NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Top 10 Controversies?
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Top 10 Controversies?
Bob Stewart (rstewart_at_vmirror.com)
Mon, 18 May 1998 10:27:13 -0400
At 08:57 AM 5/14/98 -0700, Heidi Kay wrote:
>-- If you care only about clicks or widgets sold, you would need a return
>four times greater on the $40 site than on the $10 site. That means the
>viewers from the $40 site must be either four times more likely to click or
>spend four times as much than the viewers from the $10 site (depending on
>how you measure ROI).
>
>-- If you care about ROI and branding, or presence on a particular site,
>then maybe the $40 includes the $20 CPM that you're willing to pay just to
>appear on that particular site (branding). In that case, you would need a
>return that's only twice as great on the $40 site than on the $10 site.
>That's because half of your ROI from this site is clicks, half is branding.
I think what Heidi is saying is obviously true. The questions are, how good
is the targeting and how much is the "branding" worth?
I am still pretty new to this, but it seems to me a lot of these buys use
questionable logic.
In one case, I have a friend who has a pretty popular art site. He was
talking to a company that sells art prints about buying ads at $10 CPM. His
site offers very good targeting, but has no brand really. I don't think
this company ever bought, but meanwhile they were buying keywords from
Excite. The rate card on these is $70 CPM. Maybe they only paid $40? Still,
that would be 300% more than the small site charges. The demographics are
going to be almost identical. How in the world could an Excite ad be worth
three times as much?
I just don't think you see this in other media. My biggest site is a
gardening site, so I have looked at ad rates in gardening magazines. No one
in this field has a better brand name than "Better Homes & Gardens." Yet,
because their demographics aren't quite as good as some of the upscale
magazines, their CPM is lower.
With these magazines, rates seem to operate with a certain logic. You pay a
higher CPM for ads in "Country Living," not because it's slicker, but
because it's readership has a higher average income.
But Excite and Yahoo really don't offer any better demographics. So why is
placement there more valuable then somewhere else offering similar targeting?
It seems to me it's based solely on the profile of the site in question.
Excite and Yahoo have high profiles, so people want to advertise there. And
if I advertise my brand on Yahoo I have an implied association with their
success. Is that the logic at work here?
BTW, I don't know how this effects the question of "branding," but a few
months ago I saw an ad for the Unification Church on Yahoo. ;-)
Bob Stewart
The Virtual Mirror
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