<b>A higher native CPM buys you a worse audience</b>

<b>A higher native CPM buys you a worse audience</b>

<b>Everyone says</b> you get what you pay for — premium native CPMs deliver premium readers.

The data says price and quality decoupled the moment header bidding let every "premium" impression also be sold as remnant. The high CPM you paid reflects auction pressure, not reader value. Two advertisers fighting over a bot-inflated segment will bid the CPM to the moon and the audience to the floor.

Test it: segment your conversions by CPM decile. If your cheapest impressions convert as well as your priciest, the premium bought nothing but a number on a dashboard.

Price is what the auction did. Quality is what you forgot to measure separately.