How to Tell If You Are Getting CPM AdSense Ads

Confusion still reigns regarding CPM AdSense ads, as I've discussed in my previous "AdSense Nonsense" post and elsewhere. I'm also still reading advice that if you place large AdSense ad units on your site, you're more likely to get CPM ads. So, how do you get CPM ads, indeed, what are CPM ads, and how can you tell if you are getting any on your site?

What are CPM Ads?
CPM ads are advertisements that are part of Google's AdWords program for which the advertiser pays per 1,000 impressions rather than per click. Thus, they are the only type of AdSense ad that pay you for impressions rather than clicks. However, even though your AdSense reports are showing relevant impressions, you may not get any associated earnings because an advertiser may be paying as little as 50 cents per 1,000 impressions, which is the equivalent of only $0.0005 per impression!

How Do You Get CPM Ads?
This is really very simple-you get CPM ads on your site if an AdWords advertiser, choosing to advertise with CPM ads, handpicks your site to advertise on. As AdSense help states:

Advertisers running CPM ads . . . select the specific sites on which to show their ads, and pay each time their ad appears.

Source: What are CPM ads? AdSense Help Center.

In the world of Google AdWords, the flip-side of AdSense, these ads are known as "site-targeted ads."

How Can You Tell If You Are Getting Any CPM Ads on Your Site?
You can very easily verify whether you are getting any CPM ads on your web site by using functionality built into AdSense's advanced reporting mechanism. Simply follow these instructions:

1. Log into your AdSense account
2. Click on the "Advanced Reports" link under the "Reports" tab
3. For the "Choose product" drop-down, make sure "AdSense for content" is selected
4. For the "Show data by" drop-down, mak sure you select "Individual Ad"
5. Check the box immediately below the "Show data by" drop-down, labeled "Show data by targeting type - contextual or site"
6. Select the Date Range you want to check for
   
7. Click the "Display Report" button
8. In the report results, you should see a column labeled "Targeting." If you are getting CPM ads, for some (or all) days you will see the word "Site" in this column, with a value in the "Ad Impressions" column. Any days that do not have a "Site" value as well as a "Contextual" value in the "Targeting" column did not get any CPM ads. (Note: "Contextual" in the "Targeting" column refers to the standard cost-per-click ads.)
   

Using this report, I can see that I had some CPM ads on March 3, 4, 5 but none on March 2 or 6.

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