Example of Bad Timing

Today during my usual routine of checking "www.timesofindia.com".I witnessed a worst timing of an advert.

The website content on top reading, related to " Sensex down" and we see on the right an advert, campaigning to invest in FOREX. I am unsure whether the website has done Keyword/contextual targeting.But we can imagine from this that implementing this kind of targeting might also gives you surprises :-)

Conclusion:It is nobody's mistake just a bad timing

Tips for Testing Campaigns

I was pondering for a while on the topic to post.At last managed to get a topic for today.The post would focus on few ideas to test new ad and creative type on live environment.When you traffickers receive any new creative/ad format which you wanted to know how it would look on the live publisher, here are the ways you can carry out this test

• Live testing of campaigns MUST be executed in short time.Once the test ad is live, test what you needed, and turn it off instead running it for days(which is a huge mess)

• Always check for the preview and click through on the ad server before going to make live

• If you wanted to do a quick test, book huge inventory, set highest priority, and scheduled it for one day(simply traffic as exclusive/roadblock campaigns).So this test ad becomes live as soon as the Ad server pushes.Note very very importantly this type of test should be finished in short time, say 10 ~15 min after the ad server pushes.Else, it would results in unnecessary impressions delivery and also would compete with other premium advertisements running.So be utmost careful while executing this

• Another good practice is to target.By this you actually reduce the competition with actual live ads scheduled.Pick the less traffic page group of the publisher to target.Usually the publisher would have less ads scheduled, so the possibility of competing is less

• You can also geo-target .Idea is , you target the test ad to to your local(country/state/city)this way you narrow down and keep yourself out of competing with scheduled ads.Example if you are in india further drill down to city level say " chennai/bangalore/mumbai" which is your target city
  

Testing campaign on live environment is a good practice, but do abide your limits and its impact.Always carry out within shorter time and immediately turn off once testing is done.More the testing time, more the inventory loss and higher the cost we would be liable to ad server vendors.

Now Ad delivery on PDF, Adode joins Yahoo

Adobe has joined with Yahoo to create an Ad delivery system for pdf files that publishers offers in the form of newsletter, Daily bulletin,.etc.

Adobe is planning to publish contextual adverts relevant to the PDF content in the form of Advert links on the PDF files.Sources say that, the advert be published in the side pane of the document and When an user tries to print out, the Advert links would be disappeared in the printed page.Yahoo has been specifically roped in to, energise the ad delivery system.

Though, the effort is appreciateble, but unsure how much avenue it brings to pump in the revenue, unless we know the online market share of adobe.Also adobe recently acquired Buzz word, an online word processor tool.All these actions are a clear indicator of Adobe's foray into online advertising market.

Welcome Aboard Adobe !

Doubleclick's DFP going Web2.0

These days I find hardly enough time to spend, some time on my blog.Today during my daily routine of checking my favourite website, I came to know that Doubleclick has come with a widget feature for it's publisher solution DFP.Doubleclick announced the availability of the DART® for Publishers (DFP) Dashboard, an innovative, time-saving solution for ad operations professionals. The new DFP Dashboard combines Web 2.0 flexibility, intuitive functionality and vivid graphical displays – transforming common advertising operations tasks such as monitoring campaign performance and troubleshooting delivery issues.

Screenshot

With the DFP Dashboard, information is presented in customizable tools called widgets designed to enable users to configure their dashboards to show the information most relevant to their role. This new tool is fully integrated with DFP and included at no additional cost to all existing DFP users.

For More details Click Here !

AD blocker a decisive?

It's sometime now, quite abuzz surrounding the wide spread of Ad blocker softwares.And due to this, Online players are much worried about the gaining functionality and popularity of Ad blockers..

But Ad blockers a real threat to online advertising?

What do you think when something is ruining your 13.7Bill display advertising market?
Perhaps I’ll say NO for now. But I cannot deny the fact that the situation might soon change.

What is the possible outcome from Ad Blockers?

• It Limits the reach of Audience for the online marketers (Users blocking ads)
• Leads to revenue loss of Ad server providers (Impressions does not count)
• Again, revenue loss to the publisher and also losses advertisers (No conversions)

So, the list continues...

To stress on, recently launched firefox addon "Ad block Plus" is creating panic waves as it blocks about 90% of ads on a website. I tried it and found blocking all 3 rd party ad server links and re-direct links. It works well with Firefox, so I dug out on details about Firefox.See the image below the market share of all web browsers

Provided by: www.netapplications.com

The Firefox share is 14.85%, the total online population is 6 bill, so we have 976 mill Firefox users, which is Huge population. Among this 976Mil how many users have active ad blocker is my Question? Unfortunately, unable to get the answer.

How do we override this problem?

Many publishers have created redirects to pages asking Firefox visitors to disable Ad blockers so as to see their website. Some Publishers annoyed to such extent that they have totally blocked their Firefox visitors.I see this situation similar to the one online advertising industry faced in the development of pop up blockers. Lots of pop up blocking tools have come, but equal amount of anti blocking code has been associated with pop up ads to override.

Online players must realize the importance of breaking this clutter. Publisher/Ad server should associate Anti blocking codes along with actual ads for display. When new ad blocker comes, proportionally Anti ad blocking software should be updated.

I, strongly feel this is the wakeup call for all online players/online advertising governing body, to think about this serious problem in the making and help us with an effective Antidote.

War Of CEO's-RightMedia DrivePM and Doubleclick

I came across an interesting article in Adotas which penned the oral war between CEO"s of Doubleclick, Microsoft's Drive PM and RightMedia

Little long article, but I guess whoever belongs to online industry would like it

With the occasional jab, duck and left hook three leaders of the internet advertising industry faced off in person at the Right Media Open conference on Tuesday to debate the future of ad exchanges and online advertising. Showing up to the panel representing their advertising business and future ad exchange was Scott Howe, President, Microsoft’s DrivePM, Mike Walrath, CEO of Right Media, and David Rosenblatt, CEO of DoubleClick. The discussion that started with a friendly round of respectful back slapping quickly moved to reflect the competitive and cut throat race each leader is in.

Each panelist was quick to start trumpeting the strengths of their respective ad platforms. While Mr. Rosenblatt calmly answered what differentiates DoubleClick’s ad exchange from Right Media’s, Walrath was clearly irritated by his response and image that only DoubleClick’s exchange had premium publishers, “One of the key differences is that we have top premium publishers,” said Rosenblatt. In response Walrath pointed out the status of his new employer, “Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t Yahoo one of the largest premium publishers on the Internet?” he said.

This battle of ad dominance is marked by the ongoing and expensive consolidation between the titans. Yahoo’s acquisition of Right Media in April for $680 million, Microsoft’s acquisition of aQuantive in May for $6 billion, and Google’s hopeful swallowing of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, highlight the importance of dominating the technology, supply and the demand. While being asked about why Microsoft was the right partner for aQuantive and DrivePM, Howe put on his best sales pitch, “Building ad technology is very complex and Microsoft’s strong history of software development will help us win the ad technology war. We have big big plans for AdEcn and our ad serving platform. Microsoft brings the resources to the table to compete.”

Acquisitions are typically marked with frustration and failure as companies with different DNA attempt to get married. However the competitive heat was strong enough here that each group preferred to highlight how conflict wasn’t the case with these integration efforts. Howe was more pronounced than normal with his excitement, “The cultural integration is going extremely well and we’re very lucky to have the Microsoft resources and money behind us, before we were a small company with little money and limitations. We realized that in order to win, Microsoft was the right partner.”

While the bicoastal relationship between the New York based Right Media and California based Yahoo may be a saving grace as the Right Media team continue to build their business while integrating one bicoastal flight after another, “The cultural integration with Yahoo has been good, they have a real commitment to openness and get it,” said Walrath. Rosenblatt was unable to address the specifics of integration between Google and DoubleClick as he continues to face legal review and approval of the deal.

While each company fights it out in the market, one of the more sensitive topics was the Google and DoubleClick acquisition. With the latest calls of anti-trust and for Government intervention to stop the acquisition, Rosenblatt was put on the hot seat with questions to defend the acquisition, “It defies commonsense to say that with this acquisition, with all the competitive companies out there, plus Microsoft’s competitive plans, we would kill competition. This deal is very pro-competition.” Microsoft has lobbied to have the acquisition stopped and Howe was quick to point out the issue, “As standalone companies DoubleClick and Google enhance competition, no doubt, but together they cover over 80% of the display market, this is very serious cause for worry.” Rosenblatt deflected the point by repeating that they were different and there was no conflict, “DoubleClick is an ad delivery company and Google isn’t.” Howe repeated his sound bite, “As standalone companies it’s not a problem, together it’s dangerous.”

Walrath was happy to point out that networks and exchanges are like church and state, “The conflict here is AdSense, which is a network, when a platform like an ad exchange or ad server and a network come together into one you have inherent conflicts.”Of course the consumer related concerns of such a merger surround the data and consumer privacy. Rosenblatt was quick to point out that he doesn’t speak for Google, but that privacy is very important to protect and consumers own their data, “We will work very hard to protect consumer privacy and we do not see much changing there.” DoubleClick has a controversial history of privacy concerns and Walrath was quick to summarize his view of the real problem, “You do not need to have a breach to have a problem, the perception to consumers is that their data is vulnerable, this is the real issue.”

The race to establish closed platforms, gather customers and win dominance is typically how markets are initially successful, however it was interesting to hear all three leaders say they would be happy to interconnect with other ad exchanges and support interoperability. “The economics of exchange businesses and networks aren’t so different. If companies want to be in both businesses I would support that and promote interoperability with other exchanges,” said Walrath.

Rosenblatt was quick to point out that he would be glad to connect with Right Media. It is unlikely that this will happen anytime soon as each company is working hard to sign up customers and create differentiators. Overall the panel demonstrated a strong mutual respect for their competition, but as each panelist repeated over and over that it is still very early in the race, it became obvious how important it is to establish early market dominance and make their ad exchange the platform of choice.

History has a tendency to repeat itself with Internet companies and being first to market isn’t necessarily a good thing. Microsoft has a track record of coming from behind and improving on the innovations of others. Large acquisitions and integrations have been known to take a nimble innovative start-up to mass bureaucracy resembling the DMV. Typically it’s not the existing list of players who win in the end; it’s the one we haven’t heard of yet. Maybe this is a good time to reflect on the history and experiences of AOL, Netscape, and even DoubleClick to understand how to survive change

AdBid Central-Internet Marketing made simple?

AdBidCentral a new tool, which integrates media buying and selling process on a single platform.The system basically simplifies the complexities involved in everyday media buying/selling activities.The Ad bid central has got a in built search engine, which allows media buyers to search for their suitable ad space and also media sellers to search for their prospect media buyers.The search engine has options which you can use to filter down to suitable search results.

Further to this, the system also allows media buyers to upload creative units and send to media sellers for campaign activation.Also media buyers and sellers can monitor the campaign performance in real time.

You can find more information on AdBidCentral

SmartAds, Dynamic Ads followed by Adroit

DesignBlox has recently introduced its product "Adroit" which has the capability of changing the flash creative in a fly in realtime.I would like to re-call my previous article about TribalFusion's Dynamic Ads and Yahoo's SmartAds, all has the same capability.

What is Adroit?

Adroit, powered by DesignBlox, is an ASP-based platform that allows advertisers to instantaneously alter components of Flash display ads in real time without having to redesign, rebuild or re-traffic an existing ad, allowing a single ad template to become unlimited versions of itself.

The platform can sequence messages based on any number of key behavioral variables that are defined by the user, and Adroit enabled ads can be populated via external databases or RSS feeds.

• Can be used with any Flash display ad (including expandable and floating ad units)
  
• Works with any ad server, publisher or network
• Tracks unique users across multiple serving environments.

How Adroit Works

The power of Adroit begins with intelligent display ad templates, which are trafficked just like any other Flash ad. Our proprietary action scripting connects the templates to our web-based creative management system, enabling users to change ads manually in real time, dynamically compile ads based on behavior and business rules, and construct automated tests.

Adroit technology also includes A/B and multivariate testing capabilities that help to determine the effectiveness of individual ad components; including messaging and banner images.

Source: DesignBlox

Ad Server features which helps Media Planners

I am writing this article essentially, for all online media planners.I would discuss, the most commonly available ad server features which, would help all the media planners out there, to do an efficient media plan and productive campaign execution.I would highly recommend, all the planners to gain some basic ad server feature knowledge from the publisher ad serving person/Traffickers.

Frequency capping:It is a feature, which allows one, to set a limit to the number of times an advert shown to a given user at a given interval.

Example:A Frequency cap of 1 in 1 hour.For this setting, the Ad server would throw an advert to an unique user only once in one hour.

Ad Priority:Every ad server would allow, to set priority to an ad delivery.If you want, your campaign to deliver fast, you can check with Ad serving person to set higher priority to deliver fast.Similarly, you can reduce priority for slower delivery.

Even delivery:This option would ensure that, through out the campaign period the impression burn rate is consistent.No surge and spike in impression burn.You can check, for the availability of this feature.

Daily capping:This feature allows to set a daily impression limit for a campaign.Once this limit is met, the campaign would not run for the rest of the day.

Category Set:By this feature, we can restrict the display of similar products of other advertisers appearing on the same time on the same page.Media planners can check with an ad serving person for this feature so as to ensure other advertiser's similar product does not get displayed when your advert is shown.

Companion positions:Sometimes if you have two campaigns of same advertiser on two different ad slots on a same page, the problem is both the advert might appear at the same time.Is not the inventory waste if you do a performance based campaign?In order to avoid this you can set the Ad server accordingly.This would stop the same advertiser's advert appears on the same time on the same page.Thereby, saving loads of inventory.

Targeting options:There are wide range of targeting options available.You can target based on area code, Zip code, Postal code, telephone code, city, country, state, operating system, browser, User behavior, Age, Gender, Internet Bandwidth, Time and Day,.. etc.So, use it.

Creative delivery:Many ad servers would have various options to deliver a creative based on its"Weightage, Clicks and Impressions". So, check with your ad trafficker if you want to manually increase weightage of your creative or setup can be made on the Ad server to optimize the creative based its upon impressions and clicks.

As jotted few features there would be lots many more which can help significantly help you .So, remember to spend some time to prepare a detail Ad server feature list and their use of every publisher you work with.Because, this would help you not only to Media plan but also to run efficient campaigns.

Instantwonder-Ad Delivery system for IM's

EyeWonder, Inc., rich media and digital video’s fastest growing innovator,today announced the launch of InstantWonder™, an exclusive offering making it easier for online advertisers and agencies to deliver rich media and video advertising units across five of the world’s largest instant messenger clients. Now, through one rich media provider, media planners and buyers can efficiently reach any combination of the very large and desirable audiences of:

• AOL’s Instant Messenger (AIM®)

• ICQ® Instant Messenger

• MSN’s Window’s Live™ Messenger

• MySpace’s MySpaceIM Messenger

• Yahoo! Messenger

“Instant messaging is the dominant and fastest growing communication tool among both highly coveted young adult audiences and business people who use it daily in their office environments. The fact that EyeWonder enables advertisers a one-stop delivery mechanism across five of the top IM clients is a dream come true for online advertisers and agencies,” said Michael Griffin, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, EyeWonder. “With one InstantWonder creative execution, advertisers can reach Super Bowl-sized audiences online, creating tremendous synergies in media planning, buying and production. Of course, this translates to stronger bottom-line ROI and results for EyeWonder’s customers.”

EyeWonder is currently working with several top agencies and brands to leverage the InstantWonder offering to deliver rich media and digital video across all five platforms. Instant messaging dominates online teen life and the daily routines of business people in the workplace. Approximately 66 percent of teens and young adults now send more IMs than emails. Additionally, Gartner has recently projected that by 2013, IM will be the de facto choice for enterprise-based real-time communications, serving as the nexus for voice, video and text exchanges. Moreover, three-quarters of instant messenger users are online everyday, and spend several hours per day live within their messaging application. InstantWonder is the first solution approved to deliver video and rich media ads to this set of unique and desirable audiences, which each number in the tens of millions.

EyeWonder pioneered rich media and digital video advertising on instant messenger platforms in 2003 with its integration into AOL’s Instant Messenger (AIM). Since that time, EyeWonder has powered thousands of campaigns delivering billions of impressions across AOL and the other top messenger clients that followed. EyeWonder-powered campaigns were officially accepted on the ICQ Instant Messenger in 2005. The recent additions of MSN’s Window’s Live Messenger, MySpace’s MySpaceIM Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger round out the InstantWonder offering and represent a unique set of the top messengers that only EyeWonder can provide.

Source:Eyewonder, Click Here for more details