Wall Street Journal wrote one of those tough love pieces today called Ad Networks, Confusion Grow on Web and you know what? I pretty much agree with a lot that was written.
Using their chart, I've recently worked with the top 5 ad networks and pretty much little separates them. All of them offer extreme reach for relatively inexpensive cost with the real differences being in customer service and targeting. Sure some have better site placements then others, but for me I pick them based on small tests; that's the only way to know what your placements look like, how the ad network works, and how they manage your campaign. So without further ado....
Eric's Current Like-Dislike of Ad Networks as of 4/16/08 (BTW - this is not necessarily for political ad buys)
- Google Ad Sense - This of course I love and have loved for a while now. What's there to love about Google's network? Plenty. Ability to target like the big spenders for little money (geo, age, demo, content), video ads, flash ads, you can pick sites, pay via CPC, CPA, or CPM - basically the ultimate in flexibility. The only drawbacks are that a lot of the placements are text (I don't recommend running text ads in content) and some of the inventory isn't premium. FOR ME A BUY RATING
- Yahoo - Again I still love Yahoo and with RightMedia as well as BlueLithium the auction based, behavioral targeting comes into play plus you get access to Yahoo's branded properties. The biggest drawback with Yahoo and I know they are fixing this, is that they are a challenge to deal with if you are not a big advertiser. For example for $5 per day you can run on Google with big spender targeting and for $5 per day on Yahoo you get, well not much of anything right now. FOR ME A BUY RATING
- Undertone - Now how did they get on this list? Well I tested them a few months back and found that I got great placement in their top 200 comScore sites, good pricing, and some pre-roll. I'm working on another ad buy with them right now and we'll see how that one goes. FOR ME A TEST BUY RATING
- Ad.com - I've actually kicked the Ad.com habit recently. Their prices seem to have increased and their results have gone down. Plus, their inventory doesn't seem materially better than Google's and you don't get Google's flexibility. The only thing I miss about Ad.com is the AOL impressions, but with AOL's continual demise and the internet high duplication rate among sites, you can also get by without AOL. FOR ME A PASS ON IT RATING
- ValuClick - I've run a few tests over the years with them and I can't remember having one that actually worked. The last buy they begged me to run a CPA campaign with them even after I told them it probably wouldn't pay out for us. Well after 2 days the results tanked and they abruptly and rudely canceled the deal without really trying to optimize it. A part of you readers are probably thinking well that's business, but when precious little separates ad networks and customer service is one of them, I don't like to be dumped rudely. FOR ME A PASS ON IT RATING
I've dealt with a few more over the years and will still continue to dabble in other ones. You just need to know that they are all pretty much the same and the best way to figure out which ones work for you is to test and learn. Look for pricing, results, account service, site listings, ability to opt-out of unwanted sites, and finally site visibility. Testing and learning for yourself is the only way to know which ones will work for you.
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
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