_This article is by guest contributor Karel Wegert._
Over the past several years, I have been running a variety of online ad campaigns across industry specific Web sites. Because my company was selling what might loosely be defined as a niche product, specifically automotive accessories, I was immediately drawn to online communities and subject-specific message forums because they could put us in touch with our target market much more easily.
After running banners consistently across a core group of 20 to 30 sites, we were garnering a good average weekly click-through rate. In an attempt to reach an even broader market, however, we began looking at some of the larger sites that are run by industry-specific magazines. Naturally, we encountered a major difference. As is the standard in the industry, the magazine sites were selling ads on a CPM basis. The vast majority of the Web community sites we had purchased media from sold their placements for a flat fee; each creative would be displayed an equal number of times per month, with no limit to the overall number of impressions delivered. So we were eager to see what kind of results the magazines’ CPM-approach would yield.
Category: Banners & Buttons
Where's the ad index?
Published November 4, 2005
I was browsing on MochaSofa today (prompted from an email of course!), and caught a glimpse of a contest I really would like to enter — but too late! I’d already clicked to get to another page. Try as I might, refresh would not bring that ad back!
Why do the majority of sites not have the online equivalent of the advertiser index?
The race between online display advertising and paid search ads to acquire ad dollars (and advertiser attention) is heating up. “A new report”:http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3550221 from JupiterResearch is predicting that paid search revenues will “outpace” display advertising by 2010.
With its pay-for-performance model and reliability where delivering a positive return on investment is concerned, we all knew search engine advertising was going to be huge. There’s some concern, however, that advertisers are relying too heavily on their paid search campaigns. The pay-per-search industry (as it was once known) got its start supporting display campaigns, after all; if banner placements were the jabs thrown at a fellow boxer for show, then the paid search placements were the uppercut that ensured a knockout performance. Increasingly, though, advertisers are forgoing display ads, choosing instead to rely almost entirely on the more dependable search variety. Is this a wise decision?