October 5, 2009

eMarketer Report Says Keep Video Ads Short and Relevant

David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst, has just written new report entitled, "Marketing to the Online Video Audience."

Although online video viewership has never been higher and marketers are eager to reach this large and growing audience, many online video viewers dislike intrusive video ads -- even though they freely accept TV commercials.

Hallerman thinks this audience perspective can shift if marketers increasingly implement two key concepts.

First, he thinks they should focus on "making the length of video ads suitable to the length of content, so that they are not too pushy." Second, he believes they should also focus on "devoting resources to develop high-quality video creative that is well-targeted to the intended online audience."

"The Internet and TV audience are not one and the same," says Hallerman. "The Internet audience does not necessarily respond to the same ads in the same way they would after viewing them on TV."

For example, younger people are more comfortable than their older counterparts with online media, which can lead to higher levels of engagement. A drill-down look from Nielsen Online shows that audiences ages 30 and younger are more likely than older viewers to find online video advertising funny, emotionally touching and informative -- essential qualities for brand marketing.

The net-net: Keep it short and keep it relevant.

If you want more details, read the article, "Engaging Online Video Viewers," which was just posted on eMarketer.

You can also read more about this topic in my book, "YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day."

Back in the 1990s, I worked for William B. Ziff, Jr. He often said a special-interest magazine was a like a magnet and a screen: It attracted readers interested in a topic but also sifted out those who weren't as interested. This created an audience that endemic advertisers could reach cost-effectively, because a high percentage of readers were interested in their products.

Although it is still early days for online video advertising, it appears that viewers attracted to a video like Monty Python's Argument Clinic might also be interested in buying The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus on Amazon.com.

In fact, when Monty Python launched their YouTube channel in November 2008, not only did their YouTube videos shoot to the top of the most viewed lists, but their DVDs also quickly climbed to No. 2 on Amazon's Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent.

You find this case study and plenty of other practical tips in my book. If you don't believe me, you can read Lee Odden's, "Review: YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day," on his Online Marketing Blog. Hey, if Odden says "You cannot afford to miss this story," then you probably shouldn't.

Or, if you'd like to have an argument, just let the receptionist know if you want to start with a five-minute argument or take a full course of 10 arguments.

Argument Clinic

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 2, 2009

Display Ads Experiencing Sharp Decline in Clicks, comScore Finds

In 2007, comScore, Starcom USA and Tacoda conducted a study on display advertising clicks. This past March, they updated the data and have recently released the new info.

Clicks on display ads have seen a decline. In the 2007 study, 32% of internet users clicked on ads. In 2009, just 16% clicked. 8% of the Internet user base accounts for 85% of the clicks.

But don't assume the decline means that display advertising is not a viable online advertising medium.

"Today, marketers who attempt to optimize their advertising campaigns solely around the click are assigning no value to the 84 percent of Internet users who don't click on an ad. That's precisely the wrong thing to do, because other comScore research has shown that non-clicked ads can also have a significant impact," " said Linda Anderson, comScore VP of marketing solutions and author of the study. "As a result, savvy marketers are moving to an evaluation of the impact that all ad impressions - whether clicked or not - have on consumer behavior, mirroring the manner in which traditional advertising has been measured for decades using reach and frequency metrics."

Google recently announced a new reporting feature for its Content Network that measures conversions for views of display ads that did not get clicks.

What do you think of comScore's data and analysis? Are display ads still worth it despite the decline in click-through rates? Let us know your analysis in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

September 23, 2009

Facebook and Nielsen Team Up for New Advertising Initiative

Facebook is entering into a partnership with Nielsen for a new advertising offering on the social network. Dubbed BrandLift, the initiative will use Nielsen's market research expertise to reach the more than 300 million members on Facebook.

"Nielsen is the leader in measurement and is an excellent partner for us as we look to provide marketers with richer ad effectiveness data," said Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.

Rolling out as a test to a few advertisers this week, BrandLift uses opt-in polls on Facebook's homepage to measure consumer attitude and intent about brands. BrandLift will roll out to all advertisers in the coming months.

"Facebook is an increasingly vital link between consumers and brands," said John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen's online division. "We will now be able to add deep knowledge of this important social network to our unmatched media measurement and consumer insight across all three screens. Together we will be able to provide the missing elements to clients seeking better understanding of how Web content and online advertising affect consumer behavior."

Through the partnership, Facebook and Nielsen hope to provide advertisers with more accurate market data in a more timely fashion. Additionally, the polls are easy to create and should reduce the upfront time needed to conduct campaigns.

Members have not been forgotten in the process. Polls will be spaced out so as not to bombard any individual user. Additionally, no personally identifiable information will be collected from the polls.

Let's have a little informal poll right now. What's your reaction to the Facebook-Nielsen partnership? Will you use BrandLift in your social marketing campaigns? Leave your survey answers below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 21, 2009

comScore and Omniture Partner Up for Digital Audience Measurement Service

Less than a week after being acquired by Adobe, Omniture is partnering with comScore to provide a digital audience measurement service. Specifically, Omniture's Web analytics will be paired up with comScore's new Media Metrix 360 hybrid audience measurement to provide intelligence for media planning.

"Since the rise of digital advertising, advertisers and publishers alike have sought ways to reconcile their Web analytics and panel-based measurement data to establish a unified measure of online audiences," said Josh James, Omniture CEO and co-founder.

The new partnership aims to be that long sought-after reconciliation. It also aims to spur the progress of digital advertising.

"This relationship will deliver to our customers the solution that they have been seeking, thus helping to promote and accelerate the usage of digital marketing intelligence for delivering actionable business results and competitive advantage. We believe it will also help the industry overcome concerns of inconsistent measurement of digital audiences and promote further adoption of digital media advertising,"said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore President & CEO.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 15, 2009

Google Ad Exchange Launch Expected Soon

Over at our sister blog, Clickz, Zachary Rodgers has some inside information that the anticipated display advertising exchange from Google could launch as early as next week. Google would not confirm or deny the rumor. But, next week is Advertising Week in New York, making it the perfect time to launch the exchange.

The ad exchange will allow publishers and networks to offer up unused ad inventory to a pool where advertisers can bid for the space. The exchange has been developed within DoubleClick, which Google acquired over a year ago.

Right now, the ad exchange leader is Yahoo!'s Right Media Exchange, but Google could quickly take the lead in the marketplace. However, that won't happen as readily (or at all), if publishers are forced to use DoubleClick's Dart for Advertisers (DFA) platform.

What do you think of Google's forthcoming ad exchange? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 11, 2009

Twitter Updates TOS, Paving the Way for Advertising

Twitter has updated their Terms of Service and one of the most significant updates is in regards to revenue that the social network hopes to generate. The new TOS paves the way for Twitter to introduce advertising into the network, something that's been anticipated for a long time.

Social media sites have traditionally had a tougher time generating revenue through advertising, especially when compared to, say, search.

But Twitter has smartly made search a strong focus of their network, facilitating a trend in "real-time" search. Facebook, which has been criticized for sharing too much data in their advertising efforts, is now integrating search to compete and stay ahead of the game. They would be wise to monetize their search efforts, too, as they might experience better revenue that way.

What do you think of Twitter's Terms of Service update? Share your reaction in the comments section below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 2, 2009

eZanga Launches Display Advertising Offering

Search and online advertising company eZanga has added display advertising to their offering. With the new addition, search marketers can maximize their paid search campaigns by implementing a corresponding display campaign.

"Research has shown that exposure to both search and display ads from the same advertiser results in a 22 percent increase for conversion rates over search alone," said Richard K. Kahn, CEO of eZanga. "We launched eZanga Display in order to capitalize on both of these key Internet marketing channels to help our clients reach their bottom lines faster and more efficiently."

Kahn is right. According to comScore data released earlier this year, search and display out performed either method on its own.

With the new eZanga Display, when web users click on a paid search ad served up by eZanga, they'll see the corresponding display ad campaigns on eZanga's network of sites.

What do you think of eZanga Display? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 1, 2009

Google Launches TV Advertising Contest

Want to win $25,000 worth of cable television advertising? Google's giving away just that in its "TV for All" contest.

All you have to do is create a 30 or 60 second spot. If you don't have the resources, you can use Spotmixer for free. (Google began offering Spotmixer as a TV ad creation resource last January.)

Then upload the ad to the YouTube channel for the TV for All contest. Then go beg all your friends, family, customers, strangers, pets, etc to vote for your video.

The deadline for submissions is October 5. Three winners will be chosen and announced on October 30.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 26, 2009

The Number One SEO/PPC/SMM Marketing Tip You Will Ever Learn

Have a good product.

You could have a great ad position, great landing page copy, and the best conversion rate in all the land, but it won't matter unless you have a great product.

It's something I've known for a long time, but now Joel Spolsky is unknowingly backing me up in his latest column for Inc. Magazine. Spolsky wrote about the first few years of his company, Fog Creek Software and how they made very little money because their business model was out of focus. They were busy making (or trying to make) distribution deals and an affiliate program. But the company took off when they made their software better.

When you focus on making a product better (i.e. filling a consumer need), people take notice.

I was watching Shaq Vs. last night. It's a program about NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal challenging other sports stars to their own sports. Last night's episode featured Olympic gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. At last year's Olympics, viewers noticed a strange taping on Walsh's shoulder. It turned out that Walsh was wearing Kinesio tape to help support her shoulder after undergoing surgery for a torn rotator cuff.

KinesioTaping.com went from 600-700 visitors a day to 345,000 per day, according to the New York Times. Yes, the Times gave them a much-coveted backlink and you can bet your bottom dollar that wasn't the only one they got as a result of the coverage.

The goal of SEO isn't SEO. The goal of SEO is sales. You'll get a heck of a lot more sales when you've got a solid product.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

August 18, 2009

Netmining's New Ad Network Brings Optimization to Behavioral Ads

Netmining is a website optimization company that began in Europe. It was acquired by Innovation Interactive, parent company of 360i and SearchIgnite, which is now launching Netmining's optimization suite in the U.S.

But that's not all, they're taking the technology and applying it towards a new behavioral ad network.

On a recent call, Innovation Interactive CEO Will Margiloff explained to me that the ad network works by analyzing all traffic that comes to a website. It gives each visitor a "score" based on the pages viewed and how long they viewed them.

Then, it takes that score to serve up ads relating to the product they showed the most interest in, when that visitor is browsing other sites displaying the behavioral ads.

"While most marketers optimize the advertising driving traffic to their site, very few fully optimize the customer experience after a visitor lands on their site," said Will Margiloff, CEO of Innovation Interactive. "Netmining enables our clients to capitalize on their marketing efforts by helping them continually engage with customers on a more informed level and convert more of the traffic that comes to their site into leads and sales."

Advertisers that participated in the beta version of the ad network are already seeing results.

"The Netmining Evolution ad platform is driving hotel bookings over 110% more efficiently compared with other ad networks," said Marina MacDonald, Senior Vice President, of Red Roof Inn. "They continually deliver high-performing display campaigns that help us increase revenue and conversions from our website visitors."

What do you think of Netmining's new ad network? Share your first impressions in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 1, 2009

BrightRoll Unveils Performance Pricing for Online Video Advertising

BrightRoll is launching Performance Pricing models for online video advertisements. They are:

Cost Per Engagement (CPE): cost per each user-initiated video engagement or start
Cost Per Completed Video (CPV): cost based on successful user-initiated video completion
Cost Per Click (CPC): cost per click on video advertisement

"Requests from advertisers seeking a broader portfolio of pricing options to better align with their plan objectives led us to release this pricing model innovation," said Tod Sacerdoti, BrightRoll's co-founder and CEO. "Performance Pricing demonstrates that there is no one right way to buy online video advertising. By letting customers pay on the metrics that most benefit their individual campaigns, we're continuing to remove inefficiencies in the video inventory buying process."

What do you think of BrightRoll's Performance Pricing? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 29, 2009

CSI, Simpsons Ad Rates Now Higher for Online than TV

For the first time in history, some television programming is demanding higher ad rates online than it is for tv. Popular shows such as CSI and Simpsons are among those seeing the higher ad rates at such sites as Hulu.com and TV.com, according to Bloomberg.

For a prime time ad, advertisers generally pay $20 - $40 per thousand viewers. But on Hulu.com, the Simpsons recently garnered $60 per thousand.

Advertisers are willing to shell out the dough because internet viewers are more committed to the shows, generally seeking them out instead of channel surfing.

Additionally, there is less advertising on the online version of the shows and viewers are more likely to remember the web ads.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft, Publicis Form Ad Partnership; Is Sale of Razorfish Involved?

Microsoft and advertising agency Publicis have formed a advertising alliance, according to ClickZ. The partnership involves online advertising as well as a TV ad exchange. This could put a damper on Google's inititave to create a tv ad exchange. Google is also a partner with Publicis, with the companies having staff working out of each other's offices.

But another interesting tidbit of the Microsoft-Publicis partnership is breaking today. Rumor is that Razorfish, ad interactive advertising agency arm owned by Microsoft, is for sale. Razorfish was part of the $6 billion aQuantive acquisition in 2007. Microsoft has contacted Morgan Stanley to arrange the sale. The even bigger rumor is that Publicis is poised to buy.

This all comes on the heels of comments by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that traditional media is heading to its grave.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 19, 2009

Microsoft, hakia Launch Contextual Ad Networks

Two new contextual ad networks are available for online publishers and advertisers. First up, Microsoft has removed the "beta" label from its Content Ads network. Participating online publishers include WSJ.com, FOX Sports, and RunnersWorld.com.

Meanwhile, semantic search engine hakia has also launched their contextual ad network, dubbed CONTEXA. ReadWriteWeb.com is their first publishing partner.

"We are excited to keep the wheels of innovation turning at hakia as our industry has plenty room for improvement. Today, Web users are overwhelmed with the quantity and suffer from the quality of display ads and quickly learn to ignore a good portion of the Web pages they visit," wrote hakia Chief Architect Kartal Guner. "In the long run, the industry's focus will have shift to increasing ad quality and limiting the supply to increase value. The path to this promise goes through enhancements to both contextual and behavioral ad targeting technologies."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 6, 2009

Judge Dismisses Anti-Spam Lawsuit Against ValueClick

A California judge has dismissed a $45 million lawsuit against online advertising network, ValueClick. The suit was brought forth by an internet service provider in a state with one of the greatest potential for damages.

The ISP, Hypertouch, claimed that ValueClick sent out 45,000 email messages containing false advertising. The judge threw out the case because he said the federal CAN-SPAM Act took precedent over a state law barring false commercial emails. The judge also said that Hypertouch failed to demonstrate fraudulent action on behalf of ValueClick and its co-defendant PrimaryAds.

This isn't the first time ValueClick has run into spam allegations. Last year, they settled with the FTC for $2.9 million in alleged CAN-SPAM and FTC violations.

Expect Hypertouch to appeal.

May 5, 2009

AdMob Runs Publisher Bonus in May

Between May 4 and May 18, mobile advertising network AdMob is giving publishers a 35% bonus on any money transferred over to ads. For example, if you transfer $100 of money made through published ads to actually running an ad yourself, AdMob will add an additional $35 worth of advertising.

With the economy the way it is, I suspect we will continue to see these incentive-based campaigns. It was just yesterday that news came of social search site Scour offering $1,000 in search-based prizes. And Microsoft claims it has had success with its incentive-based programs such as Cashback and Search Perks.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 21, 2009

ABCSearch Acquires and Rebrands as Advertise.com

Privately-held paid search company ABCSearch, Internext Media Corp. company, has acquired Advertise.com. They will rebrand under the Advertise.com name, which will serve a larger online advertising solution including PPC, contextual advertising, and display ads.

This is, of course, not to be confused with AOL-owned Advertising.com (which has been rebranded as Platform-A).

"I believe that online advertising needs a new approach," said Daniel Yomtobian, founder and CEO of Advertise.com. According to Yomtobian, advertisers and publishers have so many choices--some work, while others definitely do not. "The current model does not provide advertisers enough ROI. We launched Advertise.com to provide advertisers and publishers a new value proposition--effective, affordable, and easy-to-use advertising campaigns all under one roof. We are committed to our motto: 'online marketing made easy'."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 14, 2009

YieldBuild Launches Premium Text Advertising Program

YieldBuild has announced the launch of their Premium Text Ad Program. The new program optimizes across text ads available from Microsoft pubCenter and other select ad sources. Advertisers will also be able to optimize background color, border style, and font choices.

"We are excited to offer our YieldBuild publishers this new program which is sure to improve their ad revenue potential," said YieldBuild CEO, Paul Edmondson. "The Premium Text Ad Program represents a new opportunity for site owners to add high-payout, high-quality text ads from respected sources to supplement other ads they are running and optimizing with YieldBuild on their sites. We are also thrilled to be able to grant qualifying publishers access to Microsoft's contextual ad network."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AdReady Offers Streamlined Online Advertising Management Suite

AdReady today announced the release of its enhanced online advertising management software. The management suite can help advertisers manage their display ad campaigns across a variety of networks including Google and Yahoo!

The suite offers the following options:

AdReady for Advertisers - Premium Customers can target specific placements and sites, demographics, zip codes, day parting, and behavioral segments from a single platform.
AdReady for Agencies Agencies can create, manage and optimize online display campaigns for clients with a wider range of budgets. They can also brand the solution as their own.
AdReady for Publishers Fully automated, this technology platform helps sales representatives more sell inventory to a broad set of advertisers.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 30, 2009

Search Drives 5th Consecutive Record Setting Year in Internet Advertising

Despite the economic decline of 2008, internet advertising reached $23.4 billion, setting a new record high. Records have been set for five consecutive years, according to data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Search grew 19% over 2007, maintaining its role as the driving force behind the continued (yet slowed) growth in internet advertising.

Meanwhile, digital video is on the rise, more than doubling revenues from $324 million in 2007 to $734 million in 2008.

The fourth quarter of 2008 was the first time a single quarter surpassed $6 billion.

"We are seeing an ongoing secular shift from traditional to online media as marketers recognize that ad dollars invested in interactive media are effective at influencing consumers and delivering measurable results," said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. "In this uncertain economy, where marketers know they need to do more with less, interactive advertising provides the tools for them to build deep, engaging relationships with consumers--the experience marketers gain from this will deliver dividends especially after the economy turns around."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 27, 2009

AdMob Tests Automatic Pricing Adjustments

Mobile advertising network AdMob is testing automatic pricing adjustments which they will make their customers' jobs easier. The idea is that automatic pricing will help lower maximum Cost-Per-Click (CPC) bids and reward publishers that deliver higher value clicks.

AdMob says take into account the following during the test:

Advertiser bid
Competition across the network
The type of site on which the ad was served
Value of an ad impression to advertisers

If their attempt at weeding out inefficiencies is productive, it will be a good thing. While AdMob is great at getting ads out and clicked on, the value of those clicks remains questionable.

Many have used AdMob ads for iPhone advertising, but it's all too easy to accidentally click on the ads when, say, playing a game. It's not click fraud but it's not a legitimate click either.

Kudos to AdMob for working on the problem and we'll watch the space closely to see what develops.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 23, 2009

Meebo to Offer Social Ads to Partner Sites

In the second quarter of 2009, instant messaging client Meebo will begin offering its social ad platform to partner sites. So far, over 40 online publishers will participate including:

CafeMom
Sugar Publishing
myYearbook
Flixster
AddictingGames
Bleacher Report
dotblu
FanPop
ibeatyou
OperationSports
WhateverLife
Current TV
CrispyGamer
DailyStrength.org
GGL Global Gaming
IGN.com
Internet Brands
StarPulse

Meebo says their key ad metrics include:

10x higher click rates than typical ads on social media sites
1% click rates on average
1:35 seconds average time spent with the ad content
10% of users that engage then share the branded experience with their friends

"Meebo ads work for brand marketers by providing a platform that delivers an abundance of social actions that can be measured," said Carter Brokaw, chief revenue officer, Meebo. "Today, we're announcing that our advertising partners will be able to extend their buys across our syndication network of tier-one content sites, social networks, entertainment sites, blogs, and gaming partners. Our syndication partners will increase their revenue potential because Meebo ads are highly engaging and integrated into the communication experience to drive actions. The result is increased scale for social campaigns that deliver results for both marketers and partners."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ad pepper Expands Semantic Network to U.S.

International online ad network, ad pepper media, is expanding its iSense Network to the United States. The ad network offers semantic placement of online display ads across 3,000 content categories.

iSense relies on patented technology which is based on 11 years of research by linguist and professor, David Crystal. ad pepper was founded in the late 90s in Europe.

"Every word in the English language has nearly three meanings, making sense disambiguation key to adequate and relevant contextual ad placement," said Sacha Carton, President of iSense and Director of the Board for ad pepper media. "Our semantic approach to the analysis and classification of all the content on a webpage makes contextually relevant page-level targeting of display ads across a broad range of structured and unstructured online media a very effective process."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ValueClick Debuts Tailored Banner Ad Option

Performance ad network ValueClick has announced the availability of a new option that allows advertisers to create ads tailored to individual consumers. Dubbed "ActiveAds," the display ads can be customized messages without having to manage separate creative units.

ValueClick says targeting for ActiveAds is based on anonymous information. The ads are dynamically created based on the client or ValueClick Media.

"ActiveAds is extremely well suited for our clients who believe one ad does not fit all. Too long have clients with a wide variety of products been forced to show the same content to all prospects, despite the wealth of data which can be used to improve performance by tailoring ad creative to each individual consumer," said Bill Todd, general manager of ValueClick Media.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 4, 2009

AdMob Lowers Minimum Bid Prices for Geo-Targeted, Non 'Big-4' Carrier Ads

Mobile advertising vendor AdMob has made changes to its minimum bids for geo-targeted ads. Already in effect, the changes affect the following:

For iPhone ads targeting all United States traffic (i.e., all US with no further targeting options selected), the minimum bid will decrease from $0.10 to $0.05.
For non-iPhone ads targeting all countries and carriers (i.e., no further targeting options selected), the minimum bid will decrease from $0.03 to $0.01.

Minimum bids for ads targeting specific carriers is also being affected. Targeting the big 4 US carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile & Verizon) will NOT change, and ranges from $0.11 - $0.15. Targeting for all other carriers will decrease from between $0.11 - $0.15 to $0.05.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 10, 2009

ValueClick Adds Three Publishers to Health Online Ad Network

ValueClick has added three publishers to its health and wellness online advertising network. HealthCastle.com, eMedTV, and Hearthstone Communications join a group that includes Britannica Health, HealthGrades, Healthy.net, Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary, OrganizedWisdom.com, and Wrong Diagnosis.

HealthCastle.com is a large nutrition community featuring Registered Dieticians. eMedTV hosts health articles and videos. Hearthstone Communications owns women's health sites including GYNOB.com and Fibromyalgia-Symptoms.org.

“As we continue to expand the AdRx Media network, these premium publishers add to our potential reach and the ability to more narrowly align advertisers with the content they want to be associated with,” said Denise Zaraya, director, AdRx Media. “Their vast experience and expertise within the health community, their commitment to excellence, and their high volume of quality traffic are aligned with our vision to create the leading premium health and wellness ad network.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 6, 2009

IAB Releases Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions Guidelines for Public Comment

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released Video Player-Ad Interface Definitions Guidelines (VPAID) for public comment. The guidelines can be found at http://www.iab.net/vpaid. The public comment period ends March 5, 2009.

IAB says the definitions help:

Define a standard method for video ads to communicate with video players and enable ad compatibility across all VPAID-compliant players
Provide specifications that can be implemented by any type of video player
Cut production costs and improve ROI for advertisers while enabling a less intrusive experience for video content viewers.

“Interactive advertising is a bright spot in the current advertising environment, and digital video is one of its most promising formats,” said Jeremy Fain, Vice President of Industry Services at IAB. “VPAID is the final piece of the current Digital Video Infrastructure Initiative. All five parts of the initiative help define the digital video ecosystem, reduce costs and increase efficiency for all parties and, most importantly, make it possible for advertisers to more easily reach larger online audiences.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 2, 2009

Super Bowl Ads: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Funny how the Super Bowl interaction with the web differed so much from the recent inauguration. Twitter which had doubled its capacities for the Obama Inauguration day - well supposedly - it was relatively quiet throughout with occasional comments on the ads.

Voting on the ads was everywhere and popularity lists abound now.

Doritos was a clear winner and their web site was ready and they had more video/ads on YouTube... all in all an intelligent online awareness.

Dennys.com, on the otherhand, is the real story. Spend $3 million to offer the United States a free breakfast and have your web site crash? As Michael Grey suggested last night maybe it was done for the viral guarantee today.

The crew over at Reprise Media did their annual review of full on web initiatives - pregame work, ad message and follow up in all areas are looked at. eTrade and Cash4Gold got top marks - was not big on that one or the koala hitting Career Builder (but maybe that's just personal).

Reprise did single out Dennys too: "Dennyâ’s had a terrible night, with a free breakfast promo that failed to include a URL in their TV ad or an online call to action. Perhaps they were hoping to avoid overloading their website – which crashed right after the ad aired and was down for the rest of the game"

Regardless of the viral uptake - there will be hordes of the Undead - no wait a minute the Unplugged - crowding the counters and tables this Tuesday at Denny's across the US. Hell in a city with many of the restaurants you could eat until you explode hopping from one to the other between 6am and 2 pm tomorrow eating free Grand Slams.

Matt Cutts has to weigh in on the biggest link buy in history. My hat is tipped to the people in charge of this entire strategy. The whole thing has played out better than Dennys could have possibly hoped for. They now are ranked number one for free breakfast. But it is an interesting listing - tops in Google for organic and paid search - yet no where in Yahoo or MSN! That includes PPC.

So is Dennys saying we Google breakfast? Or did they like many people just go for a Google advertising approach? Why no lift in Yahoo or MSN organic? We should at least see how long the links take to lift the site to number one on those two engines. Is there insight into Google manipulation even if it is short lived?

Matt there has to be something going on here. Does buying the country a meal give you permanent placement for free breakfast? Interestingly not on the front page anywhere organically for just breakfast and PPC for that matter (good negativing expanded match or is it a phrase match campaign).

Should be a campaign to tell all homeless - and computerless - people about the food option.

Meanwhile you knew there had to be some porn hack out there somewhere. Arizona got porn-rolled.

Posted by Frank Watson at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 27, 2009

AdMob Launches Offering for Android Applications

AdMob has announced the launch of its Android application advertising offering. This allows developers to monetize their apps via a mobile banner ad. AccuWeather, Jirbo, and TapJoy are among apps that are utilizing the new option.

“Android's open platform enables developers to build rich mobile applications that provide a great experience for users,” said Ali Diab, Vice President of Product Management for AdMob. “We are already seeing strong interest in developing applications for Android-based devices, similar to what we saw with the iPhone last summer, and are very excited to take the lead in helping developers monetize their applications on this fast-growing device platform.”

AdMob has been available to iPhone developers for months now. AdMob also offers advertising options for mobile sites.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 16, 2009

Realtor Century 21 Moving Its TV Spend To Online Advertising

One of the largest national realty companies, Century 21, has decided to move a large part of their TV advertising budget for 2009 to online marketing, according to Advertising Age.

While Advertising Age see this as part economic and part going where has worked for them over the past two years:

"With the beleaguered real-estate market showing no signs of a turnaround, the realtor has decided to play the numbers and go where the buyers and sellers are: online."

this change in spend could also have a major impact on online advertising perceptions in general.

Century 21 has noticed that they have seen very successful results with their online spends.

As Beverly Thorne, Century 21 senior VP-marketing, told Advertising Age, "the company's research and testing revealed that its online investments in 2008 were substantively more productive and efficient than its offline efforts."

In 2008 online spend was less than 10% of Century 21's advertising budget.

While marketers and writers in our space have been touting the intelligence of increasing spends on paid search, if Century 21 has noticeable success many others in all industries could soon follow.

Posted by Frank Watson at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

January 14, 2009

Online Display Ad Pricing Drops in Q4 2008

Pubmatic has released online ad pricing data for the fourth quarter 2008. They found that ad pricing dropped in Q4, likely due to an all too unstable economy. Here's what they found:

All sizes of websites (small, medium, and large) were down dramatically from Q4 2007; small, medium, and large sites dropped 52%, 23%, and 54%, respectively, from the previous year.
All sizes of websites were down from Q3 2008 to Q4 2008, but the drops leveled-off, bucking the trend of larger drops from quarter to quarter throughout 2008; this may be an indicator that the online ad sector received enough of a boost from holiday advertising to keep ad rates steady.
All vertical categories experienced significant drops in their ad pricing from Q4 2007; the biggest drop by a vertical was Business & Finance, which fell from an average price of $2.13 in Q4 2007 to $0.83 in Q4 2008 – a 61% drop.
No vertical categories dropped by a significant amount from Q3 2008 to Q4 2008, with some verticals even improving from the previous quarter -- the Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Gaming, and Music verticals all had higher ad price averages in Q4 of 2008 than in Q3 of 2008.

“Online ad pricing is a reflection of what is happening in the overall economy, and as a result, pricing has dropped significantly in almost all categories in the past year,” said Rajeev Goel, Co-founder and CEO of PubMatic. “However, with overall advertising budgets shrinking, the need for marketers to have more accountable advertising could bring more advertising dollars online in 2009 and start an upward trend as some vertical categories have already experienced.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

January 13, 2009

Four Advertising Groups to Develop Online Behavioral Advertising Privacy Standards

Four advertising groups have announced plans to collaborate on privacy standards for online behavioral advertising data. The four groups are:

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA)
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA)
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)

The Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB) is also participating in the effort.

Online advertising data collection has been a concern of politicians and consumer groups. Election years typically see a flurry of activity over the matter and 2008 was no different. From state government efforts in New York and Connecticut to hearings in Congress, online advertising was in the hot seat last year.

It's nice to see advertising associations take the initiative to create standards, which can hopefully allay some of the fears out there over data collection.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 2, 2009

Stanford Students May Have Answer To Video Monetization

Another group at Stanford may have come up with the next big thing. Zunavision is a way to embed video inside video and could lead to true successful video monetization.

Okay it has been out there since midNovember, but it really does have some of the slick tricks needed to ultimately help the video industry develop a working revenue generating model.

The insert can be placed into the background of a video - and people can walk in front of it - so if you had a video and put it on the wall in the background it renders into the video and allows foreground action to continue.

Once they have a clickable solution, video advertising will be officially scalable to true monetization. In the meantime, play with it.

Posted by Frank Watson at 8:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

December 9, 2008

How Low Performing Banner Ads Can Actually Increase Conversions

So you stopped your banner ad campaigns a long time ago because the click through rate sucks and the conversion rate was even worse?

The problem is - you might be leaving money on the table.

In a couple sessions at SES, I've been hearing about how banner ads can drive people to search. So while they may not be clicking on your display ads and converting off of them, they may send people to a search engine to find your product or service.

What you'll want to do is set up the banner ad and then watch your analytics to see if you have increased searches and if those searches are related to the banner ad. You'll want to take all of that into consideration when creating your landing page, bidding on keywords in paid search, and writing the paid search ad.

The only caveat I would add is to place your display ads carefully. Social network users have said they don't find the ads targeted to them, so other content networks may prove more successful.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 24, 2008

AdBrite Adds CPC Option for Banner Ads

Advertising network AdBrite is now offering CPC (click per cost) for banner ads. Customers were already able to bid via CPC on search placements and text ads. Previously, graphical ads were restricted to CPM (cost per impression).

"AdBrite is committed to our advertisers' success," said AdBrite CEO, Ignacio Fanlo. "Allowing them to pay for performance makes sense. More than 90 million consumers visit AdBrite's sites every month, and our new CPC auction provides an effective and low-risk way for advertisers to engage them."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

November 18, 2008

Chitika Sees 200% Growth in Premium Ads for 2008

Contextual advertising network Chitika has announced that their Premium Ads product has seen 200% growth in 2008. The ads are now being served on the sites of 34,000 publishers.

Chitika says the ads work best on sites that garner traffic from search engines. The ads on the publisher's site target the keywords that the visitor came in on. The ad also offers the ability to search within the ad, never having to leave the page of the site they're currently visiting.

Chitika calls it search-targeted advertising. Because of that, they're comparing the program to search engine ads. And they're saying they've surpassed Ask.com's August 2008's numbers of 364 million searches.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 17, 2008

24/7 Real Media is Fastest Growing Top 10 Ad Network

While some sectors in the economy are struggling, 24/7 Real Media brings some much needed good news. They are the fastest growing top ten ad network in the six months ending October 2008, according to the comScore Media Metrix report.

24/7 grew by 36% and now reaches 135 million unique users. That's 71% of U.S. internet users.

“We will continue to diversify our publisher network to provide advertisers with unmatched targeting and reach, to accomplish their specific program goals and experience increased ROI for every campaign,” said Ari Bluman, president of North American sales and operations for 24/7 Real Media, Inc. “As a result of our robust targeting options and tremendous reach, we have one of the highest performing networks available.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

November 2, 2008

adTech NYC This Week Has Impressive Line Up

adtech New York starts Monday with the exhibit hall opening and then Tuesday the keynote sessions begin and regualr conference sessions start Wednesday with many notable search industry speakers in attendance. If you are in the area it may well be worth catching this event as it covers all aspects of the advertising industry and can be a great way to start the out of box thinking by combining some other advertising thinking into the search mix.

Mike Grehan, Dana Todd, Kevin Ryan, Danny Sullivan, Kendall Allen, Motoko Hunt, Adam Lavelle are just a few of the featured speakers.

And don't forget the parties - the best place to network in a relaxed social setting.

Posted by Frank Watson at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 29, 2008

Online Advertising Networks Struggle As Industry Growth Slows

Online advertising networks are struggling to make ends meet during a tough economy and a slowdown in industry growth. JellyCloud and Adzilla have shut down while AdBrite had to lay off 40% of its staff.

It's a crowded field with over 300 ad networks, many of them designed to target niche markets. Bigger ad networks, such as AOL's Platform-A, are experiencing struggles in niches such as auto, financial, and telecommunications.

What do you think of this slowdown? What are your experiences with ad networks? Let us know in the comments.

via WSJ

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

October 24, 2008

AzoogleAds Launches iPhone Application

AzoogleAds, a division of Epic Advertising, today announced the beta launch of an iPhone publisher reporting platform, iMobilePublisher. The platform will be available as an iPhone and iPod Touch application.

Users will be able to payment history, leads, stats, clicks and effective CPCs. Publishers will also be able to sort by offers and a variety of date ranges, with a user-interface that can display data in graphical format.

“We have found that our publishers increasingly use iPhones, and so this product was born out of marketplace opportunity,” said Greg Bayer, Senior Director of Product Management for Epic Advertising. “We wanted to build something that makes life even easier for the publishers that work with us, and we strive to deliver innovative tools to them which set us apart from other networks.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 10, 2008

MIVA Releases Customizable ALOT Toolbar, Homepage, and Widgets

Digital advertising company MIVA has released an update of their toolbar, enabling customizable features. MIVA is also launching a customizable homepage and a widget site, ALOT Buttons, for their customers.

The ALOT brand launched in the last quarter of 2007 with the theme "Make the Internet Easy." ALOT products aggregate proprietary content and third party content across vertically themed toolbars and homepages.

“We believe that growth of the ALOT brand to date is due largely to our vertical product strategy and believe that today's launch is a natural progression that will enable us to further build on this success,” commented Peter Corrao, President and Chief Executive Officer, MIVA. “With our new personalized products, users can continue to install vertical toolbars and homepages optimized for their specific interests, but can now also personalize their products by adding widgets from our expanding widget library.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 8, 2008

Federated Media Revamps Self-Service Ad Platform

Federated Media has unveiled and launched a revamped version of their self-service advertising platform. Here's what to expect with the update:

Transparent site lists
Real-time inventory availability
An ad creative upload tool
The flexibility to buy on a site-specific, categorical, or demographic basis
Purchasing on either a CPM basis or on a flat rate basis

“With the new functionality available in the self-service ad platform, marketers with smaller budgets have the same access to our sites that Fortune 500 brand advertisers enjoy,” said John Battelle, founder, chairman and CEO of Federated Media. “Conversational media is where consumers congregate, form opinions and make purchasing decisions. It's not just major brands that need to be here; it's everybody.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 7, 2008

AdBuyer Launches Free Online Media Buying Platform

AdBuyer.com has launched a free online media buying platform. The platform was designed to help advertisers create, manage, and optimize online ad campaigns across search, display, and content venues.

The tool integrates with Google, Yahoo and MSN. Paid search campaigns can be edited and new keyword suggestions can be generated via the platform.

“Our platform eliminates grunt work, saves time and improves ROI,” stated Tim Ogilvie, Co-Founder & CEO of AdBuyer.com. “AdBuyer.com is ideal for advertisers and agencies focused on reaching and exceeding their direct-response objectives.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 24, 2008

Rich Media Now Available Across AdBrite's 70,000 Site Network

AdBrite has announced that rich media is now available on their advertising network. Fox has been using AdBrite's rich media to promote its new television drama, Fringe.

"Advertising with AdBrite's network was a key part of our FRINGE fall season premiere campaign," said Laurel Bernard, SVP Marketing, Fox Broadcasting Company. "Combining unique rich media experiences with advanced targeting, a broad range of distribution, and full transparency made AdBrite a great media partner for our launch."

AdBrite's 70,000 sites include 8 out of the top 20 largest media properties, according to comScore. The network reaches over 80 million Americans each month.

"Rich media allows advertisers to create unique, compelling consumer experiences, while delivering premium CPMs to publishers," said Ignacio Fanlo, CEO of AdBrite. "We're pleased to be working with the industry's leading platforms to bring rich media to our customer base, and are thrilled to have been a key part of Fox's FRINGE launch."

Currently, the rich media format is only available by invitation. If you're interested, email sales@adbrite.com.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 22, 2008

Online Ad Company Yodle Adds Franchise Offering

Online advertising company Yodle has announced the expansion of its technology platform to include franchise operations. YodleFranchise enables local franchises and corporate offices to coordinate online advertising campaigns. Local operations can target their areas and corporate can make sure the brand messaging remains intact.

“We recognize that franchises have unique advertising needs that require a solution that is both large enough to handle a franchise's entire network and local enough to drive results to their individual locations,” said Yodle CEO Court Cunningham. “YodleFranchise combines the local online advertising capabilities of our original offering with reporting and centralized control features that are powerful enough even for the largest of franchises.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 19, 2008

Axciom Unveils New Online Advertising Targeting Tool

At the OMMA Conference in New York this week, Axciom is unveiling their new online advertising targeting tool. Dubbed Relevance-X™ LifeStage, the tool was designed to help interactive marketers identify audiences based on life stage. Once the identification has taken place, advertisers can make a single media buy to reach publishers with a message coordinated with offline efforts.

“The consumer targeting capabilities available in Relevance-X LifeStage enable marketers to increase the performance of their online marketing investment,” said Tim Suther, Acxiom's senior vice president for digital marketing services. “Today, our clients see improvements in click-through rates, greater clarity in their brand message, and fewer wasted ad impressions.”

What do you think of this tool? Leave your impression in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 18, 2008

WidgetBucks Launches Local and Travel Ad Verticals

Ad widget company WidgetBucks today announced the availability of two new advertising verticals: local and travel. WidgetBucks already has a shopping vertical which serves a billion impressions per month worldwide.

"We fundamentally believe that advertising should be more customizable, personal, engaging, and more measurable for publishers and advertisers," said Matt Hulett, chairman and CEO of Mpire and WidgetBucks. "Clearly, Internet consumption habits are evolving from single destination sites to a more disseminated approach. Our new ad widgets help publishers and bloggers provide this influx of visitors with relevant, monetizable content."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Premium Ad Network for Bloggers from BuzzLogic

BuzzLogic is unveiling a new premium ad network specifically designed with bloggers in mind, and they're launching it at this week's BlogWorld & New Media Expo event in Las Vegas. The network was launched into beta in June.

Bloggers can apply to the network or are invited to join. They're compensated with brand advertising based on their influence in conversations in the blogosphere.

“We've seen a strong correlation between campaign effectiveness and the quality blogs our technology is able to surface since launching our targeting platform last year – now we're expanding our targeting approach to our own network of sites,” said Rob Crumpler, CEO of BuzzLogic. “In this fragmented media environment, it has become clear that a popular site isn't necessarily influential when it comes to niche subject areas. Many lesser-known blogs have the capability to deliver great advertising results, they're just not getting paid for it – our technology helps correct that imbalance.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Turn Introduces Dynamic Pricing into Behavioral Targeting Ad Solution

Online advertising firm Turn, Inc. is introducing dynamic pricing models into its behavioral targeting offering. The model will take factors such as recency and relevancy of message and combine it with a retargeting method that allows advertisers to monitor real-time behavior and adjust their campaign within seconds.

So, does this dynamic pricing work? Turn offers three examples of its success:

A telecommunications client in Turn's market saw a 28 percent lift in click-through-rate and a 423 percent jump in conversion rate when adding retargeting to their buy.
A Fortune 500 financial services client had an increase of over 200 percent in both click-through and conversion rates after starting their retargeting campaign.
A major auto insurance company saw a 2x lift in ROI when they included behavioral into their campaign targeting auto-intenders.

"Our dynamic pricing model is an alternative to how advertisers are purchasing behavioral inventory today. In this world, offerings aggregate all users in the behavioral segment and every impression is assumed to have equal value to the advertiser. In reality, all users are not equal and pricing should reflect that," comments Dominic Bennett, vice president of engineering at Turn.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 15, 2008

Sometrics Releases Social Media Advertising Management Platform

Sometrics today launched "Social Ad Manager," which was designed to help social networks manage their advertising inventories. The product aggregates both third-party networks and direct sales. Sometrics says Social Ad Manager will eliminate server costs and produce custom traffic reports.

“We're making it possible for publishers to apply our social intelligence to their entire ad inventory, to optimize the delivery of their ads and increase revenue,” said Ian Swanson, Sometrics CEO and co-founder. “We've built a system that combines analytics, targeting and branding capabilities all designed to help developers and advertisers reach their audiences within the social web. Now our clients can apply this social intelligence to every ad they serve.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LinkedIn Launches Targeted Advertising Network

LinkedIn is today launching the LinkedIn Audience Network, a new advertising option that allows highly targeted ads to reach the professional social network's members. The great advantage to this ad network is the ability to target Executives or IT professionals. LinkedIn gathers so much information from user profiles, and this information makes it easier for advertisers to target who they truly want to reach. And users will get more relevant ads as well.

“The message we hear from advertisers is simple: they want mass reach against specific segments of decision-making professionals, and they want their ads to appear in quality environments,” said Steve Patrizi, LinkedIn's Director of Advertising Sales. “The LinkedIn Audience Network offers advertisers one of the most accurate audience data sets available on the web along with the confidence of knowing that their brands will only appear on sites with high editorial standards.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 12, 2008

Online Video Advertising to Peak in 2012 Predicts eMarketer Report

According to a new report from eMarketer entitled, "Video Advertising Online: Spending and Pricing," online video advertising will peak at 78.9% in 2012 -- when "both traditional and alternative media companies will be distributing far more professional-quality video content online, and when the national elections and the summer Olympics will contribute far more to video ad spending than they will in 2008."

That doesn't mean that growth has been anemic this year. According to eMarketer, this year's 55.9% increase in online video ad spending is a key indication that the channel is at least gaining speed -- accompanied by parallel growth in the kind of trusted video content, such as sports, to support it.

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, says, "Next year, there will be slightly slower growth, due to the still-struggling economy and the fact that advertisers are working out the best ways to do online video ads."

He adds, "Marketers want video advertising for its far-greater branding power than other online formats." Meanwhile, "Publishers want video advertising for its far-greater revenues -- or at least higher CPMs—than other online ad formats."

Stay tuned to see what happens next.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

MIVA Unveils Plans for New Online Advertising Platform

MIVA has announced plans to launch a new online advertising platform. The new platform will incorporate MIVA's existing Pay-Per-Click solution and add online advertising formats for a more comprehensive offering.

The platform will be launched through a phased roll-out. The first phase will be a beta release, expected in the fourth quarter of 2008.

“As the online advertising market continues to mature, the needs of advertisers and publishers are also evolving. MIVA's new platform is intended to address these needs through completely updated technology that we believe will provide a significantly enhanced set of features and online marketing options for advertisers and publishers,” commented S. Brian Mukherjee, SVP and Group Managing Director, MIVA Media.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 4, 2008

Ad Network interCLICK Expands to Los Angeles

Fast growing ad network interCLICK is opening an office in Los Angeles. They've tapped Monica Seebohm to head the office, and have made her the Senior Director of Sales, Southwest. Seebohm was previously at ValueClick Media as a strategic accounts manager.

“Monica has tremendous sales experience with a strong track record for exceeding performance goals, managing and developing teams, and establishing solid customer relationships,” said Michael Katz, president, interCLICK, Inc. “She has valuable relationships in the Los Angeles area, particularly with the interactive community, and will be a strong asset for our team especially in terms of building greater brand recognition for interCLICK in the Southwest. In addition to our newly-established Chicago and San Francisco offices, expanding our presence in the Los Angeles area is an important milestone as we continue our rapid U.S. growth trajectory.”

In July, interCLICK named Jason Lynn, former Director of Solutions Engineering for Yahoo/Right Media, as Vice President of Product Management.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 2, 2008

AdEx Acquires Online Lead Gen Firm, Bay Harbor

Online marketing company AdEx has announced the acquisition of Bay Harbor, an online lead generation firm. Bay Harbor uses a proprietary software platform to perform behavioral targeting which identifies marketers' best prospects in several financial services and other consumer interest segments.

"Bay Harbor's lead generation platform allows us to capitalize on the ever-growing online financial services sector," said Scott Rewick, Chief Executive Officer of AdEx Media. "This acquisition is synergistic with our existing business and will further enable us to meet the needs of our large customer base of advertisers, publishers, distributors, online retailers and consumers."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 20, 2008

Local Online Advertising Does Best on Local Media Sites

When it comes to local advertising, the best conversions come from local media sites, such as newspaper and tv station sites, according to a new report from the Online Publishers Association (OPA). Local media sites see a higher percentage of visitors taking actions on local ads compared to a user review site or a portal.

Local Newspaper Site: 46%
Local Television Site: 44%
Local Magazine Site: 42%
User Review Site: 39%
Portal: 37%

2,069 local online content consumers were selected randomly for the study conducted by Jupiter Research for OPA.

“With strong brands and trusted environments, local media sites deliver concrete results for local advertisers,” said OPA president Pam Horan. “Our analysis of the Jupiter data finds that consumers are more likely to act on the ads they see on local TV, newspaper and magazine sites. Just as we see on a national scale, media sites outpace portals and all other online media at delivering meaningful advertising results.”

What do you think of the data? Does it change the way you think about local advertising? Give us your perspective in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

August 12, 2008

MIVA Reports $6.5 Million Second Quarter 2008 Loss

MIVA, who yesterday rejected an acquisition bid from online video search engine blinkx, has posted a $6.5 million loss for the second quarter of 2008. MIVA CEO and President Peter Corrao tried to keep things in perspective for shareholders and Wall Street:

“The most recent quarter has been a transitional one for our business. We are encouraged by the results of the growth initiatives that we've been working towards, such as the continued roll-out of our ALOT toolbar and homepage brand and the continued growth of destination sites like Spill.com. In addition, our new MIVA Media technology platform remains on schedule for a US release in the fourth quarter of this year.”

While significant, the loss is at least less severe than last year's $16 million loss for the same quarter.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 11, 2008

Online Publishers Turning to Ad Networks to Sell Unused Inventory

Online publishers are increasingly turning to ad networks to sell unused inventory, according to a study released by the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Bain & Company.

In 2007, ad network accounted for 30% of total ad impressions, up fro 5% in 2006.

Two reasons were given for the growth:

Interviews with online publishers, conducted as part of the study, indicate that the lack of adequate pricing tools and inventory management discipline contributed to the growth in available ad space. This is causing publishers to seek out ways to sell large inventories of unsold ads. Publishers often lack basic information on realized prices and inventory sold by client and channel, limiting management's ability to make effective decisions.
Large marketers continue to shift significant portions of their advertising budgets online and view ad networks as an effective way to achieve greater buying scale and drive down CPMs.

“What this benchmark study tells the industry is that there is a need for more sophisticated yield management on the part of premium publishers, for stronger partnerships between publishers and ad networks, for development of best practices, and more focus on the value of interactive advertising,” said Sherrill Mane, senior vice president, Industry Services of the IAB. “Our industry is at an important juncture and now is the time for publishers to adopt strategic approaches to the use of ad networks who themselves have become critical players in the digital ecosystem.”

Here are additional nuggets of information from the study:

Overall, online publisher revenues grew by a healthy 32% in 2007 versus 2006, yet ad network revenues grew more rapidly (in excess of 50%), as marketers boosted online spending
High demand for premium video inventory resulted in CPMs 2-3 times greater than display ads on average.
Most publishers in the study lack information to closely measure the impact of cross-platform sales, though most indicate focus on using cross-platform to drive volume, not price.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 30, 2008

Marchex Launches Integrated Local Advertising Platform

Marchex is integrating online and offline lead generation methods in its launch of Marchex Connect 2.0. The local advertising platform offers three products: online advertising, call-based advertising, and Business Profile Pages

With today's launch, Marchex subsidiaries VoiceStar and Traffic Leader have been unified under the Marchex Digital Platform Group to leverage the Marchex Connect platform and provide integrated, locally-focused advertising services including:

Full Advertising Campaign Management – All campaigns are managed by a dedicated team of online marketing and call-based advertising experts.
Strategic Consulting for Resellers – Leveraging Marchex's unique intellectual property regarding pricing and product strategies to appropriately balance and expand the total offline and online spends of an advertiser, and to maximize ROI goals.
Sales Channel Training – Custom in-field and Web-based training programs to equip Marchex partners' local sales forces with the knowledge and sales materials they need to successfully migrate their local advertisers' spend online.

“We have invested heavily to build a performance-based, local-centric advertising platform for local resellers and advertisers that integrates online and call-based advertising products and services at scale, all supported by sophisticated reporting and analytics,” said John Keister, Marchex President and COO. “Our goal at Marchex is to accelerate the adoption of local online advertising and to deliver the highest volume of quality local leads to our advertisers at the most reasonable cost in the marketplace.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 22, 2008

Google Barely Inches Out Yahoo for Top Web Property; Platform-A Top Ad Network for June 2008

comScore has released the top 50 ad networks and top 50 web properties for June 2008.

In ad networks, AOL's Platform-A takes the top spot, reaching 90% of American internet users. Yahoo comes in second, reaching 83% and Google comes in third with 81%. Here's the full list:

In web properties, Google leads the pack 140.2 million unique visitors, but Yahoo comes in a very close second at 140.1 million. This past April, Google's sites beat Yahoo's properties for the first time. Microsoft trails in third with 119 million. AOL is in 4th with 110 million and Fox Interactive rounds out the top 5 with 85 million. Here's the chart:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 15, 2008

Congressional Judiciary Committees Look into Yahoo-Google Ad Partnership

Last week the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on online advertising and privacy. Today, the Judiciary Committees of the Senate and House get in on the action as it relates to the recent Yahoo-Google deal.

The Senate hearing began at 10:30 am, but is largely eclipsed by a speech by the President as well as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's umteenth appearance on Capitol Hill. You can watch it live by clicking on "Live Webcast" here.

The House hearing begins at 1:30pm and the site has links to webcast video, though I personally couldn't get them to work on my laptop. If you're in the DC area, head on over to 2141 Rayburn House Office Building to observe the hearing for yourself.

Google Senior VP for Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond will be appearing at both hearings and is planning to touch on the following:

The agreement will be good for Internet users (who will see ads that are better targeted to their interests); advertisers (whose ads will be better matched to users' interests, allowing them to reach potential customers more efficiently), and website publishers (who will see increased revenue from better-matched ads on their websites).
Google and Yahoo! will remain vigorous competitors, and that competition will help fuel innovation that is good for users and the economy. Commercial arrangements between competitors are commonplace in many industries. Antitrust regulators in the US have recognized that consumers can benefit form these arrangements, especially when one company has technical expertise that enables another company to improve the quality of its products
The agreement will not increase Google's share of search traffic, because Yahoo will continue to run its own search engine and compete in online search.
Yahoo! will make its instant messaging network interoperable with Google's. This will mean easier and broader communication among a growing number of IM users, and enable users to choose among competing IM providers based on the merits and features of the services.
A number of steps have been taken in the Yahoo! agreement to protect user privacy. As Google supplies ads to Yahoo! and its partners, personally identifiable information of individual Internet users will not be shared between the companies. Yahoo! will anonymize the IP address of a searcher's computer before passing a search request to Google.

Also scheduled to appear are:

Michael Callahan, General Counsel, Yahoo!
Brad Smith Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft
Matthew Crowley, Chief Marketing Officer, Yellowpages.com
Tim Carter, President and CEO, Askthebuilder.com

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 1, 2008

Local.com Partners with Hearst's White Directory Publishers

Local.com has announced a new advertising partnership with White Directory Publishers, a division of Hearst Holdings. Through the agreement, Local.com will be able to sell its online display advertising inventory to White Directory's national sales channel. The ads will appear on Local.com as well as White Directory Publisher's Talkingphonebook.com and Area-wide.com sites.

“This partnership allows Local.com to reach out to large businesses with regional presence through a leading feet-on-the-street sales force,” said Peter Hutto, Local.com vice president, business development and sales. “This partnership will give Local.com better reach into the small business market, and provide White Directory with a large online distribution channel for their advertisers.”

"This is a tremendous opportunity for national advertisers to extend their reach to local consumers on one of the leading local search sites that consistently ranks in the Top 100 in traffic generated,” said David Bowling, director of national sales for White Directory Publishers. “This is an innovative approach to the sales and targeting of display ads to local consumers by national advertisers with local points of presence."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 30, 2008

Another Year, Another Reorganization for MIVA

Yahoo is known for its (in)famous reorganizations, but they now face a contender for the title of "Most Likely to Shake Things Up." Just over a year after its last reorganization, MIVA has headed back to the drawing board in the hopes of revising the struggling digital ad company.

On the chopping block is 15% of its workforce as well as the MIVA Media operations in Italy. MIVA says this will save them $4 million a year plus a one time savings of $1.4 million.

The recent reorganizations are just the latest of what ails MIVA. In 2006, Craig Pisaris-Henderson and Phillip Thune resigned as CEO and President respectively. And in 2005, the company agreed to an $8 million patent settlement with Yahoo.

As a result, MIVA dropped their partnership with Yahoo and made one with Google. Boy, that sounds familiar.

MIVA licensed FAST technology in 2005. FAST was recently acquired by Microsoft. Since MIVA has such an admiration for the way Yahoo does things, we offer the following words of advice: If Ballmer offers to buy, say YES.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 12, 2008

Kayak.com Launches Display Ad Platform

Travel search site Kayak.com has announced the launch of a targeted display advertising platform. The platform was developed by SideStep.com, which Kayak acquired in December 2007.

Kayak says display advertisers will be able to target a variety of search criteria, similar to existing text ads offered through the Kayak Publisher Network. Examples of search criteria are:

Destination
Origination
Trip dates
Length of stay
Specific airline/hotel/car brands and car type

Three ad sizes will be available, which are in line with IAB standards:

180x150 pixels
160x600 pixels
300x250 pixels

Kayak and its affiliates generate 200 million ad impressions per month on air, hotel, and car search results pages. Currently there are over 30,000 text placements from more than 2,000 brands on the Kayak Publisher Network.

"Our advertisers have repeatedly told us that display ads can communicate travel services in a way that text ads cannot," said Steve Hafner, Kayak.com co-founder and CEO. "Yet we know that some consumers dislike these ads and find them distracting. I believe we've found the right balance by allowing our registered users to suppress or view them, whichever they prefer."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 16, 2008

Internet Advertising Reaches Record High in 2007

Internet advertising revenues reached an all-time high in 2007, totaling $21.7 billion, which is 26% higher than 2006. The data comes from internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers 2007 Internet Advertising Revenue Report. Keyword search leads the field when it comes to types of internet advertising. Here's the breakdown of ad types:

David Silverman, partner, Assurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers pointed out that the data defied economic woes: "Despite the current state of economic uncertainty, 2007 was another record year and the 13th consecutive record quarter. Interactive advertising is not just the future, it is the here and now, as it represents a meaningful and growing component of U.S. advertising and marketing spend." What are your thoughts on 2007 internet ad revenues? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 15, 2008

eMarketer Lowers Social Network Advertising Projections

eMarketer is lowering projections for social network advertising from $1.6 billion to $1.4 billion for 2008. Two reasons are attributed to the adjustment: a slowing economy and the uncertainty over what advertising actually works on social sites.

Adjustments have been made for site-specific projections as well. MySpace's projection has been lowered from $850 million to $755 million, while Facebook has been lowered from $305 million to $265 million.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

May 7, 2008

Spot Runner Raises $51 Million in Funding

Internet-based ad agency Spot Runner has secured a combined $51 million in funding from Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), Grupo Televisa, Legg Mason Capital Management and Groupe Arnault/LVMH. Spot Runner CEO Nick Grouf said of the funding, "These strategic investments serve as a strong validation of Spot Runner's technology-driven advertising model, as well as the results we have generated for advertisers and media owners. This further accelerates our momentum as we expand into a broader spectrum of online and offline media, both domestically and abroad."

DMGT is a large media company based in the U.K. with operations in Central Europe, the U.S. and Canada, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. The company has interests in a variety of media channels including national newspapers and related digital operations, local media, business and financial information, exhibitions and radio.

Grupo Televisa, S.A.B. is the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world. Operating four broadcast channels in Mexico, Televisa maintains interests in pay-television network production, international distribution of television programming, direct-to-home satellite services, cable television, magazine publishing and distribution, and radio broadcasting.

Luxury products group Groupe Arnault/LVMH boasts a portfolio of over 60 prestigious brands including MoÃ«t & Chandon, Hennessy, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Donna Karan, Sephora and TAG Heuer.

Louis Vuitton communications head Antoine Arnault said of Spot Runner's funding, "The global media landscape is undergoing a sea change. For advertisers to be effective, they will need to completely shift their thinking about how media is targeted and distributed, and how creative can be versioned for multiple audiences. Spot Runner is the clear leader in this area. As one of the largest advertisers in the fashion category, we're very enthusiastic about the prospect of working with them to capitalize on these transformations."

Earlier this year, Spot Runner acquired local online advertising provider, Weblistic.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 30, 2008

Marchex's Local Advertising Branches Out into Mobile Market

Marchex today announced the expansion of its local advertising services into the mobile market. The new offering will include call-based advertising, which is a result of its acquisition of VoiceStar. The call-based services will be part of agreements with three mobile advertising providers: AdMob, Ringleader Digital, and 4INFO.

Call tracking will accompany the new agreements and offer up the following features:

1. Track the calls generated by advertisements on their network 2. Determine exactly which advertisements delivered the calls 3. Track and report key information including the duration, time of day and geographic location of callers 4. Record the calls.

“Marchex is focused on partnerships with leading aggregators of local advertisers across all channels: online, offline, and mobile,” said John Keister, Marchex President and COO. “We believe that the mobile advertising opportunity is significant and is poised to realize tremendous growth over the next five years. Our call tracking and pay-per-phone-call capabilities provide a significant advantage for Marchex in the mobile search advertising market.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:14 AM | Permalink

April 29, 2008

Online Promotions: The Sleeping Beauty of Online Advertising

Much has been written, theorized, and analyzed about search and online display advertising. But companies are increasingly turning to the Cinderella of online advertising: Promotions.

Douglas Quenqua at ClickZ looked into a recent study by Borrell Associates that says spending on online promotions could triple in the next five years. Last year, a whopping $8 billion was spent on promotions.

For now, national companies are the ones accounting for most of the promotional spend. But local companies may want to take notice. Since the spend is expected to increase so dramatically, while display advertising is expected to decline, then something must be working in this arena. And that's no big surprise as contests, coupons and giveaways are great methods for lead generation.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:47 AM | Permalink

April 21, 2008

Online Advertising Shifting from Branding to Direct Response

Advertisers are increasingly turning to ad networks with their online advertising dollars, according to the New York Times. Ad networks sell display advertising across a variety of sites and can be targeted or vertical (focusing on a niche like sports or travel).

The appeal of ad networks lies in their price and improved targeting technology. Paying $4 for a highly targeted ad on a lesser-known site is garnering better results than many, generalized eyeballs seeing a $40 ad on a big site like MSN.

This should come as no surprise to seasoned search marketers. Conversions are a more important metric than clicks and ad networks enable advertisers to enact that strategy in their online campaigns.

But advertisers should buy while the getting is good. With the rising popularity of ad networks, expect prices to rise in a competitive marketplace.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:14 AM | Permalink

April 9, 2008

Google Will Not Kill the Agency Star, Says Publicis CEO

While the business model for advertising agencies needs change, Publicis CEO Maurice Levy says that agencies will adapt and not become obsolete. Levy says that agencies are the ones who develop the creative, something that companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo do not provide.

Agencies do need to gain a better understanding of new media in order to develop better creatives for channels such as video games and cell phones, according to Levy. Publicis may be well on its way to doing just that, having acquired digital agency Digitas Inc for $1.3 billion last year.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:28 AM | Permalink

April 7, 2008

The Offline Benefits of Online Advertising

The offline effects of online advertising has been a curious issue in the search engine marketing industry over the years. But according to published reports, new study conducted by comScore is shedding more light on the issue.

The study was conducted on a retailer that does $15 billion in annual revenues. Most of the revenues come from brick and mortar stores. During a three month period, sales increased 50% offline, which coincided with a display and search advertising campaign. Online sales also saw a boost of 40%.

This isn't the first comScore study looking at offline ROI of online ads. A study from the summer of 2007 showed that consumers who "pre-shop" online spend up to 41% more in-store. Also, 82% of searchers conduct an offline activity to follow up on their query. 61% of them make purchases.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:27 AM | Permalink

March 10, 2008

Cable Firms Collaborate to Compete with Google

Executives from the six major cable companies have been gathering at monthly meetings in an attempt to offer national advertisers innovative methods of reaching their customers, according to The New York Times.

"Project Canoe" has been meeting for six months, alternating between New York and Philadelphia in an attempt to make good on a long-standing promise by cable advertising: to get the right advertising to the right person.

They plan to do this by investing $150 million into a national advertising platform that allows them to streamline their local advertising efforts. Cable execs hope to see revenue increase from $5 billion to $15 billion annually as a result.

With Google delivering such results through highly targeted online advertising, advertisers have remained cautious about cable's ability to provide the kind of advertising they want. On-demand and DVR technology also hinders cable's ability to perform in the ad game.

But interactive features could give cable the step up it so desperately needs. The new advertising platform could allow viewers to request specific information about a product.

Still, the cable firms are behind similar efforts by Google, which has a deal with EchoStar, and the recently announced acquisition of Weblistic by Spot Runner.

The cable companies weren't even considering creating a separate company for the new platform until they were pressured by media buyers from GM and Proctor & Gamble. Now, they are grappling with whether or not to find a CEO from within the cable or advertising industries. However, with the successes of Google and Spot Runner riding on user-driven behavior, perhaps cable should be looking elsewhere to head up their new initiative.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:27 PM | Permalink

January 11, 2008

Is the AdWords Competitor-bidding Party Over?

1-800-Contacts is trying to force a legal ruling that could put a chill on the widespread practice of PPC advertisers bidding on competitors' trademarks.

According to this article in MediaPost:

IN THE LATEST EXAMPLE OF a marketer suing about search ads, 1-800-Contacts this week filed a lawsuit in federal court against LensWorld for purchasing search links triggered by the term "1-800-contacts." The company, which has brought several other similar cases, says it's trying to guard against confusion. "The worry that they have is that these advertising methods will make consumers think there's an affiliation between these other companies and our client," said 1-800-Contacts' lawyer, Bryan G. Pratt.

Many advertisers experience great conversion results bidding on competitor terms, so the impact on the search advertising community as a whole could be huge.

Posted by David Szetela at 8:17 AM | Permalink

December 16, 2007

AdSense Ad Review: Good for Advertisers?

A few days ago Frank Watson blogged here about a new AdSense feature that lets site publishers exclude AdWords ads they feel may be inappropriate for their sites.

AdSense publishers will be able to view ads that advertisers have directed to their sites via Placement Targeting, and choose to block ads they don't feel are "relevant" to their site visitors.

This will certainly be used by AdSense publishers to (attempt to) maximize AdSense revenues - - publishers will block ads that they deem "low-revenue" in favor of ads that visitors will click on more frequently.

But is it good for advertisers? Well, yes and no...

Most AdWords advertisers who create Placement Targeted campaigns have done time-consuming research to identify sites that have proven (or are expected) to be relevant, in terms of producing valuable clicks and conversions. Knowing their ads can be blocked at the whim of an AdSense publisher might make advertisers more reluctant to spend the time necessary to target their advertising.

AdWords advertisers will be able to see the reason an ad was blocked - if the AdSense publisher chooses to provide it. Google says "This feedback gives advertisers more insight on how to increase coverage by adjusting ad quality, content, and relevance. We also use this information internally to help improve products."

Nice theory -- but will AdSense publishers really provide (optional) constructive feedback?

As I've pointed out in my SEW Experts column, Content advertising requires significant work and diligence -- arguably more than for Search advertising. Dealing with blocked ads -- understanding why an ad was blocked, and possibly even corresponding directly with a site owner to appeal the decision -- could just add unnecessarily to the advertiser's workload.

Hopefully this won't happen often - and the system will work to each side's satisfaction and benefit.

But let's keep an eye on it.

Posted by David Szetela at 11:31 AM | Permalink

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