Goodway 2.0's president explains why your fear of ad networks no longer applies and what to do to ensure your experience is painless -- and ROI-filled.

Hi, my name is Jay Friedman and I buy ad networks. Unfortunately that's the way many buyers feel -- as if buying networks requires ANA (Ad Networks Anonymous) treatment.  It's just not so. You see, ad networks have come a long way. If you're not using them you may just be missing out. 

Before I get in too deep, let me clarify two things. In developing our relationships with various networks, we had no vested interest in using ad networks over portals or single sites. Second, we have no formal relationship with any individual network, and this article won't reference or promote one either. With full disclosure out of the way, let's begin the confessions.

Confession #1: I know exactly on which sites my ads may appear.
The number one fear of networks is that, "I don't know where my ads will appear and I absolutely can't risk bad brand association." Unless you're working with a blind network (if you do, you're on your own on this one) there is nothing to worry about. Even the largest networks with 5,000-10,000 sites provide a full site list. "Not true," you might say, suggesting that most networks buy unsold portal and other large site space and don't disclose it. You can get around this problem easily. We tell networks from which we buy that they may include non-disclosed sites only if a) they are in the comScore 100 and b) they are not on the list of comScore 100 sites we don't allow. Some of our clients want to stay away from social networking, which are two of the top 10 sites. So, we cross them off, and now we still know the full breadth of sites on which our ads could appear.

Additionally, as one network famously coined, "It's about people, not pages." Finding your audience is infinitely more important to generating positive financial return on your spend than being on the right pages. If a 52-year-old mom of two shows up on an Italian soccer league site, do you care more about why she is there, or more about the opportunity to reach her on a page about which she's passionate?

Finally, most networks are very flexible in allowing clients to remove a pretty large number of sites. So long as removing these sites is done in good faith with the attempt to protect a brand and not with the attempt to remove 398 of the 400 sites to use the network to buy two individual sites inexpensively, you'll be surprised at how accommodating the good networks can be. 

Next page >>