This executive VP describes differentiating factors between ad networks, and explains how marketers can get the most out of their network partners.

David Burcham is executive vice president of Vendare Media. He is a seasoned executive with two decades' experience in technology and online media. Burcham has held executive officer positions at three public companies, managed mergers and acquisitions, and has raised tens of millions of dollars in venture capital. He is an accomplished negotiator, and is skilled at executing integrated sales and marketing programs. In his career, Burcham has variously managed sales teams across U.S. offices, multiple call centers and sales teams, and development efforts for ERP systems and commerce websites. Burcham served as president and CEO of internet retailer Toytime.com, Inc. before becoming president of ACT-1, a leading staffing and human resources firm. Burcham held various senior posts at Micron Electronics, a leading manufacturer of personal computers, including SVP and general manager of Micron Electronics, president of MicronPC and president of Micron Electronics International, with worldwide sales and distribution responsibilities.

Previously, Burcham served as EVP of sales and operations at Creative Computers/PC Mall, a direct marketer of personal computer products, where he was instrumental in the company's dramatic revenue growth. Burcham also served as vice president of worldwide sales and operations at Multiple Zones, a reseller of PC products, where he ran domestic sales and operations and developed and ran global business strategies.

Brad Berens: After the bubble, ad networks had a bad reputation, but lately the stock for this sort of business seems to be rising... why is that?

David Burcham: Prior to the bubble, advertisers viewed the ad network model as an aggregator of remnant inventory that offered high reach, low-cost impressions across a number of publishers. As ad serving technologies at some of these networks evolved, they grew to help redefine the relevancy of these impressions to the end-user and deliver upon performance metrics that advertisers could not accomplish on their own with direct site buys. This has helped yield higher CPMs that have enabled networks to obtain top-tier inventory while still maintaining performance for advertisers.

Berens: On a related note, 2005 seemed like a terrific year for ad networks-- with a new ad network seeming to appear on the landscape every few days. Why do you think this happened in 2005? And what do you predict for ad networks in 2006?

Burcham: Since its inception, the focus for internet advertising was on accountability. Over the last few years, however, the industry has emphasized the unique targeting opportunities that are offered online. While 2004 was driven by contextual advertising, it was behavioral targeting that helped boost the value of ad networks even further in 2005. This past year, networks saw a lot of performance-based advertisers testing these forms of targeting. I feel that 2006 will allow networks to grow even further as these performance advertisers expand their budgets across varying targeting methods. However, the key driver will be from brand advertisers embracing the network model to provide scalable targeting solutions that will achieve their marketing objectives.

Berens: Let's talk about differentiating factors among different networks, and this is something that we've been following closely here at iMedia for a while-- as you might have noticed with our Ad Networks Crib Sheet. Without it being too much of a commercial for Vendare, what are the three factors that you recommend advertisers think about when trying to choose an ad network?

Burcham: The three primary factors are undoubtedly a network's publisher base, technology and customer service.

Advertisers should take note of a network that structures its publisher relationships on a revenue-share basis, as they are most likely accessing remnant inventory. A network buying on a CPM is more likely to serve ads on higher quality placements.

While it may seem that all networks offer similar ad serving technology, it is important to choose a network that can offer as many forms of targeting that will leverage optimization tools to deliver efficient and scalable results.

Last, but certainly not least, is the customer service that should be required of network partners. As networks continue to establish themselves and grow, they are most likely servicing dozens of clients-- if not hundreds. We have monitored the enhancement of our own proprietary ad server here at Vendare Media, which has provided us with visibility into the back-end operations. It has become apparent that the expertise by those who service the accounts is equally as important to your campaign's success. It is important to choose a network partner with online advertising expertise-- and who will, of course, keep continuous lines of communication open with the client to maximize the value of a network buy.

Berens: Speaking of customer service, what about customer empowerment? To what degree do ad networks allow clients to control campaigns through software interfaces? If there are some that do not, why?

Burcham: We have found that nine out of 10 clients simply do not have the time or resources to micromanage their network campaigns if given the external tools to do so. Instead we have invested in our internal software and account management staff-- and employ these resources to work to the benefit of our clients. Our definition of empowerment is giving a client an employee who can do whatever they have to do on the spot to take care of a customer by providing the utmost in client satisfaction-- not to the network's satisfaction. If the customer doesn't win, the company doesn't win, either.

External software interfaces are not widely offered by networks. In an environment where change is usually our only constant, the use of such tools becomes more of a hindrance to success and cripples the intended benefit. Most advertisers come to networks for access to thousands of publishers while utilizing technology that optimizes towards their goal in real-time, not to have the manual controls at their finger tips.

Berens: What’s the most common strategic use of ad networks?  Branding, direct marketing, acquisitions/lead generation, CRM? How are ad networks uniquely positioned to achieve this strategic goal?

Burcham: We must not lose sight of the fact that networks are simply advertising solutions that provide a service for customers to make public announcements proclaiming their qualities and advantages, with a primary goal of increased sales. Regardless of what stage in the sales cycle an advertiser is looking to build upon, a network can service one of, some, or all of the aforementioned strategic goals. The range of available services will vary from network to network. However, each is situated to leverage proprietary technology to deliver upon client goals, with access to an endless number of partners to deliver results at significant scale. 

Berens: What are some common misconceptions among clients when it comes to what an ad network can do?

Burcham: Advertisers who are looking to brand or remarket online often dismiss networks as being a vehicle to service their marketing initiatives. Most branding dollars go the way of MSN, Yahoo! or AOL, or some specialized content sites. What they don’t realize is that those properties act mostly as a gateway to the web and actually only take up a small portion of content on the internet. Ad networks provide comparable reach to the biggest properties on the web and offer creative methods to deliver them straight to consumers through targeted media at a much lower cost.

Branding initiatives should be regarded as tools to deliver the right message to the right user, not to the right publisher. As advertisers become more comfortable with the various forms of targeting that networks use to deliver messages to the right users, they will look to utilize networks to find target audiences with methods that publishers can not offer on their own.

Brad Berens is executive editor at iMedia Communications.