2014 Trends Revealed in the Worldata Fall List Price Index

Email CPM’s Continue to Drop as Data Availability is at an All-time High

Canadian Third-Party Email Removed From the Market Almost Entirely

September 2014, Boca Raton, FL –

Worldata’s Fall 2014 List Price Index, the barometer for trending of all list pricing, tracks the changes in list rental pricing each season. The index shows significant price drops in two of the different list categories –Permission-Based Medium-Large Business Email and Aggregated Email Database – Business. Permission-Based Medium-Large Business Email is at an all-time low price point for any category tracked by List Price Index. Data Purchase – Small Business saw a drastic decrease as well. Many major brands are beginning to purchase data for unlimited use in order to nurture net new potential leads. The availability of Email list rental files continues to grow while the overall economic conditions remain flat in terms of growth.  This abundance of availability is helping to drive down the overall CPM’s of Email rental files.

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For over thirty years, the Worldata List Price Index has served the Direct and Interactive Marketing community as the key source for the pricing and trending of all list rentals. The Index is reported quarterly, providing a comparison of list prices during any given 12-month period and tracking price fluctuations, as cost per thousand (CPM), for lists in various categories. For over thirty years, the Worldata List Price Index has served the Direct and Interactive Marketing community as the key source for the pricing and trending of all list rentals. The Index is reported quarterly, providing a comparison of list prices during any given 12-month period and tracking price fluctuations, as cost per thousand (CPM), for lists in various categories.

COMMENTS: “The escalation of availability of email list rental files has made a significant impact on the industry as a whole. List providers have recognized the growing appetite for third-party email list rental files by marketers and have worked to expand availability,” said Jay Schwedelson, President & CEO of Worldata.  “Unfortunately, this expansion has also led to a quality issue.  Many of the newly available datasets are lacking in quality permission gathering techniques, and are collected using heavily incentivized methodologies or with no permission at all.  Conversely, list providers have taken the new Canadian Email Laws very seriously.  Over 90% of all previously available third-party email list rental files available reaching Canadian recipients have been removed from the market entirely.”

The most recent Worldata List Price Index reflects price variations from Fall 2013 to Fall 2014. The lists evaluated are grouped into categories, such as Consumer Merchandise Buyers, Donors, Databases, Business Magazines and more. Information such as Average Price, Lowest List Price, Highest List Price and Exact Dollar Change are provided. Through charts and graphs, year-to-year price fluctuations can easily be distinguished in this index.

The comparison of lists in this Fall 2014 List Price Index to the Fall 2013 List Price Index of a year ago reveals noteworthy trends not only in individual categories, but in media types as well, as exhibited below:

Worldata continues to closely track International data:

  • Permission-Based International Email remains the highest priced list rental category at $402/M – which is a $5/M decrease from Fall 2013.
  • The price has decreased 1.23% since last Fall, and $2/M from last quarter.


The Straight Average Graph (Chart 1) in the Worldata List Price Index examines the average cost per thousand (CPM) of the lists we have grouped in each category. Triple bars are used in each category for easy comparison of Fall 2012 and 2013 prices to Fall 2014 prices.

  • Permission-Based Consumer Email takes the lead as the lowest-priced category, with an average list price of $64/M. This is a $4/M decrease from its price in Fall 2013 and the lowest priced list category in the history of the List Price Index.
  • The second lowest priced category of Fall 2014 at $74/M is Aggregated Database - Business.
  • Permission-Based Medium-Large Business Email files show a straight average CPM of $212/M, maintaining its position as the highest-priced domestic category for list rental this quarter, although it is a $20/M decrease from Fall 2013.

The Straight Dollar Change Graph (Chart 2) shows the precise dollar amount that the average price for each category has changed within the specified 12-month period.

  • The largest price decrease from Fall 2013 to Fall 2014 occurred in the Permission-Based Medium-Large Email category, which dropped $20/M from Fall 2013 to $212/M.
  • The largest price increase that occurred from Fall 2013 to Fall 2014 was $2/M which was seen in the Attendees/Members category.
  • The Business Merchandise Buyers category saw the next highest increase in list price, $1/M to $116/M respectively.

The Straight Average Percent Dollar Change Graph (Chart 3) takes into consideration the percent change in price for each category.

  • The Aggregated Email Database - Business category reflects the largest percent decrease at 11.25%.
  • The highest percentage increase occurred in the Attendees/Members category with a 1.49% increase.

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