In Focus

A primer to navigating the ad network landscape

Robert Moskowitz
Ad Networks Posted on October 29, 2008

Mobile networks and ad exchanges

Category: Mobile networks
This newly emerging opportunity for advertisers is considered by many to be the wave of the future, and by some to be viable and exciting even today. Says one expert: "You always carry your wallet, your keys and your phone. And you pull out your phone far more often than the other two for doing email, searching the web, sending and receiving messages, making calls, storing and retrieving data and maybe even playing games. Advertisers need to be on mobile devices, and someday soon they all will be." With built-in GPS, mobile phones have potential much beyond just extending conventional online advertising.

Where they fit: Mobile networks can be used for targeted location campaigns (where the prospect is near a specific store or even in a specific aisle of a super-store), as well as for interactive campaigns that ask consumers to send in a message and instantly receive a coupon or other benefit.

Category: Ad exchanges (used as if they were networks)
Ad exchanges sprang up with the promise of automating ad buys and driving out anomalies and unwarranted premiums in the prices of online availabilities. But exchanges have proven themselves to be only as good as the inventory they offer, driving advertisers to work with several exchanges at once. Now exchanges are seeking to earn a preferred seat at the table by offering advanced reporting capabilities, more-advantageous pricing and higher quality inventory. However, ad exchanges typically do not guarantee flight times, target audiences or even campaign launch dates, making them too unpredictable for many advertising campaigns.

Where they fit: Advertisers who are reaching out to a large market over a long period of time can feel less concerned about the details of each availability they buy and may choose to use ad exchanges to lower their total spend.

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Comments

Andy Atherton
Andy Atherton October 31, 2008 at 7:00 PM

I enjoyed this article and have a few points to add, referencing specific points you made:

"However, ad exchanges typically do not guarantee flight times, target audiences or even campaign launch dates, making them too unpredictable for many advertising campaigns.”

>>This is a great observation and an important point. Too many of the solutions on the market - particularly exchanges - do not accommodate forward planning and other important requirements for Brand (non-Direct Response) campaigns.

"For example, reaching in-market buyers -- in categories like automotive, financial services, travel and retail and shopping -- via behavioral targeting can be tremendously beneficial to a campaign. It enables direct response message delivery to an exact core audience, which can then be supported by a branded push using rich media like video.”

>> This is also very insightful. You are one of the few folks that I have seen come out and say BT is primarily a DR tool. Lots of networks position BT as a tool for branding.

"Transparency. It matters greatly. Although networks promise to get your ad delivered cost-effectively on a large scale, their ability to do so requires more than just running ads on brand-friendly content. It's important to know which sites are delivering what audiences, and how much those audiences cost. When networks keep advertisers blind, they encourage a cycle of inefficiency and withhold the data necessary to make effective long-term marketing decisions.

>> I disagree with this point though, for 2 reasons:

1) Transparency to individual sites limits the operational efficiency and therefore scalability of a network and those are two of the reasons folks buy from networks in the first place. Metrics on audience composition, reach and frequency are very important and can be shared without visibility to individual site delivery.

And, more importantly,

2) Transparency to individual sites creates channel conflict. Top quality publishers will not take advertising from top quality advertisers through a network that is transparent – this would undermine their direct sales efforts. Site-level transparency creates a situation where the only buyers and sellers are of lower quality and the high-quality players stay away from the market. Blindness is necessary to make sure all players can participate without generating channel conflict. The trick is specifying rigorous standards and metrics such that transparency isn't necessary.