Ask HN: What is the best ad option for my startup?
My question is: let's say our site is pulling 25-50K unique visitors per month of a fairly specific audience (demographic-wise). What would the HN audience recommend for our site to do, in order to maximize ad revenues? We've tinkered with Google Ads and some other options but, as traffic picks up, we're beginning to look into it more seriously. The difference between $0.25 CPM and $2.00 CPM is obviously huge, once traffic scales to a certain level. Do all of the ad networks pay the same (roughly)? Are all of the ad networks created equal or are there some we should reach out to that might be more selective, and therefore more rewarding?
Another related question (for those who have ad sales/buying experience): what should we project as an expected "going rate" CPM for a site with moderate traffic that reaches primarily college-educated males in the 25-50 age group?