
The publishers who outperform are not guessing. They understand what the buy side values and build toward it.
Action:
Follow advertiser-focused publications and platforms. Pay attention to what brands, DSPs, and agencies are talking about and prioritizing. It will show you where demand is heading next.
The Bottom Line
Higher CPMs don’t come from tricks.
They come from:
- Clean experiences
- Loyal, recognizable audiences
- Pages people want to use
- Environments advertisers trust
Create content for humans first and build experiences you would want to spend time in.
Bonus: Want to see what smarter monetization looks like on your site? Learn how Mediavine protects ad experience and revenue through the Optimized Ad Experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does better content automatically mean higher CPMs?
No. Strong content only commands higher CPMs when it lives in a clean, efficient ad experience that advertisers trust.
How do advertisers judge ad experience?
Through automated quality signals like ad density, refresh behavior, page performance, viewability, and historical engagement, not manual reviews.
What is “cheap reach”?
Cheap reach is inventory that advertisers expect to perform poorly, so they bid low and rely on volume instead of value.
Are advertisers willing to pay more for fewer impressions?
Yes. Advertisers consistently pay premiums for known audiences, strong engagement, and trusted environments.
Should publishers reduce the number of ads on a page?
The goal isn’t fewer ads. It’s better ad behavior that respects attention and page performance.
How important is audience loyalty compared to traffic?
More important. Returning users and known audiences drive higher bids and stronger long-term demand than one-time traffic.
Can a bad site change hurt advertiser demand?
Yes. Advertisers evaluate performance over time, so aggressive or intrusive changes can suppress demand beyond the short term.
Why do advertisers prefer publisher sales houses or networks?
They act as a trust layer, helping advertisers scale across quality inventory effectively without evaluating thousands of sites individually.
Do advertisers care about sustainability and efficiency?
Yes. Efficient ad stacks improve performance, user experience, and increasingly factor into how inventory is valued.
What is the single best thing publishers can do to increase value?
Use your site like a real reader. If the experience feels good, advertiser demand follows.
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