Healthy Subscription Businesses Focus on Acquisition and Retention

There’s a saying in the ad business: “CPMs don’t pay the bills; revenue does.” I knew a guy once who would brag that he got away charging a $10,000 CPM on an ad product because he was charging $1,000 and only got 100 impressions on the ad. In his mind, it was the best product. 

Yet, he only ever sold 200 of these per year for a couple hundred thousand dollars. Could he win an award for highest CPM ever? Sure. Was he making much money? No, no he was not.