Re: Ad Serving and Banner Advertising

From: Steve Johnston <gargoyle_at_rcn.com>
Date: Wed 19 Jan 2000 22:00:58 -0500

Having read all of the discussions regarding ad serving
and banner advertising, I decided that it was time to
chime in. As a preface, I actually work for one of the
companies that produce ad serving/management software.
Without blatantly advertising our wares, I would like
to make these comments:

First of all, linkexchanges and affiliate programs are
the least useful and effective means for advertisers to
obtain targeted delivery of their ads and reports of
any real usefulness. For the site owners, these ads
that they display are usually not very well targeted
and only serve to annoy their visitors and clutter up
their sites.

While in many cases they are pay-per-click, it just
goes back to the old adage, "You get what you pay for."
If an advertiser is selling wedding supplies and and
their ad is placed through an exchange on a site which
serves content for children...the banners won't do to
well. At the same time, they offer no way of measuring
who is clicking on the banner. thus you could have a
high click-thru rate, but it could be all of the wrong
people, i.e. children, clicking thru.

On the other side, web sites which display these ads,
detract from the experience of their visitors. By
displaying ads that are unrelated and randomly placed,
the vistor's experience is less personal and positive.
By the same token, if you serve your own ads with a
reputable ad serving software, you can add to the
personalized experience of your visitors and guarrantee
your advertisers targeted delivery of their ads. Some
ad serving solutions, such as Open AdStream and Ad
Server also offer some robust reporting capabilities.
The key here is control.

Another factor is this: with the rising concern
amongst consumers and surfers about privacy, the issue
of control over visitor data is becoming more
important. If you are using a third-party ad serving
solution or network, you are in essence giving up
control of your visitor's data and also giving away the
store. Keep in mind, your demographic data is your way
of backing up your pricing and maintaining your
advertisers. Your content and work go into drawing
visitors and collecting this information...so why would
you give it away for free, then pay someone else to run
your ads and lose revenue?

    Steve Johnston
    Real Media, Inc..
    www.realmedia.com
    johnston_at_realmedia.com





Received on Wed Jan 19 2000 - 21:00:58 CST