Darius did a fantastic job illustrating the issues in the world of online advertising from a publisher’s position. I’m going to try and look at what I believe the issues and opportunities are from an advertiser’s (client) viewpoint.
There’s no question, paying for the effectiveness of your ads as opposed to the impressions or clicks is the ideal scenario. As mentioned, Jim Coudal is on the right track with The DECK and a Cost Per Influence deal.
No matter the model of cost or optimization of website, the effectiveness of your ads is in the hands of the creative behind them.
Before we talk about the creative aspects, let’s make note of the Goliath of advertising and their recent announcement.
Google just acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion; a sign of the shift we’ll see from text based to display ads over the coming years. Darius already listed the larger ad networks available and the requirements for admission into these exclusive clubs, almost all of which are far beyond reach for most bloggers and smaller websites.
This deal could mean that your marketing blog that only gets a few hundred visitors a month may be serving relevant ads from Lexus, Apple, Adobe, and the like without the need of an Advertising Sales Director or monumental traffic. From an advertiser’s point of view, highly targeted display ads in micro-niches.
Relevancy and metrics aside, your offering and delivery of it in your ads are the deciding factors in conversion and ultimately cost.
As television budgets are migrated to the internet, sadly, so is the practice of buying the media before the creative. The resulting budget and resource allocation is responsible for the majority of eyesores we are force fed throughout our daily browsing.
While introducing media buyers to interactive specialists would be the ideal social gathering, this’ll never happen…….with the larger networks at least.
Here’s a what if:
What if, instead of having Tim O’Reilly enforce a “Blogger’s Code of Conduct�, we had an equal rep in the ad industry push a Creative Code of Standards?
Advertising and interactive firms, designers and developers, would be certified based on their portfolio and creative track record. And the networks would evaluate ads before giving them the nod as opposed to leaving that up to the sites that display them.
Deploying such an initiative in the larger networks (Avertising.com, Doubleclick, etc…) would be too intimidating for most of them, but people like John Battelle at Federated Media and David Droga are in a position to enforce a “Creative Code of Standards�.
Seeing a network of creatives that live by the CCS would encourage others to follow and make finding a qualified service provider a walk in the park for advertisers/clients.
The majority of websites, including Young Go Getter, feature ads like AdSense, Blogads, and AdBrite, which to be honest, are a waste of screen real estate. If we were all able to find an alternative source of monetization we would, but until then our piggy bank is fed by these awkward ads.
That is, until somebody reading this decides to take this CCS into their own hands. To get the ball rolling, a list of standards may be handy (you think?!?). Add, argue, and remove anything you wish from it.
What are the standards for advertisers?
1) Your ads must engage the viewer. Advertising 101: Emotional Selling Proposition - Make them laugh, cry, or think.
2) You must encourage interaction in some way. Almost every ad talks TO people. Invite them to participate with the ad.
3) Your ads must lead to related information. Your ad is a teaser for the big prize (a deal, exclusive info, interesting content). Take them deeper than your homepage when they click on it.
4) You must allow them to control the ad. Was there a panel somewhere that decided animated ads that automatically float over content were a good idea?
5) Do not mislead the viewer. Intellitxt is a great example of sleazy marketing. Is it a link or is it an ad? Guess right and you get to where you wanted to. Guess wrong and you just made somebody a few cents.
As you may have noticed, a few ads are scattered throughout this post, courtesy of Ashley at Bannerblog and James at Adverlicio.us. These are what I consider creative examples of ads that meet and exceed the above standards. And no, we aren’t making any moolah if you happen to click on one. Don’t be afraid to.
No, banner ads aren’t the only answer, but they’re a good place to start.
There will always be blogs and people like Shoemoney and John Chow that prophesize AdSense and similar networks, and they do so because they know how to milk them for all their worth. Their content is targeted at bloggers, not advertisers, so don’t be misled.
The effectiveness of AdSense and its clique as to the ads I’ve provided and those like them are miniscule in comparison.
Obviously, the time and cost of creating ads that meet these standards will be more than writing a “Tired of your cubical??� headline for AdSense, but you get what you pay for.
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