A million impressions sounds better than fifty thousand. It usually is not. Most broad buys spend most of their money talking to people who were never going to care, and the invoice never mentions their names.
The waste problem
Picture an ad for a dog DNA kit on a big general news site. Most people who see it do not own a dog. Some do not like dogs. A slice of the buy is working; the rest is rent paid on the wrong eyeballs. Now picture the same ad beside a PetWellnessNow guide to senior dog food. Every reader has a dog, and many are already comparing products. Same ad, same price per thousand, completely different audience.
What intent density means
Readers of a niche site selected themselves before any targeting ran. Someone reading three articles about carry-on sizing is telling you about a trip, and about a budget. Context does the work that tracking used to do, without following anyone around the internet. Our note on measuring engagement without tracking readers explains how far we take that principle.
The article is the targeting.
The numbers we watch
Across our three publications we serve roughly 500,000 impressions a month with an average click-through rate near 4%. Treat both as representative samples; live figures go to active partners in their weekly reports. Click-through alone is never the goal, so we also report time on page, return visits and how far readers scroll. A click from someone who then reads for two minutes is worth more than ten from people who bounce.
REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE · Current figures are shared with active partners and replaced in public material on a regular cycle.
When broad reach is the right buy
Honesty helps everyone here. If your customer is literally everyone, as with a mass-market soda or a national election campaign, broad reach wins and we are the wrong buy. Niche wins when the product has a natural audience: hardware, high-end travel, pet care, and the hundred categories like them.
How to test this cheaply
One flight, one publication, four weeks. You get weekly numbers and a straight answer at the end, even if the answer is that we did not work for you. The advertisers page explains how placement works, the media kit lists formats and audience snapshots, and our niche media network explainer covers the model behind it. If you prefer to ask questions face to face, we run events in New York, Singapore and Zürich.