Brand power is a powerful asset online, but it's not enough to overshadow the importance of a thoughtful user experience and strategic website design. In this article, see why some branded content providers are truly worth their premiums, and why others fall short.
Assessing the quality of online display media can be a challenge, but armed with a few simple tips on what to look for, it is possible -- and it can have a tremendously positive impact on your clients' bottom lines!
Have you ever wondered how you should assign pre-flight "value" to impressions? What characteristics of a website contribute to its overall media performance? How this impacts the rate you pay and, more importantly, how it impacts the realization of your media objectives? In this article, I'll arm you with an insider's perspective on the five most important dimensions across which to evaluate the inventory quality offered by your online media providers, and outline the core "success determinants" for each.
More than meets the brand
Brand name content can be a powerful media force whether considered in a traditional or digital context. It can lure advertisers who desire association with its stature, and who trust in the quality and breadth of the audiences it attracts. Conventional media habitats have had plenty of time to evolve to the point where the media environment is very conducive to the needs of both consumers (the content viewers/readers) and advertisers. Online -- still emerging -- has a ways to go. The platform has evolved so rapidly in such a short period of time (and continues to), especially for newcomers to the medium, that consumer-site interactions and the impact these have on user experience and advertiser performance have yet to be fully understood and acted upon. The bottom line (which we will fully explore here) is that to be truly powerful, effective, and trusted, brand name content needs to be presented within both an advertiser- and consumer-friendly environment.
Although still emerging as a mainstream channel, the online media industry has already become fiercely competitive to the point where buyers and sellers alike simply cannot afford to slip up. One error can signal the end of the road for a relationship, or worse, a blemished reputation. For digital media constituents, the notion of evolution and progress is in full swing. Those who "get it" will grow and thrive; those who fall short will face certain doom if swift measures aren't taken now to correct their offerings.
As a media network focused on content quality and campaign performance, we've had more than our fair share of experience dissecting inventory across a wide array of online publishers and assigning value to impressions. Just as we use the following criteria as a benchmark for qualifying and categorizing our publishers, you too can use it as a tool to evaluate your direct site buys or the practices and publisher compositions of the sites/networks through which you book your clients' campaigns.
Your assessment checklist
When you drill right down into them, the characteristics outlined below reveal a great deal about the nature of users who frequent a site and their interactions with its content. You can even use this assessment to glean insights into a site's long-term viability and growth prospects.
In our experience, each category needs to be assessed in isolation and will contribute in its own way to a site's overall picture of quality.
Keep in mind that these are all qualities that need to be assessed no matter how big and powerful the brand, or how bold and beautiful the site.
1. User experience
Cluttered environment: A site that has a lot going on (visually or otherwise) can be difficult for users to digest. Brands with offline equity may be pros at attracting eyeballs, but once on the site, those users can encounter difficulty absorbing content if it's not clearly laid out. Site clutter presents an even bigger challenge for advertisers -- creative needs to work overtime if it stands a chance at rising above the noise and getting noticed. Bottom line: Cluttered environments (whether online or somewhere else) impede an ad's ability to get noticed and therefore carry a lower value.
Load time: This concept applies equally to native site content as it does to advertising. Users who must wait for page content to load can become frustrated and may abandon the site or page altogether before the requested information is fully visible. This reflects poorly on the publisher and, if ad content is visible, that negative stigma can rub off on advertisers. An equally important consideration is how quickly your ads load across the inventory booked for your campaign. The quicker your ads load, the more likely they are to be noticed by users. Some of the factors that can affect ad load speed include latency resulting from ad delivery "daisy-chaining" (i.e. fourth or fifth party ad serving) and failure to employ a content delivery network to help optimize ad load speed to the end user.
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