If you’ve ever looked at a push campaign and wondered why one click cost $0.004 while another cost $0.06, you’re not alone. Push ad pricing looks simple on paper, but the range is huge, and most guides stop at “it depends.”
So here’s the straight answer: push ads in 2026 start at around $0.005 per click or $0.01 per 1,000 impressions, and cost several times more in Tier 1 GEOs. What you actually pay comes down to your country, your vertical, your bidding model, and how good your creative is.
In this guide, we’ll walk through how push pricing work, what push ads cost by GEO tier, and what pushes prices up or down. We’ll also show you how much budget you need for a first test, so you can start with a number you trust instead of a guess.
TL;DR
- Classic push averages $0.0748 CPC at a 0.22% CTR. Desktop is cheaper per click than mobile because it clicks about three times more often.
- In-page push averages $0.0173 CPC at roughly a 1.5% CTR. It costs more per 1,000 impressions but much less per click. Compare formats by cost per conversion, because CTR alone can mislead.
- Budget about $500 for a first test, spread across two or three GEOs. Start on manual CPC, then move your best GEO to TargetCPA once conversions come in steadily.
What is push advertising pricing based on?
Push advertising is typically priced through an auction using one of three models: CPC, CPM, or CPA. Each determines what you pay for and who carries the performance risk.
- CPC (Cost Per Click): You pay only when someone clicks your notification. It’s ideal for driving traffic to a landing page or offer, since you don’t pay for users who see but ignore your ad.
- CPM (Cost Per Mille): You pay per 1,000 impressions, whether or not users click. It suits reach and exposure goals, but you cover the cost of impressions even if your creative gets few or no clicks.
- CPA (Cost Per Action): You pay when a user completes a predefined action, such as a purchase, registration, or form submission. It focuses on conversions and can offer more predictable acquisition costs, though availability depends on the network, campaign type, and conversion tracking setup.
A quick example. Say you pay a $1.00 CPM:
- At a 1% CTR, 1,000 impressions generate 10 clicks, so your effective CPC is $0.10.
- At a 2% CTR, the same impressions generate 20 clicks, so your effective CPC drops to $0.05.
This is why CPM isn’t automatically cheaper or more expensive than CPC: CTR and creative quality determine the real cost efficiency. The same logic applies to CPA. If 100 clicks produce 5 conversions, your conversion rate is 5%, and your effective CPA depends on what those 100 clicks cost. Bottom line: choose CPC for traffic, CPM for reach, and CPA for conversions.
As a push notification ad is a short message (icon, title, text, sometimes an image) delivered to a subscriber’s device, the creative is small but the competition for each slot is not. That is why bids matter so much.
For formats, setup, and use cases, see our in-page push advertising guide. 📖
Target CPA: An Automated Alternative to CPM, CPC, and CPA
TargetCPA (cost per action) is an automated bidding model. You tell the network the average price you want to pay per conversion, and it adjusts your bids to hit that number. It replaces a manual per-click bid with a per-conversion goal.
How it works: You define a conversion (a purchase, sign-up, or form submission) and set your target cost per conversion. The platform uses conversion data to predict which impressions and clicks are most likely to convert, then raises or lowers bids in each auction accordingly. It bids more for traffic likely to convert and less for traffic that isn’t.
| Classic push | In-page push | |
|---|---|---|
| Needs opt-in | Yes | No |
| iOS reach | Limited | Works |
| Pricing models | CPC, TargetCPA | CPC, TargetCPA |
| Typical price level | Similar to in-page | Similar to classic; check mobile and desktop separately |
The bigger difference is reach: classic push needs a user to opt in to browser notifications, while in-page push shows inside the browser window with no opt-in needed. That matters on iPhones. Safari on iPhone only supports web push for sites added to the Home Screen, so most iOS users can’t be reached with classic push. In-page push works without an opt-in, which makes it the practical route to many iOS users. We wrote a full walkthrough on reaching iOS users with in-page push ads.
| Manual CPC | CPM | TargetCPA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| You set | Max price per click | Price per 1,000 impressions | Average price per conversion |
| You pay for | Clicks | Impressions | Clicks, with bids tuned toward conversions |
| Needs conversion tracking | No (helpful) | No (helpful) | Yes |
| Best for | First tests, new offers | Scaling proven creatives | Campaigns with steady conversion data |
| Main risk | Overpaying for weak sources | Weak creatives burning budget | Too little data, or a target set too low |
On Mondiad, we recommend starting on manual CPC, then moving to TargetCPA once you have steady conversions. 💡
How much do push ads cost by GEO tier?
Tier 1 GEOs cost the most per click and Tier 3 the least.
Not sure which countries fall into which tier? Our breakdown of Tier 1, 2 & 3 countries in affiliate marketing 📖 explains how they’re grouped.
On Mondiad, these vertical, GEO and format combinations are performing particularly well on push traffic recently. Treat them as starting points for your first test, not guarantees.
| Vertical | GEO | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Gambling | Philippines | Classic push |
| Gambling | South Africa | Classic push |
| Sweepstakes | India | Classic push |
| Dating | United States | In-page push |
Three of the four use classic push, and the one Tier 1 combination, US dating, runs on in-page push. That matches the reach point above: in-page push needs no opt-in and works on iOS.
One thing worth saying plainly. Cheap does not mean good. A $0.003 click in a GEO that never converts is more expensive than a $0.05 click that pays back. We would rather see you compare cost per conversion, not cost per click.
What makes push ad prices go up or down?
GEO moves push prices the most, followed by vertical, device, timing, creative quality and your bid versus the competition. Knowing them helps you explain why one campaign costs triple another.
- GEO: covered above, and it matters most.
- Vertical: finance, iGaming, and dating usually attract higher bids than, say, utilities or mobile content.
- Device and OS: Android and desktop inventory behave differently, and iOS has its own restrictions (more on that below).
- Timing: prices rise around big retail moments. Black Friday and the run-up to it are the obvious example.
- Creative quality: a strong creative lifts CTR, and CTR sets what you really pay. On CPM, doubling CTR halves your effective CPC (the $1.00 CPM example above goes from $0.10 to $0.05). On CPC, the auction rewards ads that get clicked, so a creative with a higher CTR can win the same slot at a lower bid.
- Competition: if everyone sits at the minimum bid, a tiny increase can win you a lot more traffic.
On Mondiad, in-page push averages $0.2609 CPM against $0.1668 for classic push. What you pay per click depends on how often users click, so test both formats on the same GEO and compare cost per conversion.
Push inventory by country
Classic push
In-page push
Push inventory by device:
Classic push
| Segment | Share of impressions | CTR | Avg. CPM | Avg. CPC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile (Android + iOS) | 95.1% | 0.20% | $0.1565 | $0.0765 |
| – Android | 94.8% | 0.20% | $0.1569 | $0.0766 |
| – iOS | 0.2% | 0.11% | $0.0087 | $0.0079 |
| Desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome OS) | 4.9% | 0.58% | $0.2583 | $0.0449 |
| – Windows | 3.7% | 0.60% | $0.3039 | $0.0508 |
| – macOS | 1.2% | 0.51% | $0.1236 | $0.0242 |
| Total | 100% | 0.22% | $0.1668 | $0.0748 |
Linux, Chrome OS and other systems are under 0.1% of volume.
Source: Mondiad traffic inventory, October 2026 snapshot.
In-page push
| Segment | Share of impressions | Avg. CPM |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile (Android + iOS) | 79.7% | $0.2299 |
| – of which iOS | 14.0% | – |
| Desktop | 20.2% | $0.3849 |
| Total | 100% | $0.2609 |
How much budget do you need to test push ads?
Plan on about $500 for a first test, spread across two or three GEOs. That is enough to gather meaningful click and conversion data without betting the farm.
Here is a simple way to think about it. At a $0.02 CPC, $500 buys you around 25,000 clicks. Split across three GEOs and a few creatives, you get enough volume to see patterns.
And a quick profitability check. Say your CPC is $0.03 and your landing page converts 2% of clicks. Your cost per conversion is $0.03 / 0.02 = $1.50. If your offer pays $2.50 per lead, you are in the green. If it pays $1.00, you are not, no matter how cheap the click felt.
Once you’ve set your budget, our step-by-step guide to buying push traffic 📖 walks you through launching the campaign.walks you through launching the campaign.
How do you keep push costs under control?
The cheapest way to run push ads is to test small, cut losers fast, and scale only what converts. None of this is glamorous, but it works.
A few habits we see from advertisers who keep their costs healthy:
- Test several creatives per GEO. One image and headline rarely tells you the truth.
- Start on CPC. Switch to TargetCPA only when you trust your CTR.
- Track by source, not just by campaign. Blacklist underperforming zones early, and whitelist the ones that pay.
- Bid slightly above the minimum. If the floor is crowded, a small bump can unlock real volume.
- Set a stop-loss. Decide in advance how much you will spend on a variant before you cut it.
- Match the GEO to your offer. Local payment methods, language, and compliance all change conversion rates.
If you want a second pair of eyes, check how Mondiad compares with other networks on pricing and tools before you commit your budget.
What this looks like in practice.
In a two-month Mondiad campaign, a media buyer ran a VPN install offer to US iOS users on in-page push. Cost per install started around $8. It fell to about $5, roughly 37%, with volume and conversion quality holding steady. The changes were:
- a whitelist of top-performing zones
- automated rules to pause weak zones and sub-IDs
- removal of weak creatives
- exclusion of 3G connections and underperforming browsers and languages
- micro-bids on selected sources
>> Read the full VPN campaign case study: 37% lower CPA on iOS.
Frequently asked questions
How much do push notification ads cost per click?
Push ads typically cost between $0.003 and $0.08 per click in 2026. Tier 3 GEOs sit at the low end, Tier 1 at the high end, and networks commonly set a minimum bid around $0.005.
Is CPC or CPM better for push ads?
CPC is better for beginners, and CPM suits advertisers who already know their CTR. CPC limits budget risk because you only pay for clicks. CPM can be cheaper per click, but only when your creative performs.
What is a good CTR for push ads?
A CTR between 0.5% and 3% is commonly reported for classic push ads. Strong creatives, relevant GEOs, and fresh inventory push you toward the top of that range.
How much should I spend to test push ads?
Around $500 is a practical starting budget. It lets you test two or three GEOs and several creatives with enough data to make decisions.
Are in-page push ads more expensive than classic push?
Not by a wide margin. Pricing models and typical ranges are similar. The bigger difference is reach, since in-page push needs no opt-in and works on iOS.
Ready to run your first push campaign?
If you are launching push for the first time, start small, pick two or three GEOs that fit your offer, and let the data tell you where to scale. Mondiad gives you access to push, in-page push, popunder, native, and more, on both CPC and CPM, with optimization tools built in.
