Ask two marketers what premium ad inventory is and you’ll likely get two answers and one of the two answers will likely be improvised.
I’ve worked on the direct sales publisher side and I’ve worked on programmatic buying side and to be honest I still haven’t really found an all-encompassing definition for premium inventory.
What makes quality inventory? The layout and design of the site? The great results achieved by ads historically? The fact that there is no porn on the site?
Premium is high quality inventory
That’s the answer that a premium publisher would give you.
The most common kind of quality is brand association; Being a present on a site that has high brand equity can give brand equity to your brand. To explain that absolutely hideous sentence; If your local shoarma place buy a space on the guardian, its brand equity will rise by association. So in this case, the guardian is premium inventory.
However, if Rolex buys a spot on the guardian at the same time and is sharing the page with your local shoarma place, Rolex brand equity will probably be going down as a result. In this case, the guardian is not premium inventory.
A premium site therefore upholds an image. It is not only a site, but a brand in itself. A sort of a gentleman of good repute advising its guests to try a brand not a salesman pushing for that extra buck.
Premium inventory is in demand
If advertisers do not want to be on your site, it’s safe to say that site isn’t premium.
I’m not saying that the site needs to be sold out. However, if the agency planners are not including it on their media plans, your site isn’t as great as you’re making it out to be.
Note that in my opinion a site can be premium even if it doesn’t have a sales team. If the demand exists on programmatic for a site because of the results the sites is giving (low CPA), that makes the site premium.
Premium inventory comes at a premium price
This is the best indicator of how premium a site is; how much the Total average CPM is going for.
Take the entire sum of money made from ad sales on the site, including banners on direct sales, banners on programmatic, barter deals and divide them by the number of impressions.
You’ll get your site’s Total eCPM. This total eCPM will actually show you how “premium” you are compared to how premium you think you are.
If for example you’re setting your direct sale CPM at 20$ and the Total eCPM comes in at 1$ due to unsold, inventory monetized through ad networks and few direct sales, you’re a lot less premium than you think you are and you should probably reconsider calling yourself premium.
The closer the CPM comes in to the price you’ve set for your CPM, the more your claim of being a premium site is validated.
This definition actually completes the top two;
If your total eCPM is high, that means that advertisers want to be on your site and that brands find that your site is giving them brand equity.
After all, in this case the market is making the judgment based on supply and demand, and much like gold and other precious goods, premium-ness of a site is in the eye of the buyers and a by-product of demand.