December 17, 2008

AOL's Platform-A Reaches Now Reaches 160 Million in Europe

Following recent launches in Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, AOL's advertising network, Platform-A, now reaches more than 160 million internet users in Europe. Platform-A was already reaching users in France, Germany, and the UK.

According to comScore, Platform-A is ranked No. 1 in Finland, France, Norway and the UK; No. 2 in Denmark and Germany; No. 3 in the Netherlands and Sweden.

Platform-A has consistently ranked as #1 in the United States.

Commenting on the achievement, Brendan Condon, Managing Director for Platform-A International, said, “We are now open for business in eight European countries. Platform-A is the only online advertising network that offers a full suite of advanced affiliate, display and search solutions across Europe which perfectly addresses the complex needs of today's advertisers.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 17, 2008

AOL Presents the Platform-A Tour

AOL's ad network, Platform-A, is going on tour. The 5-city event begins in New York City on November 17th at the American Museum of Natural History. The next stop will be Atlanta on November 20.

The tour will break for the holidays before hitting Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in 2009.

“AOL has one of the largest, most diverse and most engaged audiences on the Web, and combined with Platform-A's industry-leading technologies, we can offer advertisers a unique combination of scale, integrated branding, and advanced targeting capabilities to enable them to deliver their branding messages in an effective, engaging and highly efficient way,” said Platform-A President Lynda Clarizio. "At a time when companies make sure that every penny spent on advertising counts, AOL delivers quality content and engaged consumers and Platform-A connects marketers to this audience to drive superior results."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 10, 2008

AOL's Platform-A Collaborates with T-mobile for 2 Day, Billion Impression Ad Blitz

AOL's Platform-A has collaborated with T-mobile for a two day ad blitz. The campaign will have the mobile carrier buying 1 billion impressions over the two day time frame, which is expected to reach 81.5 million consumers. Platform-A currently reaches 90% of the U.S. internet audience.

What will be advertised? The new Android-powered G1, of course!

“The T-Mobile G1 offers a rich, accessible mobile Web experience for the masses, so we want to drive that message to the broadest range of U.S. consumers possible,” said Brett Dennis, director, branded entertainment and media management, T-Mobile USA. “The groundbreaking experience of the T-Mobile G1 is really what motivated us to pursue this exceptional online advertising program.”

Clearly, both AOL and T-mobile are gunning for the upcoming holiday season:

“The innovation behind the T-Mobile Billion Block clearly demonstrates the value marketers place on the combination of reach, impact and innovation that only Platform-A can offer,” said Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “It also spotlights the role online media will play in the upcoming buying season, with strategic marketers like T-Mobile relying on the near-universal reach of Platform-A to connect with United States consumers in an effective, efficient and engaging way.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 23, 2008

AOL's Platform-A Unveils Plans for Self-Service Ad Marketplace Exchange

AOL's Platform-A is planning to launch a new self-service marketplace exchange for advertisers. Dubbed BidPlace, the platform will allow advertisers to dynamically bid and manage inventory for display ads across Platform-A's network. BidPlace will launch in the first half of 2009.

The platform will include:

Pricing – Change bids at any time
Creative Gallery – Manage creatives in a central repository for easy access
Price Volume Analysis – Get forecasts for expected volume at different price points and targeting options
Budget Allocation – Maintain complete control over how budgets are allocated across campaigns
Campaign Management Controls – Ability to have full control over campaign delivery
Reporting – View detailed reporting on campaign and creative performance.

“BidPlace unleashes the industry's most powerful advertising technologies and puts them in the hands of advertisers,” said Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “This is the next step in Platform-A's efforts to provide marketers a unified solution for brand advertising at scale and performance advertising across multiple media. BidPlace gives advertisers what they've been asking for -- a more accessible and transparent approach and an ability to adjust the dials to get the best results.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 22, 2008

Moms See Search as Task-Oriented; Websites as Entertainment

Moms are now packing more activity into their day, according to a new data released by AOL's Platform-A. A survey of 7,000 women found that the average internet-using mom reports conducting 27 hours of activities during the day.

On average they spend:

2.6 hours on the internet
2.1 hours of television
1.2 hours a day listening to the radio
30 minutes with newspapers, magazines and games

Parenting was the #1 online activity conducted by moms. They use the internet for advice on parenting and as a resource to help their children learn.

Another popular online activity is shopping

79% of those surveyed use the internet for shopping.
52% use the internet to find coupons or sales.

So how do moms feel about search? They associated the words "task-oriented," "focused," and "interested" with search. 71% use the internet to find information.

Websites were described as "entertainment."

Hopefully, your website is entertaining to moms and offers them coupons or sales. Because 86% report being the primary decision maker in their household.

52% will recommend a good brand to others (another reason why social media is so hot!).

And moms like to share media with their children. 95% of moms share at least one form of media with their children at least once a week. Here's what they share.

79% share television
62% share internet
58% share mobile phone
48% share digital camera
38% share email
33% share games

Do moms fit into your target audience? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 15, 2008

AOL's ADTECH to Provide Ad-Serving Capabilities for React2Media

AOL has announced that ADTECH will provide ad-serving capabilites for React2Media. R2M is a full service online advertising network. ADTECH's ads will be served up on R2M's network of 150 sites, including search portal QuikZilla as well as CookingTown.com.

“With the future of digital advertising unfolding, and TV and the Internet increasingly becoming indistinguishable, React2Media has been able to identify and surpass some of the greatest hurdles in the industry,” said Dirk Freytag, CEO of ADTECH. “Our goal in bringing ADTECH's robust, scalable technology to React2Media is to help them further this impressive progress in the current advertising climate, as well as into the future.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 8:39 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 9, 2008

Back-to-School Offline Purchases Influenced by Online Ads

AOL has released data from a Platform-A study examining the influences of online advertising on offline back-to-school purchasing. Here's what you need to know:

83% of consumers indicate that they're somewhat likely to seek information on promotions they see online.
Women are typically the primary decision-makers for back-to-school purchases.
40% of consumers who buy early are likely to purchase electronic items vs. later shoppers (17%). This suggests that advertisers may want to promote laptops, cell phones and other electronics during the earlier summer months.

“While back-to-school buying remains primarily an offline activity, the survey reveals plenty of opportunity for online marketing to influence back-to-school purchases,” said Stuart Rodnick, Senior Director of the ADlytics group. “As an example, the usefulness of weekly circulars can be extended online where they can be viewed any day of the week and targeted to in-market back-to-school shoppers.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 30, 2008

AOL's Platform-A to Offer Guaranteed CPM to Facebook, Bebo Developers

AOL has announced that its online advertising solution, Platform-A, will offer a guaranteed CPM to third party developers creating Bebo and Facebook applications. But the guarantee comes with a catch: it's only good for the first three impressions for each unique U.S. visitor who visits an approved developer's application.

Boasting one of the highest CPMs in the industry, AOL says the offer is part of WIDGNET™ publisher network launched earlier this year by Platform-A's Advertising.com. WIDGNET brings advertisers and third party developers of widgets and social networking applications together.

“This announcement reinforces Platform-A's commitment to helping developers generate revenue and monetize their Bebo and Facebook applications in the rapidly evolving social networking space. Advertiser interest in social networks is rising at a steady rate, and Platform-A is making an unprecedented flat-fee commitment to help application developers generate revenue and guarantee monetization of their applications,” said Dave Jacobs, Senior Vice President of Publisher Services, Platform-A Advertising.com Networks. “Platform-A views social networking applications as an area where we can add significant value by letting developers focus on expanding their install base, without worrying about monetization of applications.”

Earlier this year, AOL acquired Bebo for $850 million.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

June 6, 2008

AOL's Platform-A Now Available in Europe

AOL has announced the expansion of its online advertising solution, Platform-A, to Europe. The move is a natural one when considering AOL's recent acquisition of UK-based social network Bebo and the European ties existing partners already have:

Advertising.com has sales offices in nine countries in Europe
ADTECH is based in Frankfurt, Germany
buy.at is a leading affiliate network based in the U.K.

“By bringing Platform-A to Europe, we can offer advertisers the best marketing tools and technologies available to help them effectively and efficiently deliver their messages to online audiences across Europe,” said Randy Falco, AOL Chairman and CEO. “This builds on AOL's strong presence in Europe, and positions AOL for growth in three key areas – publishing, people networks, and our advertising network.”

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

April 30, 2008

Future of Search Marketing? Behavior-AOL

Search retargeting and post-click behavioral targeting is the future of search. The future's here - now - with the launch of Platform A's integrated search marketing platform using Tacoda technology.

Call it Platform A.O.L.

ClickZ's reporting that the use of Tacoda technology will begin in June across the whole Platform A network. That means marketers will have a single software platform for tracking, reporting and delivering, and running behavioral marketing campaigns.

For anyone following innovations in search marketing campaigns, that's exciting news.

We're sure some savvy marketer will be the first to design an award-winning search campaign on Platform AOL.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 3:04 PM | Permalink

April 15, 2008

AOL's Platform-A is Top Ad Network for March

Reaching 9 out of 10 Internet Users, AOL's Platform-A was the top ad network in March, according to comScore. The network includes Advertising.com, Quigo and Tacoda and served ads to 170 million U.S. Internet users in March. Advertising.com alone reached more than 167 million Internet users.

Rounding out the top five were the Yahoo! Network with 160 million, the Google Network with 152 million, Specific Media with 145 million and ValueClick Networks with 140 million. The top 15 ad networks each reached at least half of the total U.S. Internet audience in March.

But niche advertisers are beginning to emerge and delivering the ability to target audiences with precision and reduce wasted ad impressions. Notable niche ad networks include Snap Shots Network with a reach of 18 million, AdOn Network at 16 million, GoFish Networks at 9 million and WidgetBucks Networks, also at 9 million.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:10 AM | Permalink

April 14, 2008

Verizon Chooses AOL's Platform-A for Online, Mobile Web Advertising

Verizon has chosen AOL's Platform-A for its online and mobile advertising inventory. Platform-A will account for all of Verizon's online inventory and a majority of their mobile web ad inventory. Additionally, Platform-A has exclusive rights to guaranteed placement within the Verizon network. Other partners will sell on a blind-network basis.

Third Screen Media, Platform-A's mobile ad serving platform, will manage sales of Verizon's mobile web advertising. The platform offers geographic, demographic and content targeting through display and sponsorship opportunities.

“We're pleased to have the opportunity to work with a great partner like Verizon to manage and monetize their online and mobile advertising inventory,” said Lynda Clarizio, president of Platform-A. “More wireless customers choose the Verizon brand than any other, and Verizon has the fastest-growing fiber optic Internet service in the country, and we look forward to helping marketers reach the right people in engaging and measurable ways.”

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:15 AM | Permalink

November 7, 2007

AOL Adds Quigo to Platform A

AOL has confirmed the acquisition of Quigo, a contextual ad network serving text, display and video ads. Quigo's distribution network includes several A-list publishers, including ESPN, Forbes, Time Inc. magazine sites, CareerBuilder, and McClatchy's newspaper sites.

Quigo will be added to AOL's growing Platform A division, formed in September. That unit includes Advertising.com, AOL-run sites, Tacoda, Third Screen Media and AdTech.

AOL parent Time Warner also reported earnings today. AOL advertising revenues rose 13 percent year-to-year to $61 million, which was not enough to counteract a 56 percent plummet in subscription revenues.

Time Warner also announced this week that Chairman and CEO Dick Parsons will step down at the end of the year, and COO Jeff Bewkes will take his place. That move, along with the moves to beef up AOL's ad business, have many guessing that the company will be split up soon.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:41 AM | Permalink

October 31, 2007

Do Not Track List? AOL Letting Users Opt Out of Tracking

The New York Times is reporting that AOL will allow their users to opt out of tracking. This stops the behavioral information collected about visitors activities which is used to determine which ads will be presented.

AOL had a problem with their sharing of this information a couple of years ago when their aggregated information was used to find a specific user by her online activities.

Mention of a "Do Not Track" list similar to the telemarketing "Do Not Call" list could create some interesting developments as people interpret what the do not track is supposed to mean.

If ad tracking cookies become part of this then web analytics and ROI measurements will be difficult to do.

Posted by Frank Watson at 12:14 PM | Permalink

May 16, 2007

AOL on Ad Technology Buying Binge

A day after it announced it would acquire Third Screen Media, a mobile ad technology provider, AOL has now acquired a controlling interest in ADTECH, a German ad network with display ad and e-mail marketing capabilities. ADTECH, like Third Screen Media will be rolled into AOL's Advertising.com business.

While it has been building up its search advertising capabilities through its partnership with Google, AOL has also been building up its non-search ad options, mostly through Advertising.com, which it acquired in 2004. The move is an extension of the strategy AOL embarked on last summer, in which it began moving away from its roots as a dial-up service provider to become an ad-supported media network.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 8:45 AM | Permalink

April 7, 2007

AOL Launches Google-Powered Search Marketplace

As they said they would when they expanded their alliance back in December 2005, AOL and Google are now offering advertisers the ability to buy search ads that will only be seen on AOL Search, using a white-label version of the AdWords platform.

The AOL Search Marketplace will allow marketers to target ads specifically to AOL Search users, and to coordinate search campaigns with other kinds of ads on the AOL Network. The move is an extension of the strategy AOL embarked on last summer, in which it began moving away from its roots as a dial-up service provider to become an ad-supported media network.

AOL's own research, as well as multiple third party reports, have noted a boost in performance when advertisers buy both search and display ads.

AOL will continue to share revenue from ads on its network with Google, though it's not clear whether the arrangement changed with this new implementation. This is the first time Google has offered a white-label version of the AdWords platform.

AOL has also made some changes to its shopping search and local search products. At shopping.aol.com, comparison shopping results previously supplied by Shopzilla have been replaced by results from new partner Pricegrabber. A new AOL Local Search beta has also been launched, sporting a combination of results from AOL-owned MapQuest, AOL CityGuide, and Yellow Pages business listings.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:12 PM | Permalink

February 23, 2007

Veritas Pays $30 Million To Settle AOL Fraud Case

The SEC will receive $30 million from Veritas to settle the AOL advertising fraud case.

AOL and Veritas were found by the SEC to have inflated advertising sales numbers by as much as $20 million.

AOL paid the SEC $200 million in 2005 to settle their part of the case.

AOL paid the larger amount due to greater misconduct and larger accounting exaggerations, the SEC stated.

Veritas “artificially inflated reported revenues in connection with a $20 million round-trip transaction with America Online,” and “to produce what it believed were exceptional or ‘museum quality' financial results, Veritas systematically manipulated its financial results through 2002 by periodically recording and maintaining excess accrued liabilities or cushions in its accrual accounts,” Adotas reported.

Posted by Frank Watson at 2:58 PM | Permalink

April 18, 2006

Search Ad Providers Gaze into their Crystal Balls

Is search advertising slowing down, or just getting started? What new distribution channels are likely to open up in the coming months? Will traditional ad agencies dominate the business? And just how big a problem is click fraud, anyway? Answers to these and many other questions from executives from Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN and IAC in today's SearchDay article, Divining the Future of Search Advertising.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:24 PM | Permalink

January 12, 2006

Search Marketers Will Soon Be Able to Buy Search Ads on Just AOL Properties

A MediaPost article takes a look a closer look at the advertising portion of the recent Google/AOL deal. It includes comments from Mike Kelly, the president of AOL Media Networks, who says that one of the primary benefits of the Google/AOL arrangement from an advertising perspective will allow AOL's sales staff the ability to sell search ads just on AOL properties, something that's currently not possible.

"It's definitely a plus for marketers to have the flexibility to buy on AOL alone," said Joshua Stylman, managing partner at Reprise Media.

Gregg Stewart, senior vice president, channel management and marketing at Fathom Online, agreed. "Marketers will always want to go for precision if given the opportunity."

Marketers have long said anecdotally that AOL search converts at a higher rate.

More in the article: AOL: Google Deal Will Boost Search.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:30 PM | Permalink

December 16, 2005

Sorry Bill and Steve, WSJ Reports Google Near $1 Billion Deal With AOL

If Gates and Ballmer wanted a deal with AOL (Time Warner) as a Christmas gift, it appears that they're not going to get it. The MSFT vs. GOOG game of the "Price is Right" appears to be ending according to this just posted story from the Wall Street Journal: AOL Nears Deal With Google (sub req).

Here are a few key facts and passages from the article by Julia Angwin, Kevin J. Delaney and Dennis K. Berman:

+ AOL and Google are now in "exclusive negotiations." Microsoft has been "shut out" of the negotiations at this point.

+ Google will pay $1 billion for a 5% stake in AOL.

+ "AOL would be able to sell advertising among the search results provided by Google on AOL Web properties." At the moment, sponsored links come from Google...AOL's sales staff would also sell display ads across Google's network of Web publishers."

+ "Google will promote AOL's Web properties among the sponsored links in its search results, and will include AOL's collection of online videos among its search results. Google's arrangement to provide search technology for AOL, which was set to expire at the end of next year, would be extended for five years."

+ Don't look for a deal and/or an announcement until next week after a Time-Warner board meeting.

With multimedia search being one of the hot topics of 2005, I find it interesting that AOL Video, which we've been talking about a lot this year both in terms of content and UI, will be visible in Google results in one form or another. It's obvious that video and video search have been a high priority to the company over the past year and they've done some impressive work. AOL has easy access to lots of video content from Time-Warner, deals with other providers, and also its own multimedia crawler with SingingFish. It will be interesting to see (no pun) if any exclusive video that Google has would/will begin appearing on AOL? Also would future deals that both companies make for video content be made so the material would be accessible on both services? Will the AOL Video database of crawled video content continue to use SingingFish technology or will Google begin to using the SingingFish crawler?

Btw, don't forget that AOL is currently testing (it works great for me) the delivery of high-quality videos while your computer is quiet.

I'm also wondering about future issues with Google and AOL in the instant messaging space. AOL is the leader. Will Google Talk become interoperable with AIM, so the two systems and their users can chat or talk to each other? Earlier this year, MSN and Yahoo announced a deal that will allow users of either service to chat with each other. Would the AIM and Google Talk tech be merged? I could go on with VoIP, broadband, wi-fi, cable tv, and all sorts of other stuff but let's not get way ahead of ourselves.

From the SEW Archives: + Overture & Inktomi Out, Google In At AOL (May 1, 2002) + AOL Moves Fully To Google (August 5, 2002) + AOL Renews With Google (October 8, 2003)

Want to discuss? Check this thread in the SEW Forums.

Postscript: Reuters has now published a story on the still yet to be announced deal. The Google-AOL talks would expand on a relationship which analysts estimate account for 2 percent to 4 percent of Google's revenue on a net basis. AOL uses Google's search engine

Postscript 2: Perhaps the most interesting part of all of this is found (via Searchblog ) in this coverage from the NY Times that says that Google will give AOL preferred placement on the Google site.

Here's the passage: Google, which prides itself on the purity of its search results, agreed to give favored placement to content from AOL throughout its site, something it has never done before.

Does this mean "favored placement" of ads or of organic results? I think before starting to speculate we need to know more on just what Google is thinking here. If Google would start giving "favored placement" for organic results then it would sure be a "wow" moment/change of direction in Google's history. From an advertising standpoint it would be interesting to see how the SEM community would respond. Battelle uses the expression "jump the shark" to describe the NYT passage in his post but adds that it also just might be a "trial balloon."

Of course, it's very unlikely we hear anything official about any of this until next week.

Postscript 3 (Saturday): David Vise's article from the Washington Post on the possible deal. From the article: + AOL also will get the exclusive right to sell online banner ads for Google. AOL will keep about 20 percent of the proceeds from those ad sales, while Google will get about 80 percent.

+ "AOL is a valued partner," Google spokeswoman Lynn Fox said yesterday. "We look forward to continuing to work with them."

+ AOL has provided Google with more than $400 million in ad revenue so far this year, according to public filings.

+ The existing arrangement -- under which Google provides text-based ads and free search results on AOL -- will continue, with AOL keeping 80 percent of those ad proceeds and Google taking 20 percent.

+ One source said AOL will also have the right to buy graphic ads that appear alongside the text-based ads Google traditionally has displayed to the right of its free search results.

+ Google's search results, based on equations that rank them according to relevancy, will not be changed as a result of the new partnership with AOL, sources said.

Postscript 4: See AOL's Choice of Google Leaves Microsoft as the Outsider has more details on AOL having concerns over MSN's new ad network and arguing that its own ad serving software was beter.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:44 PM | Permalink

April 21, 2005

Dialing in to AOL's Pay-Per-Call Program

AOL is offering a new form of search advertising called pay-per-call, an appealing alternative to pay-per-click programs for businesses that don't have web sites, but also to any business that wants direct human contact with prospective customers.

Today's SearchDay article, A Closer Look at Pay-per-Call Search Marketing, talks about the benefits of the program for all advertisers, including a potential "triple play" for savvy search marketers that can take advantage of the newness of the program to garner three listings on a search result page.

A longer version of this story for Search Engine Watch members provides detailed instructions for enrolling in Ingenio's pay-per-call program, including ad guidelines, how to determine competitors' bids and the performance reporting provided by the company.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 9:18 AM | Permalink

April 15, 2005

AOL Introduces Pay-Per-Call Ads

AOL Search has quietly launched a pay-per-call advertising program, powered by Ingenio. The program is similar to pay-per-click programs offered by Google, Overture and others, with several key differences. Pay-per-call ads appear at the top of sponsored links in AOL Search results, and display a toll-free number in the search result. Clicking on the ad directs the searcher to an information page with a description and additional details about the advertiser, rather than to a landing page on the advertiser's web site.

I'm planning an in-depth look at AOL's new program next week. Meanwhile, check out the SearchDay article Pay-Per-Call: A New Avenue for Search Marketers, or if you can't wait to sign up, visit Ingenio to learn more.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:11 AM | Permalink

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