In doing some more digging, Quantcast has a bit of a hill to climb. Recognizing that many [smaller] agencies and advertisers can’t afford research services, Quantcast seems to be committed to providing its information for free, at least for the time being. But heads-up, this one may not quite be ready for primetime...<< MORE >>

Fantastic! When David Smith steps up and writes an article, people should listen. If you have the opportunity to attend a venue where he is speaking, you should make it your business to sit in on his session. Although he never admits it, MediaSmith strives to meet or exceed all the demands that he places on us as agencies, advertisers and vendors servicing the industry. And it should. In iMediaConnection’s “The Medium is the Metric for Online Ads” David pulled out all the stops. Quantcast, Blackfoot, Coremetrics, WebSideStory, WebTrends, Omniture all get a shot in this one. But I think there is more out there than David is aware of...<< MORE >>

Jason Prescott predicts in iMediaConnection that local search and vertical search are about to blossom and get a larger share of the market. Lookout Google! For business users local and vertical search is not only more attractive but generates more successful search results and is drawing the attention of users. Can we break away from the “Google it” mentality and turn to Vertical Search Engines that draw forward better results more quickly and with greater relevance? Vertical search is chipping away at traditional Google’s market share and we have the data to prove it…<< MORE >>

A call to action that makes me want to scream hallelujah! Eric Picard is the director of advertising strategy and emerging media planning at Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions. The buy and sell sides (advertisers and publishers) have neglected to get their platforms right in the advertising industry. Managing online advertising is a rabbit hole that you pour money into if you are an agency. “But there should be no reason for the vast number of agency or publisher staffers required to handle ad operations. There should be significantly more process automation and many fewer bodies to get the job done.” Maybe the client needs to stop and take the time to examine how their agency conducts itself and spends its money... << MORE >>

I am often asked by people, why are you not writing for one of the online trades. I have a reputation for having strong convictions, having a lot to say and well, maybe even for being a little opinionated! Some people need a little switch that helps them decide “when do I blog and when do I publish.” When I read an article in a trade and it becomes clear that it is a promotional piece by an author who is touting what their company does, it’s a turnoff…<< MORE >>

I always promise to seek out and find solutions that make a difference and I encourage us all to demand technology to push us to improve how we manage our online advertising initiatives. Sometimes I find them and sometimes they find me! I had the opportunity to speak with Bennett Zucker from Right Media yesterday. He called me the “mad man in the mountains.” Bennett has met my challenge. Publishers can run and manage auctions without a middle-man, in-house. Lookout, this means high-quality inventory at auction…<< MORE >>

So for several months now I have been closely watching the industry, reading articles, PR releases, product releases, financial releases and generally paying attention. I have been taking bits and pieces of what I care about and have been making comments and providing what I believe has been an insightful perspective on how technology can be better leveraged to improve how we advertise online. I have looked at a lot of technologies, criticizing and complimenting their capabilities and applications. But what I have always been consistent about is my position on why I believe there are ways to tie things together and how we can make advertising online a better experience. I will share with you what I believe to be true, here is where I am coming from...<< MORE >>

In my next post, This I believe, I state my position on agencies, networks, ad servers, writers and pretty much all things online advertising related. In the end I offer up a reciper for putting together all of the technologies into a holistic, comprehensive marketing initiative. Here it is...<< MORE >>

Andreas Roell wrote an article today in iMediaConnection, 10 Tips to Find the Perfect Ad Network. All I have to say is that it is a great overview of how you should be evaluating your network advertising initiatives. This is a great article whether you have an established network buying practice in place or if you are looking to get started. But digging in to make sure that you understand how your network acquires its inventory and getting reports on where your ads are running are great suggestions. Checking up on the publishers that participate in your networks to see how they allocate their inventory to your networks is another great pointer...<< MORE >>

When buying CPA advertising on networks, it’s all about the acquisition of something – a click, a lead, a registration, an application or maybe a sale. So we don’t care about the impression right? We don’t care about the click-thru rate, only the end-result performance of the ads we run. We just care about the yield we are getting. Why is that when you first run a CPA campaign you notice a growth trend but then that trend changes? ROI goes flat, CPA creeps up and yield starts to shrink. What can you do? Here are some thoughts about driving down the CPA by managing impressions and click-thru rates with non CPM campaigns...<< MORE >>