Privacy is a big buzz topic this week, with the FTC mulling the idea of a "Do Not Track" list, and Facebook unveiling its new Safety Center. But a new service is aiming to put privacy power back in the hands of the people by aggregating the information advertisers are collecting on them and providing them with some input as to whether these interest assumptions are an accurate part of their personal profiles.
San Francisco-based Bynamite's platform is based on the assertion that consumers should be in control of -- and even rewarded for -- the information that advertisers gather and leverage about them. According to the company's website, Bynamite manages opt-out preferences across ad networks, and serves as a watchdog to make sure they obey those preferences. By installing the Bynamite platform, users can see all the interests they've been tagged with, based on their browsing habits, and add or delete those interests to create a more accurate picture of what products and services they do and don't want to be messaged about.
For example, while writing this post, Bynamite popped up to alert me of my newly identified interests in Business/Compensation & Benefits (hmm, not so much); Internet (well, duh); News/Newspapers... Read more
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Tags: Ad Networks, Privacy
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NAI Probes Real Economic Value of Behavioral Advertising
Whatever you call it - behavioral targeting, audience targeting, behavioral advertising- it has been the subject of much back and forth regarding best practices, how to implement it effectively, etc. But when you get down to it, the important thing, and the reason we debate all the other stuff, is that targeted advertising works.
To examine this important issue, the NAI recently commissioned Prof. Howard Beales, former Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to conduct a study on the value of behavioral advertising using actual data from 12 participating ad networks.
The key findings were:
(1) Advertising rates are significantly higher for behaviorally targeted ads. The average CPM for behaviorally targeted advertising is just over twice the average CPM for run of network advertising. On average across participating networks, the price of behaviorally targeted advertising in 2009 was 2.68 times the price of run of network advertising.
According to the second finding, it is commanding the higher price because:
(2) Advertising using behavioral targeting is more successful than standard run of network advertising, creating greater utility for consumers from more relevant advertisements and clear appeal for advertisers from increased ad conversion.
And the rates advertisers pay translate to... Read more
Tags: Ad Networks, nai, Targeting
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Advertising Networks & Quality 101
The following column was written by Brett Lofgren, senior vice president of global advertising sales, at Epic Advertising.
I get asked a lot about "quality" when it comes to ad networks. Quality is a very general term when applied to online marketing. However, even though the term may seem vague, there are some very discernable areas of value that quality networks provide to advertisers and publishers alike. In short, every great ad network should have a focus on quality, because if the traffic going through your network is poor or fraudulent, it creates problems for everyone.
The topic is so important, in fact, that there is an area of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) devoted solely to consistently maintaining and updating a set of standardized guidelines for advertising networks called the Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines. The guidelines are intended for networks and exchanges that drive online transactions with marketers and agencies. Epic Advertising's CMO, Mike Sprouse (who usually pens this column), is on the member committee, and many other reputable networks are also represented.
At its core, ad networks provide advertisers with immense scale and reach in an efficient way. They also offer advertisers a significant pricing advantage. Networks work with... Read more
Tags: Ad Networks, advertising networks, brett lofgren, epic advertising, interactive advertising bureau, online advertising, online intelligence
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For Premium Web Publishers: Monetize Through Advertising or Subscriptions?
For anyone who is familiar with online advertising, you no doubt have read stories about how convoluted it is. You might have read stories about CPM's fluctuating, more Web sites and publishers tinkering with a subscription model to offset pressure-packed margins from advertising, or even one story written in Mediaweek on the heels of the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) Annual Meeting subtitled "Web publishers totally screwed or aren't they?"
For anyone confused with how complex online advertising has become, you can thank the lack of complexity (and effectiveness) from traditional offline media, particularly print. Years ago, if you wanted to run an advertisement in a magazine that you felt fit your demographic, you would reach out to a magazine and they would quote you a price based on a "market-based" CPM. You would negotiate, and then place the advertisement. If a big brand advertiser, you would target high-end and high-cost publishers that fit your clientele and brand image. Direct-response advertisers might instead opt for advertising in a channel with a lower cost, such as Sunday circulars, knowing the campaign's success was based on a quantifiable ROI. The two advertising worlds rarely actually had reason to collide.
Technology, and the growth of the... Read more
Tags: ad age, Ad Networks, audience targeting, CPA, cpm, financial times, interactive advertising bureau, online advertising, print advertising, traditional media, Wall Street Journal
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Advertising and the iPad: Are you ready?
Mobile content consumption is changing. Mobile no longer means your cell phone… it now includes anytime you're on the go: Kindles, iPads, MP3 players, PSPs, GPS devices, etc. As exponential growth continues in mobile internet, expect the mobile app market to follow suit.
The iPhone changed the game for mobile advertising but the iPad will change the game for online ad networks. Although mobile players are touting support for the iPad, online ad networks have the means to directly compete for this new screen's real estate.
The iPad is a big iPod touch. Period. The iPad essentially doubles the screen size for mobile apps to 640x960 pixels - the full screen size of the iPad is 1024x768. The predominant ad unit size on mobile smart phones today is 300x50 (MMA standard X-Large Ad Unit) along with a sliver of 300x250 (IAB standard box unit). The large real estate on iPad-specific apps now enables more IAB ad units to live on the screen: 468x60, 120x600 and 728x90. Get excited online ad networks – you already have this inventory!
However, you should expect engagement rates to drop. Ever wonder why CTR's are so much higher on mobile apps than they are on the web?... Read more
Tags: Ad Networks, Apple, flash, ipad, iPhone, online advertising
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