Re: CPA vs. CPM the issue? "The Meat"

From: John Gaskill <jg_at_info-central-usa.com>
Date: Tue 10 Jul 2001 11:08:21 -0500

JANET ATTARD <attard_at_businessknowhow.com> WROTE:

>Newspapers and magazines have long been metered in terms
>of response to advertising. What is the big deal?

>I think all that any of us who are publishers are asking
>is that we are held ONLY to the same standards print
>publications are. It's our job to create and deliver
>audiences. That's what other media, do, too. But if they
>aren't held responsible for the number of people who read
>more than the ad headline, even SEE the ad headline
>(assuming they don't read every page in every pubication,
>or sit watch every commercial on every TV show), then
>why should we be treated any differently.

If online publications were the SAME as offline publications
this discussion would not be taking place.

No physical magazine I have encountered ever had a
single ad on the page which "refreshed" after thirty seconds
and became a different ad. No printed, physical magazine
I have seen had full motion video ads or ads which "jumped"
across the copy I was trying to read on that page.

Web sites are not magazines or newspapers.

>Audiences for quality sites like ours and many others on
>this list have audiences who are influenced by branding.

I am not at odds with your desire to obtain higher advertising
rates for your publication and advertisers willing to pay those
rates. It is my opinion that any publisher who wants to get
more than going "market rates" must justify those rates to
advertisers by providing some kind of evidence that they
are reasonable unless they are so low as to be reasonable
on their face.

Magazines and newspapers offer demographics and
audited circulation figures. Do you provide a copy of your
site log to all advertisers for the period they advertise?

>They will go to a store to look at a product they've seen
>on a site - or on many sites.

You have no dispute with me over the power of well done
ads to produce some branding effects on web sites.

>The same is true for services. And for direct click
>throughs. How many times, on how many sites has any
>individual seen an ad before clicking through. And how
>many times do they click through- again from different
>sites - before making a decision? <snip>

I can't answer these questions any better than you can.
At least in the physical publishing world, an advertiser
can "test copy" or include a "redemption offer" to see if
an ad pulls. The click through is the closest corollary.

>In direct mail, any company that stays in business will
>test one thing at a time to find out what works. You can't
>test "one thing" at a time on the web when you have an ad
>agency place an ad on a network of differnet sites. In
>fact, you can't test anything, IMHO, since there are too
>many variables.. everything from slight - or big -
>differences in the audience to how long the page takes to
>load, to whether the color of the ad is so bland or so
>similar to any page it shows up on that it just fades
>into the background.

BANG! You hit the nail on the head... there are TOO MANY
VARIABLES for the client or advertiser to control with many
of the existing delivery models, and the publisher is the
lowest rung on the ladder at the present time.

To offer advertisers true advertising utility you probably need to
deliver your own ads and probably need to work with advertisers
on an individual basis to find out what works and what doesn't.

<snip>
> Advertisers might find it preferable for the online world
> to develop their own in-house agencies. They'd pay less
> and the small publishers would get more, and if they took
> the effort to clue the small publishers in on how to sell their
> product, the advertiser would get more out of their ad
> dollars, too.

I don't think it is the job of advertisers to teach publishers
how to charge more for their advertising. It seems more
equitable to me in the short and long run that publishers
interested in getting more for their advertising space have
to understand what they are selling, find the right buyers
and make a package that works for both parties. If that
requires learning new things on the publisher's part, so
be it.

A semi-simplistic primer on the subject has been prepared
and posted at:

http://info-central-usa.com/site-ads

to benefit publishers interested in helping themselves
to a brighter future. I'm not sure it applies to big publishers
with fat contracts already in hand, but I think it offers
some insights that can ultimately be taken to the bank by
many smaller publishers.

Regards all,

John Gaskill
jg_at_info-central-usa.com
Beta Testers Wanted
http://Info-Central-USA.com/index3.htm



Received on Tue Jul 10 2001 - 11:08:21 CDT