re: ONLINE-ADS>> selling ad space

rhoy_at_tenagra.com
Tue, 30 Sep 1997 20:19:07 -0500 (CDT)

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sandy fleischer <funkfish_at_hotmail.com> asked:

>What will companies that I solicit ads from need to know before they can
>make a decision as to whether they want to advertise or not.

Sandy,

This is a particularly sensitive issue for me right now, as I am doing
buying research for a major chemical company on several niche chemical
sites. All of the sites I am looking at are serving less than 20,000
impressions per month. I am going through serious frustration with some of
them. Here are the two main failings I see:

1.) They have a superficial understanding of how ads are valued online.

Some are pricing ads the same way they would price a display ad in a
magazine, which leads to incredibly overpriced banners when compared to the
rest of the market. For example, I'm getting quotes of $3,000 per month for
16,000 impressions ($187.50 CPM) on one of these sites. Yet most of the
competing sites can deliver a similar audience for $17 CPM to $50 CPM. When
I bring this price discrepancy to their attention, they stammer out some
vague reasons why their traffic is "more" qualified. The fact is they don't
know who their competitors are or what those competitors are selling.

2.) They don't know the terminology of or how to converse intelligently
about the industry.

Some sales reps insist on selling me banners based on how many visits or
hits their site is getting. This is useless information. What I really want
to know is how many times will my banner get shown in a month. (Some reps
seem stunned when I ask this.)

Here is an excerpt from one conversation I had with a sales rep (the same
one who wanted to charge me a $187.50 CPM)

ME: how many impressions are you delivering on the main page per month?

HER: we are getting 15,000 visitors per month.

ME: 15,000 visitors? You are making people register/login so that you can
uniquely identify them?

HER: a...no.

ME: so you are getting 15,000 VISITS per month.

HER: a yea...

ME: well, can you at least tell me how many times the HTML of the main page
is loaded per month? That will tell me how many impressions you can deliver
in a month.

HER: a... let me get back on that....

So here is some simple advice for you that will make media buyers like me happy:

1.) Know how many impressions you can deliver on each page on which you
sell banners.

2.) Know what your competition is charging and price your banners
competitively.

3.) Be prepared to tell a buyer on exactly which pages his/her banners will run

4.) Learn the industry and the lingo. Two great books just out are:

"Advertising on the Internet" by Robbin Zeff and Brad Aronson
Wiley Computer Publishing, Jul.97

"What Makes People Click, Advertising on the Web" by Jim Sterne
Que Education & Training, Sept. 97

5.) Don't ever say, "Our site is getting XXXX hits per month."

Hope this helps,

richard
moderator

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