How to Improve CPM without Losing Performance in DV360

When running programmatic campaigns on DV360, one metric that advertisers constantly monitor is CPM, which stands for Cost Per Thousand Impressions. CPM is a critical factor because it directly affects how much reach you can achieve within your budget. However, lowering CPM can be tricky because if it is done incorrectly, it can hurt performance and reduce the quality of your impressions.

The goal is not just to bring CPM down but to do it in a way that does not negatively impact your campaign’s success. In this blog, we will discuss why CPM matters, what factors influence it in DV360, and practical strategies to improve CPM without compromising performance.

Understanding CPM and Why It Matters

CPM, or Cost Per Mille, represents how much you pay for every one thousand impressions of your ad. For example, if your CPM is five dollars, you pay five dollars every time your ad is shown one thousand times.

Why is this important? Because CPM determines how far your budget can go. If your CPM is high, you get fewer impressions for the same budget. If it is low, you can reach more people. For instance, with a budget of five hundred dollars, a CPM of ten dollars gives you fifty thousand impressions. The same budget with a CPM of five dollars gives you one hundred thousand impressions.

However, the cheapest CPM is not always the best. You need to ensure that those impressions are actually valuable. Getting low-cost impressions on irrelevant websites or unqualified audiences will not help your campaign goals. The challenge is to reduce CPM while keeping performance strong.

Why Does CPM Get High in DV360?

Before we discuss solutions, let us understand why CPM sometimes becomes high in DV360 campaigns. There are several factors:

• Competitive Inventory: When many advertisers are bidding for the same inventory, prices rise. This happens especially with premium placements.
• Strict Targeting: If your targeting is very narrow, DV360 has fewer impressions to choose from, which increases competition and price.
• High Viewability Requirements: If you require 90 percent or higher viewability, the available inventory becomes limited and expensive.
• Manual Bidding: Aggressive bids can push CPM up unnecessarily.
• Limited Campaign Data: New campaigns often experience higher CPM until DV360 gathers enough data to optimize delivery.

Understanding these reasons helps you apply the right strategies to improve CPM without hurting results.

Practical Strategies to Improve CPM Without Losing Performance

Improving CPM without reducing performance means you need to balance cost-efficiency and quality. Let us go through the best practices one by one.

1. Broaden Your Targeting Smartly

Targeting too narrowly often leads to higher CPM because there is limited inventory. For example, if you target only a very small audience like “luxury travel buyers in New York who use a specific mobile device,” the competition for those impressions will be intense, and CPM will rise.

Instead, try broadening your targeting slightly without losing relevance. Combine related audiences to increase reach. For instance, if you are targeting luxury travel buyers, you can also include frequent travelers or high-end lifestyle segments.

Another smart move is to use custom intent audiences or affinity segments provided by DV360. They help you maintain relevance while keeping costs reasonable.

2. Use a Mix of Inventory Sources

Premium inventory like programmatic guaranteed or high-profile publishers is often expensive. While these placements have quality, they increase CPM. To improve CPM, include a mix of open exchange inventory and private marketplace deals.

DV360 offers multiple inventory options, and open exchange can deliver quality impressions at lower costs if you apply brand safety filters and viewability controls. Curated marketplace deals can also offer good value because they often come with negotiated pricing.

3. Leverage Automated Bidding Strategies

Manual bidding can sometimes cause CPM to rise because advertisers tend to overbid to secure impressions. DV360’s automated bidding strategies use machine learning to optimize bids in real time. For example, Target CPM or Maximize Clicks strategies can keep costs under control while ensuring that the system bids intelligently for valuable impressions.

If your goal is awareness, Target CPM bidding can be effective. For performance campaigns, consider automated strategies that optimize for conversions while maintaining cost-efficiency.

4. Optimize Viewability Settings

Viewability is important, but strict requirements can push CPM up. For example, setting a 90 percent viewability threshold will make your campaign fight for premium inventory, which is expensive.

If you want to improve CPM without losing quality, consider a balanced viewability threshold such as 50 to 60 percent. This level still ensures that your ads are visible while allowing the system to access more affordable inventory.

5. Adjust Frequency Caps

Frequency caps help you avoid overserving ads to the same users, but they also impact CPM. If the frequency cap is too low, DV360 has to find new users constantly, which can raise costs. If it is too high, you waste impressions.

An optimal frequency cap of three to five impressions per day per user is usually a good balance. It helps control CPM without hurting campaign reach and engagement.

6. Test Different Creative Sizes and Formats

Ad formats affect CPM. Large-format ads like rich media or 970x250 units are often more expensive than standard sizes like 300x250. If your campaign can perform well with standard formats, include them to reduce average CPM.

Another way to improve CPM is to test multiple creatives. Creatives that deliver higher click-through rates and engagement often help bring CPM down over time because the system recognizes them as more valuable.

7. Apply Dayparting and Geo Optimization

Running ads during times of low engagement can waste impressions and increase costs. Use DV360 reporting to find out when your audience engages most with your ads. Schedule your ads for those hours to get better results at lower CPM.

Similarly, analyze performance by geography. If certain regions have high CPM but low engagement, reduce bids there and allocate more budget to cost-efficient regions.

8. Exclude Non-Performing Placements

Placement reports are extremely useful. They show you which websites or apps are driving high CPM but not delivering results. If you see placements that cost a lot and provide no conversions or engagement, exclude them. This allows DV360 to spend on better-performing inventory, improving overall CPM and performance.

9. Use Creative Optimization and A/B Testing

Creatives play a bigger role in performance than many realize. Engaging creatives can improve click-through rates, which indirectly helps bring CPM down because the system favors ads that generate interaction.

Set up A/B tests to identify which creative resonates most with your audience. For example, you can test different ad copies, visuals, or calls to action. Over time, the winning creatives can improve both CPM and conversion rates.

10. Monitor and Optimize Based on Data

The most important step is continuous optimization. DV360 provides detailed reports on CPM, CTR, viewability, and conversion metrics. Use this data to make informed decisions.

If an audience segment has a low CPM but also low conversions, it may not be worth the spend. If a certain creative drives both engagement and a low CPM, allocate more budget to it. Optimization should always be data-driven, not based on assumptions.

Example: Improving CPM for a Performance Campaign

Let us consider an example. A retail brand running a DV360 campaign for product awareness had an average CPM of eight dollars. Their target was to reduce CPM to five dollars without reducing conversions.

Here is what they did:

• Broadened audience targeting from just “online shoppers” to include “bargain hunters” and “deal seekers.”
• Switched from only premium publishers to a mix of open exchange and curated deals with brand safety applied.
• Implemented Target CPM bidding strategy instead of manual bidding.
• Reduced the viewability filter from 90 percent to 60 percent.
• Tested multiple creative sizes including standard banners along with their main formats.
• Excluded non-performing placements after two weeks of reporting.

After making these changes, their CPM dropped from eight dollars to four dollars and eighty cents within a month. They also noticed a fifteen percent increase in impressions and maintained the same level of conversions.

Improving CPM in DV360 without losing performance is possible when you approach it strategically. The key is to find the right balance between cost and quality. Focus on smart targeting, leverage automated bidding, use a mix of inventory sources, and make data-driven decisions.

Remember, CPM is not just about lowering cost; it is about optimizing value. By following these strategies and continuously monitoring your campaign performance, you can achieve a lower CPM while keeping your results strong.

Over time, these improvements not only reduce costs but also help you scale your campaigns more efficiently and maximize return on investment.