In affiliate marketing, the CPM payment model often looks like a simple way to buy cheap impressions and hope conversions follow. But for popunder ads in 2025, CPM has become the backbone format for buying predictable traffic and scaling campaigns that already convert.
In this article, the RichAds team explains how CPM really works for performance, when it actually beats CPC, and how to use our platform data to buy CPM traffic without gambling with your budget.
Here’s what you’ll find inside:
- What is CPM and how the CPM ad model works for affiliates.
- The main pros, cons and trade-offs of CPM vs CPC in real campaigns.
- Simple CPM calculation and eCPM basics to read your impressions, payout and revenue correctly.
- How popunder traffic – one of the best options to bye by CPM payment option – looks inside RichAds, top GEOs/volumes for CPM popunder campaigns, how to budget, optimize and scale CPM pop campaigns at RichAds advertising network.
What Is CPM and How the CPM Payment Model Really Works
When people want the CPM ad model explained in simple terms, the answer is: it’s a pricing model where advertisers pay for every 1,000 ad impressions, regardless of how many people click or convert. In a CPM payment model, payout is tied directly to impressions: more views of your ads equals more spend, even if users stay silent.
With popunder ads this logic is simple: one impression means one visit to your offer, so you’re buying 1,000 lander opens at a time. Compared to action-based models, CPM gives you a stable contact price while clicks and conversions depend on how well your funnel works. Publishers like CPM because it turns traffic into predictable revenue; media buyers get costs they can compare across GEOs and sources.
CPM vs CPC: Trade-Offs for Affiliates
For an affiliate, CPM vs. CPC is about how you control risk and volume: CPM offers stable pricing per 1,000 impressions, while CPC fixes your cost per click but makes traffic volume and revenue less predictable. With CPM you pre-buy exposure; with CPC you only pay when users react.
Here’s when each model usually makes more sense for campaign optimization:
- CPM: proven funnels with stable metrics where you want to scale budget and reach fast; broad GEOs with massive traffic, when you care more about volume than laser-precise click pricing.
- CPC: early-stage creative or landing page tests when you’re still hunting for a workable angle; narrow, expensive GEOs where a wrong bid can blow the daily budget in minutes.
CPM Calculation and eCPM: How to Read the Numbers
CPM calculation is simple: CPM = cost / impressions × 1,000.
If you spend $50 and get 100,000 impressions, your CPM is $0.50. eCPM (effective CPM) uses the same formula but with total revenue instead of cost, so you can compare how different campaigns, placements, or GEOs actually perform on a per-1,000-impression basis.
It’s like checking rent per square meter to see which location really eats more budget. In RichAds advertising network, CPM, eCPM and related metrics are already shown in the dashboard and Insights, so you just read the numbers and decide where to scale or cut.
What is RichAds?
Ad network for telegram ads,
high quality push and popunder ads,
domain redirect, native and display traffic source,
buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.
Why Pop Ads and CPM Are a Natural Match
Popunder is a display format where a full landing page quietly opens behind the active browser window, so one impression equals one actual visit to your offer. That is why most serious CPM traffic sources sell pop ads on a CPM basis: in practice you are buying 1,000 landeing page loads, not just 1,000 banner views inside random display CPM campaigns.
On RichAds advertising network, pop traffic is available worldwide starting from around $0.5 CPM, with large volumes across Tier-1 and Tier-2 GEOs and very soft restrictions for performance verticals. iGaming, Betting, Finance and other aggressive campaigns can run on CPM, taking on conversion risk but getting cheap, predictable traffic and the freedom to scale ads hard when the funnel is already working.
How to Choose the Right CPM for Ad Campaigns in an Advertising Network?
Advertising networks sell traffic according to the RTB auction principle. The first impression goes to the advertiser who has the highest bid, the second to the one with the second highest bid, and so on. That’s why it’s crucial to understand what CPM values are traded today.
The average and top CPM bids on the RichAds advertising network can be found:
- On the right side of the advertising cabinet, hints with values appear after selecting the country.
- An overview of all countries’ CPMs is available in a special tab called “Insights.”
With RichAds insights and tips, you can stop guessing and start making informed decisions when purchasing pop traffic using the CPM model.
The advertising cabinet’s tips look like this:
A simple rule: use Average CPM as your starting bid, treat Top CPM as the ceiling for aggressive optimization, and move between them based on performance.
RichAds advertising network team
In RichAds Insights, popunder desktop stats are grouped by country with columns for Country, Country code, Current win rate, Total impressions, Avg CPM and Top CPM, so you immediately see where cpm traffic sources are strongest and where it makes sense to buy CPM traffic.
What is RichAds?
Ad network for telegram ads,
high quality push and popunder ads,
domain redirect, native and display traffic source,
buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.
Top Pop Traffic GEOs at RichAds: Where CPM Volumes Are the Highest
In the RichAds advertising network, the top countries according to volumes or average CPM rates for popunder traffic can be viewed in a second. To do this, in the “Insights” tab, select the popunders and sort the column by Total impressions. After registering on the platform, you will have access to all data.
The US usually sits on top by impressions and CPM level, followed by other Tier-1 GEOs like Germany, Japan and the UK, while volume-heavy Tier-2/3 markets such as Brazil and Venezuela help balance budget, eCPM and revenue.
| Country | Typical total impressions | Avg CPM level | Comment for pop traffic |
| United States | 1M+ per period | High | Tier-1, works for mature, compliant funnels |
| Germany | 500K–1M+ | Medium–High | Strong for finance and utility-style flows |
| Japan | 500K–1M+ | High | Demands clean creatives and fast landers |
| United Kingdom | 500K–1M+ | Medium–High | Stable traffic for long-running campaigns |
| Brazil | 500K–1M+ | Medium | Suits aggressive testing and scale |
| Venezuela | 100K–500K | Low–Medium | Good for cheap volume and broad tests |
| Canada | 100K–500K | Medium–High | Extra Tier-1 reach when US caps are hit |
Conclusion
When your funnel already converts and you need more traffic across GEOs, the CPM payment model on RichAds pop traffic is an obvious move. It also fits iGaming, betting and nutra, where volume drives revenue, so launch a campaign and buy CPM traffic via Insights.
What is RichAds?
Ad network for telegram ads,
high quality push and popunder ads,
domain redirect, native and display traffic source,
buy push ads at $0.005 (CPC), pop ads at $0.5 (CPM),
domain ads costs start from $1.5 (CPM), native ads — from $0.001 (CPC),
ad network offers large volumes of traffic in more than 200 geos from Tier 3 to Tier 1.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the CPM payment model and how does it work?
CPM is a payment model where you buy every 1,000 impressions upfront, letting you plan predictable reach and compare GEOs by real exposure cost. At RichAds advertising network affiliate marketers can buy popunder traffic on CPM basis.
- How to calculate CPM for a campaign?
You divide total cost by impressions and multiply by 1,000, then use that number to reverse-estimate how much reach a given budget can buy. At advertising networks where traffic is sold on RTB auction principle average and top CPM bids can be found after registering on the platform. For example RichAds ad network an overview of all countries’ CPMs is available in a special tab called “Insights.”
- What are the pros and cons of CPM?
CPM gives stable pricing and big volumes, but shifts all performance risk to your funnel quality, creatives and landing page speed.
- Which campaigns perform best with CPM?
According to RichAds advertising network’s experts warmed-up funnels, high-LTV verticals like iGaming or finance, and pop campaigns focused on scale across multiple GEOs usually benefit most from CPM.
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